#349: David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)

Zack: Poor Graham Nash. He’s the only member of the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young quartet/trio that doesn’t have his own solo album on the list. Of those four, it has never been in doubt that Neil Young would take pole position. And with Graham by default absorbing the place at the bottom, that just leaves Crosby and Stills to duke it out for the No. 2 place in the CSNY power rankings. Crosby gets to shoot first, although I’ve already been bored to tears by him in The Byrds and decently impressed with Stills in Buffalo Springfield, so he’s not coming in on even terrain. That said, I think he made up his deficit here. If Only I Could Remember My Name is a solid album. Musically, it’s actually really impressive, which I attribute to the all-star cast of supporting musicians Crosby brought in to assist. But the vibe and cohesion aren’t as otherworld as the guitar on Tamalpais High, so I docked some points there. Overall, then, I would say Crosby is a little behind, while Stills still has two albums to cement his lead.

Favorite Tracks: Cowboy Movie; Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves); Traction in the Rain

Emily: I'm not the biggest fan of the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young school of folk-infused classic rock. While it can be unique and deservedly classic, more often than not I've found it pretty boring. Unfortunately, David Crosby's solo debut fell on the more boring side. If I Could Only Remember My Name was pleasant enough, full of long instrumentals and shorter vocals performed by some great musicians of the era (Jerry Garcia, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and more), but nothing about it really grabbed my attention. It doesn't have the lyricism of Neil Young or of the quartet as a whole that we've encountered before, and that's what really makes their albums special. Crosby on his own, though, was just okay.

Favorite Tracks: Cowboy Movie; Traction in the Rain; Song with No Words (Tree With No Leaves)

#284: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà vu (1970)

Zack: Not long after we started this little venture of ours, Emily and I were in a record store, killing time by flipping through the used stacks. I noticed a copy of Déjà vu that I think was like $3 or so and mentioned that it was on the list. Emily bought it, figuring we could play it on either the one at her parents' house or the one I had been thinking about buying (I never did). I’m not even sure if she remembers that purchase, but we are not listening to it on vinyl. To date, Thriller is the only album we’ve done that with. Which is sort of a shame, because Déjà vu was superb. And I’m not just saying that because of the love affair I’ve started with Neil Young since I first listened to Rust Never Sleeps over winter beak my sophomore year of college. Déjà vu has just a brilliant blend of four brilliant songwriters, all at the peak of their powers. At some points, it just seems unfair that all four of them were allowed to all work together on a single project. I’m amazed they didn’t go over the salary cap, especially since they brought Jerry Garcia in as a role player/glue guy on Teach Your Children. Listening to (or at least trying to) it for the first time on what is almost guaranteed to be a scratched up vinyl probably would have been special. Alas, these are not luxuries that can be afforded adults with lives to lead. Hopefully one day we can. Anyways, I hate to start reminiscing like this (we have another 16 albums to go before that post), but it’s hard not to with an album like Déjà vu. Besides for the title, it’s just a perfect album to put on and play and think about things.

Favorite Tracks: Country Girl; Everybody I Love You; Helpless

Emily: The story of me listening to this album started on a train parked at Marcus Hook station in Delaware County. This story also ends on the same train, at the same station about 40 minutes later. There was police activity further down the line, so what should have been a routine commute home ended up being a nearly 2-hour layover that ended with some classmates and I banding together to split an Uber to get back in the city before it got dark. The time spent on the train, though, ended up being a great quiet time to listen to some music. Déjà vu totally fit the bill. It's understated and seemingly simple, unless you listen closely. That's when you can really pick up on the masterful songwriting at play here. Although Déjà vu occasionally seemed to be narrating the endless wait for the train to start moving (Helpless) and the repeated announcements that there was no new information to report (Déjà Vu), the time on the train ended up being a near-perfect environment for really delving into Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. For their next album, though, I hope the train will be moving.

Favorite Tracks: Everybody I Love You; Country Girl; Teach Your Children

#245: The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

Zack: Behold, the band that makes everyone say, “Wait, they have how many albums on this list?” The fact that The Byrds have five albums deemed to be among the 1001 best is such a head-turner that we forgot all about them until I realized that we should be listening to one every 200 albums or so and we were about 240 albums in. So here is our first foray into a band deemed to be as sonically significant as Led Zeppelin, The Who and Radiohead, and I thought it was about as campy as Hitchcock’s movie sounds on paper. It was that semi-folk rock sound that tends to dominate classic rock radio stations more than it should and that we’re bumped into a few times before here. I typically find this sound to be unimpressive, and this wasn’t really a change. Mr. Tambourine Man had its moments, but it was, for the most part, just sort of boring. Hopefully The Byrds change it up somewhere down the line, because four more version of this would be hard to stomach.

Favorite Tracks: I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better; It’s No Use; Mr. Tambourine Man

Emily: Zack told me that I had to pick a Byrds album in this batch. In fact, he even listed them under 2 categories to make sure I didn't forget. Even though they have 5 albums on the list, I guess I've just skipped over them every time we've decided to listen to folk. Having listened to their debut, I'll probably end up skipping over them again later on. The band had seen A Hard Day's Night and decided they wanted to sound like the Beatles, so they bought similar instruments and worked with that mid-'60s pop-rock sound, adding some folk in as well. They came up with a pleasant enough collection of songs made for radio play, but Mr. Tambourine Man is nothing remarkable. If you want a mid-'60s Beatles sound, just listen to the real thing instead.

Favorite Tracks: Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe; I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better; Here Without You