David Crosby -Talks about For Free Lp, M.McDonald,J.Baez,Touring & more - Radio Broadcast 26/07/2021
it's Kyle Meredith with David Crosby you know some people will see you know legendary I feel like this little crotchety old curmudgeon of a guy but uh I'm you like the record I love the record me too I'm really happy about it and and I've I think I've been saying that for this amazing run that you've been on check this out this Legendary Run that you've been on for the past handful of years you've put new artists to shame just you know the way it's going in in it and the quality is so good every time and I don't know why I'm surprised by that but I but I think I am I am too it's not common most people uh are struggling to get good songs and so they are limited in the amount of stuff they got and they kind of tend to put some filler in there and uh uh you know how I feel about it first place I've been so lucky uh with the songs no the songs are really the only significant part of what we do the all the the infighting and the personalities and the and celebrity and fame and money are all [ __ ] they have absolutely nothing to do with the central issue at all Central thing is the songs well what's been happening is I'm still able to write but I really like writing with other people and I've been incredibly lucky uh my son James who uh [ __ ] he was a good writer right off the bat first thing we ever wrote was Morrison which was a really good song but he he's grown as a producer and as a writer he he wrote the best thing on this record it's that last song that I I won't stay for long [ __ ] man that thing made me cry I have friends who've called me up after listening to it crying on the phone it's a [ __ ] wonderful song uh I I can't tell you how it makes me feel how good he's turned out you know how what an incredible Talent these turned out to be but I've been lucky over and over again man Michael League the the producer of the other band The Lighthouse band same thing incredible writer composer band leader for that jazz band snarky Puppy brilliant guy Becca Stevens one of the best writers I've run into uh Michelle Willis great writer uh Michael McDonald pretty damn good writer uh damn good writer Donald Fagan won half of the best pop writing team in history the best absolutely the best big words right there too yeah oh man who's better than Steely Dan nobody nobody really has my favorite band my first very favorite band was the Beatles and then the next one was Steely Dan and they're still there I don't think anybody's touched that level of work hearing how you're talking about this how you're feeling you know about just being so fortunate to be surrounded by these people um hearing how that makes its way into the songs I was I was listening to that song I think I Happy song and you know and I love the message well at least the message as I take it I should say that you know we're all drifting we're all just kind of sometimes aimlessly and sometimes you're hoping for the best but it seems like in this song like you recognize that but you found confidence to say no I know where I am right now I know where I'm going at this point it's a very truthful song I Feel pretty okay about how things are going I you know I've had to look at my life man and be very unhappy with some of the choices I made I wasted a lot of time being a hard drug user now it's time is the you know a finite resource you don't get more and so that was that's a regret but I think now I'm making good choices I'm I'm making good music and I'm making a lot of it uh and I don't see everybody else doing that uh which you know gives my little competitive self a thrill I think it's luck on my apartment and I think I'm very very lucky to have the writing partners and the producing partners and the singing partners of the friends that I have because it's really all friends they're all people that believe in me and they're people that I believe in and okay I'll say something a little Cosmic and hippie okay it was true to my roots uh I think the world's in pretty shitty shape pretty hard shape uh I think music is a lifting Force I think it makes things better uh it makes people happy I think that I don't know how much time I have I could have two weeks I could have ten years I'm sort of towards the end of my life we know that however much time I got isn't really the significant thing it's what I do with that time right and it looks to me that the only contribution I can make the place that I can help is to make more music and do it really well and spend whatever time I do have trying to make it better trying to make more music so that's what I'm doing I'm old and and confused and you know crazy as I always was and stoned on top of it but but uh I'm pretty happy and I think I'm making good choices and I you know my family thing is real good and I'm very I'm in a really good place man it's a weird thing when you get this old you're kind of waiting for what's going to break is it going to be my liver or my heart or my kidney I just my my kidneys are feeling kind of sensitive this week you just don't know you know but nothing has broken and I'm here so what the [ __ ] you know I'm I'm doing the best I can I'm ruining your radio show that's exactly what I I yeah I want to have the great conversation with me because you're right I mean I also want to say that I don't feel like you know you putting joy into the world with music is any kind of new thing and I don't think you're trying to say that either I mean even when I look back on you know that first little record if I could only remember my name I mean um of course I'm kicking myself because I'm blanking on the the title right now but you kind of kick things off in your solo life with with just talking about music and love you know it's it's it is the the great connector it is that and I wish I wish Garcia was still around if he was we would be making this record together but the uh I'm having a joyful time doing what I'm doing man and uh and that I think I that's how I feel I feel like I can see a clear path I I'm really distressed with the shape the world's in I'm really distressed with some of the things that are going on but I can see my path pretty clearly I know what what I know what I can do and I can't fix everything but I know what I can do and I'm doing it well like I said you make some great musical choices through all throughout this record I mean you're already brought up I will bring up some friends that you got on here too because uh Michael McDonald does make the appearance um you talk about you know considering voices that you've sang with Through The Years your own voice as we say you know one of the greatest voices and music that's ever happened what makes him fun and special to sing with well I mean we all know that's an iconic voice that comes with Michael McDonald well yeah he was a duet partner yeah he's uh Michael's been my friend for a long time I love the guy he's a wonderful human being he's a Family Guy he's sober guys really really wonderful cat Okay and uh talented beyond belief great player great singer great writer he's great all the way across the board I've been seeing for a long time that he and Stevie Wonder were my two favorite vocalists alive I thought they were the two best singers I knew Stevie's getting old he's probably not as good as he used to be but uh Michael isn't Michael is I think the best singer I know in in period I think he's the best singer in America uh I don't think anybody can touch him and I I know he only does it for friends like me I only do it for friends too but it's such a joy to sing with him man I got to tell you when you do it you feel like you you feel like you've been stuck with an electric wire it's just really good it's it's wonderful so so you write with your favorite band of all time you sing with one of your favorite singers of all time and you cover one of your favorite songwriters of all time I mean I really think you're playing favorites I talk about Joanie with that one of course yeah absolutely I did all of that you're playing favorites here is what's going on that I am and I as as such and having been one for 50 years I judge the Johnny Mitchell is the best of us she's uh she's as good a writer as anybody she's gonna pull it as Bob a lot of people obviously covered Joni and so there's some iconic you know versions of cover songs out there too but I do think that there's something special when you do it and maybe it's because that you knew each other you've known each other so well all of your lives but there is something different I mean there's something deeper like I you do it best is what I'm trying to say ah man thank you I I would argue with that I don't think I'm the best one I think uh Eva Donovan doing coyote is probably my favorite Joni song Oh god listen to ifo O'Donovan do it she did it with uh Chris Healey and that and that band from the TV show yep unbelievable look it up on YouTube man it's it's if anything it might even be better than joining it's it's mind-blowingly good but I yeah I've done some I did uh I did uh what's her name the pilot lady uh song of Jones Amelia Amelia yeah and I did that one because I loved it I think it's such a beautiful piece of work I love Tony's work and I love this song because I love what it says right I it's kind of a backhanded dig at the streamers you know because they don't pay us they really don't it's like you did your job for a month and they gave you a nickel you'd be pissed and that's why we're pissed uh the proportion is wrong uh I wouldn't mind if they weren't making billions but they are making billions of dollars and they're not passing along to the writer so it's bad for me but it's much worse for the young people that are trying to come along as writers they can't they're sleeping on their mother's couches because they can't get any money at all from records at all that's streaming but I like making records for fun I like making because I love the music and I've been I've been incredibly lucky that way you know the the people that I've gotten to write with and the people that are coming to sing with Jesus really fun well that's what you know when I was listening to uh to you and Sarah to Rose uh do this song and thinking you know uh you've covered it before and and the way songs change over time like when I first heard it it was just like oh they're they're covering the Joni song it was until of course the song ends I'm like oh right because this song makes complete sense again in a new way as great songs do unfortunately in those Bittersweet ways yes exactly so well spoken my friend it's a great song no matter what man in whatever context it's a great song and Sarah just killed it she's a fantastic singer and she's been doing you know Harmony since she was in a bluegrass group at like nine years old or something she's really good really an amazing singer made that record of hers man World on the ground holy yikes yeah is that a good record I agree I remember seeing her really early on in Austin she was playing with a friend of mine Ben so Lee and it was like here's this new or I mean and just seeing what she's done I mean that's y'all are good oh yeah all there uh and while I'm bringing up your old friends there's another one that kind of makes a a um an appearance here too with uh Joan Baez right I mean did I read that she did the artwork so that's something I was trying to see like I'm going to try to say this not too confusingly how do you see that she sees you well she's known me since I was a teenager okay I fell in love with her and her sister both but she did a series of paintings of people that she likes uh in show business all right other singer-songwriters particularly and uh I saw the picture I saw a picture of the picture and I immediately called her up and said hey John can I buy that picture and she said sure it's not even that expensive the whole show is for sale and I said no no can I also buy it to you as a cover she said really I said yeah she said sure no problem just carry your wallet in half and send it over and she actually was quite reasonable and very nice about it and it's a great a a great painting it it it's again evocative definitely you look at it you know hmm that's good that is that but is that that that's of course that's what I was it was the hmm part you know and I think the here's two people that have a lot of history together yeah well just a hero of mine but just to think of what she was thinking when she was right painting that you know yeah I guess I don't know she knows that I I tell this story a lot man back in the days of the Vietnam War she would go over to Oakland to the intake terminal where they would take where you would actually walk in you'd already been drafted and you would walk in and actually go in she would be outside and where the line was and she'd say you don't have to go uh you can be conscious objector and we've got lawyers and we'll do whatever is necessary and she would get yelled at she would get spit on she'd get cursed get threatened should get arrested and she'd go to jail and they would humiliate her every way they could and then she'd go home she could bailed out go home have a meal get new clothes take a shower and go back to the terminal and do it again now that's a brave human being and I have been uh a fan of her bravery along with her musicianship for a very long time and she's one courageous woman so it's a great connection for me it worked really great yeah I um Pat I passed an abortion clinic on the way in every single day and to see the [ __ ] out there you know doing something you said kind of reminded me so much of just the people that are trying to put the buffer in between the [ __ ] and and the women you know you know that's um the world needs more Joan baez's there's brave people doing it volunteers doing that you got to love the volunteers man and you keep writing about stuff like that and I say this in another sort of unfortunate way uh shot at me is on here which is a really poignant song I mean here's something a subject that you know you could have written anywhere in the last 50 60 years or something like that but it but it keeps rolling around what was this time what brought this one on a guy I met in a bar in an airport he was getting drunk and he had haunted eyes and I said what's going on bud he said I'm just coming back from here from uh Afghanistan I said you look uh bummed out he said I am foreign we were on a patrol a bunch of vehicles going down the road they started taking fire from a little town we shot back turned into a pretty good firefight there was a few of them in there we called in smarty leveled the place but before we did I got off one of the best shots that I'd ever gotten off now I'm using an assault rifle around damn things inaccurate as hell she said but I nailed a guy at about 200 yards I nailed him it was a good shot it was the best shot I ever made so I went over to see and he looked up at me and he looked at me right in the eye and he said and was a 12 year old boy and they just kept looking at me and you could see the pain and uh yeah that's where that song came from it's a bit and war is like that word doesn't just kill the people who volunteer and know that they're soldiers and know the risk they're taking it kills hundreds thousands of people who are just there they didn't do [ __ ] to anybody they just happened to be in the wrong place wrong time so you know that's my B for board and we just keep going in circles yeah again well there's a there's the Foo Fighters song you know uh that he basically says uh you know all my life I've just been waiting on a war like because it's another One's Gonna Roll back I don't know if that's how he meant that that's again the way I'm taking it but it's like yeah you're just because you know it's gonna happen again he's just waiting on another War you know I don't like it that's uh another time I I think I was trying to draw the parallels of past and present a lot when I was listening to your new record when the opportunities were there it did remind me of one of their names again from you know that the your first solo record I mean is it similar context yeah you know I have a conscience I try I would think so I would really hope so well if you don't mind while I'm talking about sort of the past a little bit I just wanted to say something uh it's the 50th Anniversary this year of a four-way Street which is one of my all-time favorite live albums and I gotta say I can remember I'm a few years younger than you so I didn't hear this until the 90s but I remember when I heard this for the first time and it just blew my mind this little record right here and to this day I think it's one of the finest live albums I have ever heard so thank you man I like it myself of course I would for whatever that means uh on the live stuff I know it's hard right now are you all able to plan on the touring stuff I've heard you talk a little bit about residencies which has been a really great thing for some artists is has that gone any further no it might happen I don't know if I'm ever gonna play live again man uh I can't do bus tour you just can't do it I can't can't sleep on the buses anymore and so I just can't really do it uh I might be able to do residencies if they'd have to come up with a lot of money uh because it's a real expensive way to do it but uh I don't know I did a benefit thing for uh questions kid uh for band and crew members uh uh San Francisco thing and and it was good and I listened back to the vocals and I I was saying good and uh and I love doing it man you know that I love it so Never Say Never it's possible but I I don't I definitely will not be doing a regular tour like I did for the last 50 years yeah well something like um like I would travel to see you do a thing like Springsteen on Broadway you know like that's been going on I mean heck I'd even I don't know if you don't know if you've seen uh Dylan's new uh live stream I don't know you call it like vignettes or something like that I mean seeing you kind of venture into that world as a fan I'm saying I would eat that up I just got uh told by uh Steve Silverman a friend of mine uh that the Dylan thing was excellent and he sent me a link to watch it I'm going to watch it when I get done with this he said his personal and very very easy you know he's not uptight he's obviously comfortable in delivering uh and I love Bob so I'm probably going to want to do that beautiful vignettes the whole way through and and the songs I mean let's see kind of plays them straight forward it's kind of um surprising in a way in that so um I gotta compliment you again though for free again it's it's a beautiful record what you're doing I love what you're doing and and I hope you continue doing that for you know another album every year the way you've been going if that can keep happening uh I I say selfishly I will be right there for it we have two more plans already two more planned yeah I'm you want to know how bad it is with me and James we don't even have this record out yet and we're already writing the next one and I've been writing another uh Lighthouse record with uh with Becca and Michelle and uh Michael League over the Internet uh getting ready to do another one of those too I can't wait to hear them I mean I'm still digesting this one but I can't wait to hear him David thank you so much for continuing to do what you do we so appreciate it thank you so much for taking the time to uh to talk about it too thank you man I hope we do it again yeah I'll see you around take care
2023-01-30 23:51
