David Crosby
If I Could Only Remember My Name

Despite having written fundamental pages in the book of American rock with Byrds and CSNY, it is in his 1971 solo debut that David Crosby's most intense and authentic compositions are found. "If I Could Only Remember My Name" falls into the musical vein of those seminal groups, and is imbued with the poetics and spirituality of the unrepeatable Woodstock era, whose long wave was still unstoppable in those days. A collective psychedelic liturgy, a manifesto of the impulses that enveloped the Californian community, of which Crosby was the charismatic leader. Every single episode here is a jolt, starting with the ethereal "Music Is Love," yet another manifesto of the counterculture of those years. A sweet flower power ballad, embellished by Neil Young's striking strums and Graham Nash's vocals, it perfectly introduces the work's contents. Crosby captivates both when he decidedly treads the paths of the most intense country-rock, coming to touch the boundaries of a torrid rock-blues (the epic "Cowboy Movie" outshines the entire Eagles repertoire in one fell swoop), while "What Are Their Names" vivaciously revives the era's political vein, and when he gets lost in the acoustic-introspective labyrinths of the classic West Coast sound. It is precisely in these episodes that the happiest compositions of the gentle David are found. The lysergic "Tamalpais High (At About 3)," a chilling "Traction In The Rain" (if Nick Drake had been born in California, he probably would have played like this), the jazzy "Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)" and the poignant "I'd Swear There Was Somebody There." But it is in the famous "Laughing" that Crosby surpasses himself, offering his most touching composition, as well as the most dazzling portrayal of his generation as it entered the 70s, whose dark omens were appearing on the horizon. On an almost fairytale-like and bewildering soundscape, where Jerry Garcia's lead guitar carves out electro-acid arabesques worthy of an anthology, words like "And I thought I'd seen someone who seemed at last to know the truth/ I was mistaken/ It was only a child laughing in the sun/ Ah! In the sun" wonderfully encapsulate the essence of "If I Could Only Remember My Name."

More than just a simple collection of songs or a generational manifesto: a lesson in life.