1. SHADOW CAPTAIN - Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:31)
(David Crosby/Craig Doerge)⁷

David Crosby: vocals, Graham Nash: vocals
Stephen Stills: electric and slide guitars, vocals
Craig Doerge: acoustic and electric pianos
Joe Vitale: organ, flute
George Perry: bass
Russ Kunkel: drums, congas

Produced by Crosby, Stills & Nash with Ron Albert & Howard Albert for Fat Albert Productions.
Recorded by Ron Albert & Howard Albert, assisted by Steven Gursky, at Criteria Sound Studios, Miami, January 12, 1977. From the album CSN, Atlantic SD 19104, released on June 17, 1977. (P) 1977 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: I'll be going to sleep, and the busy mind – the verbal-crystallization-level mind that's talking to you – will be starting to nod off. And the intuitive, imaginative levels of the mind, the part that makes the longer leaps and wider syntheses, gets a shot at the steering wheel for a second, before you actually go unconscious. And in that little window something will leap up, and I will wind up grabbing for the lamp and frantically writing pages of lyrics. And it's happened again and again and again.

The first time I remember it happening was "Shadow Captain" several years ago. I was about two hundred miles offshore on my boat, and it was three in the morning, and I woke up and wrote that entire set of lyrics, word for word, and then went back to sleep. I had never thought any image in that song or anything about that entire concept ever before, ever. And when I got down to the bottom: "Shadow captain of a charcoal ship …" I went, "Oooh, Croz, you bad, you BAD!!!" Like I know I love this and I know I never thought it before. So I know it isn't this busy mind, the tab-A, slot-B kind of mind.

Interviewed by Paul Zollo, Encino, CA, 1993, for Songwriters On Songwriting, Da Capo, 1997 expanded edition.
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2. IN MY DREAMS - Crosby, Stills & Nash (5:11)
(David Crosby)⁴

David Crosby: acoustic guitar, vocals
Stephen Stills: acoustic guitar
Graham Nash: vocals
Joe Vitale: vibes
[unknown): bass
Russ Kunkel: drums, congas

Produced by Crosby, Stills & Nash with Ron Albert & Howard Albert for Fat Albert Productions. Basic track recorded by Ron Albert & Howard Albert, assisted by Michael Braunstein, at The Record Plant. Los Angeles, December 22, 1976, and by Ron Albert & Howard Albert, assisted by Steve Gursky, at Criteria Recording Studios, Miami, January, 1977. From the album CSN, Atlantic SD 19104, released on June 17, 1977. (P) 1977 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: A good yardstick of how much I like a song is how many times I sing it after I record it, and I've sung "In My Dreams" in every band I've been in since I recorded it, except for CSNY. I should have given Graham some credit for it too, because the wonderful part at the end came from him.

"Look at those dancers gliding around" is the dance that people do with each other in the world, the distance in that dance, and how some people dance feverishly, while others dance in a very abstracted way, not really touching others or letting themselves be touched. "Introduce yourself to whichever of me is nearby" – that's not just schizophrenia, it's multiphrenia. When I wrote the song, the guy who bought the dope and the guy who woke up the next morning strung out weren't talking to each other. The guy who woke up in the morning knew he should never do it again, and the guy who bought it that evening was not talking to the guy who was there that morning.

At that point in my life I was feeling more and more isolated. I was trying to explain to myself and anyone who might be listening about this need that I have to communicate and share experience, which is a very strong, almost desperate need in me. That's the core of the song.
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3. DELTA - Crosby, Stills & Nash (4:13)
(David Crosby)⁴

David Crosby: vocals
Graham Nash: vocals
Craig Doerge: pian
George "Chocolate” Perry: bass, Russ Kunkel: drums

Produced by Craig Doerge & Stanley Johnston.
Basic track recorded by Stanley Johnston, assisted by Jay Parti, at Rudy Records, Hollywood, June 2, 1980. Crosby's vocals recorded by Stephen Barncard at Devonshire Sound, July, 1980. Stills' and Nash's vocals recorded by Stanley Johnston, assisted by Jay Parti, at Rudy Records, Hollywood, on January 19, 1982. From the album Daylight Again, Atlantic SD 19360, released on June 21, 1982. Dedicated to Don Lewis. (P) 1982 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: I had been fooling around with a phrase that had been in my head for some time; it had come from nowhere, as lyrics and phrases often do. I was telling it to Jackson Browne, who had come to visit with an expression on his face and a look in his eyes that meant worry – unexpressed but palpable. To his credit Jackson didn't dwell on it; he brought a strong, untainted energy with him, a pure creative force that's part of him. I mentioned the lines that had intrigued me. Jackson was excited and encouraging at the same time. They were embryonic lyrics, but he saw the promise in them or sensed the need in me to bring out more than was already there ... He got me to my feet, dragged my butt out of the house and into a car. He got me to Warren Zevon's house in Montecito, where there was a piano and, luckily for us, somebody home. He sat me down at the piano, and once I got going he told me not to get up. I wanted to get up. I wanted to smoke the pipe, and my attention span at that time had the duration and constancy of a drunken butterfly's. But Jackson wouldn't let me up or let me at the pipe. He just stood there, looking over my shoulder, holding me at the bench, forcing me, slowly and painfully, to give birth to the song, not the lyrical fragment or the convenient phrase ... It was an act of love and great caring; he showed concern for me, for my work, for seeing me get my work done. "Delta" was the last complete song that I wrote for years. I was the child, crazy for the deep. Without Jackson, the song would never have happened.

Interviewed by Carl Gottlieb in Long Time Gone, Doubleday, 1988.
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4. COMPASS - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (5:27)
(David Crosby)⁴

David Crosby; acoustic guitar, vocals
Stephen Stills: vocals
Graham Nash: vocals
Neil Young: vocals, harmonica
Joe Vitale: keyboards

Produced by Niko Bolas and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Recorded by Niko Bolas and Tim Mulligan at Redwood Digital, Woodside, CA, March 22, 1988. From the album American Dream, Atlantic 81888, released on November 14, 1988. (P) 1988 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: "Compass" was a big milestone. When I went to prison, there was a band room in a little building away from everything else. The minute I got there, they wanted me to be in that band. They don't give you a telephone in prison, so you write letters – snail mail. And sometimes I would write things to Jan that I thought were cool. But I only got to play maybe once a week, because you couldn't have a guitar in your cell. So after I'd started writing the lyrics to "Compass," I managed to get a hold of a guitar and put it in the "Guinnevere" tuning. Then I started fooling around and wrote the song there in prison. It was the first set of lyrics that were actually good enough.

When I wrote "Compass" I thought, This is me – my kind of stuff. It's still alive in me. I didn't die! I felt a lot like a guy coming back from Vietnam who wakes up slowly, realizes that he isn't dead, and is shocked at first and then elated. And then a little bit frightened and at a loss as to what to do with himself, because he really hadn't planned on being around. You know the old saw about how you have to have almost lost something to appreciate it? My delight in music came back tenfold.
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5. TRACKS IN THE DUST - David Crosby (4:48)
(David Crosby)⁴

David Crosby: acoustic guitar, vocals
Michael Hedges: acoustic guitar, vocals
Graham Nash: vocals

Produced by David Crosby, Craig Doerge and Stanley Johnston.
Recorded by Stanley Johnston at Cherokee Studios, Hollywood. May 1988. Vocals recorded later at Devonshire Sound. Studio 3, North Hollywood. From the album Oh Yes I Can, A&M 5232, released on January 23, 1989. (P) 1989 A&M Records. Courtesy of A&M Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises.

DC: "Tracks In The Dust" is one of those story songs that come to me only once in a long while. Too often I go write at some idea, but I don't take you on a little voyage – the way a good story does. "I think we're passing through here kind of fast, did you think these tracks in the dust would last?" That's a cautionary message not to think you're so important, or that your mark in the world will be so everlasting.
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6. ARROWS - Crosby. Stills & Nash (3:51)
(Michael Hedges/David Crosby)⁸

David Crosby: vocals
Graham Nash: vocals
Michael Hedges: keyboards
Branford Marsalis: soprano sax
Leland Sklar: bass
Joe Vitale: drums, synth strings
Vince Charles: percussion

Produced by Joe Vitale, Stanley Johnston and Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby. Recorded by Stanley Johnston at Devonshire Sound, Studio 3, North Hollywood, March 23, 1989. From the album Live It Up, Atlantic 82107. released on June 11, 1990. (P) 1990 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: I was at the 7 -Eleven in Mill Valley, and Michael Hedges was sitting outside. He introduced himself and said, "Do you want to hear something?" and I said, "Sure." He slid open the door to his Volkswagen van, sat down, and played "Aerial Boundaries." When I picked up the pieces of my brain, I asked him to come up to my house and play. Michael was a dear friend. He would call me up in the middle of the night and say "Croz? Hedges here." And he would talk in the middle of the night from some hotel.

I showed Michael the words to "Arrows," and he just ran with them. He wrote the music on the keyboard, which was very unusual for him; most people don't even know that Michael played piano as well as guitar. He was an immensely powerful creator of music. To me, the words have to do with how human beings are created out of paying dues. "Arrows turned inward" – that's about how hardship, tough introspection, and facing the truth about yourself all make you a better person.
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7. HERO - David Crosby (4:37)
(Phil Collins/David Crosby)⁹

David Crosby: vocals
Phil Collins: drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals
Jeff Pevar: electric guitar
Pino Palladino: bass

Produced by Phil Collins. Co-produced and recorded by Nick Davies, assisted by Simon Metcalfe, at Fisher Lane Farm Studio, Surrey. UK, 1992. Guitar overdub recorded by Rob Eaton at The Power Station, New York, 1992. From the album Thousand Roads, Atlantic 82484, released on April 13, 1993. (P) 1993 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: I wrote the lyrics for "Hero," and then I had a motorcycle accident. I had already met Phil Collins at the Grammys – he walked up and said, "I'm your biggest fan." I said, ''I'm your fan. You make great records." He said, "No. If I Could Only Remember My Name – I know every song on it." So we became friends. After the accident he came over to visit in Encino and showed me the music for "Hero." When I got ready to do Thousand Roads, Jan and I flew to London and stayed at his house and studio complex in Surrey to make the record.

DAVID HAS BEEN A HERO OF MINE SINCE I FIRST HEARD THE BYRDS. HE WAS THE ONE WHO PICKED OUT THE WEIRD, BEAUTIFUL HARMONIES. I ACTUALLY TRIED TO GET HIM ON FACE VALUE, BUT I COULDN'T FIND HIM. HE LATER TOLD ME THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE LIKED HIM THEN! WHEN I SAW HIM GO TO JAIL, I WANTED TO HELP BUT DIDN'T KNOW HOW. THEN AT ATLANTIC RECORDS' 40TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT I WENT UP TO HIM TO SAY HELLO, AND WE BECAME INSTANT FRIENDS. HE SANG ON "ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE" WITH ME AND ON "THAT'S THE WAY IT IS” ON BUT SERIOUSLY. WRITING "HERO" WITH HIM WAS A BIG THRILL. HE GOT VERY SICK AFTER THAT, AND HE HAD HUGE HOSPITAL BILLS AND THE IRS KNOCKING AT HIS DOOR, SO I GAVE HIM THE MONEY TO PAY FOR HIS LIVER AND KEEP THE IRS AT BAY. I JUST WANTED TO GIVE HIM SOMETHING BACK FOR WHAT HE'D GIVEN ME: ALL THE MUSIC. LOVE HIM DEARLY.

- PHIL COLLINS
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8. YVETTE IN ENGLISH - David Crosby (5:53)
(Joni Mitchell/David Crosby)¹⁰

David Crosby: vocals
Dean Parks: acoustic and electric guitars, flute
C. J. Vanston: keyboards
Leland Sklar: bass
Luis Conte: percussion

Produced by Dean Parks and David Crosby.
Recorded by Paul Dieter, assisted by Bob Salcedo and Steve Onuska at Groovemasters, Santa Monica, April 13,1992. From the album Thousand Roads, Atlantic 82484, released on April 13, 1993. (P) 1993 Atlantic Recording Corporation. Produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corporation.

DC: I called Joni about Thousand Roads and said, ''I'm doing songs by other people, and you're my favorite writer. Could I do a song of yours?" She said, "Yeah. I have all these songs" – the songs that she's recorded. I asked her if she had an unrecorded tune, or if she would be willing to write me a new song, and she said no. But I had these lyrics I'd written while driving to the Narita Airport in Tokyo. So I faxed them to her. Later that evening she left a message on my phone, "What about this?"
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9. RUSTY AND BLUE - CPR (7:30)
(David Crosby)⁴

David Crosby: acoustic guitar, vocals
James Raymond: piano, vocals
Jeff Pevar: electric guitar, vocals
James "Hutch" Hutcherson: bass
Luis Conte; percussion

Produced by CPR and Dan Garcia.
Recorded by Dan Garcia, assisted by Sebastian Haimerl and Bobby Salcedo at Groovemasters, Santa Monica, August 12, 1997. From the album CPR, Samson Music GC 0145, released on June 23, 1998. (P) 1998 Gold Circle Records.

DC: I wrote "Rusty And Blue" on the boat out in the Channel Islands when I was taking my daughter Donovan out sailing. It was part of the rush of music that came to me when CPR happened. Like so many of my songs, it was born out of wood and water. It's another one in which you can feel the ocean.

TALK ABOUT BREAKING THE MOLD: THERE COULD ONLY BE ONE CROZ. BRILLIANTLY CREATIVE, HE WRITES AND SINGS LIKE NO ONE ELSE. HIS CAPACITY FOR FUN, LOVE, MISCHIEF, FRIENDSHIP, GREAT MUSIC, AND COMMITMENT TO PEOPLE AND THINGS HE CARES PASSIONATELY ABOUT IS MATCHED ONLY BY HIS APPETITE FOR IT ALL. HE'S LIVING ONE OF THE GREAT LOVE AND SURVIVAL STORIES.

- BONNIE RAITT
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11. BREATHLESS - CPR (5:16)
(David Crosby/Jan Crosby/Jeff Pevar/James Raymond/Andrew Ford/Steve DiStanislao)¹¹

David Crosby: vocals
James Raymond: piano, Moog bass, vocal
Jeff Pevar: acoustic and electric guitars
Steve DiStanislao: drums

Produced by CPR and Paul Dieter.
Recorded by Paul Dieter, assisted by Bill Lane & Mark Johnson, at Groovemasters, Santa Monica, September 23, 2000. From the album Just Like Gravity, Gold Circle GI 20002, released on June 18, 2001. (P) 2001 Gold Circle Records.

James Raymond: When I found out that David was my biological dad, I went on a musical-roots trip. I wanted to know everything about his music because I wanted to meet him and impress him with my knowledge of his work. I was pretty familiar with the CSN songs I heard on the radio growing up, but the solo Crosby tunes were more of a mystery When I listened to If I Could Only Remember My Name for the first time, I could feel my musical heritage and DNA leaping out of the speakers, grabbing me by the shoulders, and shaking me: This is where you live! David has a way of spinning an undiscovered, beautiful melody against lush open-tuning chords that any accomplished musician would relish playing or soloing over. His music evokes a mood and a place that is eminently Crosby's world, and I'm glad that I've been lucky enough to visit it.

Interviewed by Steve Silberman, May 21, 2006.
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12. MAP TO BURIED TREASURE - CPR (5:33)
(David Crosby/Jan Crosby/Jeff Pevar/James Raymond/Andrew Ford/Steve DiStanislao)¹¹

David Crosby: vocals
James Raymond: piano, Moog bass, vocals
Jeff Pevar: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
Steve DiStanislao: drums

Produced by CPR and Paul Dieter.
Recorded by Paul Dieter, assisted by Bill Lane & Mark Johnson, at Santa Barbara Sound Design, September 30, 1999, and later at Groovemasters, Santa Monica. From the album Just Like Gravity, Gold Circle GI 20002, released on June 18, 2001. ® 2001 Gold Circle Records.

DC: "Map" is a love song for my wife – one of many that I've written for her. I met Jan in Criteria Studios in Florida when she and her mom were both working there. I had no intention of falling in love with anybody, but here was this girl, smiling at me. She had this great smile, these great eyes, and something went ker-sproing! inside me. She's a tremendous source of strength, a very moral being, and has a great set of values. And she never stops growing. Just when you think you've got her pegged, she'll turn around and whip some new shit on you. That's a wonderful thing in a friend and a partner and a lover.

Jan thought up the line "I wear your allegiance like a cloak of trust," and I wrote it down because I'm not stupid. The music is primarily by James. We went into the studio to work on other stuff, I showed him the words, and we wrote it right there – the song just happened in front of everybody. We sat down around the piano and James said, "I think I've got the lick for it – how about this?" And then Jeff brought some more great ideas to it. Stevie was drumming on top of the piano, and I was bouncing off the walls with excitement.
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13. AT THE EDGE - CPR (4:21)
(David Crosby-music; David Crosby/Jeff Pevar/James Raymond)¹¹

David Crosby: vocals
James Raymond: piano, vocals
Jeff Pevar: acoustic and electric guitars, fretless bass, vocals
Steve DiStanislao: drums
Luis Conte: percussion

Produced by CPR and Dan Garcia.
Recorded by Dan Garcia, assisted by Sebastian Haimerl and Bobby Salcedo at Groovemasters, Santa Monica, August 7, 1997. From the album CPR, Samson Music GC 0145, released on June 23, 1998. (P) l998 Gold Circle Records.

James Raymond: David brought some lyrics to a little studio in New York where Jeff and I happened to be for other gigs. I had this piece of music in 3/4 I'd been messing around with that was very open and pretty. We put David's lyrics up on the keyboard and the song just magically poofed! into existence. We ended up writing most of it that night. All of David's phrases seemed to fit the melody we came up with exactly,

Interviewed by Steve Silberman, May 21, 2006.

DC: It's a very simple lyric, but it's one of those songs in which you feel you've brushed up against the truth. When I get to the end – “How have you treated your friends?" – the song feels deeply true to me.
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14. THROUGH HERE QUITE OFTEN - Crosby & Nash (4:00)
(words: David Crosby – music; Dean Parks)¹³

David Crosby: vocals
Graham Nash: vocals
James Raymond: piano
Jeff Pekar: electric guitar
Dean Parks: acoustic guitars
Leland Sklar: bass
Russ Kunkel: drums

Produced by Russ Kunkel, Nathaniel Kunkel, David Crosby, Graham Nash.
Recorded by Nathaniel Kunkel at Center Staging, Burbank, January, 2004. From the album Crosby Nash, Sanctuary 06076, released on August 10, 2004. (P) 2004 Sanctuary Records Group Inc. Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group Inc.

Graham Nash: An unbelievably beautiful, heartbreaking song about David's observations in a coffee shop, watching this waitress who was incredibly kind to people in very small ways – the way she handed someone a fork and didn't throw it on the table. Small moments of kindness. David picked up on it.

Interviewed by Mr. Banzai. July 29, 2004, for Mix magazine.

WHEN YOU HEAR THE SONGS OF DAVID CROSBY, YOU START TO UNDERSTAND THE DEPTH OF THE CONTRIBUTION THAT THIS MAN HAS MADE TO MUSIC AND TO OUR TIME. HIS WORDS NOT ONLY TOUCH OUR HEART AND SOUL, BUT ALSO OUR CONSCIENCE. THIS IS HIS LEGACY, AND THE WORLD IS RICHER AND WISER BECAUSE HE IS IN IT.

- MELISSA ETHERIDGE
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15. MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE - David Crosby (1:57)
(words: Samuel Smith – music: traditional/arr. Michael Hedges)¹¹

David Crosby: vocals
Graham Nash: vocals
J.D. Souther: vocals
Michael Hedges: acoustic guitar
Leland Sklar: bass

Produced by David Crosby, Craig Doerge, and Stanley Johnston.
Arranged by Michael Hedges. Recorded by Stanley Johnston at A&M Recording, Studio A, and at Cherokee Studios, Hollywood, 1988. From the album Oh Yes I Can, A&M 5232, released on January 23, 1989. (P) 1989 A&M Records. Courtesy of A&M Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises.

DC: Hedges had an arrangement of "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" tagged on the end of his song "Holiday" on Watching My Life Go By, which is about caskets coming home from war. I asked him to record a guitar track of it so I could sing it. I loved the changes he put to it and the way it felt. It's beautiful.


DC: I am naively, staunchly, almost childishly loyal to this country, this democracy, and this system of government. It's not flawless, I'm not saying it's utopian – it isn't – but it's the best working blueprint for people to live with each other inside a set of rules, which we've got to have. And it's up to us to care about it enough to lay ourselves on the line for it. The people who are abusing this government should be thoroughly frightened of the people that love the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, because we're dead serious. If I could start a party, it would be the Constitutionalist party

Interviewed by Jim Ladd for Innerview syndicated radio program, 1976.