David Crosby, Folk-Rock Voice of the 1960s, Dies at 81 - The New York Times

David Crosby, the outspoken and often troubled singer, songwriter and guitarist who helped make 2 of the astir influential and beloved American bands of the classic-rock epoch of the 1960s and ’70s, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died. He was 81.

Patricia Dance, a sister of Mr. Crosby’s wife, Jan Dance, said successful a substance connection connected Thursday evening that Mr. Crosby died “last night.” She provided nary different details.

Mr. Crosby was inducted doubly into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, arsenic a founding subordinate of the Byrds and arsenic a laminitis of CSN&Y. He brought jazz influences to some groups, successful the process broadening the possibilities of vocally driven folk-rock. And his scope extended to aboriginal generations: His alternate tunings became an inspiration for the innovative “freak folk” question of the aboriginal 21st period portion influencing scores of different musicians anxious to springiness acoustic euphony a progressive spin.

If Mr. Crosby’s euphony expanded boundaries, his persona fixed him successful a circumstantial epoch — and proudly so. In 1968, helium wrote “Triad,” an ode to escaped love, recorded successful chiseled versions by the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. His opus “Almost Cut My Hair,” which helium recorded with CSN&Y for their acclaimed 1970 album, “Déjà Vu,” was a virtual loyalty oath to the counterculture.

Mr. Crosby’s representation arsenic the twinkle-eyed stoner and sardonic hedonist of the cosmic property was said to person been a exemplary for the obstinate escaped tone played by Dennis Hopper successful the 1969 movie “Easy Rider.”

His impish indulgences turned perchance lethal galore times. He became astir arsenic good known for his cause offenses, weapons charges and situation stints arsenic for his music. By the mid-1970s, helium was addicted to some cocaine and heroin.

“You don’t beryllium down and say, ‘Gee, I deliberation I’ll go a junkie,’” Mr. Crosby told People mag successful 1990. “When I started retired doing drugs, it was marijuana and psychedelics, and it was fun. It was the ’60s, and we thought we were expanding our consciousnesses.”

But later, helium continued, “drugs became much for blurring pain.” He added: “You don’t recognize you’re getting arsenic strung retired arsenic you are. And I had the wealth to get much and much addicted.”

Mr. Crosby’s cause maltreatment whitethorn person exacerbated his aesculapian problems, including a agelong conflict with hepatitis C, which necessitated a liver transplant successful 1994. He besides suffered from benignant 2 diabetes and, successful 2014, had to cancel a circuit to endure a cardiac catheterization and angiogram.

A Prominent Lineage

David Van Cortland Crosby was calved connected Aug. 14, 1941, successful Los Angeles into families with heavy roots successful American past dating backmost to Dutch regularisation successful New York successful the 17th century. His mother, who was calved Aliph Van Cortland Whitehead, descended from the salient Van Cortland family. His father, Floyd Crosby, an Academy Award-winning cinematographer whose credits included the classical occidental “High Noon,” was a subordinate of the Van Rensselaer clan.

David attended Crane Country Day School successful Montecito, Calif., wherever helium starred successful the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta “H.M.S. Pinafore” and different philharmonic productions, but helium flunked out. He completed his precocious schoolhouse studies by correspondence astatine the Cate School successful adjacent Carpinteria. He studied play astatine Santa Barbara City College, but helium dropped retired earlier graduating to prosecute a euphony career.

He was 16 erstwhile helium received his archetypal guitar, from his older brother, Ethan, who had begun playing years earlier. David started out, similar truthful galore others successful the aboriginal ’60s, performing people music.

“I would larn 2 chords and spell backmost and distant betwixt them,” Mr. Crosby told the British euphony mag Mojo. “What took it to the adjacent level was, my member started listening to 1950s jazz: Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, radical similar that. Listening to jazz truly widens your world.”

Mr. Crosby, who concisely played with the people radical Les Baxter’s Balladeers successful Los Angeles, got to cognize Jim McGuinn (who aboriginal changed his sanction to Roger) and Gene Clark portion they were performing arsenic a duo astatine the Troubadour. He soon began adding his harmonies to theirs onstage, fitting successful truthful smoothly that they became a trio, known arsenic the Jet Set.

Mr. Crosby brought successful Mr. Dickson to go the group’s manager. Mr. Dickson encouraged them to beforehand the caller dependable they had already been exploring, which combined their earlier people influences with the electrified dependable of the British Invasion bands, peculiarly the Beatles. To that extremity the set added a drummer, the inexperienced but handsome Michael Clarke, and Mr. Crosby took up the electrical guitar. Together, the revolutionary benignant they honed became known arsenic folk-rock.

That hybrid recovered its archetypal recorded look aft Mr. Dickson acquired an acetate of a caller Bob Dylan song, “Mr. Tambourine Man,” successful August 1964. The band’s own demo of the piece, with the caller enlistee Chris Hillman connected bass, helped onshore them a declaration with Columbia Records that November. Two weeks later, the Jet Set changed its sanction to the Byrds.

Writing Songs, and Hits

Columbia, however, felt that the radical hadn’t yet jelled musically, truthful lone Mr. McGuinn was allowed to play an instrumentality connected the single, which came retired successful April 1965, with workplace musicians accompanying him. Mr. Crosby and Mr. Clark did supply impeccable harmonies connected the song, which helped it scope No. 1 connected the Billboard singles chart. The opus was the rubric way of their debut album, released successful June 1965, and the afloat set played connected the remainder of the tracks.

Mr. Crosby didn’t lend compositions to the Byrds’ archetypal 2 albums. But connected their third, “Fifth Dimension” (1966), helium and Mr. Hillman helped capable a penning void near by the departure of the band’s astir prolific songwriter, Mr. Clark. Mr. Crosby contributed to the creation of respective songs connected the medium and wrote 1 himself, “What’s Happening?!?!” Its lyric introduced a Crosbyesque motif: posing questions that had nary answer. More famously, Mr. Crosby wrote the band’s smash deed “Eight Miles High” with Mr. McGuinn and Mr. Clark.

For the Byrds’ adjacent album, “Younger Than Yesterday,” Mr. Crosby contributed “Everybody’s Been Burned,” which idealized the cardinal strategy of his emerging style: to opposition a dreamy melody with dazed lyrics.

A much daring fig helped seal Mr. Crosby’s destiny with the band. He had written “Triad” for the 5th Byrds album, and the set recorded it. But the different members were reluctant to merchandise it, preferring alternatively “Goin’ Back,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Mr. Crosby vigorously argued against utilizing extracurricular writers for a set that already had three, and hostility successful the set grew. There was anger, too, implicit governmental speeches helium had made betwixt songs erstwhile the set played the Monterey Pop Festival the summertime before. All of it led to his firing.

Mr. McGuinn and Mr. Hillman delivered the crushing news. They “said I was intolerable to enactment with, and I wasn’t precise bully anyway, and they’d bash amended without me,” Mr. Crosby told the British euphony mag Uncut. “It wounded similar hell. I didn’t effort to crushed with them. I conscionable said, ‘It’s a shameful waste. … Goodbye.’”

By this clip Mr. Crosby had already started casually jamming with Mr. Stills, the guitarist and vocalist whose radical Buffalo Springfield had precocious disbanded. Mr. Crosby wrote his archetypal opus with Mr. Stills (along with Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane) portion sailing connected a 74-foot vessel helium had acquired a twelvemonth earlier. The song, “Wooden Ships,” besides recorded by the Airplane, tested retired the vocal blend that would go Crosby, Stills & Nash’s signature.

Mr. Crosby and Mr. Stills connected with Mr. Nash successful July 1968 astatine a enactment astatine Joni Mitchell’s location successful the Laurel Canyon conception of Los Angeles. Mr. Nash was anxious to permission his slick British popular act, the Hollies, to articulation the blistery folk-rock scene. The 3 began gathering connected their ain to cleanable their sound, and erstwhile Ahmet Ertegun, president of Atlantic Records, heard their elegant three-way vocal braiding, helium signed them to his label.

A Grammy, Then a Death

The group’s debut album, titled simply “Crosby, Stills & Nash,” was released successful May 1969 and changeable into the Top 10. It earned them a Grammy arsenic champion caller artist. Besides “Wooden Ships,” the medium included 2 different songs by Mr. Crosby, the shimmering “Guinevere” and the elegiac “Long Time Gone,” which helium wrote aft the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy successful 1968.

That aforesaid year, his longtime girlfriend, Christine Hinton, was killed successful a car mishap portion moving a regular errand. Mr. Crosby aboriginal saw this arsenic the tipping constituent that sent him into slump and superior cause use.

“I was incapable to grip it,” helium told People magazine. “I was precise overmuch successful emotion with her and she conscionable ne'er came back. That was erstwhile I got much into hard drugs.”

His expanding recreational cause usage made it harder for him to make music, helium said, but helium nevertheless managed to constitute 2 classical songs for the band’s follow-up album, “Déjà Vu,” released successful 1970, which officially expanded the group’s lineup to see Neil Young: “Almost Cut My Hair” and the rubric track, a rhythmically daring fig with analyzable harmonies.

Fueled by drugs and egos, the radical rapidly began to fracture. Over the adjacent year, each 4 members released solo albums. Mr. Crosby’s, “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” released successful 1971, sold well, but it was the slightest good received successful its day. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called it a “disgraceful performance.” Mr. Crosby would not grounds different solo medium for 18 years. But successful aboriginal years it received a captious overhaul; successful his 1994 book, “All Time Top 1,000 Albums,” Colin Larkin called it “miraculous.”

Starting successful 1972, Mr. Crosby released a bid of palmy albums with Mr. Nash, his closest state successful the band. All 3 of their archetypal associated albums went gold, buoyed by Mr. Nash’s much commercialized tunes.

In 1973, Mr. Crosby reunited with the 4 different archetypal Byrds for 1 album, but it was poorly received. For overmuch of the ’70s, helium besides worked arsenic a league singer, backing up prima friends similar Jackson Browne and James Taylor. In the ’80s and ’90s, helium did akin enactment with Phil Collins.

Mr. Crosby, Mr. Stills and Mr. Nash, and sometimes Mr. Young, reunited from clip to time. But by the 1980s Mr. Crosby was progressively moving afoul of the law.

Mr. Crosby elaborate his travails successful 2 harrowing autobiographies, “Long Time Gone” (1988) and “Since Then: How I Survived Everything and Lived to Tell About It” (2006), some written with Carl Gottlieb.

Surging Late successful Life

He earned little fraught tabloid headlines successful 2000, erstwhile helium was revealed to beryllium the biologic father, via sperm donation, of the 2 children of the vocalist Melissa Etheridge and her spouse astatine the time, Julie Cypher.

Mr. Crosby had archetypal go a begetter successful 1962, with Celia Crawford Ferguson, but arsenic young parents they enactment their lad up for adoption. He had 3 different children: Erika, by his erstwhile woman Jackie Gutherie; Donovan, by different partner, Debbie Donovan; and Django, with Ms. Dance, his woman of 35 years. His member killed himself successful the precocious 1990s. His survivors see his woman and 4 children.

In 1997, Mr. Crosby reunited with the lad helium had enactment up for adoption, James Raymond, who had grown up to go an accomplished pianist. With the league guitarist Jeff Pevar, they formed a jazz-rock band, which they cheekily called CPR.

Mr. Crosby told The Orange County Register successful 2019 that his late-in-life resurgence was sparked by his realization that “at this stage, you don’t cognize if you’ve got 2 weeks oregon 10 years,” adding, “Really what matters is what you bash with immoderate clip you have.”

Mr. Crosby announced successful 2022 that though helium planned to proceed making records, helium would nary longer tour. “I’m excessively aged to bash it anymore,” helium said. “I don’t person the stamina; I don’t person the strength.” (He precocious said that helium had reconsidered.)

In 2019 helium was the taxable of an uncommonly frank documentary, “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” directed by A.J. Eaton and produced by Cameron Crowe. In the film, the famously cantankerous Mr. Crosby talks astir however helium had alienated astir each of his aged philharmonic associates, adjacent his longtime state Mr. Nash. “All the guys I made euphony with won’t adjacent speech to me,” helium said. “I don’t cognize rather however to undo it.”

Adapting a much appreciative tone, Mr. Crosby looked backmost astatine his beingness with wonderment successful his 2nd memoir. “I was tremendously lucky, surviving injury, unwellness and stupidity,” helium wrote. “As for the music, I was blessed aboriginal and often, from the Byrds to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, singing with Graham, gathering my lad and creating CPR” and experiencing “the wonderful, exploratory guardant question of caller music.”

Alex Traub contributed reporting.