Inside the album: David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name

Why is the album considered to be a cult classic?

Well, what makes anything a cult classic? Often it is something that is maybe disregarded or written off in its time, only to be recognised later as blazing a new trail.

If I Could Only Remember My Name wasn’t heralded as a great success in 1971 when it was released, with reviewers bemused by tracks that just had vocal sounds instead of lyrics. I think after the huge success of Déjà vu, the 1970 album by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, people expected something more like that. But this album is much freer and exploratory.

How is the album still influential after all this time?

It is a brilliant early example of bringing fantastic artists together and jamming out in the studio. David Crosby was already celebrated as an incredible songwriter, but here he deliberately avoids the conventional form of rock and roll songcraft, and instead just builds ideas around spiralling repetitive grooves, often around a single chord – and as well as building the track through layered magical guitar playing, he also adds layered vocals and harmonies, bringing an extra dimension to the music.

The way the music builds, you can anticipate something of expansive 70’s rock like Pink Floyd in there, and the Grateful Dead - maybe even shoegaze and space rock.

Tell us about the original artists that recorded the album...

David Crosby shot to stardom writing psychedelic hits with The Byrds, like 8 Miles High – which was massively groundbreaking in the 60’s.

The next most important collaborator was probably Jerry Garcia - number 13 in the Rolling Stones List of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and founding member of the Grateful Dead. He's also had an asteroid named after him and a flavour of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream (Cherry Garcia)!

Neil Young – this year’s hugely anticipated Glastonbury Headliner – had previously made music with David Crosby and went on to have a hugely influential folk-rock career with classic albums such as Harvest and After the Gold Rush. 

Joni Mitchell needs no introduction! Fans of Joni will know her third album, Ladies of the Canyon written about Laurel Canyon, a neighbourhood of LA, where many counterculture musicians lived (and partied hard) including Neil Young and David Crosby. The album If I Could Only Remember My Name is often described as a ‘Laurel Canyon Classic’.

...and what makes the performers of this event so exciting?

When it comes to musical and vocal-harmony skill, there are few UK acts who can do what The Staves can do.

Kris Drever is a phenomenal folk-driven guitar player in his own right, as well as with his experimental folk band Lau, and for those older Gen Xers, just listen back to those 80’s Hothouse Flowers albums to hear what a fantastic voice Liam has.

Personally I’m a big fan of BC Camplight; I love his songwriting and his wit, so I’m excited to see what he brings to the mix.

And finally, the album has been described as psychedelic, tell us more about this!

Psychedelia is obviously associated with experimenting with altering the mind, but the important thing here is the idea of experimentation. Music in whichever genre is usually learned and passed on through standard structures e.g. verse-chorus-verse-chorus etc. But psychedelia means exploring the boundaries, often through improvisation.

You can hear that on the record, where the track builds around a repeated groove or riff, with instruments and vocals swirling and developing around it as the musicians improvise and respond to each other. The effect is to create something more atmospheric and free than conventionally structured… or to put it another way... it’s a vibe, man!

Listen to our Spotify playlist here.