How can David Crosby be broke?

Did you see the reply, though? Crosby says Miles is cooler

 

So Far has gone Platinum 6 times over. Crosby made money from that. Ohio was on it. they sold millions of tickets to shows so people could hear them sing it. So tell me how they aren't connected? Ridiculous argument. Of course he made money from album and cocnert sales, whether he wrote the sings or not. Seriously, you don't know this?

 

But it's Neil's song! What do you suggest Crosby should have done? "Sorry Neil, I can't sing on the track, because I don't want to profit from anti-war sentiment"? That's ridiculous. They were a band; of course they contributed to each others' songs.

Sure, Crosby made a boatload of money from So Far and the '70s tours. But it's completely illogical to attribute that financial success to a single song that he did not even write ("Ohio").

 

"I don't think he made a boatload of money from "Ohio" - Neil Young did."

"Sure, Crosby made a boatload of money from So Far and the '70s tours."

"Right, but how did Crosby make a boatload of money from just singing on "Ohio"?"

I'm so confused.

 

The whole group has been pretty vocal about being antiwar, though I doubt they made more money than they would have if they kept their opinions to themselves. Even if they did make more money as a result, and even if their espousing such views was a calculated strategy to maximize their income, I fail to see why this means they need to autograph stuff for Vets, sorry.

Don't really see Ohio as anti war though. It's anti national guard firing on US college kids.

Now the tour where CSNY played every tune from Neil's Living With War album certainly made them a bunch of money while trying their best to keep more folks from becoming wheelchair bound vets. But they probably would have made more money singing more of their less topical and better known songs instead. And either way, I still don't see what that has to do with entitling such folks to autographs.

 

Don't be - it's easily explained. What I mean is that the So Far LP contains more songs than just "Ohio," in the same way as the '70s concerts didn't consist of only that one song. So, that's why Crosby didn't make a boatload of money from just singing on "Ohio".

 

It's safe to say Crosby made a lot of money in the '60s and '70s, but a lot of money 40-50 years ago would not be all that much these days. Daylight Again was the last truly successful album CSN released, and that was 33 (!!) years ago. Presumably he lives off of touring income and royalties from his catalog sales, which in the era of downloading and streaming are a lot smaller than they used to be. No doubt he lives a comfortable lifestyle but it doesn't surprise me if he's not as wealthy as one might assume.

 

Don't you think that it might be people wanting autographs at all that drives famous people to get angry with them and not just the aggressive ones? Granted there's a distinction between running up to someone and demanding an autograph and hanging around near their bus after a show and asking for an autograph but you can see how both of those, sooner or later, will make the person, whose autograph is sought, lose their cool, can't you?

I think it would be awful being asked for an autograph over and over again and it would be hard not to question why someone is asking for it. If you don't know someone, how does having their signature on a piece of paper mean something to you? I like much of Crosby's music but I have no desire to meet him or even go near him. Ditto for all the musicians whose work I enjoy. They might turn out to be lovely people but some will definitely turn out to be jerks. Either way it seems irrelevant to their work.

 

Here you go, straight from the source. His reply in bold.

@thedavidcrosby "autographs...yea, nay, annoying, silly, or mood dependent?” Too many professionals ruining for the fans

 

I can understand why celebs don't like to sign.
When you go to the backstage area after a show and you see that one guy with 10 albums trying to get the artist to sign each one.
And when the artist tells the guy "no, I'm not going to sign your 10 records so you can sell them on line". Then the guy with the 10 records gets belligerent with the artist and goes off yelling insults. I'm sure big big tier guys get that all the time. I saw a Michael Nesmith Youtube video with a similar incident.

Crosby had some compassion for the jogger and stayed with him which was OK, at least he didn't pull a Lindsey Lohan and drive away.

 

I've never really put much value to an autographed item.

I think I have a couple things that I purchased used that appear to have been autographed at one point or another. One was a Ravi Shankar album, the other was a CD by a Motown singer. I didn't pay extra for the signature either time. The guy who sold me the Ravi album told me he knew the seller he got it from and he believed it was legit because the previous owner of the album treated that copy like it was extra special. I don't really remember why I bought the album - I was just in a Ravi mood that day.

The CD with the Motown autograph (I believe it was Brenda Holloway) was something I bought on ebay.

I bought a poster of some John Entwistle artwork at a Who concert in 2000. I think it was the a blow up of the album sleeve for the "By Numbers" album. If it wasn't, it was something that reminded me of that album sleeve. It appeared to have John's signature on it, done with a sharpie, but I'm fully aware it might have been done by a roadie with time on his hands. My purchase decision was based primarily on wanting the poster, with or without a "bonus" (possibly bogus) signature.

The one moment I treasure when I met a musician is when I accidentally bumped into Mike McGear/McCartney at an art gallery in NYC. I wandered in off the street, had someone hand me a glass of wine, and point me to a gallery in the basement. I wasn't expecting to buy anything but I was curious about the exihibit (which didn't have an admission price) because there were some photos of very young Beatles in the gallery window. When I wandered down the basement, I noticed McCartney standing there talking to people. But more than anything, I noticed that someone had the good sense to thrown on a Scaffold CD, not a Beatles CD. I remember thinking that was cool - and I just went about my way merrily singing the silly little songs to my self. At some point, McCartney caught me singing "Thank you very much for the Aintree Iron, thank you very much, thank you very very very much" Yes, I was busted enjoying his song - LOL
And we both kind nodded at each other and we both smiled a little more.

Honestly that memory was worth much more to me than a piece of paper with some ink on it.

I have other similar memories of small similar interactions with other musicians. I used to bump into Max Weinberg in the supermarket a lot when I lived in NJ. But I never said squat to him. It was clear he lived near me somewhere.

Funniest interaction I ever had with a musician is when one of them said "Hey, what's up?" to me while we were standing in front of separate urinals at the Chestnut Caberet in Philly. I guarantee I didn't start that conversation - LOL

I actually tried to replicate my Mike McCartney experience once by going to a Linda McCartney photo exhibit hoping that maybe her famous husband would be there - like his brother was several months prior. No dice. I remember feeling like a dork standing around outside the place for about 90 minutes. There was an autograph hound who had a signature book with him that talked to me. He clearly knew the ropes better than me. That whole experience of standing there waiting for someone who may or may not show up did not encourage me to ever make a similar attempt. I decided that the only experience I'd ever care about is if a star somehow felt compelled to say hello to me - for whatever reason.

A friend of mine had that happen with him at an Elvis Costello concert in 1989. It was Costello's birthday and the venue was in the hinterlands and very few were there. Costello joked from the stage "Welcome to my backyard BBQ." After the concert, and after I had left to go find my car - a friend of mine was standing there trying to decide when he wanted to leave - and he claims Elvis walked up to HIM, stuck out his hand and said "Thanks for coming." He said he used the opportunity to quiz him about some obscure discographical information... something about a song he donated to Dusty Springfield that was in a thick book of songs and lyrics with no explanation about who recorded it. I'm not sure if he was happier to meet Costello or to finally get a pointer to where he could go buy the song in a recorded format.

One other funny thing... I spent a weekend in Dallas one time playing host to a friend of my wife's who flew in from California to TX to be a Dallas Cowboys superfan for a football weekend. My wife's friend and her husband knew that the team would stay in a hotel the night before the game and they asked us to allow them 90 or so minutes of time hanging outside the hotel hoping to get autographs from the players as they walked into the hotel. We dropped the superfans off in front of the hotel where they joined a group of about 20 other similar minded superfans. We sat in our car waiting for them to get bored. Part of my problem is I'm a diehard Cowboys hater and I didn't want to consort with the enemy. So as my wife and I were sitting there in my car, someone came over to where we parked - and started putting up saw-horse barriers to create a special parking area for the players. They didn't request that we leave the area - since we were there first. But it was funny to suddenly find yourself accidentally in a zone I was trying purposely to avoid. Of course, as time went by, I saw a lot of famous Cowboy players park near us and then walk into the hotel. I specifically remember marveling about Troy Aikmen's large hands - as he pulled his big SUV right next to my modest Ford Taurus. Of course, my wife's superfan friends were confused that I didn't use this opportunity to collect mementos

 

Too bad you did not ask him the eternal question - what the heck did he mean when he sang: "thank you very much for the Aintree Iron" ?

http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-1840,00.html

As you were.

 

Am I the only one who has no idea what that means?

 

He's talking about professional autograph seekers, guys who seek to get multiple items autographed with the intent to resell them, rather than because they are fans of the people whose autographs they are acquiring.

 

Ah...thanks!

(Still think he's a douche, however)

 

Well. this weekend I bought "Croz" at HDtracks (very good album and the HDtracks does sound better than the CD, which I bought the day it came out).

Also spent $75 buying 3 dowloadable concerts from the 2014 "Croz" tour (320 kbps mp3, sound pretty good) after a kind member here shared one track with me so that I could sample the sound quality.

And I think my wife is going to surprise me with tickets to a DC show in Florida in June for my 55th birthday. I am guessing she has to get 4 tickets to include my daughter and her husband. So just this 1/2 year I would have spent around $500 on Mr. Crosby. He is my favorite CSNY member based on his music. Unless he is out hurting children, invalids or old people, I don't care about his personal life. I think CPR is the best thing he ever did.

Everydody here should read his 2 autobiographies. Nobody is harder on Crosby than himself. He admits and owns up to all his failings. Blames nobody but himself. I don't know if he has money, a lot or a little, but he is clear on who put him where he is financially. He does sound grateful and, yes, humbled by the help he has gotten from Nash and others, and at having been reunited with his son, who turned out to be a very gifted musician, singer and songwriter. Really, Nash wins the title of "Best Friend Ever".

By the way the CSNY tours were 2000, 2002 and 2006.

 

Hey, I have a question and maybe it's already been answered.... the first post on this thread quotes Crosby saying all he has is a 2004 truck or something... and he says he can't afford a new car. And then the jogger story is with Crosby hitting the jogger with a 2015 Tesla.

Is the Tesla actually Crosby's? Or maybe the first quote about owning a truck is from a long time ago? I didn't quite get the discrepancy on the car/truck situation.

 

You're vouching for every autograph hunter (what's a better term, then? Handwriting specialists?) on earth here, that seems a bit rich. Likely they're a cross section of society at large, ie 50 % jerks .
Crosby's box set is by far the most interesting of the three, you're missing out there.

 

Don't forget he traded the publishing rights to a fair few of his songs for drugs back in the day. That's got to put a serious dent in his income.

 

how much can david crosby's autograph be worth, anyway?

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=david+crosby+autograph&rt=nc

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...rosby+autograph&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

 

A better term, as I said, was hobbyist. It's a hobby just like any other pastime. You're the one putting a negative connotation to the hobby based on your minimal experience and stereotypical viewpoint. Who's better to make a statement on it, me or you? I've collected autographs for 40+ years- I have thousands of them. I have met, talked to, interacted with hundred and hundreds of artists, tour managers, roadies, venue agents, security guards and autograph collectors. I've been backstage, been on tour buses, been in hotel rooms, been in restaurants eating meals with artists. I've got a pretty solid base of experience on which to base my opinions. How about you? I'm not "vouching" for anyone, I'm simply stating how it is in my experience and opinion. I've never met a collector that was a jerk, and I've met an awful lot of them. Usually the jerks are the guys who can't get an autograph and take it out on the guys that do...
"Professional" autograph seekers exist, mostly in big cities, and solely exist to make money off the signatures they obtain. They are the ones who taint the hobby, and color the viewpoints of guys like Crosby, who cannot tell a collector from a "professional." But I will tell you that it takes a ton of signatures to make money- there are very few modern day autographs that are worth the time, effort and expense put into getting it. You cannot judge by eBay prices. I can make up any price I want for an item on eBay- doesn't reflect actual value.
Crosby's box set might be the greatest box set ever released but I'll never hear it, will never buy it nor will care about its existence. And that's on Crosby..if you went to a restaurant and the chef treated you like crap, would you still buy food from him? Not me..

 

Thanks for your post. I have never met an autograph collector, even virtually. Thanks for posting your experiences.

 

I'd never have any idea if a restaurant chef or celebrity treated people like crap as I don't try to personally deal with them. I enjoy the food, cds and performances put out and evaluate them on that. If I was thinking of joining a band with one or marrying one then their personal qualities would matter to me. I generally go on the assumption that famous people are jerks to non famous people, and that this is a rational reaction to being a celebrity, and I avoid interpersonal dealings with them accordingly.

If some of them manage to act nice to average Joes I suppose that is a good thing, but it won't make a bit of difference in what cds I buy or concerts I attend.

I fully accept that Graham is likely easier to get along with than David or Neil, but I'd still rather go see David or Neil do a solo concert.