David Crosby (Cameron Crowe)- Croz's life, "Remember My Name" documentary

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by lemonade kid, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Sundance Film Review: ‘David Crosby: Remember My Name’

    In a stirring rock-nostalgia documentary, David Crosby appears as the aging poster boy for '60s excess, and for the spirit it took to survive it.
    By OWEN GLEIBERMAN / Variety

    [​IMG]

    Director:

    A.J. Eaton
    With:

    David Crosby, Jan Dance, Graham Nash, Neil Young.
    Release Date:

    Jan 26, 2019
    Official Site: david-crosby-remember-my-name


    In “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” A.J. Eaton’s moving and elegiac rock-nostalgia documentary, David Crosby appears before us as an older and wiser hippie troubadour, his signature long locks and frontier mustache now white, his spirit chastened but still keyed to the muse of his holy boomer-rock self. In the movie, Crosby speaks with candor about all the drugs he did, the women he “didn’t love enough,” the abuse he handed out to his body and soul. Yet he’s not apologizing; he’s testifying. In “Remember My Name,” he treats his life as a shamanistic parable of pleasure and pain, beauty and loss.

    The survivors of the ’60s have been flaunting — and, in some cases, regretting — the consequences of their hedonistic if-it-feels-good-do-it lifestyles ever since the ’60s ended. It was back in 1989 when I first remember seeing an interview with David Crosby (on CNN) in which he announced, with a touch of pride, “I should be dead.” If you wanted to be cruel about it, you could say that he’s been dining out on his I-should-be-deadness for 30 years. But in “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” Crosby is more than just a rock ‘n’ roll survivor nursing a lifetime of second thoughts. He’s a romantic witness to a time that was genuinely about following the road of excess to the palace of wisdom. (Break on through to the other side.)


    Everything comes full circle, and to the millennials, David Crosby isn’t just some boring old hippie — he’s more like the Gandalf of Woodstock. He’s a figure who now seems stubbornly exotic in the miracle of his perseverance (it helps that he’s on Twitter), and that’s one reason why “Remember My Name” has taken Sundance by storm. It’s a terrific movie, and anyone who ever swooned to the soaring folk-rock vocal majesty of a Crosby, Stills & Nash (or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) song like “Helplessly Hoping” or “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” or “Carry On” or “Déjà Vu” will want to see it. But the movie also represents a cross-generational epiphany: an aging bard of the counterculture talking about why the counterculture had to end, and about what we lost when it did. He’s evoking the magic of a long-time-gone era, when people did what they wanted and the lucky ones (like Crosby) lived to tell the tale.

    When you see fabled rock stars who came up in the ’60s on tour, or performing for some PBS fund-raiser (it might be the Moody Blues, or the Beach Boys, or the Temptations), it’s always a little oxymoronic to realize that they’re now old men. That said, the toughest thing to adjust to is their voices, which simply aren’t the same. The sound is thinner, and you can hear the strain as they reach for those high notes (or, more often, avoid them altogether). But in “Remember My Name,” we see David Crosby performing in concert over the last year or so, and the sound that pours out of him is as pure and clean as ever. He hits every damn note, including the high ones, and that golden-sunlight voice is a clue as to why he outlasted so many others. There’s a spirit inside him that won’t fade.

    It’s not as if he’s a paragon of health. Crosby talks about his liver transplant, the fact that he’s a diabetic, and the eight stents in his heart. (At one point he predicts that a heart attack will take him, probably in the next few years.) He was born in 1941, but beyond the age factor, his drug-taking was epic; he was never not high on stage. The cocaine, the heroin (a drug he says gets you chasing that first high forever), the psychedelics, the booze: He did it all, and prodigiously, without a thought to the future, or to anyone he was hurting, including himself.

    The movie is full of great stories, backed by great photographs, about Crosby’s love affairs (Joni Mitchell dumped him by playing a new song), his loathing of Jim Morrison, the days he spent letting the Beatles tutor him in how to be a rock star, and about how he wound up alienating every musician he ever worked with, from Roger McGuinn of the Byrds to every member of CSNY. We see a clip of Crosby ranting about the JFK assassination from the Monterey Pop stage, which provokes McGuinn to recall, “Well, David had become insufferable.” And Graham Nash, who started off as Crosby’s bosom buddy (according to Nash, the two spoke every day for 45 years), wound up telling Crosby off and shouting his final “F— you!” to him inches away from his face, right in the middle of a concert. Crosby’s ultimate comeuppance: After bottoming out in 1986, he turned himself into the FBI on drugs and weapons charges and spent five months in prison, which was just the intervention he needed.

    He got sober after that, and now enjoys the charmed life of an aging hippie celebrity, still going on tour and living in serene splendor with Jan Dance, his devoted wife of 32 years. “Remember My Name” is the portrait of an irascible legend who finally figured out how to age gracefully. Yet the movie does leave you asking: What is it about David Crosby that drove everyone around him nuts? It seems to relate to his metaphysical self-absorption, a quality that’s there even in his youngest photographs. In his heyday, he was a bit like Matthew McConaughey in “Dazed and Confused,” a long-haired lothario and legend in his own mind. And, in fact, the documentary reminds us of an amusing tidbit of New Hollywood history — that Dennis Hopper based the character he played in “Easy Rider” (the hair, the ‘stache, the stoned use of “Man!”) on David Crosby. In a way, Crosby’s whole life has been a movie. In “Remember My Name,” even when he’s chastened and regretful, it’s all about him. But that, in a way, was the crazy glory of the ’60s, an era of people who never stopped believing, especially in themselves.



    Sundance Film Review: 'David Crosby: Remember My Name'
    Reviewed a Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Documentary Competition), January 26, 2019. Running time: 95 MIN.
    PRODUCTION: A Sony Pictures Classics release. BMG presents, in association with PCH Films, a Vinyl Films production. Producers: Cameron Crowe, Michele Farinola, Greg Mariotti. Executive producers: James Keach, Jill Mazursky, Justus Haerder, Kathy Rivkin Daum, Norm Waitt.
    CREW: Director: A.J. Eaton. Camera (color, widescreen): Edd Lukas, Ian Coad. Editors: Elisa Bonora, Veronica Pinkham. Music: Marcus Eaton, Bill Laurance.
    WITH: David Crosby, Jan Dance, Graham Nash, Neil Young.
     
  2. TimM

    TimM Senior Member

    I'll look forward to checking this out.
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  3. chickendinna

    chickendinna Homegrown’s All Right With Me

    I have a feeling this won't be "easy" to watch. I'm sure it will be honest, unflinching and unapologetic.
     
  4. Craigman1959

    Craigman1959 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Alabama, USA
    Good read. Thanks.
     
  5. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Ahhh, but that voice: still strong and beautiful. His new album is sublimely beautiful.
     
  6. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    A good friend who is a retired LA area DJ, said that his very good friend, and much mellower Croz would often stop by the station when he was in Santa Barbara, guitar in hand. My friend would, of course, relish letting Croz sing and chat for as long as he liked. A good time was had by all.
     
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  7. Wright

    Wright Forum Resident

    Another call-back title!

    If I Could Only Remember My Name
    :
    Oh Yes I Can
    It's All Coming Back To Me Now
    Remember My Name
     
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  8. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Good analogy.

    The first three seem to be about Croz trying to regain his identity or lost self. With the final title, Croz seems now to be imploring us to please, "Remember my name."
     
  9. Chemically altered

    Chemically altered Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ukraine in Spirit
    Just like his autobios! Tough reads but worth it.
     
  10. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    very much looking forward to seeing this.
     
    linklinc11 likes this.
  11. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    So this isn't a remake of the Anthony Perkins movie? :D

    Seriously, though, definitely looking forward to seeing this.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2019
    jeremylr likes this.
  12. Guy E

    Guy E Senior Member

    Location:
    Antalya, Turkey
    He almost cut his hair, at one point...
     
  13. Humbuster

    Humbuster Staff Emeritus

    His first book is one of, if not, my favorite musician autobiographies.

    Brutally honest, and well presented.
     
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  14. bubba-ho-tep

    bubba-ho-tep Resident Ne'er-Do-Well

    Location:
    San Tan Valley, AZ
    Is this a theatrical release or on a streaming platform?
     
  15. Gray Beard

    Gray Beard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern NJ
    Wow, great read and the film looks fantastic. Crosby is one of my favorite artists, both as a songwriter and a guitar player. His music has a certain quality that I can’t quite put into words, but it always makes me feel good to hear. His phrasing and choice of chords are always spot on, a natural musician who makes it all seem so easy.
     
  16. Gray Beard

    Gray Beard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern NJ
    I’d like to know as well. Looks like it’s playing in a few select theaters in UT, but not sure what happens after that.
     
  17. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Boy, I assume since it was at Sundance it will be a theatrical release, then DVD.
    There have been a few recent musician/band/docs & biopics of late at the theaters.

    Or straight to DVD/Blu-Ray?

    Either way, can't wait.
     
  18. Taxman

    Taxman Senior Member

    Location:
    Fayetteville, NY
    I would love to see this. Thanks for posting!
     
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  19. roman.p

    roman.p Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Newscot and kevywevy like this.
  20. Wright

    Wright Forum Resident

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  21. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    I am very much looking forward to getting to see this!

    I'm sure having Crowe's name attached helped. People love a good redemption story, and they love a good music biopic, either docu-style or dramatized (just look at the success of Bohemian Rhapsody).

    I think Croz is also a great subject that has also not been overexposed. I wonder if Croz ever thought at his lowest moments that he would have such a great end portion to his career.
     
    Wright likes this.
  22. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    May be one of the remaining few of the 60's classic groundbreaking band member/troubadour hippie dudes who is.
     
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  23. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    yep, we'll be there.

    The one thing I'm really nosy about is whether he'll talk about being mean to Gene or kind of waltz past that period.
     
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  24. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Well he does say he made enemies of every band member he ever played with...but details? I hope so.
     
    NudieSuitNezHead likes this.
  25. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Have to see this. What a survivor.
     
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