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"CPR" (1998)
Morrison/That House/One For Every Moment/At The Edge/Somebody
Else's Town/Rusty and Blue/Somehow She Knew/Little Blind Fish/Yesterday's
Child/It's All Coming Back To Me Now/Time Is The Final Currency
"People's
lives fascinate me - all my life I've wanted to understand"
The glib review of this album is that it's the end
result of one hell of a year (well, ever so slightly over one year) of extreme
highs and lows, delayed a little bit by circumstances. I don't know if you can
remember what you were up to in 1994 but I bet it wasn't full of half as many
milestones as David Crosby's year. First the IRA checked on their records and
discovered that Croz had the mother of all tax bills (one of many unfortunate
side effects of a well publicised drug habit in the 1980s when spending had no
limits - or paperwork). Secondly Croz had been poorly through most of the year
and nearly died from liver failure in November, figuring something was
seriously wrong when for the first time ever in his life he found himself
unable to hit his instinctive harmonies. A transplant saved his life
(eventually; a first donor had been found to be cancerous), but David was in a
critical condition for the longest time, his treatment at least in part funded
by family, fans and friends (Phil Collins and Robin Williams, gentlemen both,
were particularly supportive). Then he discovered that his wife Jan was
pregnant with his second child- after oh so many years of (mainly drug-related)
years of trying to conceive (the pair became an item somewhere in the late
1970s, marrying in 1987). And then the long-lost first child, conceived when
dad was all of twenty and struggling to make ends meet as a musician, got in
touch to say 'hello', the pair setting up a first meeting in February 1995.
Just to add to the drama, his son James had just found out that he too was
about to be a father - making Crosby just about the only person to discover
they were both a new father and a new grandfather mere weeks apart. Even for
those of us who'd been following Crosby's 'cowboy movie' story with interest,
this was one heck of a development in such a short space of time. Crosby's wry
response? 'Anyone who thinks God doesn't have a sense of humour isn't
watching'.
These events in such a short space of time would
have broken lesser spirits, but one of Croz's greatest strengths has always
been his resilience. Instead he pushed through across 1995 with an idea for a
solution to all of his problems at once. CSN had once again found themselves
parked in a siding after releasing the under-rated 'After The Storm' to poor
sales and mixed reviews earlier in 1994 (ending their quarter-century contract
with Atlantic into the bargain and effectively main Crosby a 'free agent' for
the first time in decades), so that source of revenue was out. Staying low
profile like Stills or Nash just wasn't possible however: with a new baby on
the way and an old debt hanging over him, Crosby set to work with a new band.
The group, a trio including guitarist Jeff Pevar and keyboard player James
Raymond, were cleverly christened CPR, in homage to both the CSN family name in
the use of their initials and the idea that the band had breathed 'new life'
into Crosby who had fully expected not to see 1995 at all (CPR is, in technical
jargon, Cardio-vascular Resuscitation -
what people do in bad movies and hospital dramas when someone has died
and yet still needs to be saved by the end of the film). Jeff had been a friend
for a long time, having appeared in CSN's band for a time, a guitarist of taste
and subtlety whose playing would embellish the songs without getting in
Crosby's way a la Stills or Young circa every single arena tour. As for James,
he was a bright talented young kid, with a passion for the sort of jazzy chords
and unusual turnings that were perfect for Crosby's unusually structured songs,
had an excellent grasp of harmonies not unlike Croz himself - and who just
happened to be the son David had given away for adoption all those years ago.
If any of you out there ever need to write an essay
on the importance of genetics or nature versus nurture (hey, it's a long shot
but you readers have to be an intelligent bunch to know of these albums, never
mind get this far through a review of them so you never know) then the
Crosby-Raymond story should be your first case study. James never knew who his
father was - all he knew was that his mother had been forced to give him up for
adoption after the dad ran off and she had no money to look after him herself.
Thankfully James adored his adopted parents who were caring enough to support
his creativity and his burgeoning talent for music (James had piano lessons at
a young age, about the time his dad was re-writing the music rule-book with
CSN). Raymond found he had a natural harmony voice and developed a fondness not
for rock and roll so much as for jazz with a tendency to play unusual tunings
and break the songwriting rules (sound familiar?) He'd even half-joked with his
adoptive parents that at least one of his parents must be a famous musician,
but had never seriously considered that he might be Crosby's son, despite later
owning a couple of his dad's recordings alongside an impressive record
collection. On discovering who his dad really was it suddenly all made sense -
although even then James never considered that he'd be able to make music with
him; instead he just wanted to talk and to tell David that he'd had a lovely
upbringing, with none of the usual baggage that goes with adoption. When the
pair met up their rapport was instant, with both men finding a staggering
amount of bands in common in their collections. One of the first thing Crosby
does with any musicians he admires is play with them (second only to smoking
illicit substances with them in the dim and distant past) and the pair found a
most extraordinary musical bond as well. Enjoying having a writing partner who
understood his back story and using music as the perfect chance to bond with
his son, Crosby set about doing what he did best - writing out his recent
experiences to better make sense of them, ushering in a prolific period for a
writer who always struggled to write with any regularity with a whole new
jazzier sound to play around with. Whilst many fans assume the new jazz-age
style of this CD is all Raymond, actually Crosby had been heading that way
anyway ('Camera' and 'Street To Lean On' from 'After The Storm' had both been
heading in that direction - and Crosby famously spent the whole of a 1966 Byrds
tour playing a tape of John Coltrane endlessly, annoying both his fellow
bandmates and passing police officers along the way!)
That's the part of the story that the few reviews of
this oh so obscure CD half-cover, but there's another story across 'CPR'
working in parallel and one that dates back almost as far as James' birth. The
grief and guilt and relief on this album doesn't just date back to the changes
of 1994; instead Crosby seems to have used his recent near-death experience to
think about those he's lost down the years, the way that their legacies have
been treated since they were left behind and his own fears about what he almost
left behind. If there's a theme to this album it's about making the most of
your time, because it really can be very very short. The album's first song,
the first Crosby-Raymond collaboration, is written for Jim Morrison and
Crosby's objections to the Oliver Stone film about The Doors that tried so hard
to paint Morrison's death as inevitable and beautiful. 'He was lost and I don't
think he wanted it that way' is Crosby's summary of his one-time rival, wishing
that instead of admiring him people had been out to help him. 'Somehow She
Knew' cuts even closer to home, an AA-style admittance that all those 'lost'
years had been because Crosby was still in denial over losing his girlfriend
Christine Hinton in a car crash in 1971 (most of Crosby's classic first solo
record 'If Only I Could Remember My Name' is for her) and about how we can
never really get over the death of someone close to us - how the power of the
feelings can be distracted but always lurk, barely hidden, below the surface,
ready to be set off at a moment's notice. Other songs touch on the theme of
Crosby's own mortality. 'That House' is loosely based on a nightmare Crosby had
long had - which had even appeared in his 1988 autobiography 'Long Time Comin'
- about being trapped in a house full of riches and never making his way out in
time. Even before this album Crosby realised that his sub-conscious was really
warning him not to waste time, that there were too many things to do that he
might never get a chance to do. 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now' is a rare
history-song about Crosby's career to date, a witty riposte to the earlier haze
of 'If Only I Could Remember My Name' with a now-clean and sober Crosby fully
aware of life and it's purpose (whilst the song is a new one, the title had
been around for a while - it's the title of a live album fact). 'At The Edge' reflects on how close
Crosby came to losing everything he cared for and passing on his wisdom to his
fans as best he can in case they ever need to remember it on their death-beds.
'Time Is The Final Currency' adds a new slant to all this: that in the end it
doesn't matter how rich or powerful or popular you are, the only currency that
will really matter when you're dying is the time you no longer have.
We are, of course, used to hearing Crosby sing about
himself: fans have long come to treasure the occasional overwhelmingly
autobiographical piece of music which are often the best thing on the album
('Where Will I Be? > Page 43' from 'Graham Nash, David Crosby', 'Carry Me'
from 'Wind On The Water', 'I'd Swear There Was Somebody There' from 'If Only I
Could Remember My Name' which doesn't even needs words to pass on its grief and
guilt). But even by those standards CPR is a special record, one that features
even more of the 'real' Crosby than ever before. It's no surprise that so many
songs from this album found their way to the Crosby box set 'Voyage' - if this
album isn't necessarily the best Crosby made away from CSN, then it is
certainly amongst the most important and revelatory. Along with those
familiar-yet-weirdly-different harmonies (the opening of James' haunting
'Yesterday's Child' - his own moving confessional Crosby-style song - is almost
'evil' CSN, the usual blend pulling the song downwards to the depths of hell
rather than soaring up to heaven as per usual) it all sounds so different this
time; more vital, more important, even more crucial than what Crosby usually
has to tell us. The closest thing we'd ever had before this album was 'Delta'
but even that comparison isn't quite right; that gorgeous ballad was Crosby's
sub-conscious admitting that he'd lost his way and might never find it again;
this time the album is upfront, all too aware at the wrong paths taken in the
past and adamant that we should learn from what Crosby's just experienced as
much as he clearly has. Just a few years ago Crosby was coasting, with the 'A
Thousand Roads' covers album of 1993 the sound of a man who has nothing to say
but is having too good a time to stop; by contrast this is an album that can't
waste a single precious second. As a result there's very little filler even by
Crosby standards, the best CSN-related release outside the box set since
'Daylight Again' in 1982 or - in terms of Crosby's contributions - 'CSN' from
1977. However 'CPR' is even more powerful than either of those records, a rich
if harrowing emotional experience that will haunt you
So why have you most likely never heard of it?
*Sigh*, the answer, not for the last time, is money. Given the context is seems
an especial shame that a release this important and which Crosby clearly wanted
to spread loud and fast ended up being all but forgotten. Without the clout of
Atlantic all of CSN found it hard to find new contracts and all signed with
smaller, more independent labels to get their music out (Stills had already
signed to Crosby's old friend Chris Hillman's label Gold; Hill Records in 1991;
Nash will sign with Artemis in 2002). Crosby, though, ended up on a label
smaller than either of his colleagues with Sampson Records - the choice is an
apt one given that 'almost cut my hair/hair is strength' connection, but it's
still a low blow for an artist who at one stage was a given as one of rock and
roll's most erudite and un-missably creative acts. To this day 'CPR', it's
slightly lesser sequel 'Just Like Gravity' and two rather good live CPR sets
are only available in Europe as pricey American imports, which given the ready
availableness in our countries of, say, The Spice Girls, is 'the biggest crisis
since the Abdication' (to quote from a rather daft Daily Mail headline everyone
is taking the mickey out of the week I'm writing this; incidentally why don't
the Daily Fail think World War Two was such a minor deal?) Even your humble
scribe, a committed Crosby-phile who'll go through hell or high water to get
his music (or at any rate sit through 'Whistling Down The Wire'), had to wait
an awful long time without even seeing this album anywhere, never mind paying
over the odds for it. While fans can, thankfully, hear many of the album's
better songs on the 'Voyage' set this situation clearly can't go on; we demand
a re-release as soon as possible because, well, time is the final currency you
know and life is too short to not hear life lessons made with as much power and
soul as here.
CSN fans also need to own this album because it
contains two much older songs which pre-date the CPR concept. 'Rusty and Blue'
is a beautiful song, an oh-so Crosby tale of trying to figure out what life is
all about and being endlessly fascinated by how other people live their lives.
The song had first appeared as early as 1994 and should by rights have appeared
on 'After The Storm' although it's unusual jazz-style and lengthy solo-ing do
have much more in common with this album (even so, it first appeared on the
much-delayed live set 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now'). The other 'old' song
dates back even further: 'Little Blind Fish' is the legendary outtake recorded
by CSNY for 'Human Highway' (one of the few they got close to finishing before
splitting up again) and for years so obscure that fans weren't even sure which
of the quartet wrote it (as each of the four sing lines). We should have guessed
from the quirky tunings and off-beat humour it was one of Crosby's, with
metaphors of man as all sorts of lost animals, turned from a rocker into a jazz
song thanks to some Jeff Pevar fine turning.
Elsewhere, notice how Crosby runs with the theme that
dominated his set of songs for 'After The Storm' - a camera and its
relationship to memory. David's dad Floyd was a cinematographer by trade and a
good one too - he even got an award for his work on 1931 film 'Tabu'. Crosby
grew up with big named from Hollywood turning up unannounced at his family
house, especially those who worked behind the scenes, and for a time considered
becoming an actor himself before his music took off. Two of these songs are
directly related to the power of film: 'Morrison' shows how the technology can
distort and disrupt, turning scared and lonely young men into heroes and poets
(while Crosby's dislike of Morrison can and does come over in interviews, it's
certainly fair to say that the Doors leader was never quite as self-confident
and full of life as the Doors film and almost every documentary since his death
in 1970 paints him out to be; Crosby's take on him as a 'mushroom' figure
growing in the 'darker' side of life is much closer to the real Jim than the
partying, social idolised creature of the film). And 'Somehow She Knew' shows
how it can have the power to say the unsayable. Another song a tad older than
the rest here, Crosby had been playing it with CSN where fans had come to know
it as 'The Fisher King Song' in honour of the film that inspired it. Crosby, a
great friend of the much missed Robin Williams, was eager to see the film
premiere on TV simply because his pal was in it and he hadn't got a chance to
see it at the cinema. A kind of 'King Midas In Reverse' for the movie world, it
re-tells the Arthurian legend of the Fisher King who was put in charge of the
holy grail but becomes so devoted to his task his health fails and he ends up
dying and too impotent to pass on the role to any offspring. The film updates
the story to a radio DJ played by Jeff Bridges who is horrified when a harmless
comment on air sparks a mass murder and decides to help a homeless man played
by Robin Williams on his own quest to find the holy grail through guilt that
the man's wife had died in the same incident. The line that got Crosby comes
right near the end, when Williams finds the grail and asks Bridges 'Is it
alright now? Am I allowed to miss her?', revealing that the quest was really a
cover up all along (the film was sad anyway but it's unbearably poignant now
given the sad manner of William's own death). Scaring himself with how hard he
was crying and his emotional connection with the film and not even quite sure
why, Crosby was nursed back to full stability by his ever patient wife Jan, the
'someone' who 'knew'. I have to say I saw this film long before I ever heard
the song and it never got me quite the same way (given the talent on offer -
Terry Gilliam, the most talented Monty Python whose George Harrison-made 'Time
Bandits' is one of the greatest film ever, wrote it - I was hoping for better),
even with similar circumstances to Crosby's, but then I didn't have a close
friend playing one of the lead roles and anyway that doesn't matter; what does
matter is Crosby's emotional response and the letter he wrote off to Williams
soon after telling him how powerful the work had been for him (if you're
interested, there's a great audio clip on Youtube of Williams attempting to
interview Crosby but forever interrupting himself, who can also been persuaded
to play one of the pirates going 'arrrh'
a lot in another Williams' film, 'Hook').
Overall, then, 'CPR' is a great and most under-rated
record, if perhaps not in the ways that CSN will naturally assume. There's only
one rock song here to break up the mood, the performances tend to be sparse and
a bit the samey (quite unlike Crosby's usual eclectic style) and the jazz piano
chords and folk guitar tunings won't be to everybody's tastes. This is one of
those Crosby albums where the melodies don't always do justice to the lyrics (which
is odd as most recently he's had quite the different problem on albums such as
'Live It Up' 'A Thousand Roads' and 'After The Storm'); some reviewers put the
blame on James Raymond but his own pair of songs are as melodic as any on the
album so I doubt it's quite that simple. Poor James has a lot to do on this
album, filling in both the instrumental sound and most of the harmonies (Jeff
does sing a little, but not much): for the most part he does so admirably, more
than mixing it with musicians either old enough to be his dad or who really is
his dad; even so the harmonies are only at 95% of the lushness and perfection
we come to associate with Crosby recordings (the pair are now at about 98% I'd
say after an extra twenty odd years of working together). Jeff's guitar work
too is often only here to add colour rather than fully embellish the sound -
too often he's the third wheel in the band's sound, hidden by what his
colleagues are up to and fitting bits in when he can (he's also no Stills when
it comes to solo-ing or even a McGuinn, but then if you will work with the best
people possible for three decades anyone is going to sound like a slight come-down).
A few of the songs, James' 'One For Every Moment' and the joint 'Morrison' and
'Somebody Else' Town' aren't quite up to the staggeringly high standard of the
other songs here, although that shows just how good the others are (and eight
great songs out of eleven is still easily the best odds of any CSN-related
release in years). 'CPR' isn't quite perfect then - and in many ways it needs
to be, given that it cost about £20 to buy in the UK the last time I tried
(it's currently £22 brand new on Amazon guys, sorry about that - I recommend
you buy up the £13 secondhand copy quick, although do read the small print as
it doesn't seem to be in very good condition I'm afraid!)
However 'CPR' is perfect in all the ways that
matter: Crosby has rarely sung with such passion and you can hear his delight
at finding something new to do after so many years of singing. His lyrics have
rarely been as powerful - each one of his sets of words for this album sounds
like a powerful, big statement - though the low-key rootsy music prevents this
album sounding too big for its boots. James' intelligent yet warm piano playing
is perfect for the new surroundings. The chance to hear so many songs CSN fans
never thought we'd get to hear - and the fact that they're better than we ever
dared hope - is a delight. The sheer bravery of these songs (which sound hard
to write and even harder to live) that tap into the howling pain of fears and
half-drowned memories is enough to applaud anyway even if they hadn't turned
out as emotionally involving for the listener as they are. Unlike the past five
Crosby releases in a row there's no horrid contemporary production set to
forever imprison this record at the date of release; instead it's a timeless
sound for an album on timeless themes that will still be important centuries
and millennia from now (although fish may well have died out by then, blind or
not, and our successors may well be clueless about The Doors film and assume
Crosby is singing about the supermarket chain). Everything about this album has
been thoughtfully made and tastefully created - even the cover is spot on (a
centaur - half-beast, half-man who straddles the worlds of normality and terror
- casually aims some arrows up at the sky, caring not where they land; 'arrows'
are of course another key Crosby theme surprisingly not used on this album
although the 'Live It Up' track 'Arrows' have them as a metaphor for the pain
life shoots at you which only makes you stronger; this album's 'Time Is The Final
Currency' also uses the metaphor of the tension between life and death being a
'hard-bent bow'). 'CPR' is a terrific album even by Crosby standards and it's
such a shame that the band were no more after just one more
ever-so-nearly-as-good album (though thankfully Raymond will be on board for
the 'Crosby*Nash' record and will all but mastermind the 2014 album 'Croz').
'Morrison' is an apt choice, in the sense that it
was the first song David and James wrote together. However it's an odd song for
Crosby, who doesn't usually comment on his peers in such terms as this.
Although his anger has quietened down by the time he came to perform the song,
which is treated with the same laidback feel of the rest of the album, it was
clearly originally quite an angry song ('I have seen the movie and it wasn't
like that! He was lost and lonely, blind as a bat!') Whilst Jim Morrison was
clearly not the party animal portrayed in the Oliver Stone film and Crosby's
fear of 'the myth' coming to over-write the 'man' is a good theme for a song,
you can't help but feel that there's a bit of atypical inverse snobbery about
this song. Crosby and his ilk represents the sunshine, hippie ideals and hope -
there's a danger that this lyric is looking down on Morrison simply because he
represented the opposite, the dark and a world-weary pessimism that things were
never going to get better. The song works best when Crosby sings about Morrison
being 'too deaf to hear his own song' and believe in his own abilities and his
opening admission that 'he was lost - and I don't think he wanted it that way'
(in the film Jim does an awful lot of saving other people; in reality he
struggled to save himself for as long as he did judging by most accounts). However
the metaphor of Morrison as a 'gull blown inland on a stormy day' isn't really
'right' either (surely if Morrison was a bird he was a peacock) and the images
of him 'lost in round one, spitting out pieces of his teeth' and 'lost in a
Paris graveyard carrying his own wreath' do him as much of a disservice as the
film (Morrison was clearly a self-destructive figure - you'd have thought that
nine-lives Crosby would have identified with that aspect of him at least). All
that said, this song at least started off with the right idea and the decision
to make this a 'Crosby' sounding song rather than a poor Doors cover is a good
one; this is after all about perception and has to be from the narrator's point
of view. Raymond's jazzy melody is very different to Ray Manzarek's style on
the Doors originals and very ear-catching, especially the very Nash-style singalong
chorus.
'That House', however, is exceptional. Throughout
the record there's the feeling that Crosby is getting things that have haunted
him for a long time off his chest and 'That House' sounds like a distillation
of all those darker times. As we've seen, the song was partly about an
oft-recurring nightmare, but in another sense it's a sadder, darker re-write of
Nash's 'House Of Broken Dreams'. The main character in the song starts out
crying that it 'wasn't fair' although we never find out what isn't, the song
turning from a weepie ballad via Pevar's best guitar on the album into an epic
about struggle as the narrator leaves his 'prison cell' of a bedroom ('The
sound leads to the kitchen, kitchen leads to the door). The song switches from
first person to third person throughout as if Crosby can't even bear to believe
that the sobbing figure in the song is him. While it's entirely possible the
song dates from some dark day in Crosby's own life we don't know about (he had
a particularly unhappy time in his teens he doesn't often talk about), it
sounds more to me as if this song is written out of empathy with those who
struggle to cope with life sometimes. There are shades of Brian Wilson in the
lines about retreating inside yourself and a world of possibilities shrinking
back to just one tiny room, although the ending is very Crosby, forcing himself
through the impossible to get outside and back into the world again (turning
'one foot down in front of the other!' into the single hardest fought Crosby
sentence since 'Where Will I Be?') So many Crosby songs are filled with 'sound'
- usually music but quite often just the sound of living going on, but this
track is clever for the way it starts off by conjuring up such eerie silence;
in Crosby's world communication is the key to overcoming every problem both
personal and universal, but in this song there isn't anything at the start
except the brooding silence between two people who clearly don't love each
other anymore. CPR at their best on this track too - the sudden swell of grief
needs to be handled telepathically, little bit by little bit but both Pevar and
Raymond 'get' this song and offer Crosby what he's looking for. The harmonies
too are excellent, peaking at the sudden unexpected key change partway through
(which could be so cheesy and Eurovision if handled wrong, but here simply
increases the tension one more unbearable notch). An excellent start to the new
band.
'One For Every Moment' is James' first solo song and
it sounds like a poppier version of his dad's more usual jazzy tunings (its a
singalong 'Deja Vu' without the mystery, this track). Given that James is a new
found composer it's an impressive song all round and you can almost hear his
dad's pride shine through as he tries to keep pace though a complex set of
harmonic changes (getting a taste of his own medicine for what he used to put
Stills and Nash through). Raymond's songs tend to be love songs and this early
piece is no exception although it's a little more opaque and mystical than his
later lyrics. Two lovers seem to be chasing each other without knowing it, him
spying her running across 'barren land' before the wind 'tells her' she is
loved and when the pair finally meet they spend the night underneath the stars
'one for every moment he would love her'. Though there's nothing concrete about
this song at all (the words are as mutable as the slippery chord structure)
there still manages to be something of a permanent feel about this song, with
the sense that isn't just a crush built a lifelong romance that nature always
intended. I could have done without the very 80s honking saxophone part (which
is very 'Arrows', the closest song to this in the Crosby catalogue) but
otherwise the performance is again excellent, a breathless rush of excitement
suddenly peaking in some very CSN harmony holds in the chorus.
'At The Edge' is another majestic song, one that
Crosby poured a lot of emotional investment in and is surely about his
near-death experience. It's a song about the small grasp that human's have to
life ('I wonder each day if I'm blowing away'), and how 'lucky' he feels.
However the song is deeper than mere physical mortality - he was helped not
just by a new liver but by the 'hand' of kindness, saving him from a 'very
great fall'. The song is also his response to the sheer outpouring of grief and
offers of support he discovered in his illness and that all his fears that he
would fade away unloved and abandoned can be brushed aside now that he's had a
'dress rehearsal' for the 'real thing'. 'The darkness won't get you, your
family won't go' he sings sadly yet joyously, realising that even at his lowest
ebb there was reason to stay optimistic. The last verse is particularly strong,
perhaps reflecyting all the thoughts whirling round Crosby's head on the
operating theatre, the closest Crosby has ever come to answering his own
youthful question 'what's happening?!?!?' back in the Byrds days and trying to
understand what the purpose of life is. 'It's lie and it's dying, it's
beginning and ends' he sighs, 'It's what did you do with the life they gave
you?' Figuring that the whole point of life is to live it while leaving it
better than you found it for other people, he adds 'it's were you that honest?
Did you make amends? And how have you treated your friends?' While the words
are credited to Crosby alone, the music is credited to all of CPR and is one of
the best melodies on the album, sad and sorrowful yet with a resilient piano
lick that keeps on coming back for more. The scat singing harmonies in the
middle (on a very Crosby 'ba-bah!' wordless chant last heard on 'dancer' in
1976) are particularly lovely, Crosby and son suddenly taking off with a telepathic
round of 'aaahs' that are truly beautiful. The result is one of the best Crosby
songs in years another album highlight.
'Somebody Else's Town' is perhaps the weakest song
on the album, without the individuality or originality of the best of the album
and a 'funk strut' that seems out of place on such a humble, understated album.
Still even this song doesn't fall that far: the lyric, about how there's more
to be glad about in life than sad is very Crosby ('Blood is thicker than water,
friendship is stronger than fear') has its moments, even if the story gets lost
somewhere around verse two when James' narrator goes out for a long walk. Clearly
suffering, he growls to himself not to feel so sad because he's been through
worse down the years ('I'm no fucking kid!' he snarls, 'This is not my first
war!') as he walks and walks, stamping out his anger and his depression at a
turn of events in his life we never get to hear about. By the end calm is
restored - he uses the hotel he's just checked into to call home and 'hear that
soft sleepy voice' telling him that he's forgiven/they're sorry while he 'keeps
them awake by the sound of my talking'. Another disaster has been averted, but
oddly the song doesn't have the musical resolution we've been looking for;
instead it just carries on as angry and stompy and as uncharacteristically
atonal as anything Crosby has ever been involved with to date. James' lead
vocal is excellent throughout but there's less call for harmonies here and
adding the others to the mix dilutes the 'rawness' of the song a little too
much to sock the message home. Still, if even the album low point can be this
good you know that an album is very special indeed.
'Rusty and Blue' sounds as if it was always born for
this album - it has the same haunting philosophical words, the same atonal jazz
chords always taking the melody somewhere new and the till-now unusual Crosby
trait of slowly building instead of switching gears mid-way through. 'Rusty and
Blue' was, however, already a popular live Crosby song long before CPR were
born, another instalment in his attempt to 'understand' what makes human beings
tick. The lyrics are in the 'surreal' Crosby bracket (alongside 'Naked In The
Rain' and 'Samuari') but make more sense than some, starting with the opening
declaration 'how can I sweep these words into a cluster?' as if Crosby is
struggling to form the images in his head into words. Visited by a man with
'the moon in his eyes' and a 'smiling woman who defeats fear with her eyes' ask
him for advice but Crosby doesn't feel in a position to offer advice. The
'pillar' society has put him on 'is melting like ice' and even with all his
living, even with the many years and borrowed lives he's had down the years he
still doesn't feel as if he understand life anymore than when he started. All he
has to show for his years of living is a collection of 'leaves and feathers' from
his old lives discarded on the floor. However this wouldn't be a Crosby song
without some good advice and a note of hope offered somewhere so Crosby digs
deep for a 'sea shell or two' to bring up to the surface, although there's the
hint that these are mere nuggets from his life's tales and that even these are
buried, submerged by murky waters. After an epic instrumental - in which in a
neat mirror of the lyrics James Raymond gets gradually further and further away
from the starting point before the song finally finds it's way back home again
- Crosby goes on to sing about how the good and bad are part of him and every
human being. Adding that 'lives almost never run parallel' he sings about how all
of our past living follows behind us 'like floorboards, all grained and worn',
under our feet every time we do anything in our ordinary lives. At a full
seven-and-a-half minutes this is one of the epics of the album and it's
surreal, hazy, overtly jazzy quality won't be to the taste of every fan (Nash
is clearly one of them though - his own equally strong 'Liar's Nightmare' from
four years later is very similar to the feel of this song) but if you're able
to follow Crosby down this road then this is a very satisfying song with some
very Crosby imagery and a very beautiful tune, always shifting and always
un-knowable.
'Somehow She Knew' is the other long song on the
album - strange the two longest songs should be next to each other - but this song
'belongs' here, at the 'heart' of the album. Crosby starts the song by coming
to after sobbing his heart out watching 'The Fisher King' and isn't quite sure
what's just happened to him. Even now, in the comforting arms of his wife, he
can see the 'shadow' that still haunts him so badly, 'the thing he was afraid
would find him and wash him away in the tide', with the next wave of emotion
and grief. All these years of mourning for his lost love of 27 years earlier
(though Crosby wrote the song a little earlier than it appeared on album) and
believing that the secret had kept safe locked up where it couldn't get him and
still it found him in the end, triggered by one line in a film. Crosby relates
the feeling to a 'wolf in a trap who chews off his own leg' - blocking out the
grief and not facing up to it is a human coping mechanism, but it comes with a
price of 'lying to myself' and fooling those around you into thinking that
you're OK. Robin Williams was the 'man in the movie' who said 'is it alright if
I miss her tonight?' (well, the actual line from the film is 'Is it alright?
Can I miss her now?), the 'am' who 'felt just like me'. However, sad as this
song is, haunting as both words and melody are and spine-chilling as the eerie
harmonies are, this is not altogether a sad song. The narrator isn't alone and
he's chosen his love ones carefully - he ends with admiration for his wife Jan
as 'somehow she knew why I was crying', even though Crosby's conscious mind
hadn't quite worked out yet just why he was creased up in tears. Crosby adds
that 'a path she gently traced', pulling Crosby back from the point where he
felt he couldn't function (he admitted in concert that he scared himself by how
intense the feeling was) to the point where his grief and suffering could be
properly cared for and missed. Opening with a flurry of notes that sound like a
brain gone into hyperdrive before Crosby counts himself in, 'Somehow She Knew'
is beautifully handled by all concerned, with one of David's greatest vocals in
years (caught somewhere between the emotion of the moment and an icy-cold
detachment that stops him from going over the top). Despite being a full seven
minutes this song doesn't overstay its welcome for a second, the drama of the
proceedings keeping the listener on the edge of their seat throughout as the
song makes one eerie harmonic shift after another in a desperate search for dry
land. Had 'CPR' only contained this one song it would still be a classic for
many fans, with a song that's actually harmonically not that far removed from
'I'd Swear There Was Somebody There', Crosby's original wordless song of grief
for Christine in 1971.
'Little Blind Fish' sounds a little out of place
after two such intense songs, a bluesy re-write of what was originally more of
a soul song from 1974. While I miss the lines that have been cut to make this
once so glossy fish a more streamlined, functional creature ('Hold on it's
coming, hold on boy...' 'Whose at the back door sitting at the front step?
Whose at the wheel trying to bring the ship in? Whose in the cornfield looking
like a scarecrow? Whose in the way on the broad highway?' The first and second
verses were originally joined too with some linking material added to pad them
out) this is still an excellent lyric and again very Crosby in its metaphors
and quest for answers. The lyrics again reflect in Crosby's quest for the
answers of life, picturing humans as 'blind' in a massive river (or later a
'massive box' or a bird up a 'massive tree') that they don't have the brains to
comprehend. Pevar's slinky acoustic guitar riff, new for this version, is
perhaps his best contribution to CPR of them all, a snaky slinky blues part
that really suits the song and the slippery fish's journey into the unknown. The
theme that mankind is in the middle of something he's too thick to understand -
thus being like the 'dumb' animals he so scorns, while at the same time being a
lot smaller than nature - is a very fitting Crosby lyric and one I'm surprised
he hadn't returned to earlier. Crosby may have been reminded of the song after
so long by the lines about the fox 'biting his own leg in a rage', so close to
the metaphor of a wolf he used in 'Somehow She Knew', although ;like colleague
Neil Young Crosby has never been averse to reviving old material.
'Yesterday's Child' is James' greatest moment on the
album. While the music is credited to CPR as a whole, the lyric is James' alone
and it's another case for how strong our genetics are as it's very like a song
his dad would write. Modern man is arrogant, thinking that evolution has all
been leading up to this moment and that he's at a peak. The narrator isn't so
sure - he'd rather have been 'brought up by wolves' in centuries gone by and
'singing at the moon with my clan'. Far from being superstitious backwards
peasants, James clearly sees mankind from centuries before as spiritual and at
one with nature that modern mankind has forgotten. Another eerie chord
sequence, like CSN in negative stalking the song ready to pounce instead of
looking for an excuse to float away on a cloud, fits the lyric about mankind's
arrogance becoming his undoing and finding that the world belongs to
'yesterday's child' after all (because it won't be around for 'tomorrow's
man'). The result is another thoughtful song that's well crafted and
beautifully performed, with an excellent Pevar solo in the middle, which only
really loses out on the middle eight near the end (which after so much good
work goes back to the lazy songwriter talk of 'dreams' and how 'dreaming makes
light').
Coming oddly late on in the album is the record's
only rock song 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now'. Though timid compared to the
arrangement the band later played live, this slice of autobiography is nicely
handled with Pevar clearly much more at home on a howling blues-rock hybrid and
James manages to capture the 'aggrieved organ feel' of 'Long Time Gone' nicely.
The lyric is very Crosby again, with several mentions of fan favourites along
the way as he sings about his 'lost years' and assuming he would never find his
way out of the darkness that once consumed his life ('Couldn't read my
compass!' 'Life sometimes leaves me laughing!' Even the title sounds like a
sequel to 'If Only I Could Remember My Name'). Recording that an 'oncoming
train' of impending disaster (which could be in 1984 or 1994) made him 'snap
into focus', Crosby throws every metaphor he can at this song to conjure up
just how desperate he was feeling in the face of an addiction that couldn't be
stopped ('A deer in the headlights' 'Like a pilot in a plane when it stalls').
Though clearly delivered as the 'joker' on the album and with a rare moment of
hippie sunshine (as the song's chorus goes into harmony free-flow and soars
skywards, being as impossible to ignore as the similar life-affirming part at
the end of 'Country Girl') this is another serious autobiographical song about
dark times which another, lesser artist would have turned into a sad ballad.
Only a slightly lethargic performance lets the song down a little (it does
sound much better live), although even this has its moments - the key change in
the middle eight where Pevar turns his guitar note into the screech of a
train's brakes is particularly on the money.
Against all odds, this fine album may yet have saved
the best for last with a final moving song written about death or at least
about coming back from the brink of death. 'Time Is The Final Currency' is one
of the most powerful songs Crosby has ever written, about how when you are dying time is more precious than
anything, 'not money not power'. 'The time will come when you will give
anything for one more hour' he warns us, adding that when death arrives so much
of life seems petty and that 'there are no secrets' because you re-live so much
of your life on your death-bed. Crosby no longer feels 'human' but more a
'spark of life' ready to join the great collection of sparks in the sky and
feels the 'pressure' of a bow about to shoot him up to the sky. The song slowly
falls back on the half-whispered line 'Suddenly you realise that this time it's
alrightttttttt' letting the song pause on the word as if the fear is fading
away. Later verses compare the threat of death with the glory of life, as Crosby
'watches the greatest miracle take three quarters of a year' - he's never seen one
of his children growing before (James was of course given up for adoption, two
more children were born to different girlfriends and Crosby also became a sperm
donor for Melissa Etheridge). The waiting for birth seems very much like
waiting for death, with the same 'hard bent bow' of tension linking the two
worlds and the same verse is re-used, as 'another one is sent up to the sky and
you realise that this time it's alrighttttttt'. A gorgeous contrast between
birth and death written out of Crosby's unique circumstances of becoming a
father at the point when he assumed he was going to die, this is another
gorgeous Crosby ballad full of such wonder and ideas that you have think that
'Rusty and Blue' got it wrong and that Crosby really does know what is going on
in life after all. A final fine performance from CPR, who are delicate and
subtle throughout, is the perfect send-off to the album, although in keeping
with the song the major colossal change you half-expect throughout the song
never arrives, the song instead floating away on a hazy cloud.
Overall, then, 'CPR' is a major addition to the
Crosby canon. While famous for pulling no punches this record is remarkable for
how much it reveals about a songwriter we all thought we knew pretty well anyway
and with so much going on in his life to inspire him is the start f a third
wonderful burst of creativity that will last for the rest of the decade. While
I'd have love to have heard what CSN might have done with this material (the
best of this album and Graham's 'Songs For Survivors' would have made for a
truly sublime LP), CPR are the right band for the material, teasing out a sound
that's both as graphic and as powerful as the material whilst playing with a
softer, jazzier tone than Crosby's day-band that suits the material nicely.
Sadly low sales and the need to return to the CSNY family will kill off CPR's
career before it properly began and a second, comparatively rushed album will
be a tough ask to fill even for a newly invigorated Crosby. For now, though,
CPR is the best idea Crosby's had in ever such a long while and enable him to
make his best album in years, even decades. The arrows shot by CPR might not
have all found their targets, as per the centaur on the cover, but so many of
them do that it seems churlish to talk about the few that miss. Let's hope that
this record and the next get re-issued soon: more fans need to know this
material which is crucial to our understanding of one of the greatest
songwriters of our times.
A Now Complete List Of CSN/Y and Solo Articles Available To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:
'Crosby, Stills and Nash' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-29-crosby-stills-and-nash-1969.html
'Deja Vu' (CSNY) (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-34-crosby-stills-nash-and-young.html
‘Stephen Stills’ (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/stephen-stills-1970.html
'If Only I Could Remember My Name' (Crosby) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-45-david-crosby-if-only-i-could.html
'Songs For Beginners' (Nash) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-46-graham-nash-songs-for.html
'Stephen Stills II' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-48-stephen-stills-ii-1971.html
‘Graham Nash, David
Crosby’ (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/graham-nash-david-crosby-1972.html
'Stephen Stills-Manassas' (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html
'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html
'Stephen Stills-Manassas' (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html
'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html
'Down The Road' (Stephen
Stills/Manassas) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/stephen-stillsmanassas-down-by-road-1973.html
'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html
'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html
'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html
'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html
'Illegal Stills' (Stills)
(1976)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stephen-stills-illegal-stills-1976.html
'Whistling Down The Wire'
(Crosby-Nash) (1976)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-crosby-graham-nash-whistling-down.html
'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html
'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html
'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html
'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html
'Thoroughfare Gap'
(Stills) (1978) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/stephen-stills-thoroughfare-gap-1978.html
'Earth and Sky' (Nash)
(1980)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/graham-nash-earth-and-sky-1980.html
'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html
'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html
'Right By You' (Stills)
(1984) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/stephen-stills-right-by-you-1984.html
'Innocent Eyes' (Nash)
(1986)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/graham-nash-innocent-eyes-1986.html
'American Dream' (CSNY)
(1988) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-american.html
'Oh Yes I Can!' (Crosby)
(1989)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/david-crosby-oh-yes-i-can-1989.html
'Live It Up!' (CSN) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html
'Live It Up!' (CSN) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html
'Stephen Stills Alone'
(1991)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/stephen-stills-alone-1991.html
'A Thousand Roads'
(Crosby) (1993) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/david-crosby-thousand-roads-1993.html
‘After The Storm’ (CSN)
(1994) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-final-review-crosby-stills-and-nash.html
'CPR' (Crosby Band) (1998)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cpr-david-crosby-band-1998.html
'Looking Forward' (1999) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-looking.html
‘So Like Gravity (CPR,
2001)
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cpr-just-like-gravity-2001.html
‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html
‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html
'Crosby*Nash' (2004) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-21-crosby.html
‘Man Alive’ (S) (2005) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/stephen-stills-man-alive-2005.html
'Deja Vu Live' (CD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-crosby.html
'Deja Vu Live' (DVD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008_09_21_archive.html
'Reflections' (Graham Nash Box Set) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-graham.html
'Demos' (CSN) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-crosby.html
'Manassas: Pieces' (2010) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-manassas.html
‘Carry On’ (Stephen Stills Box Set) (2013) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stephen-stills-carry-on-box-set-2013.html
'Croz' (Crosby) (2014) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/david-crosby-croz-2014album-review.html
'CSNY 74' (Recorded 1974 Released 2014)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-csny-74.html
'This Path Tonight' (Nash) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/graham-nash-this-path-tonight-2016.html
'Lighthouse' (Crosby)
(2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/david-crosby-lighthouse-2016.html
‘Sky Trails’ (Crosby)
(2017) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/david-crosby-sky-trails-2017.html
‘Here
If You Listen’ (Crosby) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/10/david-crosby-and-friends-here-if-you.html
The Best Unreleased CSNY
Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/csny-best-unreleased-tracks-news-views.html
Surviving TV Appearances (1969-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/csny-surviving-tv-appearances-1969-09.html
Non-Album Recordings (1962-2009)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_6.html
Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums Part One
(1964-1980)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young.html
Live/Compilations/Rarities
Albums Part Two (1982-2012)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_20.html
Essay: The Superest Of
Super Groups?
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/csny-essay-superest-of-super-groups.html
Five Landmark Concerts and
Three Key Cover Versions
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/csny-five-landmark-concerts-and-three.html
