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David Crosby "Thousand
Roads" (1993)
Hero/Too Young To
Die/Old Soldier/Through Your Hands/Yvette In English//Thousand
Roads/Columbus/Helpless Heart/Coverage/Natalie
'I'd
give my last dime for coverage - but you will not cover me!'
In 1991, two years before this album's release,
David Crosby turned fifty. This was as much of a surprise to him as it was to
everybody else after years of living on the edge: while everybody in their 40s
tends to imagine that they might get to this milestone one day in the
far-distant future, for Croz he'd been in denial as recently as five years
earlier when he spent his 45th birthday inside a Texas prison for drugs and
unregistered weapon possession. He hadn't expected to make his 46th birthday
and yet the five years had seen an explosion in creativity that would have
socked his younger self, packed with comeback album 'Oh Yes I Can' in 1989, two
CSN/Y reunions in 1988 and 1990 and a well received autobiography. After this
burst, though, Croz's prolificness returned to normal as he'd spoken most of
what was on his mind (with darker, more hidden things to come on the CPR
records in another five years), but like many reformed addicts he didn't want
to stop and think - because those are the moments when the demons shout the
strongest. So, after the hard work of the past five years, comes the victory
lap: an album that in many ways was harder work as it moved Crosby so far away
from his comfort zone and in other ways was as simple as plugging the work by a
number of people whose work Crosby wanted to promote. A covers album no less,
some twenty years before CSN finally split (for the last time?) trying to
record exactly the same idea.
For years Croz had been mockingly joking with fans
that whenever there's a cover version of a CSN song it tends to be of a Nash
pop nugget or a catchy Stills song and that few people ever covered his 'weird
shit'. In some sort of twisted way 'Thousand Roads' sounds like a response to
this, a seven-cover, three-original album that features Crosby as singer and
interpreter more than it does as a creator. Croz naturally doesn't pick the
obvious songs to cover, choosing instead for the most part complex, difficult
songs by a number of obscure singer-songwriters (many of whom offer their
support by playing along): the likes of Marc Cohn, Bonnie Hayes, John Hiatt,
Noah Brazil and Stephen Bishop - only Jimmy Webb is a name often spotted on
'cover' records and even as dedicated a fan as Art Garfunkel hadn't discovered
the hidden minor gem 'Too Young To Die' yet. Along the way Croz slots his songs
in at the beginning and middle where, thanks to more lashings of production
than ever before, his songs suddenly sound like the most rounded, catchy and
commercial songs here. As much of an advert or a sampler as a fully-fledged
record, 'Thousand Roads' feels like it exists as an invitation to future
music-buyers to check out Crosby's solo product and keep both his legacy and
income safe for the next few years of silence (broken only by the as-always
unexpected reunion of CSN for 'After The Storm' the following year). In many
ways it's the least distinctive or necessary album in the CSN canon: while
Crosby sings like a Byrd still, not all these songs are worthy of his voice and
the production makes even the songs that are worth the care and attention
lavished to them sound like the sort of things any half-decent singer with a
synth-heavy karaoke machine could have come up with. In a way it's the most
'Spice Girls' of CSN records, low on creativity, low on thinking and low on
ideas.
It's also one of the most under-rated of CSN records
simply for being so different to the rest, for that's the point at which most
reviewers give up, dismiss this album and move on to rave about the first CSN
album or 'Déjà Vu' all over again. Let me reiterate: Crosby sings not like a
bird but like a Byrd, his commercial
instincts the strongest they've been since 1965 as he re-acts to a changing
music world by deciding to out-pop the younger popsters around (it might have
helped that this is the period when a young Drew Barrymore lived with David and
Jan for a year, bringing teenage pop music back into the house again). We
haven't heard this side of Crosby's art for years and it remains surprisingly
undimmed despite years of re-inventing folk-rock with a dash of psychedelia,
all wrapped up in weird jazz guitar tunings. That was what Crosby chose to do
with his career when left to his own devices, but in a changing world where
even Atlantic are set to drop him as a solo artist Crosby follows Stills (on
'Right By You') and Nash (on 'Innocent Eyes') by making an album that shows he
can match anything his peers can throw at them. By and large 'Thousand Roads'
is better than either record for its sheer listenability and lack of huge
embarrassing mistakes, something that marred both 1980s albums (by contrast
Stills' last album 'Alone' from 1991 is decidedly unproduced and
anti-commercial, while Nash can't get a solo contract at all). For the most
part Crosby's creative instincts are spot-on: all the cover songs beat the
originals (by some considerable margin in a couple of cases) and the choice of
songs all taken from the early 1980s (when Crosby was at his most drug-addled
and then locked away) suggests that as well as keeping his career fresh for
future purposes he was busy filling in the 'gaps' he missed from his recent
past. New song 'Hero' also beat any single song from Crosby's post-prison
songbook (perhaps equal with 'Arrows'), a very Crosby tale of a mixed-up world
where the heroes lose and the villains win in an adult life very different to
the one we were taught to respect as children. The fact that it's also hands
down the catchiest song in his pantheon (perhaps because of Phil Collins'
input) makes it sound less of a sore thumb on this album than any other Crosby
original on a covers record would have been.
It helps, too, that there's a half-theme across this
record of missed opportunities and a mis-spent youth. Though Crosby was only
involved in three of the ten songs here, all of them were chosen by him - not
recommended by producers and managers, as many covers albums tend to be (that
may well be what scuppered the CSN covers project of 2012 for instance -
although Nash trying to explain what The Rolling Stones' 'Ruby Tuesday'
actually 'meant' to an increasingly cynical Stephen Stills seems to have been
the turning point; for the record I've reviewed it and I don't blooming know
what it means either!) Together with that recent 50th birthday and memories of
'ten years wasted in a blindfold' they find Croz in reflective mood. 'Too Young
To Die' sighs that a 'so-called mis-spent youth...seems more worthwhile every
single day' before turning into a generic car song. 'Old Soldier' finds the
then-34 year old Marc Cohn audaciously complaining that 'youth is a treasure we
waste when we're young'. 'Through Your Hands' is all about taking charge of
life when you feel yourself drifting, an angel visiting a homeless man on a
park bench to tell him to stop 'dreaming' and start 'doing'. 'Columbus' dreams
of happier times when history was simple, that European explorers were heroes
and their quests were romantic, not bloody and genocidal. There's even a
mermaid thrown in for good measure. 'Coverage' actively tries to be young, a
before-its-time song that dreams about being in the public eye years before
social media but only finds loneliness - a very postmodern cover for an older
star straining to be heard. 'Natalie' also starts the song at school, a beauty
who bewitches the narrator all the way from his teens to the tragic moment he
has to say goodbye to her, remembering all the happier golden times and
realising that life is too short. If this album has a theme then it's one that
life is too short, too precious, too wonderful to waste a second of. That's a
lesson Crosby had found out the hard way and you feel that, in a way, he isn't
even going to waste his precious middle-age writing songs about such subjects
when so many songs exist already that people don't know.
The album's strongpoint is clearly Crosby's voice.
Though the songs don't always give him anything to get his vocal teeth into, he
somehow finds a way anyway. 'Columbus' drifts along beautifully mainly thanks
to Crosby's wide-eyed awe, recalling his bigger 'nature' songs like 'Delta' and
'Lee Shore', though the song clearly isn't in the league of either. 'Old
Soldier' is sung as if it's a wry cry from the heart, even if it turns out to
be an even dumber song than 'Drive My Car'. 'Helpless Heart' is exquisite in
Crosby's hands, sung with awkward shyness in a way we've not heard from Croz in
a long time, thrashing the original in its haunting allure. Croz has a good go
with 'Coverage' and 'Natalie' too,
though neither are a natural fit for his style. Considering everything he'd put
his voice through in the past decade and how badly some of his colleagues were
beginning to go show strain in this period (poor Stills especially), it's
rather amazing that he still manages to sound as sweet and warm as he does.
In a way, though, the elephant in the room is that
Crosby still ends up wasting so much of his precious time on a project that
wasn't what fans wanted and which doesn't add anything much to the Crosby
catalogue: gorgeous as his voice is, most fans still think of Crosby as a
writer first and singer second. It's a difficult one for fans, especially of
this band: we aren't enough in number to give CSN instant hits anymore even
when we buy five copies of every album (two for the collection, two for
safe-keeping and one for your Uruguayan pen-friend - everyone should have one!)
Of course CSN have to appeal to outside audiences, many of whom wouldn't know
good music if it was playing an acoustic guitar and singing in three-part
harmony and they fell over it. But how far is too far? There are times on this
album when Crosby sounds like every other generic hack who ever picked up a
microphone: charmingly insincere, hitting all the right notes but not
necessarily in the right order, while a synth-heavy backing band appears to be
piped in from an elevator down the recording studio hall. With Nash it was a
problem, but those Hollie instincts saw him through - sort of, maybe. With
Stills it was more of a problem, but then Stills has always been game to tackle
anything - 'Right By You' feels in retrospect more like Captain Manyhands
rolling his sleeves up and having a go at being 'commercial' in the same way
Manassas played medleys of songs in twelve different styles before breakfast.
But with Crosby the commercial instinct is more problematic: Crosby's always
followed his muse wherever it takes him - and usually where that takes him is
unchartered territory, where no one else would ever think to go. ' Thousand
Roads' is the first album Crosby had a hand in since The Byrds' 'Mr Tambourine
Man' debut twenty-eight years earlier that you could imagine any other act
doing. 'I've never felt so much alive!' runs one of the lines on 'Too Young To
Die'. It should be a valedictory moment. But this generic car song, which
starts off well but hits the brakes really quickly, turns into a shlock fest of
the first degree. Crosby has never sounded less alive - or inspired - on an
album that seems designed to celebrate the very fact that he made an age he
never expected to reach.
There are, at least, little nuggets that overcome
their surroundings that really stand out, whether they sound like 'pure' Crosby
or not. 'Hero' is what all songs with synths should sound like, treating the
biggest cash-cow of the 1980s as a mere children's toy that takes us back in
time to a day when the world was young and cosy and made sense, before Croz
started asking 'what's happening?!?!?' The opening minute or so of 'Too Young
To Die' - when you think it's going to be about life, not motors. The first
half of 'Old Soldier' is beautiful, with a haunting Nash counter-harmony that's
as perfect as any in their lengthy collaboration (in retrospect with everything
that's happened recently Crosby's album credit to Nash 'for space and support
in delicate balance' reads volumes, especially compared to some of the other
credits, where Phil Ramone is 'a truly gifted professional' and where Phil
Collins was 'so generous with his musicianship and time'). 'Through Your Hands'
overcomes it's slightly unmemorable start with a loud shouted chorus that
demands attention and really breaks through the slightly cosy production on
this album. 'Thousand Roads' is half a good original, with the most typically
questioning Crosby lyrics on the album, though it sounded better as a slow
scary folk tune in concert than it does here as an uptempo blues. 'Columbus's
is a nicely arranged bit of nothing, with Wix Wickens on loan from Paul
McCartney's band playing most of the parts behind Croz. 'Helpless Heart', the
song that stands out here for not fitting in with the rest of the album theme,
somehow manages to overcome all the synths, syrupy strings and clichéd lyrics
to truly pull at the heart strings. 'Coverage' is a noble attempt at something
new that almost comes off. And 'Natalie' is one of those songs that changes
with the wind - in the right mood it makes me want to cry; in the wrong mood it
makes me feel like I'm about to be sick (and I've never said that about a
Crosby recording before). It's an album of 'very nearlies' in other words,
where most songs have something going for them but whose production trappings
and the fact they're all lumped together means that only 'Hero' truly stands
out for all the right reasons.
Only 'Yvette In English', a long awaited one-off
collaboration between Croz and his long-time muse and friend Joni Mitchell, is truly
something of a let-down. At first Croz asked for one of Joni's songs to cover,
as his favourite songwriter, but she replied that she would rather write one.
Sadly what could have been a great song if started as a partnership from the
first, with two of the most distinctive writers of the era working together,
instead became an exercise in Crosby sending a half-finished song written 'his'
way over to Joni who would re-write it her way and then Croz re-wrote it back
again. You somehow wonder why they bothered. To be fair many fans like it and
it sounded a lot better in concert by either songwriter, but neither this
recording nor Joni's even more over-produced version (on her 1994 album
'Turbulent Indigo') display any evidence of the jazz-fuelled risk-taking that
both artists are known for. Somehow putting two very similar, very bright
artists together led to them writing perhaps the blandest and least interesting
song in both their canons. Hidden away on another Crosby solo record he might
have gotten away with it, but here with only three original songs there's no
place to hide songs like these. 'Thousand Roads' itself is also noticeably
weaker than almost everything from 'Oh Yes I Can', with only 'Hero' a song that
adds anything new to Crosby's oeuvre, which after a four year gap is a bit of a
shame. And where is charming period B-side 'Fare Thee Well' which would have
filled in at least one of these holes? An extra couple of songs of depth and
warmth would have made all the difference.
Still, considering that this was billed as a
'covers' album first and foremost and the amount of questionable commercial
choices taken (just check out the then-hip thermal image close-up of Crosby on
the front cover - and the advert inside to buy a 'fine print' version of it,
which I doubt many fans did somehow given that it must be one of the least
flattering images of Croz ev-uh) it's not that bad. There were a thousand
career paths Crosby could have taken in the early 1990s: this isn't one of the
expected ones and it doesn't compare to such walks through the mountain as 'If
I Could Only Remember My Name' before it or the CPR albums to come, simply
because there's so little 'Croz' here. However, it's better than silence and at
times it's nice to hear Crosby purely as a singer rather than doubling as a
songwriter. With a different production, less noisy guest stars and a couple of
deeper songs, original or otherwise, this could have been a strong contender.
Instead it remains the least necessary to own of all the CSN albums, if only
because it features less of CS or N than any of their other records.
'Hero' is the one out-and-out classic on the album,
even if the production is more obtrusive here than elsewhere. Croz had become
good friends with co-writer Phil Collins after the Genesis star got in touch
during David's year in prison to say he was a fan and to wish him 'good luck' -
as with many inmates, letters were the best means of keeping in touch with the
outside world and I would bet that Crosby was a keen letter writer during his
time inside. When Phil was working on his 'But Seriously...' mega-hit album in
1989 and wanted a higher harmony part for a pair of surprisingly political CSN-type
songs he'd written Croz was the obvious friend to call ('That's Just The Way It
Is', which is actually about the opposite and people's power to change society
and 'Another Day In Paradise', a stark reminder of homelessness and third-world
problems; both are amongst Phil's best songs). Crosby in turn asked for
Collins' help on his covers record, the pair starting this song from scratch when
Phil admitted he didn't have any spare songs (and marking one of the few times
Croz ever worked with anyone else, S and N apart). The end result is a pretty
good hybrid for both men's styles: it has Collins' big booming sinagalong tune
and straightforward common time walking pace tempo (both common to songwriting
but unusual for Croz), but a very Crosby set of words about the world being
upside down and more unjust than it should be. In most stories the line between
good and evil is easy: the hero always wins the maiden and he 'never had to
wonder what was right or wrong - he just knew', something that appeals to his
comic-book wife and the voracious reader who wants to feel safe and secure. In
real life the narrator struggles to live by the same philosophy: he tried to be
kind, he ends up hurting someone, while someone with bad intentions always
seems to win. In a turbulent middle eight, that sounds like the main part of
the song playing backwards in a mirror, the narrator then kills his maiden with
his kiss. The lyric could have been basic and runs out of things to say before
the end (when we get a straight repeat of the first part) but features some
real Crosby nuggets along the way: there is no bright light surrounding the
'hero' just 'shadow and shade, black and white, the same as everyone else.
Crosby then talks about 'my friend and I searching through the darkness to find
the breaks in the sky', he and Phil looking for hope to offer the listener.
Listen out too for the relish with which Crosby singing about how the villain
'should' go to jail, not the hero! Dismissed at the time as being a lightweight
song, this is actually a pretty good attempt to fit what this album was meant
to do: keep the essence of Crosby but make it tidier, prettier and more
commercial than usual to get as many sales as possible. I'm surprised in retrospect
this single didn't sell better: it has real crossover appeal without annoying
audiences who want Crosby to sound like his old self too much. Only the sad
fact that Phil's harmonies don't fit David's lead as well as David's harmonies
once fitted Phil's and the slightly cloying, digital production landscape
prevent this from being a late-period classic. It's also easily the best song
Phil Collins ever had a hand in, his deft commercial touch given three-dimensional
depth by Crosby's contribution.
'Too Young To Die' starts off so well. Over an 'In
My Dream's style acoustic twirl (actually played by ex-Flying Burrito Brother
Bernie Leadon) David tells us that he recalls his so-called mis-spent youth
with pride, his days of cruising down the road fast in his car meaning far much
to him in adult life for the chance of being 'alive' than any of the lessons he
should have been learning. From thereon in even a sweet Nash harmony part can't
save this basic Jimmy Webb song which, in typical style, ends up rooted in
place repeating the same riff over and over for nearly six full minutes while
the lyrics talk about 'freedom' 'flying' and 'rule-breaking'. 'Life doesn't
come with a warranty!' run the passionate lyrics as the narrator still believes
in living fast and feeling alive, at any age, but the music sounds like an old
man asleep in front of the fire in his slippers. After all, the whole song is
built round the tagline 'too fast for comfort', performed at such a slow speed
it sounds like dawdling. Things get better for the harmonious chorus ('sweet
ol' racing car of mine...') and it's tagline that even now, in middle age, the
narrator gets the same feeling of being invincible, 'too young to die', he once
always had whenever he drives. However this is just a pair of headlights
flashing in the night and even the slowed-down, simplified ending ('When I die
I don't want to go to heaven, I just wanna drive my beautiful machine') is flat
and lifeless, with even Crosby not managing to get through the layers of
ickiness with the clichéd final words. The best you an say about this song is
that at least it's catchier and more thought out than Crosby's own 'Drive My
Car' from the album before, but it's still not a very good song and the lines
about 'finding peace in losing control' also sound dangerous from someone who
very nearly went to prison again for crashing his motorbike at speed into a
fence that could have killed someone. Jimmy Webb's original came out just a few
weeks before Crosby's on his 'Suspending Disbelief' album. Sung with a very
Jeff Pevar-style guitar attack and arena-style drumming it's a more
happy-go-lucky, aggressive take than Crosby's version and lacks even David's
little bit of magic. Crosby guests on that version though, alongside JD Souther
(who was once with fellow Byrd Chris Hillman in the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band
- guess which one he was!) and Eagle Don Henley.
'Old Soldier' finds Crosby and Nash much more at
home on a song by pal Marc Cohn (Crosby's favourite writer of 'this'
generation, after always naming Joni for the 1960s and Jackson Browne for the
1970s). This slow piano song, with its unusual chord structure and curious time
signature feels more like a Crosby song than any on the album - even his own -
and would have made for a fine 'CCPR' collaboration. Though Cohn was a
generation (sixteen years?) younger than Crosby, what most appealed was
probably the reflective lyrics about having lived long and hard as an 'old
soldier' looks back on a busy life and is invited to remember past triumphs.
The song is realistic enough to recognise a generation 'not getting any
younger' but recognises that old age isn't all one way, that 'you've still got
that hunger burning in you now'. By and large CSN had stopped singing about
'their' generation somewhere around the early 1980s when they all began to
learn their careers were in jeopardy and they'd be better off pretending to be
young and trendy. So it's with some relief Crosby picks up the mantle again, if
only briefly and via another writer. The song does lack a little something
extra that CSN would surely have thrown in there however: it floats and it nods
it's head in respect, but doesn't really do much more than that. There's no
sense of raging injustice a la 'Long Time Gone', no passion as per 'Ohio' and
no great message as heard on 'Carry On'. Instead it's a song that speaks about
not quite retiring while once again heading for the pipe and slippers in
musical terms. Still, it's a pretty tune and one of the best on the album, with
Crosby and particularly Nash adding just the right sense of awe and grit. Cohn's
version appeared on the 1992 various artists Olympic Games compilation 'Barcelona
Gold', for reasons best known to the compilers and features much more Nash-style
harmonica and a much gruffer vocal, though otherwise the arrangements are much
the same.
'Through Your Hands' is the one song here that
doesn't quite improve on the original by John Hiatt (it's from 1990 album
'Stolen Moments'). Crosby's version, unusually, is prettier and more commercial,
with an added electric guitar riff and a bigger jump between the quiet and loud
passages, whereas Hiatt more or less screams throughout. It's a good song, but
not a great Crosby song as the often awkward metaphors ('Past the scientific
darkness, past the fireflies that float') sometimes get stuck in his throat.
Plus he sings with much more of a croak than the rest of the album (did he have
a cold that day?) The one song here recommended by producer Don Was, on 'holiday'
from working with The Rolling Stones, you can tell Crosby's heart isn't really
in it. Still, the powerful punch of a nagging chorus that has an angel appear
to urge the world to get on with living and speaks so eloquently even the
narrator believes it ('What am I not doing? My voice cannot command! In time I
will move mountains!') is memorable. The best part, though, is the un-credited
guitar work: oddly for such well-documented sleevenotes there is no mention of
who performs the blistering Stills-like solos (though Bernie Leadon is down for
acoustic work again). Could it be Stills himself playing more simply than usual?
Or is it old buddy Danny Kortchmar (whose work also sometimes sounds like
Stills')? Unfortunately, given the point of the song, this is the track on the
album that rather slips past your ears.
'Yvette In English' is just weird. I think I see
where Crosby and Joni were heading: it's a romanticised version of their own
first meeting in a club in California, only here we're in a cafe in Paris. A
strong alluring female 'slips in sideways like a cat' speaking English so most
people don't even notice her, but Crosby's narrator is smitten. He tells her
that if he was a painter 'I'd paint her from toe to head' and enjoys basking
over a cup of 'instant bliss', more interested in her than the beverage. However,
like much of this album, this song doesn't 'sound' like a bright, brief,
shining love affair. It sounds more like a dull day in front of the TV if
anything, without either writer's usual quirks and just a boring flamenco
guitar part thrown in to liven things up (and even that doesn't fit the
decidedly French setting). This isn't love, or even lust, it's just a natter
over coffee. It's not just the music either: the lyrics try too hard to be
clever, with an ABAB rhyming scheme that flops more than it hits ('Reaching for
words and drawing blanks...in a bistro on the left bank'). Where this song
succeeds in summing up Yvette's contradictory character, nervy but focussed, why
yet pen, giggly yet deadly serious. This song feels dangerous if you're paying
close enough attention to it, with its sudden switches from exotica to pinging
warning sounds from a synth, but it's not the journey of an innocent seduced it
might have been and like many of the songs on this album doesn't really have
much of an ending: after coffee she moved off and clicks away on her high
heels, the narrator left none the wiser. To be honest nor are we.
'Thousand Roads' sounded promising in concert as a
Dylanesque rule-breaking acoustic ballad (as seen in the CSN 'Acoustic Concert'
of 1991). It's very Crosby in the way that it defies all natural songwriting
logic while trying to answer a 'fistfull of questions' that no one on earth can
solve, defying melody structure and gravity as the closest it can come to
summing up an ever-changing life is the 'twist of an acrobat in the air, a
twist to the knife'. Recorded for Crosby's most commercial record, however, all
the interesting bits have been tidied away: though the song still talks about
'finding no patented path to set you free', it doesn't sound like a long list
of questions, just a curious aggressive bluesy mood-piece that keeps
threatening to blast into full-speed but never quite gets there. The lyrics
still feature some great Crosbyisms, especially his pay-off that he doesn't
have all the answers so we shouldn't listen to him as he walks down his
life-path either ('Besides I wouldn't know where you wanted to go and it's
probably not the same place as me!') and the reprise of the song 'Laughing'
that finds him realising that humour is as close to understanding the world as
he's going to get. But much of this song still sounds more like a man grasping
with working out quite what he's trying to do - his bluesy cue for the Any
Fairweather-Low solo ('talk to me!') taking on a new meaning in context. Crosby
sounds lost - which is not all that common, he quite often sounds lost and
doubly so in the CPR period or immediately after losing girlfriend Christine in
1970. But this is a different kind of 'lost', brushed off with awkward humour
that doesn't quite work.
'Columbus' is nautical but nice, a sea-faring song
that sounds on first hearing to be at one with the many schooner-filled songs
in Crosby's back pages. But usually when Crosby sings about the sea he does so
with a metaphor: a life-force that's bigger than him or any one human, pulling
him on or nature getting on with stuff oblivious to his hurt and confused human
feelings. Here it's just the backdrop to a Noah Brazil song about which I can't
seem to find anything: nobody knows who the writer is, nobody else seems to
have recorded the song and the only online references I can find all refer back
to this album. Like 'Hero', it's a song about wanting to believe in an easy and
safe world. The narrator, a whaler, has to stay safely behind his prey and
likens it to his life back on 'land' too - if he gets too close to a woman they
risk hurting each other; stay too far apart he gets lonely. So, in a line
that's very Crosby, when things 'get twisted and crazy and crowded' he sits by
the fire and remembers when he used to have a hero in Columbus, exploring new
worlds and navigating them all down so other people could follow. Of course
here, in the 21st century, Columbus seems like one of the biggest jerks of all
time. He stole from natives he often killed, encouraged others to follow in his
footsteps pillaging and gave most of his riches not to the people who'd prosper
from them but the Royalty who already had more gold than sense in the hope it
might give him a bit more 'power'. Columbus in reality is exactly the person no
one should be dreaming of as a role model - but that's not the point, it's the
romantic heroic idea before it became dashed that's the point of the song.
Until the moment he set foot on another land Columbus was a hero and this is a
song about needing heroes and people to believe in, on an album largely about
needing heroes as well. A yearning middle eight reminds us that 'the tide ebbs
and flows' but our heroes never should: they have to stay heroic and bright and
bold and wonderful or what is the point of having them and what is the point of
trying to act like them? In the best marriage of music and words on the whole
album this song slowly sleepwalks by, it's not-quite-real air suiting a song
that follows a cormorant dive into the water in 'our' world and wonders about
the mermaids he meets on the way down. This is romantic, lurid, escapist fare
but born from a world that's often too scary.
Crosby discovered 'Helpless Heart' after Phil
Collins took it with him to the 'Hero' sessions and told him he'd sound good
singing it (Phil performed it too during his 1995 tour). He does, even though
it's not the natural sort of Crosby song at all, being a schmaltzy romantic
ballad that sounds like so many other out there. It even comes with the same
tempo throughout, no weird chord changes and no real surprises from first note
to last. Crosby sounds suitably loved-up and works well as the scared and
anxious lover wondering how to tell his loved one that he's fallen madly and
helplessly in love with her. He feels a 'thread' tying him to his beloved and a
'dream deep inside my head' that compels him on, but still he can't quite
believe that he's been sitting still in his flat for a month trying to pluck up
the courage to tell her. He thinks he's being stupid and gives way to a sudden
rush of emotion in the chorus and promises his devotion before realising that
actually he's strong - most people would have given up or gone mad or found
someone easier to get to know by now. Simple as this song is, sickly as it is
(with a romanticised string arrangement that doesn't deserve to be here) and as
ill-fitting as it's naked emotion is compared to the other album songs spoken
in metaphor, it may well be the best cover song here. You can hear the author's
original on his 1986 album 'Strange Moon' but it lacks Crosby's soul and feel.
'Coverage' is the biggest venture into something
new, however. Bonnie Hayes recorded the very 1980s original for her album 'Good
Clean Fun' in 1982 and it's a quirky song about demanding attention played in
the short-term-memory-span music of the day. This being a very 1990s album
(with the drums lower in the mix and other instruments along with the synth)
this arrangement doesn't work quite so well and Crosby tries gamely but sounds
a little lost in a world clearly not built for him (Kipp Lennon, of Crosby favourites
Venice who guests on many of the songs here, sounds much more at home and
steals the show). Crosby probably picked the song because in many ways it's his
album manifesto: He wants to be noticed! He wants to be heard! He wants to be
'covered', even. But, he sighs to an uncaring world, 'you will not cover me'.
The verses look in more detail at why the narrator feels so aggrieved, because there
are more chances than ever for young talent: the TV, the radio (if this was a
modern cover you could throw in a whole middle eight about social media right
here), but even though the narrator keeps the TV on all night so it can
'whisper' to them he still hears nothing he can connect with and nobody talking
directly to him. The final verse tells us why things failed: 'dream traffic',
too much hoping and not enough playing (which fits the themes around why this
album was made), while by the time the song came out it was too late: it 'blew
the demographic' which had moved on to something else. By both pleading to be
heard and mocking himself to trying to fit in with a new musical movement he
doesn't believe in, Crosby just about gets away with this very different sort
of a song, built around a catchy but impersonal 'Human league' style riff
played by Bonnie herself.
The album ends with weepathon 'Natalie' by Stephen
Bishop, who also wrote songs for Art Garfunkel and Hollie Allan Clarke.
'Natalie' is about the pick of them, sounding more sincere and heartfelt than
most Bishop ballads which tend to go for the heartstrings by appealing to the
lowest common denominator. This song about future hopes being dashed by cruel life
events sounds as if it at least started as a 'real life' song, with the
narrator falling in love with a girl at a schooldesk and growing up with her,
still every bit as much in love. What he doesn't count on is that she grows up
and leaves him behind and no longer wants to carry out their shared dreams:
their bike-ride to China, their 'sailing away on a bottle-top'. She grows up
and becomes an adult and has no time for his make-believe and it breaks his
heart. He compares the first time he says 'I love you' to his sweetheart on a
crowded carousel when he returns from the school holidays, to the last when she
'goes wild', with the hint that she takes an overdose of drugs (perhaps the
part of the song that appealed most to Crosby). The narrator is left, stunned,
wondering how his beautiful naive innocent little girl could ever have changed
and distanced herself from him. He speaks to her picture, he calls out her name
and talks to the walls but she won't hear - the first time we hear that middle eight
we think it's because they've split, but by the second time we know that it's
because she died. That's a clever and sweet little lyric and I'd have bet my
numbered fine art print of the ugly album cover (if I'd bought one!) that
Bishop had someone real in mind when he wrote this song, even if the ending
might be made up (I'm willing to bet she really was named 'Natalie' as well,
given that it's an impossible song for a songwriter to rhyme - sensibly Bishop
doesn't try). It's the music and arrangement (Bishop's nicely arranged but
badly sung acoustic version didn't come out until 2003's 'The Demo Album',
which might be how Crosby first heard it) I have problems with, which are so
sickly sweet I feel like a trip to the dentist every time I play it. Crosby is
usually sharper than this, with sugary backing vocals (by Kipp and Bishop
himself), a howling guitar part in the middle and twinkling synths even if his
shocked vocal gets this song about loss exactly right. His extended ending, in
which repeats slowly 'that was the last time I said I loved you to Natalie' to
let it sink in, is beautiful and haunting, taking as long as he possibly can so
that he doesn't have to move on with his life just yet. In other words, it's a
draw: much as I want to laugh at this song and see all the major problems with
it, something about it always makes me want to cry, first time or last time
hearing this recording.
Overall, then, 'Thousand Roads' is an odd little
record. It lacks Crosby's usual distinctive style and is about as unrevealing
as any covers album will ever be - particularly from a writer so used to
pouring out his heart in song. This album is a shot at the big time that
failed, a commodity designed to sell even though it's often marketable, in the
same way that it's this ugliest looking, most generically sleeved Crosby album
that comes with the limited edition print. But it also has heart, occasionally,
good songs some of the time and just enough heartfelt Crosby lead vocals to
keep the song together. It's always interesting to hear what a singer's
favourite songs of the moment are, especially when they're obscure, and while
few of them are substitutes for Croz's own and aren't necessarily the ones I
and many other fans would have chosen for him to sing most of them do share
either an album theme or a structure that are very Crosbyish. There are a
thousand ways that 'Thousand Roads' could have been made - you can probably
think of a few yourselves and you might get lost if you try - some of them no
doubt sounded much better, but many probably sounded worse. Losing might be
better, but victory is sweet, old soldier or not. Crosby sadly won't be back
with a full-blown (non-CPR/CSN) album until 2012, but at least it's a work that
will feature less cover songs.
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
