(Credits: Far Out / David Gans)
Tue 2 December 2025 15:10, UK
To be a member of the booming rock and roll set that dominated the 1960s and ’70s is a mark of commendation that likely confirms your legend status without even understanding your entire back catalogue. But being someone who actively tried to ruin their own iconography is perhaps even more spectacular. By the end of the 1960s, David Crosby had already gained a notorious reputation in the music industry.
Having been kicked out of The Byrds in 1968, Crosby jumped ship over to friends Stephen Stills and Graham Nash to form Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Despite his major success, his heavy drug use, personal tragedies, and combative nature made him an unpredictable force. At the same time, Crosby was attempting to record his debut album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, while occasionally producing other artists.
One of the acts that Crosby produced was Joni Mitchell, the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter. Mitchell had come to Crosby’s attention in 1967 while performing in Florida. Based on his career timeline, Crosby was likely touring with The Byrds when he first stumbled upon Mitchell. The two remained in touch, and when Mitchell signed to Reprise Records, Crosby was assigned to produce her debut album, Song to a Seagull.
“She grew from the day that I met her. Man, when I met her, she was singing little folkie things in a coffeehouse and nobody had heard of her. Ever. Not one person,” Crosby claimed to SongFacts shortly before his death in 2023. “She was in a coffeehouse in Florida singing ‘Both Sides Now’, and I listened to it, I looked at her, and A) I wanted her really badly, and, B) I thought I might be falling for her, and, C) She was obviously a fuckin’ brilliant songwriter and singer. She bowled me over completely.”
The two songwriters shared a tempestuous relationship for a short while, during which Crosby would clearly be beguiled by the talent and mesmeric qualities of Mitchell before, in what seems to have been a pattern for his life, look to actively self-sabotage any notion of a long-term situation. Famously, Mitchell would write a song to break up with Crosby, performing it in front of the singer and a room full of partygoers.
Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell and David Crosby gather around one mic. (Credits: Far Out / YouTube Stills)
She penned ‘That Song About the Midway’, a damning song containing all of Mitchell’s anger towards her soon-to-be ex. The song begins with the couple’s tender beginnings before plunging into Crosby’s transgressions. “You were betting on some lover, you were shaking up the dice, and I thought I saw you cheating once or twice,” Mitchell declares over glorious guitars.
“I remember we were at Pete Tork’s house and the whole gang was there,” Crosby recalled during a conversation with Uncut, “maybe 20 people. Joni comes storming in, plonks herself down and says, ‘I’ve got a new song to sing to you.’” What might have initially been excitement to hear a new song likely dissipated quickly, as the reality of the tune continued.
“She sang ‘That Song About The Midway’, which was her goodbye song to me,” he continued, “A pretty forceful goodbye! She finished, looked up at me – everyone was sitting there aghast – and sang it again! Ha-ha! Just in case I didn’t get it the first time. Then she packed up her guitar and left. Falling for her was a little like falling into a cement mixer.”
Crosby and Mitchell would continue to rotate in and out of each other’s orbits. Mitchell famously dated Crosby’s CSN bandmate Graham Nash throughout the early 1970s. After recruiting Neil Young as a full member, CSNY released what would become their biggest hit in America – a version of Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’. When asked to name his favourite Mitchell song, though, Crosby baulked.
“Can’t do it. There’s just too many,” Crosby claimed. “Joni Mitchell is, as far as I’m concerned, the best singer-songwriter of our times. Without any question to me. She’s way better than I am, she’s way better than everybody I know.”
“She’s as good a poet as Bob [Dylan] – if not better – and ten times the musician he is, and singer,” Crosby added. “I think she’s unquestionably the best singer-songwriter alive. Pick a song? The whole record of Blue. Everything on it.”
Check out ‘Blue’ down below.
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