![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/David-Crosby-2018-Musician-Eddie-Janssens-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Eddie Janssens \/ wikiportret.nl<\/p>\n
Fri 22 May 2026 21:00, UK <\/p>\n
Everything David Crosby<\/a> ever did was always in the service of making beautiful music. <\/p>\n Not everything that he made had to sound absolutely fantastic on first listen, but with every record that he made, he wanted to get that much closer to making a record that could stand alongside his favourite artists like Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. There was a lot of ground that he wanted to cover throughout his career, but his strong suit was much more rooted in vocal harmonies than the guitar half the time.<\/p>\n And when you look at what he\u2019s done for the instrument, that\u2019s saying a lot. The way that Crosby sings was always perfect for whatever song Crosby, Stills, and Nash were working on, and even though he could put together a creative tune, it was a lot easier to just sit back and watch Stephen Stills absolutely annihilate every single part<\/a> that he made. Stills was definitely the genius of the band in many respects, but Crosby did get a few lessons in how someone could tune their guitar to make it sound great.<\/p>\n There were no rules when it came to alternate tunings in his mind, and when looking at the way that Joni Mitchell kept changing things around, he wanted to do the same thing. Having those open strings gives a much more ringing quality to everything that you played, and while they can be fun for someone who\u2019s used to playing folk music, some of that adventurousness wasn\u2019t going to sit well with what Roger McGuinn was doing when working with The Byrds.<\/p>\n The band had already become known as the American Beatles to many because of how great they sounded together, but Crosby wasn\u2019t going to sit on his hands and not show his ideas. He knew there was something to the way that he played guitar on albums like Deja Vu<\/a>, and he wasn\u2019t about to watch as someone like McGuinn stepped all over him and tried to push them towards country music.<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t where he wanted to be, but he couldn\u2019t deny that McGuinn had him beat when it came time to play anything on guitar, saying<\/a>, \u201cHe was always a much better guitar player than me. When he got one of the first Rickies, it sounded like a glass avalanche. Unbelievable. He\u2019s such a gifted musician. He basically does one thing, but he does it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s also brilliant at voicing something into a different form, like turning \u2018Mr Tambourine Man\u2019 from a terrible goddamned demo into that brilliant record.\u201d<\/p>\n David Crosby on Roger McGuinn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And while the phrase \u2018one trick pony\u2019 tends to be looked at as an insult, it was never that bad when looking at what McGuinn could do. He was turning everything inside out when he reinterpreted Bob Dylan\u2019s tunes<\/a>, and even when he came up with tracks of his own, saying that you influenced a Beatle on a song like \u2018The Bells of Rhymney\u2019 is something that you would want to hold onto for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n If anything, the fact that McGuinn was so good did help form how Crosby looked at himself. He knew that he was never going to outdo McGuinn as his own game by any stretch, but the least he could do was find something novel to work with, whether it was trying his best to find his own sound with CSN or going into more jazzy territory when coming up with the ethereal harmonies on some of his later work.<\/p>\n There was no real limit to where he could go, but Crosby could at least acknowledge when someone wiped the floor with him. He knew that his track record was better than most, but sometimes you need someone like McGuinn next to you to help keep you in check every time you perform.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
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