The Last Track: David Crosby – Orleans / I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here

“That’s not to say that Crosby was without his darkness. On 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name—the crown jewel of his catalog and one of the most singular, psychedelic folk records of all time—he proved himself an expert writer of protest songs (“What Are Their Names”) and a studio abstractionist with the power to summon immense feelings of grief and hopelessness. Recorded after the sudden death of his girlfriend, Christine Hinton, the music tested the strengths of Crosby’s communal approach: Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, and more friends accompanied him in dreamlike visitations, leaving him on his own for haunted a capella bloodlettings like “I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here.” [Source]