Customer Reviews

Since Then: How I Survived Everything and Lived to Tell About it

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of the pivotal scenes in the DVD, "Daylight Again," occurs when Stills pours a full cooler of ice water on a coked out Crosby and calls him a hyppocrite. Midway through this amusing follow up of sorts to his harrowing and hillarious first book, Crosby wonders why anyone would be in a band with Stephen Stills if they didn't have to. I suspect that's the pot calling the kettle....
While I await Stills' rebuttal, I'll tell you that this book again is suffused with Crosby's ironic sense of humour and interesting insights on what life on the road is really like. He is also genuinely lucky and knows it. His brother was tragically off his rocker, yet David seems to have an aura of charm that rescues him at very nearly every moment. He is not ungrateful, yet he also comes across as picking and choosing what he wants to learn from his close encounters of the terminal kind. I have an aunt like that. Anyway, seriously concerned that there is an abiding perception that he got a liver transplant because he was David Crosby, he is also very forthcoming in explaining the process and the anxieties, especially in his case as they were interwoven with IRS and management issues, and earthquake and fire, and a slew of children who were surfacing or being conceived at unprecedented rate, even for Southern California.
Julie Cypher's account of being inseminated with David's sperm is almost like I Love Lucy in its preposterousness. Chris Hillman's loyalty to Crosby at a financial low point is strianed because they are diametrically opposed politically and socially. Crosby loves contradiction. I can think of no better partner for Stills. Even Nash intones that being David's friend is not the hippie picnic one imagines. Unrelentingly in love with himself as well as his wife and many children, Crosby is the perfect bad boy that you can not help but adore. And he knows it. It seems that urge to get in trouble has been his life long mantra for attention.
It surfaces towards the end of the book when he admits to going back on the weed and toting guns. What is a fat, balding, out of shape, diabetic singer songwriter with the finest voice in music still smoking dope and carrying a .45 for? Has he latent desires to move into hip-hop. You get the usual apologia - it's safer than alcohol and doesn't damage your liver. True enough, fatso, but it does impact your pancreas and you are a diabetic... His most inane, and typically dope-addled statement, comes when he states that he would rather his beloved song Django (jayzuz, I hope that kid gets through school OK) smoke dope, his dope coz he has the really good stuff, than drink. How about not at all, genius? That's not in the program.
Crosby is perfectly correct in stating that you can not base your sobriety on someone else's. Exactly. What's disappointing is that he doesn't get it that having been through what he has been through, he needs to be clean and sober and straight. FOR HIM. and then maybe for his wife and son. DC gets busted in NYC for carrying pot and a gun and the wind it takes out of your sails is palpable. You feel very disappointed in him. Again.
Mind you, of the four of them, his songs ahave always had the most depth and intricacy and have been the most compelling. It is no accident that as he has gone back to weed, he's also stopped writing. That he had to be arrested in front o his son, James Raymond, as gifted a writer and singer as his father, led to the demise of CPR. How you live with yourself after that embarrassment, how that doesn't convince you that you must change, I do not know. It undercuts the compelling ideological positions he takes, and while an ad hominem argument is not a valid counter attack on a position, he is clearly dancing on marbles.
I get it that he is in pain, that he doesn't want to be addicted to narcotic pain killers. Still, he is the one who has inflicted all of his ailments upon himself, and you'd think he would put that same effort into taking care of himslef for whatever number of years he has left so that his expanding brood might look at him as a man who overcame the demons he once embraced.
In both this book and the last, Crosby declines to name who in his circle of acquaintences are the dealers, the gophers. Maybe that's why he carries a gun. He speaks of a break in and talks of how ready eh and his wife were to return fire. Nice. Wooden Ships. Moving to someplace like Nova Scotia must be out of the question. He wants to be near the mouth of the monster and must get some vicarious thrill from it. More's the pity. He is genuinely a very gifted and bright artist. His music is sublime. But how anyone would be in a band with David Crosby unless they had to be, I don't know...

In Aspen Colorado a few years ago at xmas, I came across a poster advertising a concert given by CPR featuring David Crosby. CPR? CSN+/-Y, yes, but...Pevar and Raymond? Hmmm. MUST be sold out. Box office lady: tickets are available. Hmm, doesn't that mean this will suck? "No, its because it's the 23rd and most folks don't show up in Aspen till the 26th, and this concert was a last minute booking, it should be a real treat." I buy two tickets.

Night of the show, sold out, killer crowd, my date bailed due to a dinner party, i gave the other ticket to someone on the street (proves I had no idea what was in store, bc if I had I would have been calling friends all over town), went inside, worried, what will Mr. Crosby's voice sound like these days. Didn't he almost die about ten times over the past years, and who are these guys he's playing with?

1st thing, Pevar is playing with the warm up band, and he's just amazing even though I don't know its him till intermisson. Then the show. David emerges...a white haired sage from a medieval movie, his buddha's "Hello" as he walks onto stage just somehow instantly heartwarming. There's a big drum set, a bass player, a young keyboardist. Great energy in the room. Then, an explosion of pure voices in the high altitude air, jazzy, complex, rich music, David's voice faltering every once in a while due to the altitude (8,000 feet), but lent a clarity in the upper registers that I've never heard before. The drummer is killer. The bass player solid & perfect. Pevar, spectacular. And the keyboardist is James Raymond, Crosby's son (!?) -- and there is a palpable loving energy between them. Song after amazing song, one of the nicest musical nights of my life. All a suprise.

That evening was a gateway for me into the world of Neil Young's solo work, the many CPR recordings, a few more CPR concerts, a benefit concert with Crosby/Nash/Raymond/Pevar in Solvang, and all the non-hit CSN/Y stuff I'd never really listened to. But ever since then, I've been wondering: how did David have a son by a different last name and what is their relationship beyond their wondeful musical collaboration? How did he find Pevar? Who is Pevar? How did drummer Stevie Stanislau find them? What is up with Neil Young? What complex and amazing story was playing out on that stage that made it so magical? Was it magical, or was I just imagining it?

Well, for me, this book is a continuation of the gift I received that evening. It explains the remarkable story of David's recent years picking up around the Jan. 1994 Northridge earthquake. Like Crosby's music, the life is complex, authentic, maddening, hilarious, uplifting, and unimaginable -- which is why you have to read the book. So many great moments and stories. So interesting to watch this man evolve and wear his life's mantle as a messenger/sentinel with such humor/wit/grace through triumph and tragedy alike. So wonderful to get to know all the incredible people in his life. I loved it!

Ps: The story about how, recently reuintied, James plays David a tape of a song he composed to accompany some lyrics David tossed to him about Jim Morrison...David goes to Jame's house and they listen to the tape in James' beat up pick up truck b/c his house stereo isn't as good while his wife watches them, heart in throat, from inside the house, and David is blown away and realizing his son is a very gifted man who he really wants to work with alot more. Well, that was one of the sweetest things I've ever read.

I had purchased two tickets ( At $201.00 a Piece, from Ticketronarrippoff ) to see CSN & Y play in the Harveys Casino parking lot ( ANOTHER RIP-OFF ) as it is a LOUSY VENUE with HORRIBLE ACOUSTICS.
After parking the car, as close as we were gonna get, my wife, two friends and myself walked through Harrahs Casino towards the show. Passing the smoke shop, one of our friends gasps: "I just saw David Crosby in the smoke shop and he was snorting something." Like a flash, I backpedaled to the scene of the crime, and there he was: The Cros', this was my third encounter with the man in person. After 37 years, and dozens of shows, and still in awe of his powers, all I could muster up was: "Have a great show, David." His reply was: "Thank you, it's hot out there today".
Needless to report, the concert was great, and David, bravely stood his ground on the right side of the stage and spent most of the show watching Neil Young play and sing like a man possessed... ( Against George W. Bunk ).

David's third book: "Since Then" is mainly about the events in his life since the publication of his first book: "Long Time Gone", (released in 1989.) To put out there and be frank about it, this one is not the: "gripping yarn" the first book was. There is still a lot of controversy surrounding such events as his liver transplant, when a normal guy would have not been 'bumped-up' on the transplant list like a big name celebrity such as David, and that normal guy would be dead now.
The entire "sperm-donor" incident was only news because David & Melissa Etheridge, dropped that story on the doors of Rolling Stone magazine. The: "David, and the gun story" is as dumb as anything that happened to Crosby during his: "crack fiend" years. It's harder to connect to David's big mistakes and mis-steps, after everything that we already know about him, and if he want's to snort, smoke or shoot-up anything today, that's his personal business...BUT if he want's to write additional books of his life I hope they will be more interesting than: "Since Then".

I am still a fan of David, I do hope he will continue to release great music, such as CPR, and tour and give us those nights of magic on stage. But, I will be just a little slower on the draw in purchasing his books if they are like this one... it's just O.K.
Three Stars.

Let's face it. Dave may not be the best looking guy but he has charisma and has led an interesting life. Be forewarned, this book is about his life since his EARLIER biography. That's basically from his jail time and recovery from drugs. Yes, there is some overlap describing jail time and what drugs did to him. But, if you are looking for great stories of the Byrds and the 60s, it's only here in minor touches.

What you see is the mellowing of the 60s hippie generation icon. Yes, he is still very liberal in many of his causes but after IRS problems, he has had to view his music more like a job and lead more of a normal life which he seems to enjoy immensely. Envision a "drugged-out" former David Crosby explaining the joy of flying small planes and the responsibilities required to do so and I think you'll get the picture.

But there is plenty of drama here: near death from liver transplant, serious heart problems, traumatic motorcycle crash, financial problems, and then there are the children. The children occupy a large part of this book while acknowledging his shortcomings earlier in child raising, he has an older daughter who he now has a relationship with, the son that has been widely publicized which he did not really know about until his transplant surgery, and now a new son. And of course, the children for which he supplied the fertilization for Melissa Etheridge are also involved and covered in the book as to why he took on this role.

No longer a rebel, just an aging middle aged American with incredible musical talents, David Crosby seems to be doing just fine. I'm glad I read this book to watch how he has mellowed but it's not earth shattering and doesn't touch a lot of new subjects.

This book is even more amazing than its predecessor, LONG TIME COMING, and even more fun to read--because this is the story of the very best part of David Crosby's remarkable life: the Sane Years, in which he finally found The Handle, and everything that could possibly go right went way better than that. As before, he is utterly candid about everything he's done, smart or silly--and as before, he writes most eloquenlty and evocatively of one of the more amazing lives lived in his time. He writes prose as well as he writes lyrics--I have no higher praise. Okay, I am quoted on page 2--but that doesn't explain why I've been reading the entire volume aloud to my wife since it arrived. Co-writer Carl Gottlieb (who wrote the screenplays for JAWS and THE JERK) once again skillfully manages to bring coherence and a dramatic through-line to a disordered life. Read this while listening to David's magnificent new box-set, VOYAGES.

What started out as a great memoir sort of spiraled into a 4th step/resentment list. Croz's resentments are clearly evident...but that's ok, I think he has earned this right. Good read, I often found myself chuckling at Crosby's descriptions of people, places, things...

I received this book a year or so ago...it was an interesting read, and a nice follow up to "A Long Time Gone"...this book does not have the same 'grab' as his first one, but does lend some more insight into David's life and career...and what it is like to be a celebrity and how 'unperfect' a celebrity's life can be...I enjoyed reading the various view points of others as well...if you've read the first book by David, then this one is a nice continuation...

Nicole

The story is well written and uniquely edited, making it easy to put down and pick up again later. I would recommend it for a solid, positive look at this wonderfully talented musician's sometimes very difficult life. It is about coming back and believing in yourself. It's about friends and friendship and support in a real sense, about second chances and being ready for opportunity. About hard, endless work and overcoming adversity, the book examines self-destructive behavior and how the love of others can help support you in your effort to change for the better. An honest presentation, a story well told, I found it, like so much of his music, inspiring.

As with "Long Time Gone," I couldn't put this book down. After reading the first one just a couple of years ago, I remember feeling like I was left hanging because I knew so much had happened to him "since then." I was so hoping he and Carl Gottleib would do a sequel with the same substance, candor and wit. I'm happy to say, mission accomplished.

Since you can learn what topics are covered in the editorial review, I'll talk a little bit about how the book is put together. As with the first one, the text of the book toggles between David's commentary, input from Carl, and then also contributions from other people like Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Grace Slick, Kirstie Alley, Robin Williams and Noah Wyle. If you're scratching your head about the last three, those are only a few of the surprise relationships.

The one thing that comes gushing out of this book is his love for family and country. He's hopelessly and helplessly in love with his wife and children, and this is a side of him we only started to see in his last book. His love for country is also intense, but as you can imagine, that relationship is a little turbulent at the moment. He lays it all out towards the end of the book and holds nothing back. If you share his sentiment, you'll find it exhilarating.

All in all, I highly recommend this book for all music fans. And, I absolutely hate to say it, but I sincerely hope this is his last autobiographical book and that the rest of his life is too blissfully boring to write about. How about a novel?

If you grew up loving David Crosby and all that you thought he stood for, and do not want to hear tirades on the rights to bear arms and how Indian tribal sovereignty is a threat to the American democracy, don't read this book. If you don't want to read ignorant comparisons of the discrimimation of the Irish with the cultural genocide of the American Indians, don't read this book. If you don't want the credibility of the timbers of your musical roots shaken to the core, don't read this book.