David Crosby - Just Roll My Tape - Hollywood Recorders, Los Angeles, CA, 3-28-1968

In late 1967, David Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds. He didn't hook up with Graham Nash and Stephen Stills to form Crosby, Stills and Nash until about July 1968, resulting in their first album in 1969. In early 1968, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do next, but he was toying with the idea of recording a solo album. Although that never came to pass, he did take part in some solo recording sessions. 

The most intriguing of these sessions is one that took place on March 28, 1968. We only know a little bit about it due to the book "Crosby, Stills and Nash: The Biography," by Dave Zimmer. Here's a paragraph from the book that sums up pretty much all that is publicly known about this recording session:

"Over the next couple of hours, [Crosby] unveiled a batch of exciting new songs. Crosby's voice sounded warm and clear as he scatted around open-tuned chords throughout 'Song with No Words (Trees with No Leaves)' - which would be released more than two years later on his first solo LP. He played 'Games' and 'The Wall Song' (no words yet) - both later to be included on the first Crosby-Nash album. He added a certain Byrdsian twang to 'Laughing' - including simulated cymbal clashes with his voice. But perhaps the most startling piece of music he pulled out of his bag was a complicated series of chord and melody shifts that exploded into a rush of humming and guitar-flailing. This was a large chunk of what would ultimately become 'Wooden Ships.'"

I would have liked to put together this important recording in the history of Crosby's career. But although it sounds like the author Dave Zimmer got to hear it, only two of the songs from it have been publicly available on bootleg. That changed earlier this month (October 2021) when a deluxe edition of Crosby's first solo album "If I Could Only Remember My Name" was released. Four songs from Crosby's March 28, 1968 session were included as bonus tracks, and luckily they were different than the two available on bootleg ("Laughing" and "Wooden Ships"). So I decided I could try to put as much of this recording together as I could.

Only six songs from the actual March 28, 1968 session isn't a lot for an album. That only totals 17 minutes of music. But there are other acoustic demos he did prior to that point that have been made public: "Lady Friend" and "Everybody's Been Burned." I've put both of those on Crosby, Stills and Nash acoustic demo collections, but I think they fit here too. The recording of "Lady Friend" fades out early, so I edited it to give it a proper finish. 

There's a second version of "Laughing" that was recorded just three days later, on March 31, 1968. It's somewhat different from the first version, so I've included it as well. That version also was released on the deluxe version of "If I Could Only Remember My Name." It's highly likely that "Long Time Gone" and "Guinnevere" were recorded in that March 28th session as well, because demos of them recorded less than three months later (on June 13, 1968) have been released as part of the David Crosby box set "Voyage." This version of "Long Time Gone" had some other instruments added by Stephen Stills, but I edited the bass and drums out using the sound editing program Spleeter to make it fit in better with the other acoustic demos. And "Guinnevere" was played on an acoustic guitar plus a very prominent bass part, but I used Spleeter to lower the volume of the bass, again to help make it fit with the other songs.

Finally, we know from Zimmer's book that "The Wall Song" and "Song with No Words (Trees with No Leaves)" were recorded in that March 28th session, but no versions of those from that date has publicly emerged so far. But there are excellent acoustic demos of both songs included as more bonus tracks to the deluxe version of "If I Could Only Remember My Name." So I've included those at the end, even though they were recorded in 1970 and 1969 respectively (and Graham Nash sings backing vocals on "Song with No Words"). 

Chances are there are more songs that Crosby recorded on March 28th, maybe even a bunch more. But this is all we know for now. Put together, this makes for 42 minutes of quality acoustic songs. If he hadn't partnered up with Stills and Nash, he could have put out a solo album in 1968 that had the potential to be great.

As for the album title, I thought of the fact that there's a Stephen Stills archival album called "Just Roll Tape" that features him demoing some of his songs on acoustic guitar. Supposedly it was recorded in April 1968, but it's almost certain it was recorded around September 1968 instead. (In the months in between he got to know Judy Collins by producing one of her albums, fell in love with her, and was inspired to write "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," one of the songs on the album.) Anyway, regardless of the exact date, the idea of an album made up of a bunch of acoustic demos recorded in 1968 by a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash is extremely similar to this album. Thus, I wanted to call this "Just Roll Another Tape," until I realized this one actually took place before the Stills session (whether it was in April or September). So I called it "Just Roll My Tape" instead.

Hopefully someday an album of all the March 28, 1968 recording session will be officially released. Stills did well with releasing his "Just Roll Tape," so you'd think there would be a market for this too. But in the meantime, we'll have to make due with this.

01 Riff 1 (David Crosby)
02 Laughing (David Crosby)
03 Tamalpais High [At about 3] (David Crosby)
04 Kids and Dogs (David Crosby)
05 Games (David Crosby)
06 Wooden Ships (David Crosby)
07 Lady Friend [Edit] (David Crosby)
08 Everybody's Been Burned (David Crosby)
09 Laughing [Second Version] (David Crosby)
10 Long Time Gone [Edit] (David Crosby & Stephen Stills)
11 Guinnevere [Edit] (David Crosby)
12 The Wall Song (David Crosby)
13 Song with No Words [Tree with No Leaves] (David Crosby & Graham Nash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15101188/DavidCrosb_1968_JustRllMyTape__3-28-1968_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from February 1968. It's part of a series of photos taken in the same time and place showing Crosby, Joni Mitchell, and Eric Clapton hanging out in a field and playing acoustic guitars. Man, it would be awesome if there was a recording of the three of them playing together then!