Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 1971
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Length
9 tracks
If I Could Only Remember My Name is David Crosby's first solo album, and one of four high-profile albums released by each partner of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping Déjà Vu album of 1970. It has been in print continuously since its initial release.
A large grouping of prominent musicians from the era appear on the record, including Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, and members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, & Santana. This ad-hoc ensemble was given the moniker of "The Great Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra" by longtime Crosby associate Paul Kantner ; many of the same musicians appeared on the latter's Blows Against The Empire, recorded concurrently with Crosby's album. The album also features the only recorded appearance of David Crosby's reclusive brother, Ethan Crosby.
Although the album garnered its share of detractors, including Crosby's then-manager David Geffen and influential Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau, If I Could Only Remember My Name was a modest commercial success, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. "Music Is Love," released as a single, also peaked at #95 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was released for compact disc on October 25, 1990, having been digitally remastered from the original master tapes, using the equipment and techniques of the day, by original engineer Stephen Barncard. A double-disc reissue appeared on November 6, 2006, with an audio disc remastered in HDCD, including a bonus track "Kids and Dogs," and a second DVD Audio disc of the original album, with the bonus track, remixed for 5.1 digital Surround Sound. Recently, the album has undergone a revival of interest among fans of underground rock and folk such as Devendra Banhart, the Fleet Foxes, and groups associated with The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Reviews of the most recent reissue place the album in the same influential company as the more baroque works of Nick Drake and Fairport Convention.
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