My Top 2000 Songs #1037: Laughing

God bless the late David Crosby, warts and all--but I'll be the first to admit I usually found his contributions to CSN/CSNY (and, before that, to the Byrds) to be among the respective bands' least approachable tracks. Yes, he could do more with a harmony arrangement than pretty much anyone in rock music besides maybe Brian Wilson--and, hey, one could credibly argue Croz was even better--but his melodies weren't exactly full of catchy hooks.

Which is what makes his solo debut so astounding. 1971's If I Could Only Remember My Name is the rare album where I can't hum a single note, can barely quote any lyrics, and yet it feels like a profound listening experience every time I spin it. Layers of voices, chiming acoustic guitars, a rich sonic tapestry that you can feel more than hear... truly unique. I can't really call "Laughing" its best song, as I can hardly distinguish one song from the next, a few distinctive tracks (like the jagged, jammy "Cowboy Movie") aside. But it distills the work down to its core components, a song with little discernible tune yet still gives me goosebumps. Throw in musical backing by most of the Grateful Dead (including some weepy pedal steel guitar from Jerry Garcia), and harmonies from Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell, and it's... well, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but like the rest of the album, it feels amazing.

Crosby later reworked the song for the somewhat disjoined self-titled 1973 Byrds reunion album. As played by the full band, it has a little more well-defined structure and performance muscle, in some ways a better "song" though minus some of the magical, chiming mystery of the original.

Remake from 1973's Byrds:

Live 2018:

With Nash, 2011: