Produced by Cameron Crowe
Directed by A.J. Eaton
**** (four stars)
RATED R
"What you gonna do when the last show is over?
What you gonna do when you can't touch base?
What you gonna do when the applause is all over?
And you can't turn your back on what you face
And who you gonna be when the lights are all fading?
And who you gonna be when the band comes off?
And who you gonna be when your heart is still aching?
And you can't shrug it off with just a laugh"
-"Encore"
Music and Lyrics by Graham Nash and Shane Fontayne
"He tore the heart out of CSN and CSNY in the space of a few months...because he's not a really great person. He talks a good story."
- interview with Graham Nash
Late in the documentary "David Crosby: Remember My Name," the debut feature film from Director A.J. Eaton, Producer/Interviewer Cameron Crowe respectfully yet pointedly questions Crosby about his now completely fractured relationships with all of his key collaborators over the course of his 50 year plus career from The Byrds' Roger McGuinn to of course, his bandmates Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Graham Nash. David Crosby quickly expresses that in the case of Neil Young, he is not mad at him but that "Neil's mad at me." Crowe pushes further and inquires that why doesn't Crosby just go to Neil Young? Why not just go to his doorstep? David Crosby's answer: "I don't know where that is."
That answer cuts to the soul and bone of A.J. Eaton's "David Crosby: Remember By Name," a cinematic portrait that is as warm, engaging and enveloping as it is unflinching and raw. It is a remarkable effort for Eaton, who in the course of slightly over 90 minutes captures the fullness of a life, the effects of the past upon the present, and the ocean of remorse and regrets that arrive when facing down one's rapidly impending mortality. It is a rock documentary that fully and richly transcends the genre by diving into and then propelling itself from the music and the artist to delve into what makes, and in the case of David Crosby, breaks a life as the artistry reaches new creative peaks.
Via A.J. Eaton's perceptive, empathetic eye and Cameron Crowe's interviewing skill, "David Crosby: Remember My Name" brings into focus the life of the iconic singer/songwriter/guitarist, the 1960's counter-culture icon. Now at the age of 77, David Crosby takes us upon a look backwards and forwards into his life as he painfully leaves the solitude of his home and the sanctuary of his wife Jan Crosby for yet another concert tour.
It is a life of tremendous bittersweetness as Crosby still clearly is enraptured by the music, the performances, the creation of new material (which has arrived with surprising alacrity as well as superior artistry), the ability to still tap into his energy as a guitarist and especially as a singer, as we witness how despite his age, his voice continues at its fullest strength as it sounds as if to not have lost any of its richness whatsoever.
And still, the business of music, has become of a greater necessity than ever before as he is required to tour in order to support himself, his family and homestead when he really wishes to remain in the security of his sanctuary. The sadness we witness upon his departure is palpable as is the elation and relief upon his return near the end of the film, falling into bed and sleeping with his guitar by his side, a stirring dichotomy to witness due to the nature of his precarious physical health.
As Crosby prepares for his latest tour, we receive a travelogue through his musical history that I am certain his generations of fans will salivate over. We we stroll through his Laurel Canyon based haunts, as we see the home (to even the specific lightbulb) where Crosby, Stills & Nash was born. We see where the iconic CSN album cover photograph was taken. Crosby weaves tales of his foes (oooh how he still hates The Doors, for instance) and most earnestly, his friends--and when you ponder that the likes of Mama Cass Elliot and Jimi Hendrix were his friends, it continues to send goosebumps through me, and possibly yourselves, that this particular time period was one when everything seemed to be musically possible, from crafting the greatest song ever written to even hopefully saving the world.
David Crosby's social/political outrage is irreverent and fiery, to say the least. Commendable in its righteous fury while also head-scratching as he does embrace certain conspiracy theories, he is a figure that felt to be counter-cultural even to his compatriots of the counter culture, going so far as to alienating his own bandmates, leading to his dismissal from The Byrds, and often causing friction with Stills and Nash. And as Crosby reminisces about his past via his captivating, loquacious style, "David Crosby: Remember My Name" displays how all of his 1960's excesses have done more than their fair share of havoc over time.
For his own life and health, there are the devastating drug addictions to cocaine and heroin, his nine month imprisonment in 1982, a liver transplant due to hepatitis C, diabetes and two or three heart attacks that have left him with eight stints in his heart--the maximum amount. Yet, the greater emotional, and therefore, spiritual deterioration rests within his interpersonal relationships as the wreckage of lives lost around him and lives damaged because of him are many. Throughout the film, David Crosby speaks directly to this specific history and his remaining, yet dwindling, future in a means that feels brutally honest as well as one that seems to be seeking to achieve a sense of atonement because, as Crosby states, "Time is the final currency."
It is here where I think we could revisit the two quotations from Graham Nash at the top of this review as the lyrics, addressed directly to Crosby and the interview snippet do indeed provide the conflict that houses the core of the Eaton's film. On the one hand, we are given a window into David Crosby's inner world, one that has not often been witnessed over time. Crosby is decidedly forthcoming concerning his mistreatment of friends and lovers over the years, especially his relationship with none other than Joni Mitchell, for instance. He never falls into self-pity or anything resembling false self-awareness. He is matter-of-fact as well as fully engaging. And yet, regrading Nash's interview quotation, there is that hint of the mischievous, that sense that maybe...just maybe...he might be putting us on despite the greatness of his storytelling.
Yer for me, as I watched and as I ruminate over the film right now, I believed him. It was all in his eyes.
Perhaps it is through his decades long association with Cameron Crowe that provided him with a sense of comfort with being interviewed for his answers do not feel to be held back by any sense of reluctance, as Crowe, while always respectful, never goes easy on Crosby. If he had to choose between having happiness and complete security in life but without the presence of music in its entirety, would he choose that life if he could?
And then, there are the questions David Crosby asks of himself, especially when he ponders why he is still alive after so many of his friends have died over the years due to the same excesses to which he subjected himself. Clearly there is much survivor's guilt at work and when Eaton keeps his camera close upon Crosby's considerably aged face, adorned with all manner of wrinkles and deep lines of time and augmented by his iconic mustache and mane of still elongated hair, the history plus the pain within becomes evident. And it is here where the film grows in power and becomes transcendent.
A.J. Eaton's "David Crosby: Remember My Name" extends far beyond the constraints of a music bio-pic to become a document of a life nearing its inevitable conclusion, therefore we are given a film that becomes universal in the subject of how life is lived and what work needs to be performed to get one's house in order and death approaches. Crosby states firmly that he is afraid to die and that he desires more time as he does not feel as if he is remotely close to being finished, again despite the nature of his health.
The film feels to cement not so much a settling of scores but the story of a man attempting to relinquish himself of the baggage he placed upon others and mostly himself over the bulk of his life. It s a film that works as a confessional, but one where the confessions become testimony with the hopes of alleviation of the soul. The power of the film is not whether Crosby will survive the next concert tour but if he will be able to find and receive forgiveness. Will his spirit be able to rest once his time arrives to pass onwards into eternity?
Obviously, the film, playing as life being lived in real time, is unable to answer that specific question and how could it? Yet, Eaton does indeed force us to place those very questions upon ourselves as we watch David Crosby's life. How have we treated our fellow brothers and sisters during our lives and furthermore, how have we treated ourselves? As we grow, age and think about our own sense of mortality, what do we wish to leave behind if anything? The finger and footprints do we wish to leave as our defining marks upon those would just might remain behind to remember us?
A.J. Eaton's "David Crosby: Remember My Name" is a quietly wrenching record of a lion deep in Winter, refusing to go silently into any good night but helplessly hoping for atonement and absolution before that final curtain.
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