Baltimore, Monday, January 23, 2023—It seems as if the music of CSNY was always somewhere in the background of my childhood and early adolescence in suburban New Jersey in the 70s and 80s, although folk-rock was only one of many genres I listened to then. Plenty of fine writers have been spilling ink over the death last Thursday of the prolific and irascible Crosby, so I won’t bother adding my two cents here. I liked this piece about him best of all the things I glanced at last week. Actually I’ll just mention this: it’s possible my favorite story about Crosby is really a story about Joni Mitchell and the fantastically cruel way she broke up with him via public song. The two of them could have generated a pretty rollicking AITA thread on Reddit (“Am I The Asshole?”).
A longtime fan and friend asked me on Friday to cover a Crosby song, so I chose this one for its relative simplicity. It felt irreverent turning a piece built for tight 4-part harmony into a solo venture, so I’m not sure if this one will go into my permanent repertoire, but working up this interpretation was a lovely way to spend a rainy winter Sunday. And given my recent complex thoughts about my mother, a song built around the device of a generational mirror seemed appropriate….
Teach Your Children [musical bonus post]