David Crosby’s debut solo album, was released in February 1971 in the wake of CSN’s Déjà vu album. Crosby managed to get together the who’s who of the Laurel Canyon scene at the time, viz: Graham Nash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, members of Jefferson Airplane, Santana, and the Grateful Dead, including Jerry Garcia. The ensemble was given the informal moniker of “The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra”. Unfortunately, Crosby continued to descend through the remainder of the decade into aimless drug addiction, and did not issue another solo album until 18 years later.

The album’s vibe weaves the listener into a dreamy and hazy California hippie ambience. The opening track Music is Love sets the album’s tone with a floating ‘in and out of consciousness’ feeling. Voices drop in and out, join back in, and eventually create their own cadence as the acoustic guitar and congas keep time. The next track Cowboy Movie is the only true rocker, which is basically a take-off on Crosby’s Almost Cut My Hair. Stinging electric guitar, gravelly vocals describe a tale out west.

The instrumental Tamalpais High (At About 3) is a beautiful instrumental with CSN harmonies which conveys the sensation of a smoky beat cafe. The gorgeous Laughing with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel and Joni Mitchell on harmonies puts the audience into a complete reverie. The track What are their names is powered by some great guitar interplay between Neil Young and Jerry Garcia with the choir dramatically demanding to know who the men are ‘that really run this land’, so that they can ‘give them a piece of my mind, about peace for mankind’, - it conjures up images of railing against ‘the man’ for ‘the war’…

Traditionally arranged “Orleans” with its complex acoustic picking, and the dreamy harmonizing of I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here conclude the proceedings pretty much on the same note that they started - a drugged out peaceful foggy trip.

This album is a shambolic trippy masterpiece, meandering but transcendentally so. I consider it amongst the finest splinter albums from the CSNY era and one of the defining moments of hung-over spirituality of the time.

Rating: ****

Release Date – 22nd Feb 1971

Duration: 37:54

Genre: Pop/Rock

Label – Atlantic Records

Reviewed by Anil Sukhia

Anil Sukhia grew up in the 60s, listening from the tender age of 9 to the music of the Rolling Stones (Aftermath) and the Beatles (Abbey Road) with dollops of Chris Barber, Nat King Cole, Pat Boone and Eartha Kitt thrown in the mix on his father's (another major music buff) cassette player .He's been a diehard muzak addict ever since, with taste ranging from rock and blues to jazz. He currently has a collection of around 1000 CDs. He also restarted collecting vinyl in 2017 and has now become a serial collector with 300 odd vinyl already in the house. On holidays you might find him crate digging for rare vinyl in the alleys of Dubai, Delhi, Istanbul, Moscow or Berkeley.