Hybrid-SACD - UDSACD 2214 Read more.
1. Music Is Love
2. Cowboy Movie
3. Tamalpais High (At About 3)
4. Laughing
5. What Are Their Names
6. Traction in the Rain
7. Song with No Words (Tree with No Leaves)
8. Orleans
9 I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here
No album captures the relaxed, laid-back, yet restless atmosphere of early 1970s California quite like If I Could Only Remember My Name. Hallucinogenic, trippy, and resembling a hazy dream, David Crosby’s solo debut has stood the test of time. His album is an entirely unique statement and remains memorable as a wonderful convergence of spontaneity, collaboration, circumstance, and studio craftsmanship. Now, nearly 50 years after its original release, this audiophile favorite has never sounded so ethereal, immediate, detailed, balanced, and lush.
Remastered anew, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered hybrid SACD highlights the escapist calm of Crosby’s music and the brilliance of Stephen Barncard’s engineering. Just as important are Crosby’s unmatched vocal performances and the inspired contributions of the many illustrious colleagues and friends from the Bay Area — including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, key members of the Grateful Dead, and several members of Jefferson Airplane — all of whom enable If I Could Only Remember My Name to function as a hymn to community, harmony, and the necessary emotional release (and suspension).
An album long celebrated for its magnificent sound, this Mobile Fidelity reissue brings out deeper transcendent qualities and resonates with even more spiritual energy. The listener can now fully hear and perceive the structure of each song, witness how the notes seem to dissolve into thin air, and understand why Barncard — who had recorded the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty a year earlier — described the echo chamber at Wally Heider Recording as “probably the best chamber I ever used.” It was magical. You can hear that in [Jerry] Garcia’s pedal steel on ‘Laughing’.
Ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 40 greatest stoner albums and aptly described as a “super-stoned campfire jam,” If I Could Only Remember My Name is rooted in deep grief and haunting sadness — namely, the death of Crosby’s girlfriend at the time in a car accident. At first, the singer wanted to keep his emotions locked away, but over the course of the sessions and the largely on-the-spot work, the truth gradually emerged. Although there is no narrative arc or straightforward lyricism, the nine-track record arrives at something richer than explicit words: a distinct, lingering vibe that points to a gnawing, ominous reality lurking beneath a warm, blurred, supportive surface.
