David Crosby - Oh Yes I Can (1989)

 (U.S 1965 - 2023)

Oh Yes I Can....and he did!

"David Crosby is back in the international spotlight with the release of his new solo album. He returns with an LP full of the lyrical and melodic prowess we've grown to respect from this very talented artist. Crosby is one of the most innovative figures to have been involved in rock music over the last two decades. As a founder member of The Byrds, Crosby was a pioneer of a least three musical genres, just retrace his work with Crosby, Stills, Nash and (later) Young. That wonderful bittersweet voice sounds as fresh today as when it first appeared on record. Guitarist Michael Hedges, pianist Kenny Kirkland, singers James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and J.D Souther make special guest appearances throughout this LP."  [taken from cover Liner Notes]

'Oh Yes I Can' album was released during the week of February 11, 1989. It was Crosby's first solo album in 18 years.

This was David´s first Solo effort after finally having cured his Lebanese Flu. The mood of the album was very optimistic. David was letting us and his wife Jan know that “Oh Yes I Can still make music” and “Oh Yes I can still be the man you fell in love with”.  And David invited a lot of friends to celebrate his return. The whole West Coast Scene took a train and went to the Studio. You will recognise Graham Nash, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Lukather and many others. And David´s band includes Russ Kunkel and Joe Vitale on Drums, Craig Doerge on Keyboards (who also co-wrote many of the tracks on the album), Joe Lala, Danny Kortchmar and Larry Carlton on Guitars,  George Perry on Bass and Mike Finnegan on Organ. And, finally, David´s voice is back in its full glory.

So everything and everybody is set to make a great record. Unfortunately that did not quite happen for two reasons. Firstly, the songs, mostly written by David alone or in association with Craig Doerge, are very mainstream and lack the magic of his Byrds /CSN days. Secondly, the production is very generic. Artists like Toto and Jackson Browne come to my mind when listening to Melody and In the Wide Ruin.

There are some exceptions to the rule of course. There is quality in songs like Monkey and the Underdog and Tracks in the Dust. The first song is the story of David (The Underdog) in his battle against drugs (The Monkey). And in the second song we welcome Graham Nash´s harmony vocals. That probably explains why I consider this song to be the best on the album.

So yes, David was back and that´s great. But did he miss the mark? Maybe.

Crosby, Stills and Nash

Album Review

Back in 1989, Crosby was the underdog in a fight against a drug addiction that so nearly killed him and landed him in prison. The drugs sapped away the creativity and left Crosby questioning his decisions. 'Oh Yes I Can!', finally released in 1989, took an entire decade to make and was finally released a full eighteen years after the last solo album 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'. Written off the back of Crosby's powerful autobiography 'Long Time Gone' (which is similarly full of apologies and mistakes), it's an album unique in the Crosby canon, without the eccentric certainty of the predecessor or the big open heart of the CPR records to come.

Despite the certainty of the title, 'Can' is the one Crosby album where Crosby fears he can't and where nothing is safe, where things have gone so wrong that he can't get himself out of trouble. 'Drive My Car' has the narrator taking his motor for a spin, simply because it's the only thing in life he has any control over anymore. 'Tracks In The Dust' tries to have a four-way conversation about how to put the world to rights and comes up empty, or at any rate ends up a tie. 'The Monkey and The Underdog' is a struggle still left ongoing at the end of the song, the odds still heavily in favour of the tougher drug-Monkey whose killed so many, even though the underdog is doing his best at putting up one hell of a fight. On 'Distances' even Crosby's eloquence can't break through the barriers the drugs have built up.

The title track is the closest we've had to an apology in over fifty years of music-making, part fictional but also part autobiographical. Even Crosby's decades fighting the American establishment get overturned with 'Lady Of The Harbour' praising the constitution (if not the ways it's maintained) while the album even ends with the unofficial US anthem 'My Country 'Tis Of Thee'.

Crosby, it seemed, had finally cut his hair. It takes an outside song, by Crosby friend Craig Doerge's wife Judy Henske, to proclaim that deep within nothing ever changes within the self, even when everything changes.

Oddly, perhaps, given how much Crosby has always worn his heart on his sleeve you don't get much sense of that truly awful period in his life from the music on 'Oh Yes I Can!', which is a largely upbeat and hopeful album. There's only one song about drugs, nothing about prison and precious little about 'freedom' (the closest we get is the statue of liberty appearing to America's first immigrants). Maybe that's because five of these eleven are old songs (four dating back to that 1979 record and 'Drop Down Mama' even further), one of these a cover and one a traditional folk tune/national anthem, which leaves only the title track, 'The Monkey and The Underdog' 'Tracks In The Dust' and 'Lady Of The Harbour' as bona fide new compositions.

 

Crosby sounds more concerned with the outer world than he's ever been in song before, perhaps because he felt so cut off from anything outside his cell during his time in prison - hence the inclusion of songs that are respectively about his girlfriend Jan, fellow drug sufferers, the state of the world and a nationalistic pride for America from someone whose just realised how much they miss it. The last of these three songwriting methods are ones Crosby won't ever really return to again with no future song being so blatant about drugs, fictional four-way dinner party conversations or jingoistic concerns, though all are heartfelt after so long in solitary. What is constant is the true start of a run of love songs for girlfriend Jan Dance, the one loving constant in what must surely be Crosby's most difficult decade and final proof to the man who once sang 'Triad' and meant it that he had to commit himself to one true love.

Jan had problems herself, struggling with Crosby's lack of income and getting by through odd-jobs while battling drug issues too. Thankfully there's a happy ending, with the pair getting married soon after Crosby's release (and they still are to this day, with this currently the longest running relationship in all of CSN-dom). Though Crosby had survived hell and many fans expected a record full of exorcising demons, it's that sense of happiness that comes over most on 'Oh Yes I Can' - that love is there somewhere if you look hard enough (even if it's only in a 'melody' or a simple car-ride, two old pre-jail songs that must have taken on new meanings after being denied to Crosby for so long). The album's other message is that sometimes, just sometimes, under-dogs can win the hardest fights.

Overall, then, 'Oh Yes I Can' wasn't the album we were expecting and it smacks at times of the speed and necessity with which it was made as Crosby found his need for a quick income was faster than his still slightly sluggish inspiration could flow. There has never been a Crosby related album with quite so much filler (the special case of covers project 'A Thousand Roads' aside) and the late 1980s production is often at odds with the timeless era-defying songs they're meant to balance (even more so than the 1979 version of the album, actually). However, there's a lot of hard work that went into this album at both the composing and recording stage and a lot of truth and heart went into the lyrics and melodies too.

 

The 1979 recordings are, 'Drive My Car' aside, too good to hold back in a drawer somewhere (it seems odd that Stills and Nash didn't pick up on the excellent 'Distances', especially, the same time they 'borrowed' 'Delta' and 'Might As Well Have A Good Time'). The best of the new songs like the title track and 'Tracks In The Dust' are right up there with Crosby's best too, poignant and sophisticated. The much-debated flag-wavers 'Lady Of The Harbour' and 'My Country 'Tis Of Thee' aren't the betrayals of liberalness fans took them to be at the time, but a wider understanding of the idealism in Crosby's nature and his frustration when America so infrequently even tries to live up to that fact. 'In The Wide Ruin' is a better and more suitable choice of cover than most on next record 'A Thousand Roads' and Crosby's voice is still full of pure beauty throughout, impressively so given what Crosby had been doing to it for the past decade.

Like Crosby, 'Oh Yes I Can' is far from perfect, is often opinionated (even if most opinions are right) and slightly conceited at times across the album. But, really, would fans have had it another way? Despite the production, despite the covers, despite the mix of old and new material and a sense of commercialism that will never be there on his solo works again, there's plenty of the 'real' Crosby here and after pretty much fifteen years out of the public eye (two songs on CSN's 'Daylight Again' and CSNY's 'American Dream' aside) for long term Crosbyphiles that's blessing enough. Oh yes Crosby still could, most of the time anyway - and that's all about this album you really need to know. [Extracts from alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com]

This post consists of FLACS ripped from my 'near mint' vinyl and contains full album artwork for vinyl and CD formats, along with label scans and photos.

It was always my intention to do a tribute post for Crosby in light of his recent passing (Jan 19, 2023), however I wanted to see what other bloggers posted first, before I produced mine. I think this album is one that has not been posted recently, and is a worthy addition from his wide discography.

RIP David Crosby - aged 81

Track Listing

01 Drive My Car 3:34
02 Melody 4:07
03 Monkey And The Underdog 4:15
04 In The Wide Ruin 4:47
05 Tracks In The Dust 4:47
06 Drop Down Mama 3:06
07 Lady Of The Harbor 3:19
08 Distances 3:35
09 Flying Man 3:24
10 Oh Yes I Can 5:08
11 My Country 'Tis Of Thee 1:58

Artists:

Vocals - David Crosby, Graham Nash, Michael Hedges, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, J.D Souther
Bass – Leland Sklar, George Perry, Tim Drummond
Drums – Joe Vitale, Russ Kunkal, Kim Keltner
Guitar – David Crosby, Danny Kortchmar, Joe Lala, Steve Lukather, Jackson Browne, Michael Hedges, Mike Landau, Larry Carlton
Slide Guitar – David Lindley, Dan Dugmore
Keyboards – Craig Doerge, Mike Finnegan, Kim Bullard

David Crosby Link (216Mb)