David Crosby: Remember My Name Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

David Crosby: Remember My Name Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 29, 2021

It is the very rare musician who gets the opportunity to forge a career with not one but two so-called "supergroups", and there's little question that David Crosby is one of the prime examples of that august community. And in fact if one counts Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as two separate entities, Crosby probably qualifies for a rare hat trick in this category, along with his work with the legendary Byrds. Considering the fact that both The Byrds and Crosby's work with Stills, Nash and Young might be arguably pigeonholed into rock or folk rock genres, David Crosby: Remember My Name kind of surprisingly begins with a somewhat raucous and hilarious anecdote shared by Crosby about going to see John Coltrane, and there's a subsequent tour through Crosby's photograph collection where Crosby spends a minute discussing a picture of Miles Davis. This is all to say that the eclecticism that has always been evident in Crosby's music (no matter what pigeonholing some people may try to enforce) comes from his personal experience.

Kind of amazingly, despite his unbelievable accomplishments, Crosby talks in this piece about his need to keep touring just to pay the bills. He kind of ruefully "reminds" people that of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, he's the only one who never had a solo hit. Crosby's well publicized health battles also play into the mix here, as there's a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" aspect to Crosby's life as documented in the film, in that the life of a touring musician is probably not a healthy one, and yet it's a necessity for him. The specter of mortality rather noticeably suffuses the subtext of David Crosby: Remember My Name and may bring to mind Crosby's redolent lyric for "Morrison", the song that helped establish a putative fourth supergroup including Crosby , C P R, where Crosby wrote:

He was lost and I don't think
He wanted it that way
Like a gull blown inland
On a stormy day

[. . .]

How does anyone get to there
We may never know
How they got that far
Or what made them go

[. . .]

And somehow I
Have to learn from this
'Cause I can hear him cry . . .

There's the typical biographical information here, but what gives this documentary so much of its power is that the bulk of the story is told from Crosby's own perspective and in his own voice. That gives extra emotion to his reminiscences of his famous father, Academy Award winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby (Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, High Noon), with Crosby being completely open about the lack of affection he felt he was given, and how it colored his young life.

Crosby has an incredible sense of humor which shows up pretty regularly throughout this piece, even when he's discussing various "nemeses" he's had to deal with (including Jim Morrison). Despite the interpersonal dramas that are addressed here, there's a surplus of love that informs Crosby's comments, especially as he remembers people like Cass Elliott. He's also unabashed about how emotionally abusive he was with various women, and how his drug issues often played into things. Crosby's simple honesty in these moments is quite bracing and maybe even revelatory.

There's both joy and a certain melancholy wafting through David Crosby: Remember My Name not just due to the inevitable "nostalgia" of Crosby revisiting places and even people from his past, but due to Crosby's own really distinctive persona. Rock musicians are probably not the first people that come to mind for many when asked to describe intelligent people with a bit of self awareness, but Crosby is a self evident exception to that assumed rule. Crosby states that "time is the ultimate currency", and David Crosby: Remember My Name should make any music lover happy that Crosby is still out there "spending".

David Crosby: Remember My Name Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

David Crosby: Remember My Name is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (largely) in 1.78:1 (as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, archival video can be closer to Academy Ratio, which might have pleased Floyd Crosby). This is a sharp and appealing looking presentation, with an understand that, as is so often the case with documentaries of this general ilk, the archival video can often look pretty ragged. All of the contemporary material pops extremely well, with excellent fine detail levels. The outdoor material, including some sweet scenes of Crosby at his ranch, look fantastic. I noticed no compression issues whatsoever.

David Crosby: Remember My Name Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

David Crosby: Remember My Name features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that does offer some surround activity in some of the source cues utilized, though as tends to be the case with these "musical biography documentaries", the music tends to be used as interstitials, and as such engagement of the side and rear channels can ebb and flow. That said, the track sounds great throughout, with an understanding that some of the archival video's audio element isn't as clear as some might hope. All of the contemporary material, including music, sounds full bodied, and all of the talking head material is delivered without any problems. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

David Crosby: Remember My Name Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• In Conversation with David Crosby & Cameron Crowe at the Asbury Park Film Festival (HD; 26:35) proves that Asbury Park "ain't just for The Boss" in this very enjoyable Q & A which looks like it might have taken place after a screening of the film.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 17:33)


• Extended Scene - Seeing John Coltrane (HD; 3:22)


• Extended Interviews (HD; 13:22) feature Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:25)


• Disc Credits (HD; 00:09)

David Crosby: Remember My Name Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am an unabashedly huge fan of The Byrds, CS&N and CSN&Y, so I may not be able to offer the most objective analysis of David Crosby: Remember My Name, though that said, I would be surprised if most people weren't impressed not just with Crosby's incredible musical accomplishments, but his no holds barred look at his own often chaotic life. I have to say that watching this documentary made me go dig out my C P R CDs (this is the group Crosby formed with his son, who was given up for adoption when he was a baby), and even this "latter day" Crosby material is incredibly visceral, harmonically interesting and often lyrically quite provocative, so if you haven't heard this particular group, you might want to check them out. David Crosby: Remember My Name is an unusually emotional viewing experience, and it's presented here with solid technical merits and some appealing supplementary content. Highly recommended.