“Nobody kids themselves into believing that they can solve the world’s problems,” said David Crosby in his 2000 book Stand and Be Counted: Making Music, Making History. “We’re just trying to make a difference, to change things for the better wherever we can. And if it takes a long push, then we’re in it for the long haul.”
Laced in social and political stances, the outcried songs Crosby wrote with Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) and solo, protested war, defended ’60s countercultures, addressed civil rights and the grave ends of gun violence, penetrated political imbalance, and more. “A lot of times this isn’t about the genius of the moment,” added Crosby. “It’s about persistence. It’s about being in there and staying in there.”
CSN’s “Long Time Gone” was originally written by Crosby the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. “I believed in him because he said he wanted to make some positive changes in America, and he hadn’t been bought and sold like Johnson and Nixon—cats who made their deals years ago with the special interests in this country in order to gain power,” said Crosby. “I thought Bobby, like his brother, was a leader who had not made those deals. I was already angry about Jack Kennedy getting killed and it boiled over into this song when they got his brother, too.”
Later released on the band’s ’71 live album 4 Way Street, Crosby said the lyrics were also triggered by the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair” was a more callow1960s protest song from Déjà Vu (1970), an ode to the long-haired hippies who were being singled out and letting their freak flag fly.
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What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground / How can you run when you know? sings Crosby in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1971 song, “Ohio,” written by Neil Young for the band following the Kent State Shootings a year earlier.
On Crosby’s ’71 solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, Crosby and Young co-wrote “What Are Their Names,” with the Grateful Dead‘s Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, and questioned the government and its hidden figures—I wonder who they are / The men who really run this land / And I wonder why they run it / With such a thoughtless hand.
“Part of our job is just to rock you, and part of our job is to be like troubadours,” Crosby said in 2006, “carrying the news from one town to another, like town criers.”
Here are the stories behind three protest songs Crosby penned later in his career.
[RELATED: Top 10 Songs Written by David Crosby]
“Nighttime for the Generals” (1988)
Written by David Crosby
A snapshot of the ’80s political environment, the Crosby-penned “Nighttime for the Generals” could be considered a continuation of “What Are Their Names,” and trying to decipher who is calling the shots within the government. Featured on CSNY’s second album together, American Dream in 1988, the more garish-’80s arrangement around “Nighttime for the Generals” may not have left as strong a mark as some other Crosby gems.
Well it’s nighttime and the long cars
Are arriving at the door
The general is having another party
With a congressman or three
And some guys you never see outside the bank
There’s a laughing clink of glasses
And a polished click of boots
And bitter talk of a country
With a weakness in its roots
And it’s nighttime for the generals
And the boys at the C.I.A.
Power gone mad in the darkness
Thinking they’re God on a good day
They giveth, they taketh
But they like to take it away
“They Want It All” (2004)
Written by David Crosby
Crosby & Nash was the duo’s first album together in 28 years since Whistling Down the Wire—and the final album by any combination of members from CSNY—closes on the patriotic “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Halfway into the 20-track album, Crosby traverses more political inquiries and injustice on “They Want It All.
Inspired by the accounting fraud around the Enron scandal in 2002, “They Want It All” and how big businesses are often in bed with the government—They always have a President or two / That’s how they get away with what they do.
“In a bigger picture, it’s about all corporate malfeasance, but inspired by the outrage that David felt about the way that Enron treated its employees and ruined countless thousands of lives, destroying their life savings and their IRAs and their 401s,” recalled Graham Nash in 2004. “But at the same time, making billions for themselves. David, of course, with all due disrespect, was outraged about that.”
They want it all, they want it now
They want to get it and they don’t care how
They want it all, they want it now
They want to get it and they don’t care how
Want that Mercedes, that Gulf Stream too
They want to get, get it from you
They want your life savings and your mother’s ring
They’d like to have everything
They want that mansion and they want it full
Of wine and women and political pull
They always have a President or two
That’s how they get away with what they do
That’s how they do it
During the Occupy Wall Street rallies in New York City in 2011, Nash and Crosby performed for the crowds in the streets, opening on “Long Time Gone,” before going into Nash’s “Military Madness” and a cappella rendition of “What Are Their Names,” and closing with “They Want It All” and “Teach Your Children.”
“Everybody is realizing that they’re getting screwed,” said Crosby. Nash added, “People are recognizing the basic truth that the system is loaded against them, and they’re looking for equality. It’s a simple thing.”
“Capitol” (2017)
Written by David Crosby and James Raymond
This is where it happens / They run the whole damned thing from here / Money to burn, filling up their pockets / Where no one can see, and no one can hear, sings Crosby on “Capitol,” from his sixth solo album Sky Trails. Co-written with his son James Raymond, “Capitol” goes back to the government secrecy and the Capitol building where the Senate and House of Representatives meet.
“‘Capitol’ is an indictment of our Congress,” said Crosby. “It’s me saying this is a scam. They’re tricking you with all that white marble and all that pomp and circumstance that they’re showing you. They’re really a grubby bunch of thieves, the lowest kind of people.”
It’s built to impress you and it works like that
All that white marble and the guards at the door
The metal detector, the following eyes
Geometric patterns covering the floor
The symbols of power, eagles, and flags
Attendants, and assistants moving like sharks
Through crowds of citizens, patriotic souls
Visiting the capitol and National Parks
And you think to yourself
This is where it happens
They run the whole damned thing from here
Money to burn
Filling up their pockets
Where no one can see
And no one can hear
Crosby added, “I’m glad I wrote, and I hope everybody in the world listens to it, because it’s true stuff.”
Photo: David Crosby at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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