In the wake of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s 1970 No. 1 album Déjà Vu, all the members were pursuing solo projects. Graham Nash released his debut, Songs for Beginners, by 1971, while Stephen Stills was on his third release, and Neil Young was in between After the Gold Rush and Harvest.
Videos by American Songwriter
David Crosby was also working on his 1971 solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, which included singles “Music is Love” and “Orleans,” along with a song he wrote and recorded earlier called “Laughing.”
George Harrison
The idea around “Laughing” came after George Harrison told Crosby about the guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who The Beatles had spent time with while studying transcendental meditation in 1968. Though Harrison believed in the guru, the other Beatles were a bit skeptical of their newfound sage.
“I was very taken with George,” said Crosby in 2022. “I liked him a lot. He was very friendly to me. He invited me over to his house. We had dinner together. We talked a lot. Paul [McCartney] was very friendly to me, John [Lennon] was very friendly to me, Ringo [Starr] was very friendly to me, but the one that I had the relationship with was George.”
[RELATED: Top 10 Songs Written by David Crosby]
Crosby continued, “So, George gets a hold of me one day and he says, ‘I met this fellow in India. A teacher, a guru that I like a lot.’ And I said, ‘Really? No shit?’ And he said, ‘Yeah. I think he’s got something.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s wonderful.’ And what I wanted to say … ‘Take it with a grain of salt,’ because I am a skeptical person about religious teaching.”
The Meaning
In general, Crosby was suspicious of most religions, but held his tongue around his friend and instead wrote about his skepticism on “Laughing.” In the song, he explains why he was mistrustful of the man who knew what was going on.
I thought I met a man who said he knew a man
Who knew what was going on
I was mistaken, only another stranger that I knew
“I don’t believe in God and I’m not really a big fan of religion — any of them,” said Crosby. “Buddhism isn’t exactly a religion. It’s a philosophy, and I did not want to come off like a snot to my new friend who I really respected hugely, so I didn’t say anything.”
He added, “But I had it in my head: ‘Take it with a grain of salt. Don’t just accept it at face value.’ So I wrote that song to tell him that. That the person I thought was the wisest I had met was a child laughing at the sun. And that I thought I could learn more from that child laughing at the sun than I could from anybody teaching.”
And I thought that I’d seen someone who seemed
At last to know the truth
I was mistaken, it was only a child laughing in the sun
Crosby’s “Laughing” Band
Though released on his debut, Crosby initially recorded “Laughing” on October 24, 1969, and it was one of many tracks the entire band had in line as a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young track — if it made the cut.
On “Laughing,” Crosby enlisted The Grateful Dead as his band with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, along with bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Graham Nash also contributes some vocal harmonies, while Joni Mitchell—who was dating and living with Nash at the time—is also featured at the end singing In the sun.
[RELATED: 9 of David Crosby’s Favorite Songs]
“Laughing” often popped up in Crosby’s live sets. Prior to his death on Jan. 18, 2023, at age 81, Crosby performed “Laughing” again with his Lighthouse Band, which was released on the 2022 DVD Live At The Capitol Theatre. Crosby attributed much of the magic around “Laughing” and the entire album to the instrumentation, including Garcia and the Dead crew, along with his engineer Stephen Barncard, whose feelings were mutual.
“David was so happy, jumping up and down, so open,” said Barncard following Crosby’s death in 2023.
“You know the cosmic thing where you leave a space for something to happen?” added Barncard. “Well, that’s what David did.”
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
