HiRez Poll Crosby, David - IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME [DVD-A]

I've had this for a few years—it was one of my first surround titles—but finally bought a sub. For a largely acoustic record with the Dead of all people backing up the bass is positively ginormous – esp. on Cowboy Movie. Love it. On the louder numbers ("What Are Their Names," etc.) it almost feels like you are in the studio with this gangly group of guys (and gals).




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Finally voted on this. 10.

Beautiful laid back music from Crosby and his cast of friends, a who's who of 60's folk rock stars including Nash, Young, Garcia, Mitchell, Kantner, Slick, and many others. A comfortably discrete mix: Crystaline instruments and harmonizing vocals surrounding the listener to create a perfect sense of time and place.

A must have for anyone, especially old dudes like me

sbrom said:

Finally voted on this. 10.

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Which reminds me that I had never voted on it either. It's one of my favrorite surround discs. Another 10 from another old dude. :music

Absolutely outstanding disc and the extra Dog & Kids is one of the best, imo.
Just a reminder, although this is DVD-A surround, it is 5.0 not 5.1.

milt said:

Absolutely outstanding disc and the extra Dog & Kids is one of the best, imo.
Just a reminder, although this is DVD-A surround, it is 5.0 not 5.1.

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Now if only Rhino/Warner would release the Crosby, Stills, Nash and CSNY albums on DVD~A or BD~A. Supposedly, Deja Vu was prepared for DVD~A release but scrapped when Warner pulled the plug on DVD~A.

Just got a new universal unit to replace my separate DVD-A and Blu-Ray players, so I've been revisiting discs I haven't spun in a while.

It's worth noting that unlike Nash's Songs For Beginners, this disc is easily attainable new/sealed through dealers like Amazon and ImportCDs- is it still in print?

This is a tough one to rate. The mix is undeniably amazing. It has that real "quad" feeling. Some songs start only in the rears ("Tamalpais High") and others feature instruments hard-panned into corners (guitars in "Cowboy Movie"). The songs with wordless harmonies seem almost like they were intended for surround. If this title was given the quad treatment back in the 1970s, it probably would've ended up a lot like what we have here.

As for the content, I appreciate Crosby going in a wildly different direction after the commercial success of CSNY, but a lot of it just feels like himself and the amazing cast of musicians featured here getting high and screwing around.

I don't think anyone can deny how immersive a recording it is through. Sometimes it's the perfect thing to relax to at the end of day, while other days I'll put it on and get bored quickly.

Favorite tracks: "Song With No Words", "Tamalpais High", "Cowboy Movie" (though I think it's rather long and repetitive).

I'll go with an 8 on this one.

Now, will Deja Vu ever come out in 5.1? The upcoming release of Fleetwood Mac gives me hope...

I don’t give out many 10s, but this is an easy 10 for me. Only just got this last year and that was a used copy, but very reasonably priced. One early reviewer here likened the transition from the first song to the remaining songs surround-wise like the B&W-to-color transition in The Wizard of Oz and that really is an accurate statement. This is a mindblowingly good surround experience!

I had this on LP back in the days and loved it -- very contemplative in places, and energetic in others. Was disappointed that Grace had only an incidental appearance, but hey, it was Croz's album. Those who like this should look up the Seva Benefit in 1994 (a soundboard is circulating out there on them thar' interwebs) in which Crosby, Nash, Hot Tuna, Bob Weir, and Phil Lesh (among others!) do "Theme to a Cowboy Movie." I dimly remember Crosby messing a bit of the lyrics up, but hey, it is not like he sings it every day. Garcia was across the street at his bachelor's party, so sadly was missing. During the acoustic Wooden Ships set (Kantner, Casady, Diana Mangano, and Tim Gorman on keys), Crosby joined in for "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight" and "Mountain Song" -- David had written the music, but it took Kantner to put lyrics to it back in the PERRO days.

Anyhow, what a great DVD-A! I was shocked when elsewhere on the forum someone called it distorted, but it seems they had a bootleg.

Still available for below 20 dollars on Amazon, although I noticed one vendor had it for sale at a mere 220.00 (!). I gave it a 9, as the HDCD advertised on the stereo version is missing, but otherwise it deserves a 10!

halbroome said:

I had this on LP back in the days and loved it -- very contemplative in places, and energetic in others. Was disappointed that Grace had only an incidental appearance, but hey, it was Croz's album. Those who like this should look up the Seva Benefit in 1994 (a soundboard is circulating out there on them thar' interwebs) in which Crosby, Nash, Hot Tuna, Bob Weir, and Phil Lesh (among others!) do "Theme to a Cowboy Movie." I dimly remember Crosby messing a bit of the lyrics up, but hey, it is not like he sings it every day. Garcia was across the street at his bachelor's party, so sadly was missing. During the acoustic Wooden Ships set (Kantner, Casady, Diana Mangano, and Tim Gorman on keys), Crosby joined in for "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight" and "Mountain Song" -- David had written the music, but it took Kantner to put lyrics to it back in the PERRO days.

Anyhow, what a great DVD-A! I was shocked when elsewhere on the forum someone called it distorted, but it seems they had a bootleg.

Still available for below 20 dollars on Amazon, although I noticed one vendor had it for sale at a mere 220.00 (!). I gave it a 9, as the HDCD advertised on the stereo version is missing, but otherwise it deserves a 10!

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This is so good and fairly readily available that I hope any QQ member that doesn’t yet own it acquires it post haste!

https://www.amazon.com/If-Could-Only-Remember-Name/dp/B000J103N4

I voted 10. Holy shit, who knew, this is an exceptional DVD-A in 5.1. I listened from the disc, not a rip. All the positives above me are right on. The negatives, Really? I have a ton of surround discs and I am just floored I never was turned onto this until I saw this poll last week and decided to get it, i can't remember but like 35 bucks used, I think.
Like Jon Urban says, no hits, but just a plain really good surround disc.
Really glad I have it.

Seeing this thread get bumped prompted me to give it another listen and vote. Amazing fidelity. The autoharp is as gorgeous of a sound as I have ever heard on any digital disc. All of the acoustic instruments sound fabulous. I love the mix, it is interesting throughout and serves the music well. I gave the music a nine as it is mostly wonderful but some of the looser noodling at the beginning of a couple of the songs loses me.

If I could give this a 9 1/2 I would, but since I don't find it to be quite "perfect" I am giving it a nine.

This is the first piece of music I've voted on here. I gave it a 10 easily. I've had this music on just about every format including cassette, 8-track, vinyl, cd and this package. It's some of the best recorded rock music I've ever heard. The surround treatment is exquisite. I saw someone on here say that he didn't really like David's voice. If you have a program like Audacity where you can listen to the center channel in isolation you'll be able to hear David's voice isolated from the rest of the music. It is incredible. Very few rock singers sound this good. I happened to have just ripped some sacd's onto my computer and did the same thing with Billy Joel's The Stranger. His voice sounds fine with everything playing but when you listen to it isolated it doesn't sound that good. And that's a common impression I've gotten from checking out other artists' vocals when they've been isolated.

I remember buying this around the same time I bought The Beatles Love dvd audio close to when it was originally released. At the time I thought that surround music was dead and was very grateful for these two extraordinary surround releases. I have quite a few surround titles and I would put the David Crosby in my top five. On another note, a friend of mine loaned me his David Crosby 3 disc box set collection called Voyage which included the 2006 remastered versions of the songs from If I Could Only Remember My Name but to my surprise were not the same as the cd included with the dvd audio. The 2 disc package had a 2006 release date but imo the songs on that cd sound much better than the same songs on the Voyage box set.

I know artists hate this but I always hoped David would do another record like this one. Still grateful for this one.

sjcorne said:

As for the content, I appreciate Crosby going in a wildly different direction after the commercial success of CSNY, but a lot of it just feels like himself and the amazing cast of musicians featured here getting high and screwing around.

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I believe in the liner notes David says some of it is improvised and I'm sure getting high was part of the process. That only increases my appreciation because I love every bit of it.

This is an odd and somewhat unfortunate one.

On the one hand, the mix work is VERY good in general. Discrete and high fidelity. Better than most surround remixes from this period. The remixes on these early 2000's DVDAs often sound brushed over quickly and missing nuance of the original stereo or whatever format mix. But they still usually have a high level of fidelity and professional grade mix work. Often better fidelity than many '70s quads. This one has got all that going on but is honestly better than most.

So it's really too bad that the original stereo mix blows this out of the water with fidelity, dynamic range, and attention to detail in the mix. The original has everyone clearly riding their parts in the mix and getting everything just perfect. This original album is one of those audiophile mixes that was clearly fussed over a lot. Out of all the gang's albums, this one was the audiophile masterpiece. The remixes just run straight through without that finesse. You hear all the rough edges around all the improvised parts (lots of live jamming kind of stuff in here) whereas they nailed it all in the original. And wowzers the new engineer liked his cymbals loud! That's the biggest outright change. Gets in the way and steps on a lot. The original had it right.

I don't want to hate on this but the original is so much better I'll never listen to this again. Too bad. If the original wasn't just this masterpiece, this remix might be a top favorite.
A little bit of uncalled for brightness likely added in mastering and just slightly peak limited. The more compressed dynamic range is in the mix though. The 'rock' drum mix thang. Comments but not too much damage from mastering.

Now the original stereo mix on the DVDA in HD?
Completely fucked! Limited and boosted about 14db (not kidding) and blistering high end eq. Just distorted to all hell and back. They must have taken a mastering prepared for a volume war CD release and used it here (pre format reduction for CD). Or wanted to disguise it so it wouldn't compete with the remix.

And I'm still really not sure how Laughing isn't a popular staple like Teach Your Children and their (David and the gang's) other singles! That pedal steel solo is the coolest thing I've ever heard Jerry Garcia play. (And he's played some cool things.)

What a fantastic album. I’ve loved this album for decades. This is the album I took with me to get signed by Crosby after a concert in Atlanta. I told him this was still one of my favorite albums. He looked at the cover with those twinkling eyes of his and said, “Oh yeah, it’s a good one...” I asked him when they were going to release all of the Crosby Nash albums on CD for us? He said “ I wish they would. That’s all up to the record companies..”
We got them eventually but I think I had to order an import copy for the first Crosby Nash CD.

Anyway back to this DVD-Audio disc...
Great recording
Great music
Great musicians
Great songs
Gorgeous surround
Great time for music!!!

10

sjcorne said:

As for the content, I appreciate Crosby going in a wildly different direction after the commercial success of CSNY, but a lot of it just feels like himself and the amazing cast of musicians featured here getting high and screwing around.

I don't think anyone can deny how immersive a recording it is through. Sometimes it's the perfect thing to relax to at the end of day, while other days I'll put it on and get bored quickly.

Favorite tracks: "Song With No Words", "Tamalpais High", "Cowboy Movie" (though I think it's rather long and repetitive).

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I like the recording and mix job, and I'm glad it got it's High-Res surround mix, but imo the material is not as strong as I'd like. It just kind of plays nicely never begging me to hit play again after it finishes like many albums do.

A 9. This is my kind've music. I'm a huge CSN&Y fan and so far all I can find in surround sound from these guys are one solo album each* - and this is David's. It's also his best album so I'm happy with both the choice of LP and the mix. Immersive, exquisitely recorded, and with a who's who of San Fran musicians from a time when that city was hippie central of the country if not the world.

*Actually, Neil and Graham have more than that.

If I Could Only Remember My Name turned 50 earlier this year and Rhino is celebrating with a 2-CD set that includes the album lovingly remastered from the original analog tapes, accompanied by a bonus disc that features a dozen unreleased demos, outtakes, and alternative versions. The new remaster was overseen by original album engineer Stephen Barncard with restoration and speed correction using Plangent Processes.

David Crosby Details IF ONLY I COULD REMEMBER MY NAME: 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION | Rhino

~dave~~wave~ said:

If I Could Only Remember My Name turned 50 earlier this year and Rhino is celebrating with a 2-CD set that includes the album lovingly remastered from the original analog tapes, accompanied by a bonus disc that features a dozen unreleased demos, outtakes, and alternative versions. The new remaster was overseen by original album engineer Stephen Barncard with restoration and speed correction using Plangent Processes.

David Crosby Details IF ONLY I COULD REMEMBER MY NAME: 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION | Rhino

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One would have hoped that Rhino would include the 5.1 mix and hi-res stereo that came with the original DVD-A. Perhaps for the 100th anniversary, they will release only the left channel and in mp3.