long, is that, david in particular was, was sort of at the center of the movement. at the center of the sort of, cultural peak that was the early 1970s. um, he was, you know, to have been a member of the byrds, to have joined crosby, stills & nash, and to have stepped up to the plate with neal young s beautiful song ohio . and basically, sort of, really quite a courageous thing to do. they responded so immediately to it. and, um, we needed it. i read that back in the 70s david also worked as a session singer and sang backup for you and also, i think for jackson brown. i hasn t realized that. he certainly did. david and graham sang on my song mexico .
rock in l.a. which really kind of kicked off rock n roll in that time period. yeah. look, he was a founding father of folk rock in general and of the l.a. sound in particular. one of the original members of the birds, which were in many ways the fountainhead from which so much developed over the next decade, their recording of mr. tambourine man, bob dylan s mr. tam pour rinaman set the template for what came later. and then when you move forward a few years to crosby, stills, and nash and crosby, still, nash & young, they were very conscious of being a voice of their generation, and very determined to be relevant. in his memoir many years later, david crosby wrote about writing songs that reacted when the world slapped us in the face. and the most famous example, it s ohio their song about kent state. neil young and david crosby are together in northern california.
neil young sees the famous photo of the girl kneeling in the road and crying. he goes off into the woods. half an hour later emerges with the song ohio. david crosby emerges for the whole band to get together that night in l.a. and it s out on the street in a few days. the code of the post strip of the story, after the band broke up, when they finally got back together for this giant kind of chaotic reunion tour in 1974 that crosby labeled the doom tour because of all the drugs and craziness, ohio was their last encore many nights as richard nixon was marched towards resignation in the watergate scandal engulfed him. in many ways, they got the last word. and ron, you said crosby was the figure who really introduced joni mitchell to the world, bringing to l.a., showcasing her in people s living rooms in laurel canyon. can you imagine that? joni mitchell was getting started as a folk singer. they met i believe i recall in florida.
drumming, in ohio got to get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down should have been dying long ago it s so interesting. it s so interesting the story you told after that, the incident after they saw the photograph. who was it who actually wrote it? neil young. neil young. went off into the woods for half an hour, wrote the song, came back, and then and crosby arranged for the whole band to get together later that same day in l.a. and record it. to me, like kind of like i said, the postscript on the story is that the band blew up in 70, 71. and in 1974, david geffen, the great music entrepreneur, who really, he was the one who liberated all of them from their various contracts and allowed them to come together in the first place as csn, arranging this complex deal with clive
times soothing and brilliant. our randi kaye has more. reporter: he helped shape the sound of 1960s folk recognize as a founding member of the birds. but david crosby will always be best known as a founding member of crosby, stills and nash. the wildly popular group was made up of crosby, steven stills and graham nash. their sound distinctive for its melody and harm days. i am yours, you are mine, you are what you are reporter: in the midst of the late 60s laurel canyon scene in california, their debut album went multiplatinum. it s an absolute joy. it s what i was born to do. i love it more than anything except my family. it s the most fun you can have. and yes, i m including sex. it s really, really a joy. you re communicating to people. you re making them feel something. reporter: in 1969, neal young