David Crosby - Tamalpais High

I think I first knew the voice of David Crosby subconsciously. He has a way of blending in harmonies that are at once invisible but crucial. He was fired from The Byrds and hung out with Stills and Nash. Nobody thought they were worth shit. Crosby was persona non grata in the business after the Byrds and it was not difficult to get him out of existing contractual obligations. When CSN presented their debut album to Ahmet Ertegun, the chief of Atlantic, Crosby describes the reaction: "His brains dribbled out of his nose". With a solid gold number one album under his belt, Crosby was able to indulge his passion for sailing. He had a boat, a 60 foot staysail schooner called Mayan. It is a measure of how important the Mayan became to him that, although Crosby lost everything he owned during his dependence on Free-base Cocaine, and his subsequent incarceration, The Mayan, albeit in a stripped down and derelict state, stayed in his possession. It was on the Schooner that Crosby began putting together his solo album "If  only I could remember my name".

Mill Valley from Mt Tamalpais

David Crosby was part of a giant music scene in those days. The names cover a lot of ground but were herded together under a variety of ad hoc subriquets, and probably the one that stuck was The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra, comprising Crosby, Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Graham Nash, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Neil Young and many others. They all played on his first solo album.
At one point, Crosby was living in Mill Valley in Marin County. I guess then that this is where this track got its inspiration.