Long Time Gone

by David Crosby and Carl Gottlieb

Book Overview

A thorough and candid autobiography that is both a personal journey and a cultural history of American pop music. From the early folk era to the Golden Age of rock & roll, Crosby's story is both a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385245300
• ISBN13: 9780385245302
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 489 Pages
• Weight: 2.01 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Amazing -- A True American Story

This book is an amazing document about an amazing performer, born at the right time, in the right place, with the right set of talents needed to succeed (and fail, spectacularly). If you are interested at all in American culture from the sixties to now, this is essential reading. Basically, David was born in Santa Barbara, grew up in the 50s loving sailing, cars, and women, later to be joined by music. He fell into the folk scenes then emerging in the early 60s, and by dint of personality and talent, worked his way into the Byrds, then CSN, then a sybaritic lifestyle that broke the mold. Holy cow -- this is a highly entertaining, engrossing story of the American Dream gone good, gone bad, then gone good again. You will not put it down. Hooray for the survivors, the dreamers, the lovers, the music-makers.

IF YOU HAVE A KID THATS "INTERESTED" IN DRUGS..

Here's a great textbook of what happens when you spend day and night looking to stay stoned and make great music at the same time... Although a bit dated in it's culture, this read is right up to date so far as what happens when it all goes downhill. Any rockstar from the 60's-70's know all about it. Unfortunatly David's been in and out of the Can a few more times since this book was put together, and what a damn shame it is. He still manage's to be the musical genious of his time. He'll go into that group of toxic greats like Keith Richards, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and many others. Long Time Gone is a great book. You'll like it and end up keeping it instead of giving it to the local non profit book store when you're done reading it all. This is an excellent anti drug book that comes in from the back side. No preachy thou-art naughty-naughty stuff. Remember, he's still at it in the 21st century. On everyone's "dead pool" list. He hasn't found God or become a member of a cult. Its all David. Tells it like it is and was. Also a fun look at how David grew up through it all and became a supergroup man. When his obit comes out, it will be an unhappy day for me.

Unbelievably Good and Entertaining

Someone you can love and hate. The only down side is that I came away not liking David Crosby...a lot! This kinda cuddly, Santa Claus, teddy bear lookimg guy is anything but. He used and abused everyone who loved him. Full of himself, he's sure he will be forgiven for the horrible things he does because of how talented he is. The book is full of amazing stories about the paople and times. I truly enjoyed reading this and recommend it to friends often.

More Entertaining Than The Music

David Crosby had the good sense to enlist help in writing this book--lots of help--and the result is stunning. Instead of a typically self-absorbed druggy memoir, it becomes part oral history, part biography, part raree show--all in all a sweeping portrait of a man and an era. The list of celebrities and hangers-on who contribute their recollections is long, too long to give here. Among the most amusing is David Geffen, the producer, who was, in his own words, "a formidable figure always". Not formidable enough, however, to keep himself from being bullied by Crosby into taking an envelope of weed through airport security and being handcuffed and jailed.Geffen had already begun to have doubts about his business relations with the singer after Crosby talked him into financing a movie in which "a tribe of nomads arrives at a campsite, spends a night and a day, and moves on, leaving the environment lovingly unblemished". The script was written by Crosby and an equally stoned partner. Geffen perceived at once that the film would be something less than a blockbuster, and pulled the plug on it even as Crosby was scouting locations.But this sort of thing was quite mild compared to the hilarity of Crosby's hard drug phase, which followed his soft drug phase. Marijuana gave way to cocaine, and cocaine led to the breakdown of the barrier between his nostrils. As a precautionary measure, Crosby switched to freebase cocaine, which is smoked rather than snorted. This effort at health protection was in vain, however, as freebase turned out to be one of the most addictive substances on earth, demanding tribute from its hapless user virtually round the clock. So fierce was his desire to get the stuff into his lungs that he excused himself from a crisis intervention featuring such stars as Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, and Grace Slick, to go to the back room to be alone with his pipe.And, with a propane torch for the odd procedure which turns ordinary cocaine into "freebase" Crosby slipped many times, leaving his body not "lovingly unblemished", but rather covered with burns and impetigo. By the eighties he was consuming thousands of dollars worth a day of the drug, and his life became a dizzing round of nightclubs, treatment centers, airplane rides (paying no attention to the illumination of the No Smoking sign), and binges with the ever-present torch and pipe in operation even while driving. "'I'm the best no-hands knee-steering driver in the world,' he would reassure startled passengers." That may have been true, but in 1982 he passed out from coke overload while on his way to a demonstration at a nuclear power plant, and smashed into the center divider of the San Diego Freeway, and was busted by the Man. Here is laid bare the dilemma of the addict/activist: in order to save the people from radiation, he must at the same time endanger the people by driving while comatose. Law enforcement, after a couple more such incidents, decided he was a clear and present dan

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!

This is one of the best autobiography's I've read. Deals so well with Alcoholism, Drug addiction, etc. I was once a rock and roll musician and can attest the fact that this is the way it was in the 70's.