{"id":621634,"date":"2026-05-03T20:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621634\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:21:12","slug":"the-1971-song-david-crosby-tried-to-give-to-george-harrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/621634\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1971 song David Crosby tried to give to George Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Eddi Laumanns aka RX-Guru \/ Tidal<\/p>\n

David Crosby<\/a> was an imperial songwriter of the highest calibre. He was not only a part of one of the greatest supergroups of all time alongside Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young. <\/p>\n

But after their magnificently prolific period together, each artist came out of the experience as a selection of the best songwriters in the game.<\/p>\n

For a period, everybody wanted a piece of the band following their time together, and each solo career went in four very different but highly successful directions. David Crosby\u2019s debut solo album, If Only I Could Remember My Name, which was released in 1971, is established as his most commercially successful record to date and one that certified Crosby as being more than just a former member of CSNY or The Byrds \u2013 he was his own creative entity. <\/p>\n

However, one of the most adored tracks from the record \u2013 which remains one of the quintessential Crosby songs almost 50 years on \u2013 wasn\u2019t even supposed to be his song at all. Instead, Crosby had intended to gift the creation to the former Beatle George Harrison.<\/p>\n

Despite that independence, one of the album\u2019s standout moments came from a song that wasn\u2019t originally meant for him at all. \u2018Laughing\u2019, now widely regarded as one of Crosby\u2019s defining compositions, began life with a very different destination in mind, highlighting both his generosity as a songwriter and the fluid creative exchanges that defined the era.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ David Hume Kennerly<\/p>\n

Crosby had intended to pass the track on to George Harrison, a musician he deeply admired following the seismic impact of The Beatles. Although the collaboration never materialised, the song ultimately found a home on Crosby\u2019s own record, where it has since endured as a deeply personal and spiritually resonant piece within his catalogue.<\/p>\n

Crosby, who recently passed away at the age of 81,<\/a> was active on social media until the very end, a method he used to engage with his fans at every available moment. Welcoming questions and urging engagement, Crosby was asked: \u201cWas there any particular inspiration for \u2018Laughing\u2019? It\u2019s a beautiful song and has helped me very much for 50 years\u201d. Crosby, responding to the message, revealed that the song was actually written for his old Liverpudlian friend.<\/p>\n

While it remains unknown why the track fell through and why Harrison never ended up accepting, the opportunity to write for a former Beatle would have been a dream come true for Crosby, who confessed in 2014 to MusicRada<\/a>r <\/a>that \u201cseeing The Beatles made something else click. It changed my life. They changed my life. Let\u2019s be very specific about that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Detailing further, Crosby added: \u201cWatching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan<\/a> was wonderful. I was shocked\u2026 in such a good way. Of course, none of us had seen that kind of reaction from kids before, not for anybody. I think most people were amazed at the reaction, the screams and the hysteria. How could you not be?\u201d Crosby continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was amazed, too, but more so by the sheer musicality of it and The Beatles\u2019 ability to project what a confident, joyful and beautiful band they were. I\u2019d never seen anything like them before \u2013 or since. But, you know, it\u2019s always about the music. Those guys could really play and sing. They had the goods. And they really had the songs,\u201d the former Byrds man concluded.<\/p>\n

A definitive rock and roll story of \u2018what could have been\u2019 in the highest order. For now, stream the original below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Eddi Laumanns aka RX-Guru \/ Tidal David Crosby was an imperial songwriter of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[101002,88,10330,216],"class_list":["post-621634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-david-crosby","tag-entertainment","tag-george-harrison","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}