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THE SAFE-ENERGY COMMUNITY LOSES AN ANTI-NUKE GIANT![]()
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By Dave Kraft, Director, NEIS 1/19/23![]()
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The peace and anti-nuclear community lost a great friend today with the announced death of musician David Crosby, aged 81. His most famous band, Crosby-Stills-and-Nash were participating members of the Guacamole Fund of California, founded in 1974. The Fund distributes contributions from musicians opposing nuclear power and war as a follow up to the Three Mile Island nuclear power disaster in 1979, which also resulted in the formation of Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) and the famous “No Nukes!” concert of 1979.![]()
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David and the band, along with other notable musicians like Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, James Taylor, Keb Mo, John Hall and others regularly and generously donate portions of the proceeds from their concerts to support safe-energy and anti-nuclear groups around the U.S., funds which are distributed by the Guacamole Fund. CS&N did a special “meet-and-greet” fundraising event for NEIS back in the day with the help of the Guacamole Fund.![]()
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David was a fearless, outspoken, usually over-the-top-blunt individual who said exactly what he thought, all the time, a trait which would relentlessly embroil him in controversy musically, politically, professionally, and personally. That said, he had the unique personal honesty to be able to simultaneously ream someone out – who he would shortly later say he loved and respected. ![]()
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The first time I saw Crosby was during an appearance in the 1960s on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show when Crosby was still with the Byrds. After being introduced the band did not start playing immediately; David didn’t feel his guitar was in tune, so set about to tune it. The impatient audience started to giggle and snicker – at which Crosby stopped what he was doing, faced the crowd and said, “We tune because we care!” Crickets. Then they performed their song. That was it – I was a Crosby fan for life. Anyone who had stones like that was someone I wanted to know more about, maybe even be like.![]()
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Having emerged as a product of the 60s, he and his contemporaries did not shy away from confronting war, hate, and injustice directly, both in song and in deeds. He was a fearless and tireless critic of “The Man,” and the horrors governments and The System perpetrate on people. His music reflected that. He perhaps collaborated best with fellow-musician Graham Nash (who as with most of his friends, he love-hated simultaneously at the end of his life after yet another legendary and incendiary falling-out between them) to create songs of incredible beauty (e.g., his own Guinnevere, Lee Shore, To The Last Whale: Critical Mass/Wind On The Water) and songs expressing intense rage at the world’s injustices (e.g., Almost Cut My Hair, What Are Their Names, Wooden Ships). ![]()
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And while he did not write the song Ohio (that honor goes to Neil Young), this version of it demonstrates the intensity and passion that Crosby felt for justice:![]()
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=kInBqFUNnow![]()
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I hurt and grieve his death as the World again losing yet another treasure, as I did earlier in the week with the announcement of the death of guitarist Jeff Beck. Thank you for all you have given the World, David. We’ll continue to rage on for you, laughing at The Man, while on the way to our own lee shore.![]()
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Dave Kraft![]()
Director![]()
Nuclear Energy Information Service
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