The late singer-songwriter’s prolific output includes one of psychedelic rock’s greatest singles, a piano-driven dig at the Doors and a very funky Steely Dan-esque song
• Legendary US musician David Crosby dies aged 81
• David Crosby: a life in pictures
Crosby co-founded the Byrds, cementing his place as a major architect of the 1960s folk-rock movement. The title track of the California group’s second LP – a Pete Seeger cover with lyrics largely plucked from the Book of Ecclesiastes – pleads for peace while meditating on the sometimes bittersweet cyclical nature of life. The song also shows off Crosby’s gift for musical subtlety: He starts the song with elegiac guitar marked by precise rhythmic movements and then demonstrates an almost supernatural ability to sing with his bandmates, finding the harmonic sweet spot like a magnet clicking into place.
