Ik vond deze bijzondere opname van het lied Carry Me van David Crosby (1941-2023) & Graham Nash, waarschijnlijk gemaakt tijdens de opnames van hun album Wind On The Water uit 1975. En dus met fantastische muzikanten erbij als David Lindley op slidegitaar, Lee Sklar op bas, Russ Kunkel op drums, Craig Doerge op de piano & Danny Kortchmar op gitaar. Heerlijke muziek met onovertroffen samenzang tussen de toenmalige vrienden, die uiteindelijk van elkaar vervreemden.

Dit was het favoriete Crosby-lied van Neil Young. Het derde couplet gaat over Crosby’s moeder Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead, die stierf aan kanker. Hij zegt er zelf het volgende over: “She was lying in hospital, dying of cancer, and wanted to go while she still had some dignity. She asked me to do it, set her free – coup de grâce the French call it. So I said, “Hell, yes.” I learned how to do it from a doctor friend, and I was perfectly willing to do it, I’m not ashamed to say that. But she found out if she didn’t die on the hospital and doctor’s schedule, they’d conduct an autopsy and charge me with murder. So she had to go through an extra couple of months of desperate pain. She was a good lady. She taught me music, and was always writing poetry. I loved her a whole lot. She really nailed me when she said she felt like a bird with weights tied to her feet, that if somebody would just untie them she could fly. What an image – I couldn’t ignore it.”

De opname is gemaakt door Robert Hammer, een vriend van Crosby. Die hield het openbaar maken ervan tegen, omdat hij het geluid te slecht vond, maar nu kunnen we er dan toch van genieten.

Carry Me
When I was a young man,
I found an old dream.
Was as battered and worn a one,
as you have ever seen.
I made it some new wings,
and I painted a nose.
And I wished so hard,
up in the air I rose singing,

Carry me, carry me,
carry me above the world.

And I once loved a girl,
she was younger than me.
Her parents kept her locked up in their life,
and she was crying at night,
wishing she could be free.
‘Course mostly I remember her laughing,
standing there watching us play.
For a while there,
the music would take her away.
And she’d be singing

Carry me, carry me,
carry me above the world.

And then there was my mother,
she was lying in white sheets there,
and she was waiting to die.
She said if you’d just reach
underneath this bed,
and untie these weights,
I could surely fly.
She’s still smiling but she’s tired.
She’d like to hear that last bell ring.
You know if she still could she would,
stand up, and she could sing.
Singing

Carry me, carry me,
carry me above the world.