David Crosby took a break from his CSNY supergroup to launch a solo career in 1971, teaming up with The Grateful Dead and other Bay Area musicians.

I only really know David Crosby as one-third of Crosby, Stills & Nash – or one-quarter of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

But before that he was a folkie who went on to co-found The Byrds, playing on their first five albums; and after their chart-topping album Deja Vu he released his first solo album.

If I Could Only Remember My Name – an album title (and album) emblematic of the psychedelia-soaked times in California –  came out in 1971.

It featured an all-star line-up of backing musicians drawn largely from The Grateful Dead and Bay Area fellow travellers like Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Laughing mostly features the Dead: Jerry Garcia playing the gorgeous pedal steel guitar, plus drummer Bill Kreutzmann and Phl Lesh on bass, plus Graham Nash on guitar – and a brief vocal cameo from Joni Mitchell.

Despite its title, it’s filled with melancholy, a mood emphasised by the waterfall of layered harmony vocals, all of them sung by Crosby double- and triple-tracking himself (apart from Joni’s contribution in the bridge).

At the time Crosby made the album he was heartbroken by the death of his girlfriend Christine in a car crash, though Laughing dates back to early 1968 when he was still in The Byrds. They never recorded it though it might well have been recorded by CSNY had they not turned it down for Deja Vu.

Its lyrics are said to refer back to meeting Crosby had with George Harrison, who raved to his somewhat sceptical friend about his recent encounter with a guru in India.

“I thought that I’d found a light to guide me through my night and all this darkness,” Crosby sings. “I was mistaken. Only reflections of a shadow that I saw.”