Guests on the album include Jerry Garcia, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and other prominent West Coast musicians of the era.

[6] Grief stricken, Crosby coped by doing hard drugs and spending large amounts of time in the studio, where he "felt safe.

Among them were Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, and members of the Grateful Dead (most frequently Jerry Garcia),[7] Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Santana.

[11] The album is rooted in the folk-rock tradition, but like much of Crosby's work it also borrows tunings, time signatures, and vocal phrasings from jazz.

"[13] Pitchfork stated that "[t]he music feels the way a dream sounds when you try to retell it in the morning: foggy, only loosely coherent, dissolving in real time.

Two singles were taken from the album, including the minor hit "Music Is Love", a collaboration with Nash and Young that was released in April 1971 and peaked at No.

[17][3] In October 1990, a compact disc version was released, having been digitally remastered from the original master tapes, using the equipment and techniques of the day, by Barncard.

[19] Crosby has said of the contemporaneous reviews: "They were looking for another record that was full of big, flashy lead guitar and blues licks and screaming lyrics ... [If I Could Only Remember My Name] was not where everything else was going, so they thought it was irrelevant.

"[21] The album went on to achieve cult status and praise from latter-day critics for its austere mood, eclectic improvisation and otherworldly harmony singing.

"[22] A Head Heritage review of the 2006 reissue compares the album with Nick Drake and the acoustic material of Meddle-era Pink Floyd.