David Crosby’s personal acetate of his first ever recording session, from early 1964.

As explained in the accompanying letter of authenticity from longtime Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young associate Joel Bernstein:

This acetate was given to me by David Crosby in San Francisco in the mid-1970s.  It is his copy of three recordings made at World Pacific Studios, Los Angeles, in early 1964, David’s earliest professional recording sessions, produced by [future Byrds manager] Jim Dickinson, and featuring Crosby on lead vocal and session musicians Earl Palmer on drums, Ray Pohlman on bass, and Tommy Tedesco on guitar.

Track 1  Jack of Diamonds (Trad.), Track 2   Willie Jean (Hoyt Axton), Track 3   Come on Back (Ray Charles)

Tracks 2&3 first appeared on the Early L.A. LP compilation on Together Records in stereo [the acetate has mono versions].  Track 1 first appeared on The Byrds-The Preflyte Sessions 2-CD compilation on Sundazed Records in stereo.  Tracks 2&3 appeared in mono on the Byrd Parts CD compilation on Raven Records, Australia…[Signed] Joel Bernstein

This acetate was cut at Columbia Records recording studios soon after the sessions were recorded, and kept by Crosby until he gave it to Bernstein.  Joel Bernstein worked with CSN, CSNY and the group’s individual members as a tour and album cover photographer, musician, archivist, and reissue producer.

In VG condition, the acetate plays EX.  With Joel Bernstein’s letter of authenticity and Recordmecca’s written lifetime guarantee of authenticity.

Jim Dickson recalls in Albumlinernotes.com, It was David Crosby who brought me together with the others who were to make up the Byrds. I had the key to World Pacific Studios, a few blocks away from L.A.’s leading folk club at the time, The Troubadour. Late at night I would make tapes of the folk singers who were on the scene. I was primarily looking for talent for Jac Holzman of Elektra Records, then essentially a folk label, and Crosby was one of the many people I recorded.

I had heard David Crosby at a coffee-house and was very impressed with his clear, pure sound. We had made a number of recordings but had not received much attention with them. I had also wanted to create a vocal group and became very interested when David came to me one day and told me how Gene Clark and Roger (then Jim) McGuinn were writing songs together and that he wanted to work with them and sing harmony. He said that if I got involved he could probably get into the group. I didn’t know if McGuinn and Clark had ever heard of me, but I did have a studio available, and we started making tapes together.

We rehearsed all summer at World Pacific, adding first Michael Clarke (a Crosby discovery) and then Chris Hillman, who had been a mandolin player in a bluegrass group I had been working with. One day we took a home tape machine and a rehearsal tape to Benny Shapiro’s house, and McGuinn, Clark and Crosby sang “live” with the tape in his cathedral-like living room. this made a strong impression on Benny’s daughter Michelle, who came running to the living room greatly excited by the Beatles-like sounds she heard. The following morning, Benny related the incident to Miles Davis, who then called Irving Townsend at Columbia Records. Townsend arranged a meeting for me with Allen Stanton, who set up an option contract and audition. He wanted to find a young in-house producer for the audition and chose Terry Melcher.

When we went into the Columbia studios, in January, 1965, we had already released a single on Elektra – unsuccessfully – in October, 1964. Jac Holzman chose to release this recording of two Byrds original under the name “Beefeaters” since he was prevented from identifying the group. The first Columbia recording yielded the Byrd’s first hit, their version of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” I have to confess that I had pretty much pressured them to do this song over some strong objections from the group. The rock-and-roll songs that McGuinn and Clark were writing at the same time didn’t seem (to me) to have enough substance to launch the group, “Mr. Tambourine Man” seemed to be perfect: the right words and the sort of structure they could bring their particular talents to.