“Crazy Eyes” Live! What???
The "Crazy Eyes" road map that Richie wrote at 30,000 feet
This is the napkin on which Richie wrote out the entire arrangement of “Crazy Eyes.” No, not in 1973, the year Poco recorded the epic song, but recently with the intent of performing the song live. Scott Sellen, lead guitarist of the Richie Furay Band, had tried to convince Richie that the band could do the song live. Richie shared the fact that not even Poco had performed “that folk song live.” Richie, refers to the song as a “folk song” because it is how he originally saw the piece of music… that is until it began to morph into a ten minute epic.
Richie was leaving for Israel. Right before the trip, he was convinced that the Richie Furay Band could do it live and do it well. On the long plane ride to Israel, Richie wrote out the whole arrangement on a Delta napkin. If you haven’t listened to “Crazy Eyes” before, now is the time. Here is a version of “Crazy Eyes” performed live by the Richie Furay Band.
The original version is on Poco’s album titled Crazy Eyes. The album kind of pays homage to Gram Parsons, as Richie Furay sings both the title track, which he wrote about Gram, and one of Gram’s own compositions, “Brass Buttons”. An eerie fact: the album was released just four days before Gram’s death on September 19, 1973. Richie has said he wrote the song because “when talking to Gram, it could seem like you were looking right through his eyes. That maybe he wasn’t thinking what you thought he was.”
You sing songs about brass buttons and
Shiny silver shoes
Crazy Eyes, what did you to lose”
- RF.com