Songfacts®:

• Running 8:02, "Cowboy Movie" is a track from David Crosby's debut solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. It tells the story of his band, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as if they were cowboys in a Western movie. The band had been extant for just two years but had more than enough drama and backstory to fill a screenplay - or at least eight minutes of lyrics. The group formed in 1969, made a big splash at Woodstock, and released massive-selling albums in 1969 and 1970. But they had a lot of trouble getting along, and by the end of 1971 had all released solo albums. CSN&Y reunited in 1974 for a tour, but didn't put out another studio album (without Young) until 1977.
• Here's the cast of characters in this song:
  
  Fat Albert - David Crosby
  Eli - Stephen Stills
  Duke - Graham Nash
  Young Billy - Neil Young
  Raven - Rita Coolidge
  
  In the story, Eli and Duke battle for Raven's affections, and Eli goes off the rails. And for some reason, Raven bites Albert's thumb.
  
  Stills and Nash both met Coolidge when they were all working on Stills' solo track "Love The One You're With." Both guys fell for her, but Stills made his move and they started dating. What happened next Nash explained in Goldmine:
  
  "One day I found out from Rita that she also wanted to be with me. And I said, 'We have a problem here, because you're Stephen's girlfriend right now, and there's no way we can be together, with a good heart, unless we face Stephen and tell him ourselves.' So we went to Stephen and told him that we wanted to see each other. Stephen wasn't very happy. Actually, he tried to spit on me. That's basically what 'Cowboy Movie' was about."
• Members of the Grateful Dead backed Crosby on this track:
  
  Jerry Garcia - guitar
  Phil Lesh - bass
  Mickey Hart - drums
  Bill Kreutzmann - tambourine
  
  When CSN&Y went on hiatus, Crosby started performing and making music with members of the Dead. They worked up the song in jam sessions and played it live at a nightclub before recording it for Crosby's album.