CSNY released Déjà Vu

Déjà Vu Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Released: March 11, 1970 Peak: 11 US, 5 UK, 1 CN, 12 AU, 16 DF Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, -- UK, 13.5 world (includes US and UK), 24.78 EAS Genre: folk rock/classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Carry On/Questions (Stills) [4:25] (5 CL, 19 DF) Teach Your Children (Nash) [2:53] (6/6/70, 16 US, 16 CB, 16 HR, 28 AC, 4 CL, 8 CN, 11 AU) Almost Cut My Hair (Crosby) [4:25] (14 CL, 13 DF) Helpless (Young) [3:30] (31 CL, 6 DF) Woodstock (Mitchell) [3:52] (3/20/70, 11 BB, 13 CB, 13 GR, 10 HR, 3 CL, 3 CN, 19 AU, 4 DF) Déjà Vu (Crosby) [4:10] (19 CL, 8 DF) Our House (Nash) [2:59] (9/19/70, 30 BB, 20 CB, 32 GR, 20 HR, 20 AC, 9 CL, 13 CN, 51 AU, 1 DF) 4 + 20 (Stills) [1:55] (14 CL) Country Girl: Whiskey Boot Hill/Down, Down, Down/ “Country Girl” (I Think You’re Pretty) (Young) [5:05] Everybody I Love You (Stills/Young) [2:20] Total Running Time: 36:24 The Players: David Crosby (vocals, rhythm guitar) Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, organ, piano, percussion) Graham Nash (vocals, piano, organ, rhythm guitar, percussion) Neil Young (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica) Dallas Taylor (drums, tambourine) Greg Reeves (bass)

Rating: 4.435 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings) Quotable: -- Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Supergroup + 1 When Crosby, Stills & Nash released their debut album in 1969, they effectively became one of the first supergroups. David Crosby had worked with The Byrds, Stephen Stills had been with Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash was previously in The Hollies. After their collaboration proved a success, the follow-up became “one of the most hotly awaited second albums in history.” AM The expectations were ratched up all the more by the addition of Neil Young, who had worked with Stills in Buffalo Springfield and already was off to a great start as a solo artist. He “transformed the folk-rock CSN into a powerhouse;” 500 his presence “added to the level of virtuosity” AM and “a uniquely idiosyncratic songwriter to the fold.” AM Young and Stills rose “to new levels of complexity and volume on their guitars.” AM “CSNY’s unparalleled harmony singing put the shine on a commune-ful of hippie anthems.” EW’93 It is an “intoxicating mixture of folk rock, open-tuned balladry, and spiky electric workouts.” TB The Album’s Place in History “All of this variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars, which were presented in even more dramatic and expansive fashion on the tour that followed.” AM It was “a career-high for all four men wrapped up in its brilliance.” PM The talents of the collective and “some very skilled production, engineering, and editing” AM made for “one of the greatest folk-rock records ever made.” PM Part of the significance of the album was that tit was “both a last reprise of ‘60s idealism and a prayer for inner peace. applies reassuring colorburst harmonies to songs about controlling the few things a rainbow child could.” TM Egos “With four such accomplished songwriters there was bound to be tensions as each contested space for their songs.” TB With the exception of ‘Carry On’ and…‘Woodstock,’ most of the recording was done in individual sessions. AM “Only when it was time to do vocals did the four come together, and it is those soaring, precision-formation harmonies that remain the focal point.” TM Through some 800 hours of work AM thanks to continuous reworking of material CRS some members wondered if the album would ever be finished. CRS Graham Nash As far as individual achievements, “Teach Your Children, the album’s biggest hit, “is a country-rock staple that paints a deft portrait of CSNY’s harmonizing.” PM It “was a reflection of the hippie-era idealism that still filled Graham Nash’s life.” AM Our House was Nash’s “stylistic paean to the late-era Beatles” AM and “a generational ode to the ordinary bliss” PM to his domestic life with Joni Mitchell in Laurel Canyon. Stephen Stills While all four members performed on Woodstock, it was Stills who took the lead vocal. The song was written by Joni Mitchell, who was dating Graham Nash when the trio performed one of their first gigs at the 1969 Woodstock festival. Stills paired Questions with the “vocal-choir gallop” 500 of Carry On to make “it more substantial” AM The “psych-folk album opener…solidified CSNY as a no-nonsense ripper (Stills’ guitar solo lurking in the background is subdued yet fierce, bubbling over into the band’s three-part harmony).” PM “This is the essence of CSNY – impossibly gorgeous cascading vocals that urge everyone leaving the farm to continue in faith.” TM 4 + 20 “was a gorgeous…blues excursion that was a precursor to the material he would explore on the solo album that followed.” AM David Crosby Crosby delivered Almost Cut My Hair, “a piece of high-energy hippie-era paranoia not too far removed in subject from the Byrds’ ‘Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man,” AM and the title track, which took some 100 hours to complete. AM Neil Young Young contributed “the exquisitely harmonized” AM and “achingly plaintive” 500 “lost innocence standout” PM Helpless” 500 He also delivered “the roaring country-ish rockers that ended side two.” AM “His seeming throwaway finale, Everybody I Love You, was a bone thrown to longtime fans as perhaps the greatest Buffalo Springfield song that they didn’t record.” AM Notes: A 50th anniversary edition added a second disc of demos, a third of outtakes, and a fourth of alternate takes.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Crosby, Stills & Nash DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Neil Young AM AllMusic.com review by Bruce Eder EW’93 Entertainment Weekly (10/29/1993). “100 Greatest CDs: A Love-It-Or-Loathe It Guide to the Essential Disc Library” TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 195-6. CRS Tim Morse (1998). Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Rock Songs of All Time. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin. Pages 181-195. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher 500 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 113. WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/2/2008; last updated 10/3/2024.