Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Live 1970 (fltr: Graham Nash, David Crosby, Neil Young, Stephen Stills)
Introduction
In 1970 David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young released their debut album. My father owned the album in the beautiful leather look and feel edition. The album introduced me to Neil Young.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills and Nash had only recently ended their stints with The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies when they met at a party organized by Joni Mitchell. They sung together and it sounded wonderful. A new group was born.
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
It wasn’t before long that the debut album Crosby, Stills & Nash was recorded and released. It was a resounding success, which led to a great demand for performances. Atlantic record company manager Ahmet Ertegun suggested to expand the group’s line-up with former Buffalo Springfield member Neil Young, who had recently released his solo debut album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.
The new group made their live debut on August 16, 1969, with Joni Mitchell as their support act. Two days later the group played their second show ever, at the famous Woodstock festival in front of over half a million people. On stage Stills commented on the surreal experience: “This is the second time we’ve ever played in front of people, man. We’re scared shitless.”
The expanded group was met with great enthusiasm and the decision to record an album was a no-brainer, with all members contributing songs. In January 1970, two months before the album’s actual release, pre-orders already exceeded the $2 million mark. The success for the upcoming album was already in the bag.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu
Déjà Vu
On March 11, 1970, the debut album by the quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was released. Immediately, the album was a huge success and would remain in the American charts for almost 100 consecutive weeks and provide 3 hits.
The recordings for Crosby, Stills & Nash had been a harmonious affairs. Everybody was happy, in their private lives as well. Less than 12 months later it was all very different. Nash’s relationship with Joni Mitchell had passed, Stills and Judy Collins had broken up as well. Crosby’s girlfriend Christine Hinton had died in a car crash in late September 1969. Spirits were low indeed.
Recordings for Déjà Vu took place from July 1969 to January 1970. Band members didn’t get along (anymore), didn’t help each other out during the recording process and critizied each other’s music and contributions. The highly praised communial singing and cooperation was less obvious than before. In 1975 Neil Young said:
The band sessions on that record were ‘Helpless’, ‘Woodstock’ and ‘Almost Cut My Hair. That was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. All the other ones were combinations, records that were more done by one person using the other people.
Neil Young, Rolling Stone, 1975
Album cover color
The original US color of the album cover was black. In other markets than the US the color of the cover was brown. The album was also released in a deluxe leather edition, showing embossed lettering in a gold color. The color black never catched on and was quickly changed to brown for all markets.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu – Gatefold
Review
When I was a little boy, Neil Young wan’t one of the big names in our household. However, my father did own this album, in the luxe leather edition. I think my love for Neil Young stems from that time. The song Helpless is (by far) the best one on the album. I clearly remember enjoying the album.
Later on, around the time I was employed at Dutch record store Concerto (1988) and was building a music collection of my own, Déjà Vu was an essential element. Once again I thought it was a beautiful record. To this day, the opening song Carry On is flat-out impressive. The choirs and vocal harmonies are particularly overwhelming: Carry on! / Love is coming / Love is coming to us all.
Helpless was still my favorite and was the gateway for my exploration into Neil Young‘s vast body of work. But Teach Your Children (my father’s favorite off the album), the Joni Mitchell song Woodstock, the lovely Our House and the intimate 4 + 20 were (and still are) beautiful as well.
And now, 55 years after the album’s initial release, I still think it’s good, but not great. Personally, I don’t think it deserves the legendary status it was bestowned upon. I don’t really like Almost Cut My Hair, even though its message is less time sensitive than I thought. The song actually addresses understanding, standig up for those less fortunate and a disdain for establishement, instead of the ‘simple’ rebellion of a hippie refusing to cut his hair. The actual message maybe old-fashioned, but if the world is in need of anything right now, it’s exactly those kind of sentiments.
Country Girl and Everybody I Love You are good closers but don’t attribute to the album’s legend. Nowadays, I don’t think the album is that good, even though it does contain some killer songs. To me, the album lacks a sense of continuity. It’s a collection of great songs, but more in a compilation/best of kind of way.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu – Singles (NL pressings)
Singles
Four singles were culled from the album.
- Woodstock
(released in March 1970) - Teach Your Children
(released in May 1970) - Our House
(released in September 1970) - Carry On
(released in November 1970, not to all markets)
Songs
Symbols between brackets refer to the writers, and lead singers respectively.
- Carry On (#,#)
- Teach Your Children ($,$)
- Almost Cut My Hair (%,%)
- Helpless (¥,¥)
- Woodstock (§,#)
- Déjà Vu (%,%)
- Our House ($,$)
- 4 + 20 (#,#)
- Country Girl (¥,¥%#$)
- Everybody I Love You (#¥,#%$)
Written by/Lead vocals by:
# Stephen Stills
$ Graham Nash
% David Crosby
¥ Neil Young
§ Joni Mitchell
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu – Musicians
Musicians
- David Crosby – vocals except on 4+20; guitar on Almost Cut My Hair, Woodstock, Déjà Vu, Country Girl, Everybody I Love You
- Stephen Stills – vocals except on Almost Cut My Hair; guitar except on Our House; bass on Carry On, Teach Your Children, Déjà Vu; keyboards on Déjà Vu, Everybody I Love You; organ on Carry On, Woodstock; piano on Helpless, Country Girl; percussion on Carry On
- Graham Nash – vocals except on Almost Cut My Hair, 4+20; piano on Woodstock, Our House; harpsichord on Our House; organ on Almost Cut My Hair; guitar on Teach Your Children, Country Girl; percussion on Carry On, Country Girl; tambourine on Teach Your Children
- Neil Young – vocals on Helpless, Country Girl; guitar on Almost Cut My Hair, Helpless, Woodstock, Country Girl; pipe organ, harmonica, vibraphone on Country Girl; organ on Everybody I Love You
With help from:
- Greg Reeves – bass on Almost Cut My Hair, Helpless, Woodstock, Déjà Vu, Our House, Country Girl, Everybody I Love You
- Dallas Taylor – drums except on Teach Your Children, 4+20; tambourine on Teach Your Children
- Jerry Garcia – pedal steel on Teach Your Children
- John Sebastian – harmonica on Déjà Vu
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Ohio
After Déjà Vu
The group recorded a song on May 21, 1970, that really does live up the legendary status of th group and their music: Neil Young‘s Ohio, a furious response to the Kent State shooting 17 days before, when American police opened fire on unarmed students. The song was recorded in just a few takes and was rush-released in June.
Following the relase of Déjà Vu the band went out on tour. Soon relationships between the members were at an all time low, so the tour was cut short and the members all went their seperate ways. Recordings of the tour found their way to a live double album: 4 Way Street.
The Déjà Vu success provided extra attention to the solo careers of the group’s individual members. Neil Young in particular developed a highly successful career after the releae of After The Gold Rush (1970) and Harvest (1972).
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – So Far, American Dream & Looking Forward
It wasn’t before 1974 that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would reconvene for a tour. This time the tour was completed, but studio recordings led to nothing. To meet public demand So Far was released, a kind of “best of” compilation of the Crosby, Stills & Nash and Déjà Vu albums, complemented with the Ohio single.
In 1988 Neil Young agreed to a reunion, because his strict non-drugs condition could (finally) be met. It resulted in the American Dream album, which was slashed by the press, but was actually better than reviews gave it credit for. After its release the band didn’t go out on tour.
Late 1999 the band released the Looking Forward album, which was received quite well, ultimately leading to not one, but two (lucrative) tours in 2000 and 2002. The band would come together on several occasions, but wouldn’t record any new music anymore. With the passing of Crosby in 2023, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is a band of yore.
In closing
What’s your take on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Déjà Vu? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the classic Déjà Vu. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
