Deja vu album songs12/11/2023 ![]() ![]() Cameron Crowe, with Neil Young archivist Joel Bernstein tells the story of the album’s creation and it makes for a great read accompanied by studio and live performance photos (though for some reason no one caught the misspelling of keyboardist Mark Naftalin’s name, here spelled numerous times as “Natfalin”). The set includes a nineteen page well-executed glossy sepia toned booklet-save for the first inner page, which is a full color sun-dappled band shot. Much of the bonus material ended up elsewhere in completed versions, including John Sebastian’s “How Have You Been” saga about a turtle stranded on the Long Island Expressway that was a whimsical highlight on his first solo LP, but here for the first time is the original “Know You Got to Run”, and alternative takes of “4+20”, “Woodstock” and many more, all worthy of having been included in the original album. A third disc contains nine alternate takes and one CD is of the original record. Another has eleven outtakes (Stills the perfectionist, who of course at the time was creatively on fire insisted upon numerous takes). The others were released on other compilations and one, “Horses Through A Rainstorm” co-written by Nash and Terry Reid appeared as “Without Expression” performed by Reid’s group on bang, bang you’re TERRY REID (Epic BN 26427). One contains eighteen song demos, eleven of which have never previously been released. On the right side is a “wall” of four CDs. The gatefold opens to reveal the Optimal pressed LP in a left side envelope sporting a sepia-toned cover photo variant. The well done and organized deluxe packaging features a less “pebbly” textured cover that’s a compromise between the original black and later brown jacket: it’s dark brown, though not quite black. At the bottom of this review, listen to the Graham Nash interview AnalogPlanet conducted with Mr. A fourth CD of the remastered album serves as a reminder of why triple A vinyl still sounds and better communicates the music than does CD. More interesting for those who have consumed this record for 50 plus years are the three bonus material CDs (the set is also available in an all-vinyl edition though only the original album is AAA). Who today produces the harmonies or the sheer power heard here?Ĭrosby’s almost comical, though in retrospect existential “Almost Cut My Hair” is the set’s only solo vocal and of course he provides the title tune, with its tricky meter and mystical subject matter. Fifty plus years later the record remains powerful and as vital as it was when first released. The closer, a Stills/Young collaboration that spliced “Know You Got to Run” with “Everybody I Love You” (to produce “Everybody We Love You”) was perfect for the album and for the times. No doubt Stills was hesitant to reunite with Young after his experience in Buffalo Springfield, musically magical though were those two guitars then and here as well. Good as were Young’s contributions to this album, it could easily be argued that he brought his “B” material, some of which was recycled Springfield, though of course in most circles his “B” was “A”. The always aloof Young doesn’t sing on many tracks and he mostly worked alone as he was also recording After the Gold Rush at another studio-not that Young ever was “a joiner”. It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that Déjà vu, with its songs of home and family provided by Nash, and Still’s opener “Carry On”-a message to the newly assembled consciousness- both reflected what was seen at Woodstock and set the tone for at least the first half of the decade, never mind that the song “Woodstock” also appears on the album.Īs Nash discusses in the audio at the bottom of this review, Neil Young was asked the join in order to move the group from folk to rock and to add a second guitar to the touring lineup. ![]() That was really the first time a generation experienced the “hippie-dom” togetherness (real or faux) that defined the early 1970s. Woodstock (the so-called “gathering of the tribes”) was that August. The RIAA certified seven million selling album (more recently bumped up to eight million), released March of 1970 was recorded between July 1969 and January 1970 at Wally Heider’s Studio C in San Francisco. Fifty one later Déjà vu still delivers a powerful musical, lyrical and sonic jolt, especially on this newly remastered 50th anniversary set that includes the original record on 180g vinyl mastered by Chris Bellman, cut using the original master tape. ![]()
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