Déjà Vu (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album)

The album was recorded between July, 1969 and January, 1970 at Wally Heider's Studio C, San Francisco, and Wally Heider's Studio III, Los Angeles. It was produced by all four members of the band. Stephen Stills estimates that the album took around 800 hours of studio time to record; this figure may be exaggerated, even though the individual tracks display meticulous attention to detail.[3] The songs, except for "Woodstock", were recorded as individual sessions by each member, with each contributing whatever was needed that could be agreed upon. Young appears on only half of the tracks with Nash stating he "generally recorded his tracks alone in Los Angeles then brought them back to the recording studio to put our voices on, then took it away to mix it".[4]

Young's "Helpless" was also released on his Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972) in 2009 in a different mix with a harmonica introduction. His other contribution, "Country Girl", combined two Buffalo Springfield songs, "Down, Down, Down" and "Whiskey Boot Hill," (also released on his "Archives,") with his recently written title chorus.

Commenting on the album to Hit Parader in 1971, Stills stated "getting that second album out of us was like pulling teeth, there was song after song that wouldn't didn't make it. The track, 'Déjà Vu,' must have meant 100 takes in the studio. But 'Carry On' happened in a grand total of eight hours from conception to finished master. So you never know.”[4]

Young told Rolling Stone in 1975 that only "Helpless", "Almost Cut My Hair", and "Woodstock" were band sessions and "all the other songs ones were combinations, records that were more done by one person using the other people.".[5]

It was during these sessions that Crosby would break down and cry due to the recent death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton, telling Crawdaddy in 1974 "he couldn't function".[5]

Nash stated to Music Radar, the mood was different from the first album, which was recorded while the band members were in relationships, and by the second "Joni and I (Nash) had split up, Stephen and Judy had split up, and Christine had just been killed. It was all dark".[5]

During this time members were not getting on as they would critique each other's contributions causing friction, with Crosby stating to Rolling Stone "I kept ‘Almost Cut My Hair” in there over the protestations of Stephen, who didn't want me to leave it in ’cause he thought that it was a bad vocal.”.[5]

Stills brought "Woodstock" into the band, having already worked out the arrangement for it while playing with Jimi Hendrix in September 1969; this was released on the 2018 Hendrix album Both Sides of the Sky.[6] The final version had Stills singing a slightly rearranged version of Mitchell's lyrics which put the line, "we are billion year old carbon" — which only appeared in her final chorus — into each of the first three choruses. Then that line was replaced with "we are caught in the devil's bargain" in the last chorus, which was also in Mitchell's final chorus. "Woodstock" was one of the few Déjà Vu tracks where Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young all performed their parts in the same session. Later the original lead vocal by Stephen Stills was partly replaced with a later vocal recorded by Stills, who recalled: "I replaced one and a half verses that were excruciatingly out of tune." Neil Young disagreed, saying that "the track was magic. Then later on [Crosby, Stills & Nash] were in the studio nitpicking [with the result that] Stephen erased the vocal and put another one on that wasn't nearly as good."[3] Stills also made Nash change 'Teach Your Children' from a Henry VIII style song to a hit record with a country swing.[7]

Drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves play on the majority of tracks, and are credited on the cover with their names in slightly smaller typeface. Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia plays pedal steel guitar on "Teach Your Children", and former Lovin' Spoonful leader John Sebastian plays harmonica on the title track.

The anticipation was so big for the album that by January 1970, Atlantic records had taken in $2 million in preorders.[8]

The album was released on March 11, 1970 on the Atlantic Records label, catalogue SD 7200. It was re-released in 1977 as SD-19188 and the cover was changed from black to brown in some foreign releases.

It was certified Gold in the US, 14 days after release on March 25, 1970, spending 88 weeks in the Billboard 200 charts.[9]

Four singles were released from the album with all but the last, "Carry On," charting on the Billboard Hot 100. The song "Country Girl" by Young is a suite put together from three song fragments entitled "Whiskey Boot Hill," "Down Down Down," and "Country Girl (I Think You're Pretty)," and is so identified in the credits.

The album was issued on compact disc a second time September 6, 1994 after being remastered from the original tapes at Ocean View Digital by Joe Gastwirt.

Contemporary reception was mixed, with Robert Christgau saying that there were “five or seven memorable tunes”. “Young's guitar—with help from Stills and hired hands Taylor and Reeves—that make the music work, not those blessed harmonies”.[10]

Langdon Warner wrote for Rolling Stone that, despite the addition of Young, the sound “is still too sweet, too soothing, too perfect, and too good to be true”. He has high praise for “Carry On”, “Teach Your Children” and “Helpless” on Side One. Side Two has “precision playing, glittering harmonies, a relaxed but forceful rhythm, and impeccable twelve-string guitars” but no first rate songs.[11] The Village Voice called it "Tight. Uptight, even."[12]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[13]
Christgau's Record Guide	B–[14]
Rolling Stone	(Mixed)[15]
The Village Voice	B+[16]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[17]

The popularity of the album contributed to the success of the four albums released by each of the members in the wake of Déjà vu – Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, Stephen Stills' self-titled solo debut, David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, and Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners. In 2003, the album was placed at number 148 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time,[18] moving up to 147 in a 2012 revised listing.[19] The same year, the TV network VH1 named Déjà vu the 61st greatest album of all time. The album ranked at No. 14 for the Top 100 Albums of 1970 and #217 overall by Rate Your Music and it was voted number 106 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).[20] Nash has spoken of producing a special 50th anniversary edition of the album with outtakes and alternate mixes but no such album has yet appeared as of late 2020.

• David Crosby – vocals all tracks except "4+20"; rhythm guitar on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Woodstock," "Déjà vu," "Country Girl," and "Everybody I Love You"
• Stephen Stills – vocals all tracks except "Almost Cut My Hair"; guitars all tracks except "Our House"; keyboards on "Carry On," "Helpless," "Woodstock," and "Déjà Vu"; bass on "Carry On," and "Teach Your Children"; percussion on "Carry On"
• Graham Nash – vocals all tracks except "Almost Cut My Hair" and "4+20"; keyboards on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Woodstock," "Our House," and "Everybody I Love You"; rhythm guitar on "Teach Your Children" and "Country Girl"; percussion on "Carry On" and "Teach Your Children"
• Neil Young – vocals on "Helpless" and "Country Girl"; guitars on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Helpless," "Woodstock," "Country Girl"; keyboards on "Everybody I Love You"; keyboards and harmonica on "Country Girl"

Additional musicians

• Dallas Taylor – drums all tracks except "4+20"; tambourine on "Teach Your Children"
• Greg Reeves – bass on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Helpless," "Woodstock," "Déjà vu", "Our House," "Country Girl," and "Everybody I Love You"
• Jerry Garcia – pedal steel guitar on "Teach Your Children"
• John Sebastian – harmonica on "Déjà vu"

Production

• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – producers
• Bill Halverson – engineer
• Gary Burden – art direction and design
• Henry Diltz, Tom Gundelfinger – photography
• Elliot Roberts – direction
• David Geffen – agent
• Joe Gastwirt – digital remastering

Weekly charts

Singles

Year-end charts