CSNY was one of rock’s first – and most successful – ’supergroups’. Graham Nash was a former member of The Hollies, David Crosby had done time in The Byrds, and both Stephen Stills and Neil Young were alumni of Buffalo Springfield. CSNY’s sophomore effort Deja Vu was a number one hit in its day, and spawned a number of hippie anthems. But is this album a timeless classic or a carbon-dated relic? Let me know what you think, and help me make up my mind once and for all…
THUMBS UP: Released in 1970, Deja Vu is one of the defining albums of its era. The group’s honey-coated harmonies were the perfect vehicle for this rich series of hippie anthems of peace and love, many of which have become standards of the 60’s. ‘Carry On’ ‘Teach Your Children’ ‘Woodstock’ and ‘Our House’ read like mission statements for the flower power movement, and serve as sonic scrapbooks for the hopes and dreams and troubles of an entire generation. This group was able to reconfigure itself to create a wide variety of musical and emotional textures – from orange sunshine elation to gray raincloud oppression. Hearing my wife sing along to every word of this album only convinces me that the messages within it are as timeless as the picture on the cover.
THUMBS DOWN: The biggest problem with Deja Vu can be whittled down to one word: overexposure. The crown jewels of this album (listed above) have been played to death, and the songs that weren’t hits just aren’t very good. ‘Almost Cut My Hair Today’ has plenty of David Crosby fire, but the sentiment is laughable. Neil Young’s ‘Country Girl’ feels like the B-side throwaway that it probably was for him. ‘Everybody I Love You’ manages to be both cloying and clumsy. And I’d like to reserve a special place in music hell for Graham Nash’s ‘Our House’, the kind of drippy, saccharine, self-satisfied crap that foreshadowed the crummy singer-songwriter music of the 70’s, and makes me want to punch something. Deja Vu might be the most appropriately named album of all-time, because it sure feels like I’ve been there | heard that.
[As always, your candid opinions will determine if I start giving this album the respect it deserves, or shelve it away to collect a fine layer of dust...]
6 April 2008 at 5:44 pm |
thumbs up no doubt but i must admit, i never reach for this at home….
so…. spin it one more time and move on man….
i’m sure you’ll hear this again on on the elevator ride to heaven….
6 April 2008 at 5:49 pm |
Thumbs up. A timeless classic for sure.
7 April 2008 at 11:58 am |
Is this the CSN and sometimes Y album that has the track
“Impregnating Lesbians” on it?
Oh wait, that came later.
7 April 2008 at 5:12 pm |
bert, was that before or after the “liver transplant” concept album?
I can’t remember….
7 April 2008 at 6:22 pm |
It was after ‘Liver Transplant’, which itself came after ‘Court-Ordered Rehab’…
Love those David Crosby solo albums!
7 April 2008 at 6:24 pm |
The 1972 collaboration between Graham Nash and Crosby – ‘Pound Of Coke & A Sailboat’ – is great fun as well.
8 April 2008 at 7:14 am |
‘Pound Of Coke & A Sailboat’ that does sound like fun!
how did i miss that one….???
8 April 2008 at 8:18 am |
there are few LPs i know as thoroughly as this one; perhaps such a disclosure reveals a bias that renders my thumb direction meaningless.
with that said, i will say the direction of both of my opposable thumbs is UP regarding Deja Vu. however, they are NOT way up due to the industrial strength overexposure you mentioned. (if i ever hear ‘our house’ or ‘teach your children’ again, that will be musical confirmation that my soul will be burning forever.)
however, i just can’t buy that “the songs that weren’t hits just aren’t very good.” the title cut and ‘carry on’ are two songs that any rock&roll ’supergroup’ (before OR since) can and should be judged against.
when put into the historical and cultural context of the times, has any supergroup ever released a better pair of songs on the same LP? (never mind that ‘ohio’ would sadly — but just as brilliantly — complete the musical trilogy outlining rise and fall of the hippie movement.)
‘4+20′ is solid stephen still songwriting. their version of ‘woodstock’ is the only one that doesn’t inspire a nap. and the sentiments of ‘almost cut my hair’ are hardly laughable if you’ve ever known anyone brave enough to be a hippie somewhere besides the west coast. (what’s more, ‘almost’ is also the track where stills&young deftly prove they had the chops to take on any and all comers…that is, if they could get along in the first place.)
two final points. the production of that album kicked the crap out of anything else coming out at that time…for example, although saccharine as hell now, ‘teach’ outcountrymusicked anything pumped out of nashville in 1970. at the time, that LP was a real speaker-checker.
and last but far from least: Deja Vu had one of the greatest album covers ever for cleaning a freshly-purchased nickel bag. heavy die-cut cardboard embossed to feel like leather…for optimum form a n d function.
now if you’ll excuse me, i really must go let my freak flag fly.
10 April 2008 at 10:38 pm |
Now I’ve got “Our House” stuck in my head. Thanks a lot.
11 April 2008 at 4:22 am |
I am a huge fan of Neil Young and due to the panic bout worryin I would never see him live I paid 60$ for lawn seats last year to see CSNY-waste of money!
As the Devil I said above-I don’t ever pull this record and spin it @ home.
11 April 2008 at 9:14 am |
Thank you for saying that. This album probably wouldn’t be ‘on the fence’ if I hadn’t had to sit through two VERY mediocre CSNY shows at Neil Young’s annual Bridge Benefit concert. B-o-r-i-n-g… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…
Neil in any other configuration (solo, with Crazy Horse, friends and family, etc) is prefarable to the CSNY live charade.
13 April 2008 at 10:23 am |
Gotta say i liked the album at the time. it did spin off a whole line of music creation by many others that focused on harmony and words. like many of the comments above however, i wouldn’t pull it out to listen to it today. have just heard it to many times, as musak in elevators, shopping malls, etc. regarding the observations on Neil Young, i always felt that CSN was actually better with out him, and he was better without them. they reached many heights on occasion by themselves but seemed to play down to their own press clippings when together. i saw CSN when they first came forth, right after Woodstock and never had to endure them with the Y.
20 April 2008 at 2:14 pm |
Hmm… yet another one I don’t really know, but I’m inclined to lean with your thumbs-down comments – when I hear their name, “tired” and “drippy” do come to mind.