Crosby Stills Nash & Young

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

“Déjà Vu Super Deluxe Edition”

(4xCD+LP, Atlantic/Rhino, 2021)

On March 11, 1970, Déjà Vu was released, one of the most beloved albums in rock history and the masterpiece of the supergroup formed by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young, together for the first time as a quartet, with contributions from Greg Reeves on bass, Dallas Taylor on drums, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead on steel guitar on "Teach Your Children", John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful on harmonica on the title track, and composer/producer Jack Nitzsche on electric piano on "Country Girl".

It was recorded between July 1969 and January 1970 in San Francisco and Los Angeles at the studios of Wally Heider, the renowned sound engineer who worked with, among others, Jefferson Airplane, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, T. Rex, Van Morrison, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aretha Franklin and Santana. Produced by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young themselves, Déjà Vu had a rather troubled gestation, with tracks recorded individually by their respective authors and overdubbed as needed by the others. The sepia-toned cover photo depicts Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Reeves and Taylor kitted out with rifles, cartridge belts and guitars, seemingly evoking the ancestral, Steinbeck-like atmospheres that also permeate the album's songs.

The guitar orgy of "Carry On" (Stills), the country stride of "Teach Your Children" (Nash), the murky, existential rock of "Almost Cut My Hair" (Crosby), the lucid melancholy of "Helpless" (Young), the generational portrait of "Woodstock", the ethereal, dazed and irresistible "Déjà Vu" (Crosby), the delicate domestic elegy of "Our House" (Nash), the intimate fingerpicking of "4+20" (Stills), the melancholy suite "Country Girl" (Young), the hopelessly out-of-time hippie innocence of "Everybody I Love You" (Stills/Young), not to mention the excellent vocal harmonies that serve as a leitmotif throughout the record - these are the essential elements of a work with no weak spots, one that, more than fifty years on, retains all its expressive power intact.

On August 18, 1969, while the album was still being made, the group played the Woodstock festival, only their second-ever live show. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's set began at three in the morning and was not memorable. Young, annoyed by the presence onstage of camera operators shooting footage for the documentary we all know, made sure his image was not used in the film and that his name did not appear on the cover of the resulting soundtrack. Joni Mitchell, romantically involved with Nash at the time (who dedicated "Our House" to her), was also part of the festival lineup. She chose not to take part, however, because just a few hours later she was due to appear on the prestigious Dick Cavett Show, and preferred not to risk getting stuck in traffic travelling from Bethel (the festival's location) to Manhattan. In her suite at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, she found the inspiration to write the iconic "Woodstock", following live on television the reports of what was happening less than a hundred miles away.

On May 18, 2021, Atlantic, in partnership with Rhino, released the Super Deluxe edition of Déjà Vu, comprising 4 CDs and 1 LP. The packaging follows the classic 12"x12" vinyl format, with a hardcover gatefold sleeve. Sold on Amazon for €58.00, it's a fairly lean box set, free of the kind of extras (photos, posters and other trinkets destined to sit forever unused inside the package) that often serve as pointless padding for deluxe editions. No new mixes, just a necessary remaster by Chris Bellman: that was the record, and this is its reissue. So it goes. The focus is squarely on substance: a 180g vinyl and one CD contain the album in its original glory, while the other three CDs offer 38 bonus tracks, 29 of which are completely unreleased - demos, outtakes and alternate versions of excellent quality, one for all: the second take of "4+20", performed solo by Stills, so perfect that it was set aside in favor of the first, deemed more spontaneous.

Rounding out the edition is a twenty-page booklet featuring unreleased photos, tracklist, extremely detailed credits and, above all, a long, passionate essay by director and music critic Cameron Crowe, co-written with Joel Bernstein - guitarist, producer and photographer behind several celebrated rock album covers, including those of After The Gold Rush (1970), Neil Young's masterpiece, 4 Way Street (1971), CSN&Y's legendary live album, and Rust Never Sleeps (1979), the essential album of unreleased material performed live by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. The essay traces the key stages of the album's making and the emotional backstory of the musicians involved (worth recalling is the grave loss that struck Crosby once recording was already underway, when his beloved partner Christine Hinton died in a car accident - "he was never the same", Graham Nash would later say), and weaves in a number of interesting quotes taken directly from the protagonists' own words.

Given its affordable price, the quality of its contents and the absence of tacky filler, the Super Deluxe Edition of Déjà Vu is a recommended purchase both for longtime fans and newcomers wishing to immerse themselves in the wonderful world of early-1970s traditional American rock. It would be a fine place to start.

(November 7, 2021)

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30/04/2026