Retrospect has been much kinder to Déjà Vu – on the ratings aggregation site Rate Your Music it’s ranked as the #16 album for 1970, and #352 overall. Pierro Scaruffi babbles about “Crosby delivering three post-hippie manifestos (Almost Cut My Hair, Dejavu`, Shadow Captain*), and Nash indulging in his soulful beat (Teach Your Children, Our House).” He also writes that “with hindsight, Crosby Stills & Nash were one of the most overrated albums of all times, competing with the Beatles, Emerson Lake & Palmer and other marketing scoops of that calibre.” Robert Christgau gave Déjà Vu a B- in his Consumer Guide. While reviewing Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush, Langdon Winner wrote that: “To the 70 or 80 people who wrote to Rolling Stone in total rage that I could be anything but 100% delighted with Deja Vu, I will simply say: this record picks up where Deja Vu leaves off.” Rolling Stone magazine gave Déjà Vu a mixed reception upon release. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Helpless () Do The Experts Agree? The rhythms of ‘Question’ have a Latin flavour – Stills assimilated Latin music as a military kid in Latin America. After a beautiful a capella breakdown, the ‘Questions’ section is recycled from a song that Stills wrote for Buffalo Springfield, topped off by keening harmonies and Stills’ wah-wah guitar. The first part is driven by Stills’ urgent guitars. Like much of the trio’s first album, Stills plays almost all of the instruments. Stills’ opener wasn’t a radio hit, but it’s a great mini-epic. Crosby told Crawdaddy in 1974 that “There’s good art on Déjà Vu, but you can’t put it on and feel like it’s a sunny afternoon the way you can with Crosby, Stills, & Nash.” It’s a decision between the cohesive mood of Crosby, Stills, & Nash and the songwriting quality of Déjà Vu and I choose the latter. CSN and 1982’s Daylight Again are enjoyable records, with great tracks like Crosby’s ‘Shadow Captain’, Nash’s ‘Cathedral’, and Stills’ ‘Southern Cross’, but don’t carry the same cultural impetus or consistent quality as their first two records together.Īccordingly, for most fans, the competition for Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s best album together is between the 1969 debut and 1970’s Déjà Vu. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: David Crosby – Cowboy Movie ()īy the time Crosby, Stills, and Nash recorded another studio album, 1977’s CSN, the hippie zeitgeist that they headlined was long past.

It took Crosby, Stills, and Nash a long time to follow up Déjà Vu – as well as the usual ego issues between band members, the group’s initial breakup was precipitated by Stills and Nash’s mutual romantic pursuit of Rita Coolidge, as documented in David Crosby’s ‘Cowboy Movie’. Déjà Vu is loaded with great tunes, even if it ends limply ‘Everybody I Love You’ is little more than a platform for the group’s harmonies.ĭéjà Vu was deservedly a commercial success – it’s sold more than any other album by any of the members. But the quality of the songs is so strong that the lack of continuity isn’t a problem. With multiple songwriters, Déjà Vu already feels like a compilation, but there’s also a clear contrast between meticulous studio creations like ‘Carry On’ and ‘Déjà Vu’, and live-in-the-studio takes on ‘Helpless’, ‘Woodstock’, and ‘Almost Cut My Hair’. Stills’ ‘4 + 20’ is bleak, while Crosby’s ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ is driven and paranoid. Déjà Vu reflects the personal circumstances of the members at the time – while Graham Nash celebrated domesticity with Joni Mitchell in ‘Our House’, David Crosby had lost his girlfriend Christine Hinton in a traffic accident and Stephen Stills had broken up with Judy Collins. Each of the band members contributed two songs, along with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’ and the closing Stills/Young collaboration on ‘Everybody I Love You’. Drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves also played on the record and are credited on the cover.Īfter the unified, acoustic sound of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Déjà Vu is much more eclectic. After considering Jimi Hendrix and Steve Winwood, the group added Stills’ former Buffalo Springfield band-mate, Neil Young. The record company insisted that the trio add another member, after Stephen Stills had played most of the instruments on the debut. Their 1969 debut album was acclaimed, and their appearance at Woodstock only increased their profile. Expectations were high for Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s second album.

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