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

Neil Young

Does anybody know the reason why Neil Young was only on half the album? Was it because he was also recording "After the Gold Rush" with Crazy Horse or was he just unavailable for certain sessions? If anyone knows the reason and can post it with a reliable source, that'll be good. Thanks.61.69.217.3 (talk) 09:02, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia, the album was recorded July 1969-January 1970.

According to Neil Young's website, which chronicles his recording sessions, he recorded his contributions to the album on July 19 and November 5-8. Click on the file folders here: https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_009&tab=songs. On September 20, he recorded the unused song "Sea Of Madness": https://neilyoungarchives.com/info-card?search=true&track=t1969_0920_01. On August 27-28, while playing shows in Los Angeles with CSNY, he and Graham Nash recorded a demo of "Birds": https://neilyoungarchives.com/info-card?track=t1969_0828_02

Per the same site (see 'timeline" or go to any song and use the back and forward arrows), during the July 1969-January 1970 time frame Young recorded six songs with Crazy Horse: five on 8/2/69-8/5/69 (two of which would end up on After The Gold Rush) and one on 10/17/69. As for performing, per http://www.sugarmtn.org/ (which chronicles his live performances) 10/16/69 is the only date during that time frame on which Young performed in concert without CSNY.

So Neil Young was tied up with solo work 8/2-8/5 and 10/16-10/17 – just six days in all.

As for the songs on which Young does not play, per Graham's introduction of "4 + 20" here, they had planned to add harmonies but Stephen's solo recording turned out so well that they decided to leave it alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmHL5iTwiTg

I don't recall the source (perhaps Graham Nash's book Wild Tales), but somewhere I read or heard that the recording of "Carry On" came out so well that either the group as a whole or Neil felt adding anything would only worsen it.

As for "Teach Your Children", in his book Waging Heavy Peace Young says he was present for the recording (or at least for Jerry Garcia's contribution), but with Garcia adding the lead guitar lick he was relegated to observer.

And it's just my opinion, but I feel Young would not have been a good fit for "Our House" (note Stills does not play on it either; it's not a song that calls for guitar, and Graham covers all the keys) – and probably not a good fit for "Déjà Vu" either (unless he rather than John Sebastian had played the harmonica), as it is not really a rocker but more of a jazzy piece.

2603:7000:3400:29E1:B12C:7606:DB2D:9116 (talk) 22:48, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Album Title

Given the title of the album is rendered in the cover art as Déjà vu and the convention of the French language doesn’t have ’title case’ the same way as in English where each word in titles have initial capitalization, should it be changed from Déjà Vu?

Clearly a small matter. I.A.M. (talk) 19:09, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Australian release

Was the Neil Young song Ohio included on the Australian LP ? Doug butler (talk) 12:19, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

Cover color of original & re-release?

". . .SD-19188 and the cover was changed from black to brown in some foreign releases." I have a first issue album and the cover color is what I would call 'chocolate' brown - not black and definitely not the color of the photo in the infobox. Were some first edition covers truly black? If not, perhaps the section needs to be edited to state that such is the case. Thanks! THX1136 (talk) 00:55, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Joni Mitchell

The Personnel section includes the entry: Joni Mitchell – vocals on "Our House". But in the "Our House" article, Graham Nash is quoted, when asked about the vocals, as saying, "It's me and David [Crosby] and Stephen [Stills] doing our best. That's all we ever do." No mention of Joni, which would be an extraordinary lapse considering she was his girlfriend and the song was about him and her! The quote in that article is sourced; the entry in this one is not. It should be removed. 2001:BB6:47ED:FA58:64A1:3911:63E1:44F6 (talk) 10:51, 11 July 2024 (UTC)