Déjà Vu

Woodstock, contributed, I guess, by Joni Mitchell.

Deja Vu,

Crosby.

Our House, Nash.

Well, one of the fascinating things about this band that I certainly was reinforced as I worked on the book was that as smooth as their sound and some of their songs can be, what was happening underneath was never always so calm.

And I think with...

The making of Deja Vu, throwing Neil into the mix really put everything a little bit off kilter.

The first Crosby, Stills, Nash record, Stills was in charge.

After singing together at a social gathering, they realized they had a unique harmony blend and decided to form a group.

They signed a deal with Atlantic Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1969.

The album became a hit, so they began planning for their live shows and realized they would benefit from having an additional band member.

Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records suggested Neil Young, since Young and Stills had been former bandmates in Buffalo Springfield.

They started playing live as a four-piece before turning their attention to their second album.

Déjà Vu was eventually released in 1970.

In this episode, Graham Nash and David Browne, author of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup, reflect on how the album came together.

This is the making of Déjà Vu.

[gentle music] Neil Young wrote Helpless in 1969.

It was released the following year on Deja Vu with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

But more than half a century later, it still sounds like memory calling from somewhere far away- There is a time in every man's life ...

even though I was 11 years old at that time.

You've got to recuperate and have a shoulder to cry on, and that's where you can be yourself.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Deja Vu album and their song Our House had been seminal for me when I was younger and had suited my melancholic nature, so the title was always in my mind.

I got the kernel of the idea for this song, and I wrote it on a napkin." Uh, the basic rhythm track was composed by Chris Foreman.

He had a boom box device with a built-in drum machine, and he would often use it to sketch the musical bones of a new song But Our House actually started as a much slower track.

Neil Young was in a very weird place in 1970.

He'd already had a solo career, he'd been in Buffalo Springfield, and by this point, he'd just come off recording Deja Vu with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a huge album.

On paper, this should have been the high point of his career so far, but behind the scenes, things were fraying.

He and Stephen Stills famously clashed over control of the band's direction, and CSNY was already starting to buckle under its own ego just months after its biggest triumph.

If you do, it is greatly appreciated.

in part one of today's podcast we went over the events that happened on this date along with the award ceremonies you can find that link in the show notes or it'll pop up right about here if you're on youtube or so this part is the rest of the podcast for instance albums that were released on september the 19th include in 1958 when elvis presley released king creole This was the soundtrack to his highly acclaimed musical drama film of the same name, and the album is actually considered to be one of the finest records of the early rock and roll era.

As far as the album went, it peaked at number two on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and it had songs like Hard-Headed Woman and Trouble.

In 1970, Neil Young released After the Gold Rush.

This was his third studio solo album from him.

It was put out by Reprise Records.

It was shortly after his chart-topping success with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, that album Deja Vu.

And this was a huge turning point in Neil's solo career.

And Crosby rebounded with his typical punk-ass indifference with sexually liberating adventures featuring an increasingly eclectic harem of women, and then with his new buddies and their sweet harmonies.

First, their debut studio LP, 1969's Crosby, Stills & Nash, which made them all stars, and then the next year with the album Deja Vu, a number-one smash hit that generated two million dollars in pre-sales while adding Stills' old Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young into the mix.

But for David Crosby, becoming one of the most recognizable players in the burgeoning folk rock movement, not to mention the cuddly avatar for the peace and love movement, none of that could dull Crosby's transgressive schoolboy and disgrace ways.

He was busted in front of the Whiskey a Go Go when a cop found a kilo of grass and a loaded gun in his Volkswagen.