Wally Heider

Well, the making of Deja Vu was A little chaotic.

They started in the summer of '69, Los Angeles, then moved to Wally Heider's in San Francisco, uh, in the fall, and it ended up taking about six months, which these days would not be any big deal.

Records can take a while sometimes these days to make.

Back then, it was kinda rare, and it was a result of, of many different things, one of which is that during those six months they had concerts scheduled, not just Woodstock, but a whole tour of the West Coast and the Fillmore East in New York, and all these shows that were set up to promote their first album.

So Neil is only on half of Déjà Vu, uh, which is another thing people don't, may not realize.

So that right there is a sign that it was not a total kind of group effort.

I do believe that we started Déjà Vu in, in, uh, in Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco.

That's where, uh, you know, Stephen and David and Neil were, were mainly hanging out in Northern California.

Hyde Street Studios.

It used to be Wally Heider's, and then Hyde Street is still there today, and very active.

But it's right in the middle of the Tenderloin.

It's like the worst part of San Francisco downtown.

And because I was a songwriter, I used to tell people, "I'm a songwriter." "What do you do?" "I'm a songwriter.

I'm a composer." Anyway, so I got a job at Wally Heider Studios, and they fired another guy 'cause, because my mother had typed out a resume for me.

My dear mom typed out this re- resume, and I went into Wally Heider's with a- Suit and tie, long hair and a beard.

I, I'm in a, in, in a Volkswagen, in a beat-up Volkswagen bus, and I went in and, and met the studio manager there and, and I told him I wanted to become an engineer.

And they, they thought I was such a hoot.

Oh, you know, Wally was a smart guy.

He said, "You know, go up there and make a great record." He says, "The only thing I ask, if you need to come anyplace else, come here.

Bring them back to, to Wally Heider's." So that's what we did.

In practice, it was something sneakier than that.

Weir booked time at Wally Heider's studio.

Just went and got the time himself.

And then, one by one, the rest of the dead started showing up.

Lesh and Garcia, hey man, I hear you got some time booked at Wally Heider's.

Need a bass player? A guitarist? Weir called it the Tom Sawyer routine with the fence.

Of course, I ended up with a Grateful Dead on the record, which I figured up front.

can blame Michael Shreve or the young drummer who joined Santana just as they are getting ready to say no to these LA sessions and embark on their very first album.

They meet at Wally Heider's studio.

Actually, Michael Shreve is playing with another group.

And he notices the kind of accents and the kind of offbeats, et cetera, that he's doing has a more jazzy flavor.

I think that that's a consistent theme with this album.

You know, Wally Heider's studio at the time was like jam central.

There were all these bands in there performing.

You had...