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Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Deja Vu
Music CD CoverArtist: Crosby Stills Nash & Young Brand: Deja Edition: Music CD Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Format: Original recording remastered CD Release Date: 1994-09-06 Music Label: Atlantic Product features: - CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG DEJA VU
Soundtracks: - Carry On
- Teach Your Children
- Almost Cut My Hair
- Helpless
- Woodstock
- Deja Vu
- Our House
- 4 + 20
- Country Girl: Whiskey Boot Hill/Down, Down, Down/"Country Girl" (I Think You're Pretty)
- Everybody I Love You
Free Music Notes for Deja VuFree Music Review: Deja Vu........ Have I written this before????????? Hit: 5 Stars
O.K. So I embedded myself into the photo on the cover. O.K. So I got Chance (an indian guide in a former life) to help me find out where I was at. And, to my surprise, it was 1870 and I was in a hilly area of Wyoming. Wy, you may ask? But, in a larger sense, that is the very question we should ask C,S,N & Y. If we all have lived before -then wy? For mere monetary compensation your knowledgable Seer will answer you. If not, you have to suffer through this review. :)
I liken this group to a band of ex-patriot renegades (see cover) who, for whatever what reason, saw fit to escape former situations to create a new creative band. How or why they got together is anyone's guess. But it works in a more than substantial way and the vocals and music are more than a snug fit like pieces of a puzzle.
The songs here have a tendency to embed themselves into self-serving memory for some reason. Perhaps it's the artists; perhaps it's the songs, perhaps it's the harmonies, perhaps it's the production. Then again, maybe, perhaps it's everything.
Even in the slower and more somber tunes, there is something here that awakens you - leads you on to some type of discovery. Whether it be inner or outer is your own choice. But realization of yourself and your world is a never ending process. Maybe we would all be better in Wyoming at a simpler, less complicated time. But, here we are. And we have no choice except to learn and evolve - or else, in the next life, this one will be the Deja Vu.
We begin with "Carry On" which borrows lyrics from Still's "Questions" that was on the last Buffalo Springfield album. On this he expands into a galloped beat with pronounced ensemble singing. Also a change in tempo. In a sense, the message is pronounced (as later in the Joni Mitchell song "Woodstock") that life is for learning. A call to carry on and learn.
The seemingly simple country slide guitar ode of Nash's "Teach Your Children" carries with it the underlying motif of understanding by shifting your perspective. In this case, older and younger generations. It's easy to discount others in which there is no reward. Better yet to take the effort to truly "see". The blessings are well worth the chance.
Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" with it's lazy walk riff poses questions within the self. Justifying inner decisions as opposed to whatever out there wants to decide for you. An amazing stream-of-conciousness tune. Or maybe drugs. With Crosby it's always a flip of the coin. What is next is one of the most glorious tunes on the album. "Helpless" conveys the awe and magnitude of the Canadian countryside that Neil knows. Nature in itself is a force beyond human comprhension or control, and in this we are all helpless.
"Woodstock" rocks righteously. And it is a call of a generation. It is also a song of moving forward with a clensing. We have all fallen- but we are golden and have to get ourselves back to the garden. Again- a moving on.
"Deja Vu", with Crosby's outerworldly guitar chords and ethereal meters beckon further examination of the world. "Do you know? Don't you wonder". The construction on this song never ceases to amaze your favorite Seer. Maybe I could have written this in a former life. O.K. - I won't go there.
"Our House" is Nash's ode to domestic bliss. Nothing exceptional but oh so addictive. That tune is just so incredibly pleasant. This must be what the afterworld is like! "4 + 20" finds Still's still aching about a lost love. Simple but effective acoustic guitar on this. Still, the dismay and depression of heartache is one of the most deeply confessional tunes I've heard. The ways of the world are sometimes wicked and cruel. Sometimes we create those ways.
Again, Neil Young shines bright with the trilogy of "Country Girl". Amazing, lush, and inventive changes in structure. This could not have been an easy tune to pull off. But, with musicians this talented anything is possible. "Too late to keep the change, too late to pay". Neil always throws these dilemmas in his tunes (see my review on "Everybody Knows this is Nowhere). Neil is consummate conveyor of enigmas within the soul. His own as well as others. Brilliant.
"Everybody I Love You" closes out this rock classic. A call to open up and let love through - even to one's self. Your "heart is an anchor" and "you expect for me to love you when you hate yourself my friend". With C,S,N & Y somehow, underneath it all, is a call to freedom and movement towards the dawn- the dawn of realization.
Well - that's it. I made you suffer through another review. Did you like it or did you need novacaine? I'm leaving Wyoming now. Being pelted with pinecones is not Metamorpho's cup of tea. No.
If you like wonderous harmonies, creative effort, and a classic from a magical bygone age - this is definitely a treat and essential to any rock collection.
A star in a bar --- your Metamorpho
Deja Vu PosterCROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG DEJA VU Less than a year after the release of CSN's groundbreaking debut, the group returned with Stephen Stills's former Buffalo Springfield cohort/rival Neil Young augmenting the threesome. The result is a less concentrated but more kinetic creation; Young swims through the celestial harmonies of rock's best barbershop trio like a fly in consommé. While somewhat dated ("Almost Cut My Hair"? Wait a while, David, it'll fall out), Deju Vu is teeming with early '70s FM staples, including "Helpless," "Teach Your Children," and "Our House." --Steven Stolder
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