Musically Déjà Vu had so many strengths it would have been hard to make a bad album. So there was the hippie dream and the real world, all in one album. Unlike his father in “4+20,” Stephen Stills didn’t have to sell door to door, nor did David Crosby have to cut his hair (code words for “selling out”), but for listeners who weren’t rock stars these were becoming real-life issues. For listeners raised on a steady diet of adolescent angst, this adulting business was a change of pace, and here CSNY may have been a little ahead of the zeitgeist, as most of the 60s generation was just getting around to thinking about things like raising families and joining the working world. Graham Nash’s “Our House” celebrates a newfound domesticity, and his “Teach Your Children” looks at parents, children, and the generation gap. Neil Young’s “Country Girl” describes a young woman who, while watching the summer pass, is “too young to leave”-in other words, she’s as trapped as the family Young describes in “Helpless.” In a song about his father, “4+20,” Stephen Stills sings, “He was tired of being poor/But he wasn’t into selling door to door”-and wonders if, although he’s rich and famous, he faces “a different kind of poverty.” Déjà Vu isn’t all big picture bright-eyed optimism, however in fact, much of it has an introspective and personal quality. The LP was bookended by songs that were as gushy and catchy as early Beatles singles, with lyrics like “Love is coming to us all” and “Everybody I love you” inspiring vocal harmonies that burst out of the speakers, and “Woodstock” shared the same collective euphoria. So why the fuss now, and why did Déjà Vu resonate with so many listeners initially? Partly because it captured the spirit of the times. Heck, even the shipping box looks stylish. The set also includes a 12″x12″ booklet with liner notes by Cameron Crowe and frame-worthy photographs in an envelope. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen packaging that did a better job of complementing an original release than this box set, which, along with an exact replica of the original gatefold cover, contains three variations on that cover. Or, if you want to go all in, purchase the 5-LP deluxe edition, which I’ve spent some quality time with lately. Purchase any version of the release at or and you’ll receive a high-res download version as well. Also, offers high-resolution downloads and streaming. Options include a 4-CD/1-LP box set, digital downloads, and streaming services. Rhino has, on the 50th anniversary of the album’s release, released the biggest and most expansive Déjà Vu retrospective to date, adding 18 demos, 11 outtakes, and 9 alternate takes (most of which are previously unreleased) to the original album. Yet Déjà Vu had not been remastered in decades and quality vinyl pressings were unavailable-until now. It quickly shot up to the top of the charts, and it has now sold over eight million copies. A different situation awaited Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when Déjà Vu dropped on March 11, 1970. It’s not like Layla or Exile on Main Street were ignored at first, but time passed before they got our full attention.
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