The Crate Digger
One of the joys analog music is looking for treasure among among piles of unsorted vinyl albums. When you do find a gem in the "1 dollar" bin there is still the question of condition what will it sound like on the turntable?
Last night I found several pretty amazing albums however one in particular blew me away.:
Deja Vu Crosby Stills Nash and Young (1970) !!!!!
This rather unattractive brown LP with an old time black and white sepia photo on a textured cover made this one easy to overlook there are two other names on the record as well as if CSNY wasn't long enough to say.. Usually anything associated with Neil Young has a hipster mark up of 500 to 600 percent over fair market value. I like Neil and think his work with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash is some of his best. For one single dollar this is to date my greatest find. As I put this on my system I was thinking about the times 45 years ago.
1968 may have been the most troubling year of the century for the USA, with the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, along with the disturbances all over the country, from the DNC convention in Chicago to riots in many cities all over the US. The Vietnam War that kept LBJ from running for a second term was beginning to tear at the fabric of the country. If 68 was a terrible year 69 was much better. I watched men land on the moon on our new color TV and Nixon won the White house with a promise of law and order. Yes it was the dawning of the age of Aquarius.
Dropped the needle in the groove and.... magic, "Carry On" the perfect intro song for this album. These guys could really harmonize and this is such a powerful positive beginning. "Teach the Children" another positve song setting the tone for the record. David Crosby let's his freak flag fly with "Almost Cut my Hair" Finally, Neil Young gets his chance to shine with "Helpless" by now I could not believe just how great this record was oh and finally for a perfect finish to the virtuosity of each of the guys is a great cover of Joni Mitchell's "Wodstock" and another grand slam. Well the second side could not possibly compare to the first.
No, it's not quite up to the mark set by side one, Still. The music being performed here shows such an abundance of ideas and style that it is truly amazing. "Deja Vu", is a slower.paced perhaps not quite so memorable song by Crosby. Graham Nash's "Our House" is a great song that must have sounded so modern and different to people hearing this in 1970. "Country Girl" by Neil Young is a song that doesn't quite fit on the album but as everyone is contributing to Deja Vu the lack of continuity is made up for by the amazing amount of talent here. While reading the liner notes I found out that Jerry Garcia is sitting in on a few of these numbers.
It's easy to understand why these guys couldn't make the group work. Many bands get by with less than a quarter of talent of CSNY. It must have been like herding cats to harness all these musical skills ideas and compress it down to fit on an album. I can't say enough good things about about this single record. This has immediately become one of my favorite albums and a good reminder of beauty of the form factor we lost with the death of the LP..
Dropped the needle in the groove and.... magic, "Carry On" the perfect intro song for this album. These guys could really harmonize and this is such a powerful positive beginning. "Teach the Children" another positve song setting the tone for the record. David Crosby let's his freak flag fly with "Almost Cut my Hair" Finally, Neil Young gets his chance to shine with "Helpless" by now I could not believe just how great this record was oh and finally for a perfect finish to the virtuosity of each of the guys is a great cover of Joni Mitchell's "Wodstock" and another grand slam. Well the second side could not possibly compare to the first.
No, it's not quite up to the mark set by side one, Still. The music being performed here shows such an abundance of ideas and style that it is truly amazing. "Deja Vu", is a slower.paced perhaps not quite so memorable song by Crosby. Graham Nash's "Our House" is a great song that must have sounded so modern and different to people hearing this in 1970. "Country Girl" by Neil Young is a song that doesn't quite fit on the album but as everyone is contributing to Deja Vu the lack of continuity is made up for by the amazing amount of talent here. While reading the liner notes I found out that Jerry Garcia is sitting in on a few of these numbers.
It's easy to understand why these guys couldn't make the group work. Many bands get by with less than a quarter of talent of CSNY. It must have been like herding cats to harness all these musical skills ideas and compress it down to fit on an album. I can't say enough good things about about this single record. This has immediately become one of my favorite albums and a good reminder of beauty of the form factor we lost with the death of the LP..
