CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & yOUNG
Déjà Vu by CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
Déjà Vu is the second studio album by the American folk rock group Crosby, Stills & Nash, and their first as a quartet with the addition of Neil Young. It was released in March 1970 by Atlantic Records and topped the pop album chart for one week and generated three Top 40 singles: "Woodstock,” "Teach Your Children,” and "Our House.”
Jerry Garcia played pedal steel on the song, “Teach Your Children.” While Graham Nash says that he never got to know Jerry Garcia all that well, their first meeting is a part of rock history: It happened in the fall of 1969, when Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were recording their classic “Déjà Vu” album, which included what is probably Nash’s best-known song, “Teach Your Children.” At that first meeting, Garcia added an iconic, bluegrass-flavored pedal steel guitar solo which is incredible, considering he had only been playing the instrument for a few weeks.
Graham Nash recalls, “We had done the track to “Teach Your Children,” and Stephen thought because he and Neil played guitar all the time that we should have something different. David [Crosby] said, “You know, Garcia’s in the next studio and he’s been playing steel guitar for a couple of months, let me ask him.” “Sure!” The Dead were next door recording… American Beauty, was it? And David asked him and he loved the idea; he had never played pedal steel on record before. So he set up his pedal steel and we played him the track, and as I do with most musicians, I said, “I’m not gonna tell you what to do. Feel it and play it.” So he played the first [take] and I said “Fantastic! That was just stunning. I’m shocked that that someone who’s only been playing pedal steel for less than half a year could play so beautifully,” because it was heartfelt and well thought-out in a very spontaneous way.
He said, “I kinda f—ed up a little in a couple of places, can I do a second take?” “Go right ahead” — I would never stop him from trying to make it better. So he played it and we got to the end, and I said “Yeah, it’s perfect, but it doesn’t feel like the first track you played, when you didn’t have any f—ing idea what you were gonna do!” So he laughed and said fine. I knew that “Teach Your Children” had a chance of being a hit, but when Jerry put his pedal steel on there I was convinced it was gonna be a hit. I never paid him money for his part on “Teach Your Children,” but I did give him a vintage Fender Strat, which he immediately stuck an alligator decal on and that became his “Alligator guitar” for many years. I’d bought it in ’67, I believe, when I was on tour with the Hollies.”