Free Week #10









CSNY/Deja Vu Live

One of the very hardest things in rock & roll must be trying to bottle lighting twice.Crosby,Stills,Nash and Young try to do that here.

The first time that they bottled lighting was in-perhaps-the greatest live album of all time:'4 Way Street'.One half acoustic;one half rock & roll.A literal masterpiece.

Here,on,'Deja Vu Live',Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young come very close to achieving said goal.

Based mostly on Neil Young's,'Living With War',with a few classics thrown in,this is a very honest cd at the very least.For instance,on the end of,'Let's Impeach The President',CSN&Y let you hear both the cheers and the boo birds.Powerful stuff.

Of course,though all of their voices show their ages,that is not a bad thing.Indeed,I say it is a very good thing.But not as good as Neil and Stephen playing oh so well together(One of the quite strengths of this cd is the excellent drumming by Chad Cromwell).

The two highlights are,Deja Vu',and,'Wooden Ships'.And let's not discount the great live version of,'For What's It's worth'.

But that is not to discount the,'Living With War',stuff.This is a political album to be sure...perchance lost on this modern day 'Clear Channel' generation,but it still is message driven.I can see why Crosby,Stills and Nash would gladly offer their many talents to this offering.

I particularly liked,'Looking For A leader','Living With War{all three-two?-versions},and,'Families'.

All in all this is a pretty impressive album.The only flaw that I can see is the way it is mixed.It seems to me not a concert cd at all,but rather a bunch of live tracks from their current tour slapped together.

Strangely,after a few listenings,that is not a problem.

A-