CSNY/Deja Vu Live

I don't get it. Some people are surprised that this disc is anti-war and anti-Bush? Gee, who would have thought that? This has always been their stand since they formed years ago. If you don't agree with their politics or stance on Bush or the war, don't listen to or buy the CD. All part of the freedom of choice.
That said, the music here is just OK. The 4 part harmonies of the past are completely gone now. Neil still sounds like Neil, but the other 3 can't harmonize anymore. Too bad. Also, some of Young's lyrics range from trite to just plain dumb. A few more songs from their vast catalog and less of the anti-war songs would really have livened this disc up.I'll just listen to my old Cd's of them and remember when.

These guys are left wing scumbags. They should stick to playing music and keeping their political views to themselves. We don't need their B.S. Just because you are rich and famous does NOT give you the right to spew your venom all over our country. Free speech. We all have free speech because of the SOLDIER! Never forget that! Too bad we don't ALL have access to microphones and thousands of people in arenas. Then we could show the other side. The right side. If the country sucks so bad, get the hell out of here! We don't want you! You make a fortune here and buy mansions etc etc etc and all you do is complain! Wah Wah! Life is tough aint it! Crawl back into your limo a drive somewhere far, far away!

this is suppose to be CSNY. should have released the whole concert as a 2 cd set.

It is these naive baby boomers that have ruined our country. Neil's only live backup band is Crazy Horse. Period. These are the first people to die when the radical Muslims take over. So, yea, lets fight them over here, especially after Barry takes our guns.

As a fan of C/S/N/Y, I own dozens of albums by the four guys in various combinations and solo. Again in different combinations, I've seen them in concert several times and enjoyed the shows each time. But this Deja Vu Live CD is excrutiatingly bad. It's a bad recording, something like a third-rate soundboard mix. Their harmonies, once a trademark and a major reason I've liked their music, are at different volume levels so they don't sound balanced. (Ex., on the sadly poor version of "Find the Cost of Freedom," C is at about volume 4 out of 10, N is at a 6, S is a 3, and Y is a 7. So the harmonies aren't right at all.) The vocals, guitars, etc. are often very sloppy, I think possibly from boredom at having to play these songs for the five thousanth time or whatever. Stills has a terribly muttered and slurred way of singing "For What It's Worth" that made me cringe. And on and on. There are just too many problems with this CD for me to list them all!

I thoroughly enjoyed Deja Vu Live. The music is excellent. It reveals the band members' enthusiasm and true belief (particulary that of Neil Young) of what they're trying to get across.
I admire they they're taking a stand. This country is really screwed up, and somebody has to stand up and say something!

I'm not sure if I fall into old school or new school (I'm 35 in a few weeks) about my review. But I'll agree with some of the other reviewers, it's about damned time someone with some cajones put out an album like this. Welcome to America, where you can believe what you want, agree or disagree about whatever you want to, protest for or against what you believe in, etc. If you can't handle it, leave.
This is a great album, with great music, and great lyrics. I think with Neil, this is more of an album of "Here is what I believe, do with it what you like." There is no quarter asked, none given on this album. It was also great to hear the four of them singing. I feel they are the best harmonizing band ever. And they also have enough guts to take a stand, whether you like or agree with it or not. I only wish "Ohio" had made it on the album.
All in all, a great album, a great listen, and great protest music. It's your patriotic duty to be out there banging the drums of protest about what you believe in and Neil and CSN do that brilliantly here.
Whether you agree with this album or not, thank a vet you get to live in a country where you have freedom of belief and can say the things on this album without getting arrested and/or shot for saying it.

I borrowed this CD from a friend, and try as I might, I just couldn't get into it. The guitar work on the some of the tracks was classic Neil, but it seemed that overall, the music just didn't mesh too well, both on vocals and instruments. To each their own on the protest songs, but when I listen to music I want to be entertained and taken away for a while, not listen to a political agenda. Seems that CSNY is trying to find that magical portal back to the 60's when they were at the top of their game. Hang it up boys, it isn't happening.

For a contemporary comparison try Nick Worrall's debut album, it has been compared to CSN&Y and is FREE to download.

Anything by CSNY is good.

They are one of the very few groups who have kept both their musical and political integrity.

Their poetry, constantly evolving spirit, and political sensibility combine with one of the best classic rock foursomes that ever picked up instruments.

When they wail I feel it in my bones, and when they croon, my soul softens. Their intellect and musicality has just grown through the years. If they do it, I'll buy it. What else is there to say.

This is NOT the "Déjà Vu" album played live as you might be led to think! It is most of Neil Young's protest-album "Living with war" played live! It's not at all what I expected from the title. I feel I've been conned this time. I hold the "Déjà Vu" album to be one of the best ever! It's as fresh today as it was 38 years ago! This is yet another cd that tells you that they are over-priced, but so cheap to make they shouldn't cost more that 5$ at the most. And that might also reduce home-burning cd's.

Disappointed on receiving the disc, only to find it would not play at all on at least 3 cd players tried. When did find one it played on disc jumped around and would not even play last track.
Okay it's a soundtrack disc, but no excuse.
If you are going to keep long time fans happy, it's about time that a proper full lengths (3-4 cd live set was released.
Sort it out Graham.
Awaiting refund.

If you want a third rehash (Living with War, Living with War - In the Beginning and now this CD) of Neil's 2006 solo album - this will be your cup of tea. I'm not looking forward to the fourth attempt at trying to pry my money for essentially the same product (the DVD).

If you don't like Stephen Stills - I'd certainly purchase this just to look at the absolutely horrid photo of him inside. I'm guessing he did not select it (envision a constipated green blowfish exhaling while under duress). I'm guessing Stephen did not get a vote on that picture and I also suspect he and Neil aren't getting along (yet again).

The tour was a ** out of ***** tour and should have been called "Neil Young and his famous backup band" (and Neil is my favorite solo artist and the one artist I would see live above all others and have well over a dozen times).

Deja Vu was an absolutely wonderful CD and anyone who has not heard it should purchase it. This particular selection rates somewhere near the bottom third of the pack when one takes the Crosby, Nash, Stills and Young works (including solo) under consideration as a whole. For the completist only.

Even the Deja Vu song itself does not compare to the other versions of the song on Deja Vu, The Bridge School, Crosby Nash Live, the alternate version on Crosby's Voyage etc.

Unless and until the other three are treated as equals - I'm passing on the next tour. I'd rather see them solo at this point (where they don't sell themselves out for the tour $$$$$ as they have since they 'reformed').

Neil - bring back the Horse......

Ever since this legendary band reformed in 1999 it has very much been with Neil Young at the steering wheel. He has chosen the backing bands and he has vetoed any official releases from their prevoius, highly succesful tours, in 2000 and '02.

This isn't a proper livealbum either, but the soundtrack to his film about the band's "Freedom Of Speech" tour in '06, promoting Neil's "Living With War" album.

Where the tour was a mix of new and old songs, and the 30+ songlist somewhat equally shared between the four great songwriters, here it's all Neil, with 9 out of 16 songs being from "Living..", while the other three have to share the remaining 7. That Neil is by far the most succesful through the years, commercially and mediawise, hardly justify such a malproportion. And although I can wholeheratedly agree with Neil's poignant lyrics about War, Iraq and Mr. Bush, the musical qualities of his new tunes are more dubious.

The highlights of the CD is undoubtly the fine versions of the classics "Deja Vu" and "Wooden Ships", where it sounds like a band and where we get some of the famous twin leadguitar interplay between Neil and Stephen Stills.Whereas CSN is hardly audible through the new Neil songs. It's also on the classic tracks that the impeccable backing musicians really gel, not least the fine bassplayer Rick Rosas and drummer Chad Cromwell.

As evidenced by their recent collaborations with David Gilmour ("Island" and the live-DVD) David Crosby and Graham Nash are in topform vocally, whereas Stephen isn't, he doesn't even sing on his own "Find The Cost Of Freedom", but plays some fine guitar - when he's allowed to step out that is.

But else it's all Neil, and he's certainly in great form through out.

A fine release by one of the all-time greatest bands, though I personally would have preferred a whole show.

As a big Fan of CSN and CSNY, I am a bit dissapointed in the album, and was expecting more !
Can't win it all !
They are still " the fantastic 4"
Cheers

CSNY/Deja Vu Live caught me totally by surprise.

From this sample, CSN&Y are all washed up...

First, it seems like the guys can't sing anymore. Their voices crack and rattle and they can't carry a tune individually; much less as a quartet. Their attempts at harmony were agonizing. I don't think you could smoke enough rope to make their singing sound good.

There were some moments, when I thought their instrumentals would rise up and drown out their singing, but as their guitar work came to the forefront, I realized their instruments weren't in tune and they weren't playing together; much less in the same key.

The venue acoustics didn't help matters, either. It sounded like they were playing in the largest tin bucket in the world and at opposite ends of the bucket to boot.

If you were there at the live concert and/or you just want to relive the moment when CSN&Y once more celebrated their, "freedom of speech", buy this CD.

If you're interested in good music, go back to their catalog and find some of their re-mastered and enhanced studio albums from the days when CSN&Y really were a powerful musical force.

Remember "Four Way Street?"

It was recorded June 2-June 7, 1970 at the Fillmore East.

Fast forward 38 years.

Neil's "Living With War" was a moment, an act of passion, and in the overall career sense of Neil Young as a member of Buffalo Springfield through the present, maybe not his best work as a songwriter-performer.

But if you'll take a look at that well-worn copy of "Four Way Street," you'll notice "Ohio"...and you'll realize that, for the most part, politics have been at the center of CSNY from the beginning.

They rock, and they hit a few sour notes, but all in all, as a 2008 document from a legendary band that deserves that status, Deja Vu Live is a solid 4-star effort. Search for the "Military Madness" videos on YouTube, and you'll want to own this CD.

It's rather comical, leaving Neil in charge. The Barney Fife of CSNY does it again. He's been adrift aesthetically since David Briggs passed, and his errant judgment cuts across every aspect of his career, save PRAIRIE WIND and MASSEY HALL. What is on offer here is a very unrevealing cross section of some, and mostly his, songs from the Freedom of Speech tour. I caught the show in Hershey and this disc fails to capture the impact and power of the performance. How in the world you leave off OHIO as it segues into OVER AND OUT I'll never know. In the course of the concert, it was the single most effective 9 minutes of music that this group has ever done. It hit the crowd in the heart and it brought home exactly what has transpired in America over the past 28, and especially the most recent 8 years: a decimation of the US Consitution in the name of greed fueled by xenophobic intollerance and jesus whipping. A fallen empire on its knees....
Don't take my say so - look at Russia's current actions: Putin is fully aware of the impotence of W and his puppetmaster Cheney and sees an opportunity to arouse the Russian bear and re-invent totalitarian influence. W is too busy with Olympians gone wild in the volleyball sands, and a tied down military in the oil sands. God help you if your criticism gets heard.
That's what this tour was about, but a single CD edit of the many powerful performances by Stills (God Bless him, even as he battled cancer), Crosby (still the philosophical and political brains of teh outfit) and even Nash (whose performance transcended his usual hippie-cloyingness) would give you the impression that they were just along for the ride. Not so. But you start to understand why they get pissed at Ol Shakey. This isn't even as good as some of the bootlegs I have heard from this concert tour, so I would advise you to skip it, and hopefully the DVD will restore the integrity of the entire performance. It is better than TIME FADES AWAY, which again was a disaster as a document of a tour that, at least in Philadelphia, was the best live Neil Young concert I have seen or heard, ever.
Of course, who knows, maybe he is saving the good stuff for his massive Archive release on blu-ray (what on earth is the wait for a guy who uses first takes to commit his ouevre to blu-ray?). Hey, hey, my, my....