Deja Vu, and "Almost Cut My Hair"

Recording "Almost Cut My Hair":

The following excerpt is from David Crosby's autobiography
"Long Time Gone". Bill Halverson, first engineer, and Stephen
Barncard, second engineer, in his second week working for Wally
Heider, are quoted remembering the Deja Vu recording sessions:

"Bill Halverson: I got up there while they were setting up to record
Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" and he [Crosby] wanted to do it all live and
I kept saying no, he couldn't do that. We set everybody up live and
did it anyway. We were willing to take those risks. The feeling of the
song sometimes demands that you do it all at once. "Almost Cut My
Hair" needed that edge. I listened to it a couple of days ago and it
still holds up as a performance. Back then I was living in L.A. and
commuting to San Francisco. I lived alone in a motel, which didn't
make for a very good marriage, but it wasn't a particularly good
marriage anyway. That first CSN album was made on a real primitive
board and machines and not only was I the engineer but I made
coffee and cleaned the ashtrays and cleaned the backboards. I
was a lot faster in those days. Now I rely on a good assistant.

"Stephen Barncard: There I was, at the very beginning of Deja Vu.
What a great time to drop in. It was one of the most scary and
fascinating things I had ever seen in my life. With that much musical
talent in one place burning up calories in the room, it was staggering.
I had been in studios before, but nothing like that. I ended up doing
a lot of tracking...I learned a lot from the guy and we never had a run-in
or any kind of bad time. I thought he was creative. The major thing I
learned from him about this particular group of individuals was a
certain way to approach recording. First of all, you keep the tape
rolling at all times. Record every fart, bleep, and squawk that happens.
If you get it live, you try to get the first take. You try to save
everything. You don't clip the beginnings and you don't take a lot of
time getting the drum sounds. Live. That's why they got a live
recording guy in the first place, for his background. There are various
techniques of getting things recorded in the studio. One of them is being
very social and just making sure everything's covered. Another is
to try and anticipate what might happen, keeping an eye out for things
that might happen and making yourself very sensitive to the setting,
more than anything else. You don't worry about what kind of microphone
you are going to use. If you can't get to it, you don't stop the session;
you don't stop the music because something technical isn't to your
liking. That was another thing Halverson taught me, by doing.
On "Almost Cut My Hair", which was recorded totally live, we had
one shot at it and I hadn't patched in the limiter. I watched Halverson
hot-patch the limiter in an interval just before the vocal got to where
it *had* to be in and he had the levels preset. Now, in anybody's book
on recording live vocals, that's a pretty dangerous thing to do. He made
it. He got it right on, and he needed that limiter because Crosby really
belted it out later in the tune. That was an example of being on your toes,
thinking on your feet, moving fast, the live recording technique that
these guys always demanded."

Fascinating story! Sorry for the long post, but I thought
these details would be interesting to other fans of Deja Vu.

--Roger

 

Crosby can still belt this one out. Saw CSN&Y on the last two tours (Y2K and Y2K+1) and this was one of the highlights of the concert. Neil blasting the guitar on this one of course did not hurt!!

 

I was thinking about this song recently. I don't think the youngsters will understand, I really don't.

You had to be there.

Thanks for the interesting post.

 

Who says "I will now proceed to entangle the entire area" just before ACMH kicks in? Was that Bill Halverson?

 

I was there with the hair and I got it....
What a great song...I love the extended version on the CSN&Y boxset!
The song is self explanitory...

 

James, it sounds like David Crosby's voice to me. After hearing his comments in many documentaries over the years, I realize how distinctive his voice is (whether speaking or singing). It sounds like David to me. On a side note, anyone know what the latest is on the "Deja-Vu" DVD-A?

 

I hope they include the unedited/full length version of the song, as it appears on the box set, on the dvd-a as a bonus track.

 

The David Crosby intro "I will now proceed...." was edited on to the version included on the LP(the edited version) This is nowhere to be found on the unedited version included on the box set. This intro is from "Horses Through A Rainstorm" included on the box set. Or was it edited on to the beginning of this track?


JF

 

After three decades I hope (insist, yes even demand ) a clean version of this. Perhaps as nice as the recent stereo Harvest. I hope this is the year we get it.

 

What’s so hard to understand? People read Shakespeare and understand it and that was written hundreds of years ago. People also read the Bible and understand it. The song is about a guy patting himself on the back because he didn’t cut his hair as a sign of protest. Big deal. Did Crosy join the Peace Corps and help other people? Did he go down south and march for civil rights? Here’s what he did: he stayed up in Laurel Canyon doing drugs and having sex with a multitude of anonymous women. What a hero. How many children did he father that he was too drugged out and irresponsible to raise? There’s one that we know of. He didn’t cut his hair – what an activist! He’s practically Mother Theresa.

 

Well, I can't say for sure, but I always assumed
the intro belonged to ACMH. It is Crosby all right,
and it is his song, done at his insistance live in
one take, so I figure it fits. I have tried to listen
carefully, many times, for any evidence of an edit,
and it sounds seamless to me. You can clearly hear
the tape background hiss, at a constant uninterrupted
level, right through his into and the two drum beats
that launch the band. It is especially clear on the
reissue Lp that Tom Port likes--hey, I got lucky and
found one! They *are* out there...right, Todd?

--Roger

 

He's an artist. I'm sure his inspirational words fired up some activists. It's always that way.

Am I right in assuming that this particular song did not inspire your revolutionary endeavours? What did?

Did "Ohio" make you unbelievably angry at the Establishment?

Did "God On Our Side" make you struggle to balance your desire for peace against your deep feelings of patriotism.

Did "For What It's Worth" inspire you to attend peace rallies to bring the boys home?

Just curious.

Regards,
Geoff

 

mike,

sorry to see that life has made you so cynical.

renny

 

Jeepers! What nerve did I touch?

All I meant to say was you had to be there to understand, really, what a big deal this whole HAIR thing was.

Maybe I'm wrong.
Or maybe when we read Shakespeare, there are things we miss. (Well I *certainly* miss things, but I meant "we" broadly.)

 

I think you're correct, you had to be there. I've tried to explain to my kids (and even my wife, who is 10 1/2 years younger) what it was like. The prejudice against long hairs was truly unbelievable. I can remember being refused admittance to Disneyland because if your hair touched your collar you weren't allowed in. You couldn't get a job without wearing a short hair wig. Things have really changed.

 

renny

sorry to see that your patronizing attitude masked as sympathy is so transparent.

mike

 

I was born in 65 so these songs don't apply. I guess I think it's silly to be inspired to political activity or charitable works by a pop song. I've done a fair amount of volunteer work in my life, but it has always been inspired by things in my life and not pop songs.

 

OK, I understand. It does seem strange now that hair would be such a big deal, but I think anyone who learns about the era can understand. Thank you for your explanation. Mcow - a short hair wig!

 

Remember that scene at the opening of the film ALICE'S RESTAURANT, where Arlo walks into a bar or restaurant with his hair under his hat. He is accepted by the locals, then he takes off his hat and gets the crap beaten out of him.

I think that's how it goes. Been a while since I watched it......

 

It might be edited on but from a different take. Since after David say "I will now proceed...." Stephen sings " have you ever" which sounds like it 's cutoff then the song starts.

Now the question I have is what is it's real title? On the CSN boxset it titled "Horses Through a Rainstorm" and credited to Reid & Nash but on John Mellencamp's Best of it's titled "Without Expression" and credited only to Reid. Even though in the boxset book Nash states that it was Reid's song and he rearranged it, they sound identical.

 

"Did "For What It's Worth" inspire you to attend peace rallies to bring the boys home?"

Sorry to break it to you but FWIW has nothing to do with Viet Nam or peace marches. It was about the riots on Sunset Strip in 1966.

From WhiskyaGoGo.Com

"If you had to put your finger on an event that was a barometer of the tide turning, it would probably be the Sunset Strip riots," says Gibson, talking about the confrontations that inspired the Buffalo Springfield's Stephen Stills to write "For What It's Worth." While the 'riots' were immortalized in the 1967 film "Riot on Sunset Strip," there was no one particular incident---rather, a summer long simmering tension between longhairs, police and shop owners along the street. "The cops would hassle kids for being underage," claims Rodney Bingenheimer, who now hosts a radio show on KROQ, but was then dubbed by Sal Mineo "the Mayor of the Sunset Strip."

 

This comment makes sense; but humans are not entirely logical. I don't think it's much sillier than being inspired by a powerful speech. Personally I'm not a fan of rhetoric, but it seems to "work".

 

Listened to American Beauty & Workingmans Dead this evening off the DVD-A's.

Gad-zooks!!! Please, Please PLEEAAAZZZZE do this to Deja Vu.

On a separate note, heard a good sounding 'Country Girl' on WFUV earlier and played it (off CD) between the dead albums. Sounded like crap .

 

Thanks for the insight.

I blew it with that specific example, but I was looking to make a point.

Art (I call it that but mike wants to call it "pop songs") does inspire. Art may not make us adopt a new stance in life, but it can help crystalize our thinking, and bring to the surface nascent murmurings of the heart, focus them, and provide an internal motivation for change.

Regards,
Geoff