CSNY — Déjà Vu Sessions, Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco

Wally Heider Studios at 245 Hyde Street in San Francisco's Tenderloin district was where Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded Déjà Vu (1970) — an album that took over 800 hours of studio time and became one of the best-selling records of the era. The sessions were notoriously fractious: the four principals barely spoke to each other outside of recording, tracked their parts separately, and produced an album whose emotional coherence belied the personal chaos behind it. 'Carry On,' 'Teach Your Children,' 'Our House,' 'Helplessly Hoping,' and the title track are among its contents.

Wally Heider Studios was the premier San Francisco recording facility of the late 1960s and early 1970s — Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and many others recorded there. The studio's location in the Tenderloin, away from the glamour of the Haight, was typical of the pragmatic approach to the city's music infrastructure. The Déjà Vu sessions captured CSNY at their commercial peak, shortly before internal tensions, drug problems, and the disbanding of the group as a working unit.

The Hyde Street Studios — as the facility is now known — still operates as a recording studio at the same address. It is one of the last survivors of the classic San Francisco studio era and has been designated a historic site. The building contains original equipment and documentation of its remarkable history. Tours are occasionally available.