Our House

Graham Nash wrote it while living with Joni Mitchell in her house in Laurel Canyon. They had gone out for breakfast and afterwards bought an inexpensive vase at an antiques shop on Ventura Boulevard. Back home, Nash has said, he told her he would light the fire while she put the flowers in the vase, and then stopped and went straight to the piano. He wrote the song in an hour on Mitchell's piano. The details are true to life: there really were two cats in the yard and a fireplace.

Nash sings lead and plays piano and harpsichord, with Crosby and Stills on harmonies, Dallas Taylor on drums and Greg Reeves on bass. It was the last single from Déjà Vu and reached number 30 on the Hot 100 and 20 on the Cash Box chart. Nash said he was bored with it the day after he recorded it but still plays it because it means so much to so many people. In an NPR interview in 2013 he said the harmonies were an unlikely blend that was not supposed to work, but somehow does. Jeff Scher directed and animated an official video published on 9 June 2021, and Nash sang the song on the 2019 album Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration. Helen Reddy, Phantom Planet and Sheena Easton are among those who have covered it.