182. Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills (1970)





















Track Listing

1. Love The One You're With
2. Do For The Others
3. Church (Part Of Someone)
4. Old Times Good Times
5. Go Back Home
6. Sit Yourself Down
7. To A Flame
8. Black Queen
9. Cherokee
10. We Are Not Helpless

Review

Here's an album by Stills of Buffalo Springfield and the S in CSN(Y). Like all members of CSNY he is a genius probably behind Crosby and Young in the genius category but still up there. This album is the mark of that genius, and it is a beautifully crafted product.

The album is heavily influenced by gospel, with some extremely beautiful harmonies and the collaboration of people like Booker T., Nash, Crosby, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton make it all the much better for that. Some of the tracks are simply amazing, Church is one of the most uplifting tracks I ever had the pleasure of listening to, with it's amazing Gospel chorus and church organ just transporting you somewhere else.

The album defies description, but what is important is that Stills surrounded himself of so much talent in order to bring his ideas to life that the finished product is something quite different. And as the only album in which you can listen to both Hendrix and Clapton play it is something unique. Very much worth listening to, so you can stream it from Napster or get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Church (Part Of Someone)
2. Love The One You're With
3. Sit Yourself Down
4. To A Flame

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

Stills was a prolific songwriter before becoming a star performer; his composition Sit Down, I Think I Love You, was a minor hit for The Mojo Men before it was recorded by the Buffalo Springfield.

In 1966, Stills auditioned for The Monkees, but was rejected, because his already-thinning hair and bad teeth made him look too old for the role. Stills instead recommended his former roommate, Peter Torkelson, who got the job.

Stills was a close friend of Jimi Hendrix, who appears on Stills' eponymous first solo album. Reputedly, when Hendrix was forming his trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience, his manager contacted Stills' manager to invite Stills to become the group's bass player. Concerned that Stills' friendship with Hendrix and admiration for Hendrix' genius might prompt Stills to take the job rather than continue with the Buffalo Springfield, Stills' manager elected not to pass the message on to Stills. Noel Redding was then offered and took the job as bassist with the Experience. Within a year, both Stills and Hendrix were superstars in their own right; they continued to socialize and jam together informally up until Hendrix' untimely death in 1970.[citation needed]

Two of Stills' most notable songs, "Bluebird" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", were inspired by his intense, on-again-off-again relationship with singer Judy Collins. In a 1971 interview in Rolling Stone Magazine, the interviewer noted, "So many of your songs seem to be about Judy Collins." To which Stills replied: "Well there are three things men can do with women: love them, suffer for them or turn them into literature. I've had my share of success and failure at all three."

Stills' son, Justin Stills, was badly injured at age 26 snowboarding in Tahoe in 1997; an episode of The Learning Channel's documentary series Trauma: Life in the ER featured his treatment and recovery.

Brokeback Mountain video for Love The One You're With:



Let's bring this conversation down to the pits with half-naked Asian guy lipsynching to Will Young's cover of Love The One You're With: