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When it comes to coincidences. Just recently, two of our best have filled a couple of gaps in the mythical DeDatabase by reviewing Stephen Stills' first solo album and the first work of Manassas. I was browsing through my dealer's little shop when my eye caught a Stills CD that I had never seen before. In fact, it was released this summer, although it was recorded in 1968. Before I set out to tell its story, it's good to give some information to newcomers.
Stephen Stills is indeed a somewhat peculiar case. Despite being one of the greatest talents in American songwriting, he gave his best in the short span of six or seven years, let’s say from 1966 to 1972, from the first album with the Buffalo Springfield to the first of Manassas. After that, he didn’t produce anything exceptional in the following three and a half decades. This trajectory is very similar to that of his fellow musician David Crosby. However, during those years, he was the protagonist of some wonderful records, the first two of Buffalo Springfield, the project with Crosby and Nash, with and without Young, the one called Manassas. Just to give you an idea of the man's reputation at the end of the '60s, both as a writer and as a guitarist, let me remind you that Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix played on his first solo album. I don’t think there’s much more to add.
Let’s talk about the CD in question. April 26, 1968. Stills accompanies his girlfriend at the time, singer Judy Collins, to a recording at studios in New York. After Collins' sessions are over, it's not too late, and Stills throws some hundreds to the sound engineers so they don't leave and record some of his songs. He starts playing and quickly records, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, the songs he has written in the past period, after the breakup of Buffalo Springfield. He leaves, promising to come back for the tapes. He never does so; the beginning of the adventure with Crosby and Nash completely absorbs him (he will be nicknamed Captain Manyhands for playing all the instruments in the trio's first album, the one with the sofa, if you know what I mean). In 1978, the recording studio is closing, and Joe Colasurdo, one of the last to use it, has the luck to find these tapes, ready to be thrown away, in a box labeled "Stephen Stills." He takes them, but only twenty-five years later can he, through a mutual friend, make them reach Graham Nash, who will then pass them to Stills. The esteemed Rhino finally released them this summer.
So, what do they contain? The first recordings of the three classics written by Stills for the debut record marked C, S & N, namely "Wooden Ships" (written in collaboration with Crosby and Kantner of Jefferson), "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (try to imagine Judy Collins listening to Stills while he sings this song to her), and "Helplessly Hoping." "Black Queen", which will end up on Stills' first solo album, while "Change Partners" and "Know You Got To Run" on the second one. "So Begins The Task" on the first Manassas. There are also a handful of unreleased songs, among which "The Doctor Will See You" stands out, a wonderful young-style ballad in open tuning, and "Dreaming Of The Snakes", sort of a rewrite of Crosby's masterpiece "Everybody's Been Burned." The CD concludes with an excerpt from a slightly later session, "Treetop Flyer", a nice indolent blues that will only appear in "Stills Alone" released in 1991.
Therefore, this album is mainly recommended for lovers of the Californian sound of the era, although they are just demos for voice and acoustic guitar. But for those who loved Stills in all the projects I mentioned above, they will surely be fascinated by these recordings.
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