Stephen Stills

[Zuma]

Don't think I've ever seen a Stephen Stills thread on this board, what a great musician he was in the 60's and especially the 70's. His sense of rhythm, talent, voice, guitar exploits and ego made sure that he succeeded along with some of the finest musicians of the day. Legendary jamming with Jimi Hendrix and his competativeness with Neil Young.

"The One Your With" is probably the song he's best known for along with "For What's It Worth" from the Buffalo Springfield are enduring songs.

Aside from his work with The Springfield and CSN and sometimes Y, his solo albums, particularly through the first half of the 70's are often overlooked and showcase the great artist that he is.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Legendary jamming with Jimi Hendrix

"I set up my big amps, we took some acid and just went. We played quite literally for twenty straight hours. We must have made up fifty songs. But there was no tape runnin', no nothin'. We just played for the ocean. Brucie [Palmer] eventually showed up, and, just a little while later, so did the sheriffs. They came to the door and asked, 'What's the deal?'

And I said, 'Did you get a call?' 'No,' they said, 'we were just curious. This area is usually very quiet and, you know, we were curious about who was playing.' I told 'em, 'Well, there's me and a guy from Chicago and a guy from Seattle and we're just playin' blues and stuff'.

And they said, 'Oh yeah? Well, I know what you're thinkin', but would it be okay if we parked across the street and listened?' I shrugged. So the guy said, 'Don't get paranoid because we're out there. We don't care what you're doin'. We just want to listen. And if one of our sergeants shows up, someone'll sound a siren, which means just cool it for a few minutes.' So me and Hendrix jammed with the sheriff's protection."

- Stephen Stills

 

[UpForGrabs]

The saddest thing about Stills is that he spent way too long in the mid 70s trying become the worlds greatest guitarist and he lost his songwriter mojo, never to come back. Then he got pretty wrecked on drugs, and his voice has never regained its mojo.

But man, the run of albums which he had his hands on through the late 60s and early 70s was awesome.

 

[Zuma]

Ego got the better of him too there. See the 1980 interview with Jim Ladd and the 87 CSN interview to see how Graham Nash felt about trying to get Stills back onto the straight and narrow, especially after how David Crosby turned himself around. Now Crosby really fell on hard times, still sings beautifully to this day.