Rarely has the old adage ‘judge the art, not the artist‘ been better served than when applied to Stephen Stills in the early 70s.
In the midst of a purple patch that began with him being the skipper who steered the 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash debut album to glory (his colleagues christening him ‘Captain Manyhands‘ for his commitment to duty), this dedication was then perceived as willful insistence on ‘Deja Vu‘ for which Neil Young joined the fray – Stills’ controlling instincts giving the 1970 CSNY concert tour an uneasy undercurrent.
Added to an already potent mix of drugs, ego, creativity and drink – which Stills consumed and exuded with the best – this tempestuous aggregation collapsed altogether by the end of the year.
Countering the ‘control freak‘ claims of his erstwhile colleagues, Stills argued he was taking responsibility while they behaved (his words) as ‘fat, rich, and lazy stars filled with an inflated self-image.’ Their detractors, meanwhile, of whom there were many among the rock press, took delight in sticking it to a group who in the eyes of several scribes had wealth that far outstripped their talent – the kings of the counterculture reduced to self-indulgent, squabbling individuals.
As a solo artist Neil Young received fulsome praise (making an album with the profundity of ‘After The Gold Rush‘ certainly helped) and was spared the more personal nature of insults that came the way of Stills.
With most of the jibes based on a perception of him harbouring big-shot entitlement, his self-titled solo album, that he began recording in the final 1970 throes of CSNY, emphasised the difference in his commercial and critical standing.
‘Stephen Stills‘ (November 1970) attained high placings on album charts around the world due to a large and devoted following, but the record, despite its undoubted merit, received only grudging praise from critics who were not prepared to give Stills an inch.
Indeed, few albums have undergone such a shift in reputation down the years – the indifference of 1970 becoming ‘inspirational‘ last year when it secured high ranking on a poll of the 500 Greatest Albums ever made.
Back in 1970-1971 however, Stills had adopted a scorched earth approach to his newfound solo status. Even as ‘Stephen Stills‘ continued to do brisk business, he had over twenty songs ear-marked for the follow-up, creative prolificacy matching his personal dramas (or vice-versa) as between the debut and its successor, Stills was arrested on drug possession charges and walked out on by girlfriend Rita Coolidge – the songstress not only dumping him but quickly taking up with his estranged compadre Graham Nash.
Thus, all the triumph and tribulation that went into being Stephen Stills, gifted songwriter, expressive guitarist, impressive vocalist, part-genius, part-egomanic, comes to the fore on ‘STEPHEN STILLS II‘ (June 1971), an erratic, wide-ranging, often inspired collection that brings to mind ‘scatterbrained‘ – a term Stills had taken to using when describing his recent involvement with Crosby, Nash and Young.
No matter what jibes passed back and forth between him and his now at arms-length former cohorts, laziness was not something he could be accused of. On flying into Miami to begin laying down tracks at Criteria Studios, Stills, undeterred by the late hour began recording at 2am and barely stopped for the next two months – March and April of 1971 passing in a blur of marathon sessions that kept co-producer Bill Halverson and engineers Ron and Howie Albert at their posts around the clock.
Eventually enough songs for a double set were cut although Atlantic Records were to knock back that notion, Stills thus compiling a 12-song single album.
Writing from a wide perspective (at the time few songwriters, if any, were drawing from such a well of varied styles), Stills, in keeping with his first album comes up with a dizzying array of material, incorporating rock, country, funk, folk and soul – a number of cuts shot through with contributions from the Memphis Horns with whom Stills would tour on release of the album, a typically ambitious 52-date affair.
Undertaking the exercise partly to dispel his anguish at losing Coolidge (‘I’d lost a woman so poured myself into a bottle‘), most nights Stills went on stage drunk, the break-up also informing several tracks on the record.
Once described by Nash as the CSNY ‘theme song’ (based on the various combinations they would assemble in through the years), opener ‘Change Partners‘ actually finds Stills reflecting on his upbringing in the South, (‘This is how most of our ladies grew up, at the country club dances,’).
Recorded with Paul Harris (keyboards), Calvin Samuels (bass) and ex-CSNY sideman Dallas Taylor (drums), who would go on to become part of Stills’s next project ‘Manassas‘, this glorious, country-tinged ballad, according to some sources was cut, but not used, by CSNY during the ‘Deja Vu‘ sessions – although it is hard to see how they could have improved on this take (Crosby named here as a background vocalist).
The line ‘There were four more young men/Who were waiting in the colour and the noise‘ was taken by some as allusion to his recent times, but with references to ‘attending the ball‘ and ‘dance cards‘ the song remains rooted in the past, some expressive steel-guitar work by an un-credited Jerry Garcia bringing extra dimension to a finely cut gem.
The diversity of his work becomes quickly apparent with the electric blues-funk of ‘Nothin’ To Do But Today.’ It finds Stills lamenting how touring life impinges on personal fulfilment (‘Been on the road too long/Most of these changes should be past and gone‘), the song given an imaginative twist when a choir join him for the chorus. By the end however, there is acceptance rather than despair for the route he has chosen, (‘I’m not so easily deceived, I’m a blues man/I know when to leave).’
On ‘Fishes and Scorpions‘ Stills builds from an acoustic blues platform to eventually trading electric guitar licks with Eric Clapton (who had also guested on ‘Stephen Stills‘). The folk leanings of the composer are also brought to bear on the terse ‘Know You Got To Run‘ and ‘Word Game‘ – an angry protest piece inspired by a documentary he had seen about apartheid, Stills adopting Dylan-like phrasing while playing some fiery acoustic guitar.
Despite instances across the record where his lyrics have a tendency to become vague or over-wrought, ‘Sugar Babe‘ is neither, Stills dealing head-on with the pain of losing Coolidge. In simple but effective lines, the song becomes a plea for their reconciliation (‘Come on sweet Rita/You’re my sugar babe‘) – this after he has assailed her with ‘Let yourself be open honey learn to bend/Remember everyone gets scared/But I’m still your best friend,’ Stills producing a heartfelt vocal for this excellent, soul-infused performance which he leads from the piano.
Two years later he would re-cut the song in impressive manner with Manassas – introducing a superbly fluid guitar solo while erasing any mention of ‘Rita‘ – Stills by then married to French singer-songwriter Veronique Sanson.
Coolidge also haunts ‘Singin’ Call‘ a tender acoustic guitar piece that evokes ‘Helplessly Hoping‘ from the CSN debut record, Crosby once again harmonising to fine effect – the now departed lover in evidence too on ‘Open Secret‘ which finds Stills sailing perilously close to bombast with the melody and self-pity of the lyrics.
The blaring horns, strident keyboards and hand claps announce its arrival in grandiose fashion and while admirably ambitious in terms of variety, the piece would have been better served by a less self-serving lyric (‘Someone tell me have I been gifted or robbed?’)
When the album was released, critics were quickly on the case of a twenty-five-year-old millionaire posing himself such a question (‘arrogant‘/’self-pitying‘/’cloying‘ were among the brickbats (and that was just noted rock commentator Robert Christgau) – although in fairness to Stills there are times on ‘Harvest‘ the following year when Neil Young sounds no less mawkish or self-obsessed.
The horns are equally intrusive on ‘Ecology Song,’ Stills nailing his colours to the cause of environmentalism (‘All of this crying while the earth is dying/America is lost, figuring the cost‘), only to have his point all but buried in a fussy, overdone brass arrangement.
The raucous Stones-affected ‘Relaxing Town‘ that opens side two of the album, also gives a nod to current political issues with name checks for Chicago Seven activist Jerry Rubin and city mayor Robert Daley – the lines ‘Everybody wants to hear the music in my head/The price I pay is too much‘, saved from self-indulgence by a throaty vocal and the snap and crackle of a solid melody.
The album begins winding to a close with ‘Marianne.’ Compared to what has gone before it comes across as somewhat slight, but that is doing disservice to an infectious guitar-based pop song which would not have sounded out of place on the debut album five years before of Buffalo Springfield – the band with whom Stills and Young first made their names.
In the summer of 1971 ‘Marianne‘ gave Stills a minor Stateside hit single, but his first band were conjured with even more resonance with closer ‘Bluebird Revisited‘ – the ‘Bluebird‘ original a brilliant Stills composition on their seminal ‘Buffalo Springfield Again‘ album of 1967.
In returning to the song Stills injects lines reflecting his stress over Coolidge – ‘the pain of losing you made me an angry man/I can put away the rages/Can we turn the next page‘ – meanwhile, the horn section finally sounds at home, his ambitions in this department at last bearing fruit. For good measure Stills also throws in a superb guitar solo as the sound becomes that of a top-notch soul revue.
In going back to the Buffalo Springfield to wrap things up, there is a sense of Stills bringing this stage of his career to a close – a chapter in which he has contributed some breath-taking rock music across the spectrum of the Springfield, CSN, CSNY and two solo albums. But reviews for ‘Stephen Stills II‘ were mixed at best, Christgau liked ‘Marianne‘ but not much else while Rolling Stone dismissed it as ‘lacklustre‘ and ‘undistinguished.’
Despite the negative press, however, the album went top ten in America and broke the UK top twenty.
Like the record he was promoting, his concerts with the Memphis Horns were a mixture of highlights and thin spots, but salvation arrived towards the end of the tour when he ran into the Flying Burrito Bros – who had existed in a void since departure of Gram Parsons the previous year.
Guitarist and ex-Byrd Chris Hillman along with pedal steel virtuoso Al Perkins were invited to Miami where they were aligned with Taylor, Samuels, Harris and percussionist Joe Lala as Stills formed Manassas – whose name the following year was given to a double-album of extraordinary invention and virtuosity, when even those who had previously maligned him agreed this was a collection where Stills hardly put a foot wrong.
In other words they were judging the art – not the artist.
(This article is respectfully dedicated to the memory of journalist and author Johnny Rogan (1953-2021), whose work, particularly on The Byrds and CSNY was always informative and entertaining. He will be missed).
STEPHEN STILLS II – JUNE 1971:
Change Partners/Nothin’ To Do But Today/Fishes and Scorpions/Suger Babe/Know You Got To Run/Open Secret/Relaxing Town/Singin’Call/Ecology Song/Word Game/Marianne/ Bluebird Revisited;
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.