Happy Rock & Roll Birthday to the most excellent Stephen Stills.
With or without his buddies, Stephen is a true classic as both a songwriter and guitarist.
One of the grooviest albums of the last few years is Stills’ Just Roll Tape. It’s full of stuff he laid down alone with his guitar right after a Judy Collins recording session in 1968. Since that was before the first CSN album, there are fantastic early incarnations of “Change Partners,” “Suite Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping” and “Wooden Ships.” The quality of the recording is not particularly good (ok, some of it actually sucks), but that doesn’t take away from the beauty of the work.
My all-time favorite Stills lyric comes from the song “Treetop Flyer” which is, coincidentally, on Just Roll Tape. “I don’t do business that don’t make me smile.” That’s a basic tenet of my Rock and Roll Philosophy…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.