Stephen Stills solo career - could it have been salvaged?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Autotune Sucks, May 27, 2018.

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  1. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    Not to be too combative , but....

    How many classic songs have YOU written?
    How many song arrangements and productions were YOU involved with that people still want to hear?

    No offense, but Stills has earned his place in popular music history.

    I, too, don't think he has put out anything as consistently impressive as he did from, say, 1966 to 1982 (That's 16 years! Who wouldn't want to have THAT track record?) but to bag on him like you did above seems rather small minded.
     
  2. Nick Dunning

    Nick Dunning Forum Resident

    Stills is a major hero of mine, and a very dignified man in his dotage.

    That he was the only one not to publicly vent about the CSN split, and that he and Neil seem to be very very close personally, and have been for many years now, is surely enough.

    I just feel lucky to have seen him play up close several times. Truly a master blues/rock guitarist.
     
  3. pocofan

    pocofan Senior Member

    Location:
    Alabama
    His first two solo albums are must haves. After that it’s kind of sketchy. But so is CSN too. IMHO
     
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  4. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    I'm a Stills die hard who MUST HAVE EVERYTHING. However... if I failed to recognize that the man's best work occurred between 66-82, I'd be doing him a disservice. I think he was brilliant between 67-72. For those 5 years, Stills was at the top, one of the best. Who among us were ever THAT good? Most rock musicians don't have a stretch like that. The fact that he went on to do further good work is icing on the cake, even if there was less icing over the years.
     
  5. Mike Leary

    Mike Leary Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Ajo, Arizona
    "Love The One You're With" A classic!
     
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  6. Spacer22

    Spacer22 Forum Resident

    Speaking of Hendrix living, one has to wonder how him living would have affected other careers as well. It's well known that he and Stills were close and loved to jam together. Hendrix was even offered to join CSN (!) (can anyone confirm if that's true?). I would figure that down the line Hendrix and Stills would have done some musical things together. That might have raised Stills' profile and kept him honest, meaning that he would have had to raise his game and be on his best behavior to try to keep up with Hendrix.
     
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  7. JohnT

    JohnT Senior Member

    Location:
    PA & FL gulf coast
    Don't forget to add Super Session to his inventory of musical accomplishment.
     
  8. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    I never heard that rumor, but I do enjoy the 2 tracks on Hendrix's latest posthumous album that feature Stills. I don't think Hendrix and Crosby would get along too well, though.
     
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  9. ruben lopez

    ruben lopez Nunc Est Bibendum

    Location:
    Barcelona Spain
    I like his first two solo records and the first Manassas.
    Don't care about the rest,but playing solo acoustic he is always great.
     
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  10. baconbadge

    baconbadge Chooglin’

    Location:
    Queens, NY
    MUST have been hiding cocaine in that gigantic guitar strap...
     
  11. Autotune Sucks

    Autotune Sucks Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    Sounds pretty combative to me. No need for your self-righteous and smug tone, fellow poster. If you actually read my initial post, I never said that Stills was nothing less than a major talent. Just a major talent who fell short of his artistic promise and I was merely speculating as to what happened along the way.

    Let's go ahead and discuss your album releases as well...your world tours...your fan sites, etc. I was doing nothing different than other posters do on this terrific site every day. Ciao.
     
  12. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    Every artist has his arc. With rock bands, they often seem to deliver their most compelling work in their 20s and Stills was no exception. Sure, he burnt himself out over the course of the 70s, but he certainly burned bright there for a while with a range of very successful, albeit often unstable projects. Celebrate it for what it's worth. . . (sorry, couldn't resist)
     
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  13. Spacer22

    Spacer22 Forum Resident

    I just found the evidence of Hendrix being asked to join CSN. This is from a Nash interview:

    "So who would we get to help? We talked to Hendrix, we talked to Stevie Winwood, we talked to a bunch of people who we thought might want to join. They didn't want to do it. Ahmet [Ertegun] said to Stephen, 'Hey man, maybe you should get Neil.'"

    Interview: Graham Nash on CSN, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and smash hits | MusicRadar

    As much as I love both Winwood and Hendrix, I'm glad they didn't join, because it wouldn't have been a good fit.
     
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  14. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    I could see either in the group musically, quite honestly. I wouldn't have expected it to last long, though.
     
  15. Trainspotting

    Trainspotting Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I recently got a Japanese CD of the Manassas Down the Road album and realize that it's also very good. Not quite the stunner that the debut is, but I can't say there's really any mediocre cuts either. It's at least as good as the second LP of Manassas, for instance.
     
  16. Syscrusher

    Syscrusher Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    I feel like his songwriting was already dropping off by 1969. The Déjà Vu album has 4+20 which is nice enough but not very impressive, Carry On which is essentially a rewrite of an old Springfield tune, and Everybody I Love You which I believe is more Neil than Stills and Stills’ part is another rehash.

    Also, to me, the best songs on his first couple solo albums and Manassas albums were older songs that were written around 1968.

    I also feel like one has to nurture creativity. A lot of normal people feel creative and inspired when they’re young, but you can lose that feeling fast when you lose the angst of youth. Neil Young seems to create environments that are conducive to creativity. And he works at it. He is still very much filled with angst. It’s not about What new places money and fame can take you, but how do you stay in the old place that inspired you to create in the first place, despite new found money and fame.

    Neil was doing lots of cocaine during the most prolific period of his career and it doesn’t seem to have impaired his songwriting ability at all. If anything I think alcohol is the drug that diminishes creativity.
     
  17. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    It was those clandestine CIA missions Stills was on that really pissed him off!:laugh:
    Whaddya mean, sure he was- he just wasn't going in there to expel any bodily fluids, that's all...he was "powdering his nose" as the ladies used to say:p
    How so, Chief? Whereas the debut and 2 were growers for me, I liked the Stills LP from the first listen (it was actually hearing "Turn Back The Pages" on the CSN box set that did it)
    There's actually a mono mix of "Can't Get No Booty?":wtf:
    IMO there are many more classic Stills songs than that one, on the same album, even.
    It's actually pretty amazing that Stills and Neil get on so well (though they have certainly had their "ups and downs" over the years as Neil put it) considering that when it comes to they way their approach their art Stills is really the "anti-Neil" and Neil is the "anti-Stills". "The more you think, the more you stink" is certainly not how Stephen Stills goes about making a record. Likewise, overdubbing away all the rough edges is just about the opposite of what Neil Young is all about.
     
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  18. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    'salvaged' is probably the wrong word.

    i think his solo career could have been much more productive, but he just seemed to lack direction throughout, especially after 'daylight again'.

    even recently, as prolific as he has been since his early years (with the rides and w/judy collins) he just doesn't seem to know where to go with himself.

    i, personally, would love to see one last fling with CSNY, but i think that ship has sailed. maybe a CSN tour, finish the ill-fated covers album, tour and be done with it....but first crosby and nash have to make peace, and that sure doesn't seem like anything that is going to happen anytime soon.
     
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  19. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    bigger than CSN?
     
  20. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    i have been following CSNy for almost 50 years and this is the first time i ever heard of stills getting part of his tongue removed.

    it's his teeth, he has very bad teeth and gums, recently got dentures, and i believe has had a hard time adjusting to them.

    some of the songs on "stills alone" (which BTW i agree with an earlier post about the awful guitar sound, all those beautiful martin guitars and they put effects on the, why why why) sound like he actually singing without his teeth.
     
  21. Captain_Manyhands

    Captain_Manyhands Active Member

    Location:
    Stirling, Scotland
    As a self-confessed fan of all things CSNY and Stephen in particular, I would admit to being a bit biased in my opinion. But for what it's worth I have genuinely loved everything he has done. A lot of people have written off Thoroughfare Gap as an album, but it's one that I regularly go to when I fancy dragging on my disco pants (??).
    I do believe that every artist has a finite life when it comes to songwriting, or the creative process in general, and if you look through the years, it's difficult to find many artists that can keep the quality going for 50 years. Even someone like Paul McCartney, who many think as being one of the great songwriters. His output during the Beatles and into the early 70's of Wings was terrific, but I would argue that the quality hasn't been there for about 30 years. That's not to say that he can't write a good song anymore, it's just that it must be very difficult to keep putting out so much good stuff. Neil Young is another one, he has been churning out songs left right and centre recently, and I still enjoy most of what he does, but a lot of it is similar to what he did years ago.

    As someone already mentioned, possibly one of Stephen's problems has been that he has been balancing different music careers, and particularly the issue of the record companies wanting the CSN or CSNY name to make the most money and so pushing him away from solo stuff. If you look through the years and at similar types of artists, not many have done what Stephen has done in consistently jumping between projects. Buffalo Springfield, CSN, CSNY, Manassas, Stephen Stills, Stills Young Band & The Rides. Throughout his career he has come and gone with all those different entities, and very rarely do they completely disband. For most of them they have kept going and options are there to go back and forth between them. Most artists tend to be focused on one project for a period of time, whether it's the band or solo, but with Stephen and the rest of the guys in CSNY, they are constantly jumping between them.

    I started off by saying I'm biased because I love all things CSN(Y), and maybe it's because of that but I look at something like The Rides, and some of the stuff that Stephen wrote for them and think it's absolutely magnificent. Just check out Don't Want Lies.



    ps as someone who is still trying to finish of writing his first song, which has been on going for about 6 years, I acknowledge all songwriters as geniuses.
     
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  22. Kossoff is God

    Kossoff is God Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicagoland
    I always wondered what Stills meant when he said right before their intermission “we have to take pause for the cause.” One for the Nose.
     
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  23. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    You might be into something, but he’s probably just saying what a radio DJ would say, before going to a commercial
     
  24. AlmanacZinger

    AlmanacZinger Zingin'

    Location:
    The Land of Zaat
    All of this was basically done in the same decade. The other 40 years of his career hasn't even come close.
     
  25. AlmanacZinger

    AlmanacZinger Zingin'

    Location:
    The Land of Zaat
    I'm sorry are you talking about Stills or, like, every rock star ever? ;)
     
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