"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"...solo

Here’s a gem that Stephen Stills put out in 2007.  At least that’s when it was finally released.  The recording itself was made in 1968.  Stephen’s girlfriend at the time, Judy Collins, was putting together the new album that would be following up her 1967 hit “Both Sides Now,” and she had asked Stephen to play some guitar on it.  On one occasion when Judy had finished for the day, Stephen found himself in a studio with a guitar and a head full of songs he’d written but hadn’t yet committed to tape.  So he paid the engineer to stay late and run some tape for him.

In a 2020 interview for American Songwriter, Stephen recalled, “The last thing she said was, ‘Don’t stay all night, ‘cause I need you fresh tomorrow.’ And I didn’t.  I stayed just as long as it took to record all those songs one time.”

Which is how this intriguing version of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” came to be on an album of song demos entitled Just Roll Tape.  Instead of the fully harmonized version with David Crosby and Graham Nash, this solo performance captures the song as it was originally written.

As the interviewer for American Songwriter pointed out, “It’s fascinating to hear these songs solo because it was never obvious which part was the melody.”

To which Stephen replied, “Yeah.  In some cases, being the one with the highest falsetto, I was the one who ended up with the castrato part.”

“I thought Graham had the highest parts,” said the interviewer.

And Stephen pointed out, “Graham doesn’t have a falsetto.  He just sings really high.  When we sing ‘Suite,’ for example, I’m way on top.”