Stephen Stills - Songs for Judy (1968)

Buffalo Springfield released their final album, titled Last Time Around, in July 1968 through Atlantic Records. The band's final effort, it came when the strained relationship between Neil Young and the rest of the band finally dissolved, after Young left and rejoined the band a number of times starting in mid-1967. Other issues such as the deportation of Canadian bass player Bruce Palmer after being arrested on drug charges and the band's untrustworthy management also helped accelerate the band's breakup. That left the band's three singers and songwriters to figure out their next steps in the music business. Out of those, Stills seemed to be the one with the easiest path ahead, having written the band's breakthrough hit "For What it's Worth", as well as other minor successes such as "Rock and Roll Woman" and "Sit Down, I Think I Love You", which was a hit for the Mojo Men in 1967. His name was also prominently featured in the very successful Super Session album by Al Kooper, which featured Stills' guitar playing on a side's worth of songs. This certainly further helped his chances at a post-Springfield career, as Super Session made it to the top 20 and was certified Gold, with "Season of the Witch", on which he played, becoming a perennial FM hit. All through this period, Stills never stopped writing, stockpiling new material while still taking the time to plan his next move as a solo artist.

Our first sample of those new songs comes from an archival release called Just Roll Tape. When a studio session by Judy Collins, his then-girlfriend and muse to much of his songwriting during this time period, finished early with studio time still remaining, Stills recorded twelve demos alone with a guitar, which were then presumed lost for the next 35 years. After that, he recorded some demos with his friend David Crosby, who had also been left without a band after the Byrds kicked him out, and with whom he'd been friends for a while, with Croz sitting in at the Buffalo Springfield's Monterey concert (deputizing for Young) and singing backing vocals on "Rock and Roll Woman". Under the monicker Frozen Noses, after the duo's drug of choice at the time, were unsure of which direction to take and if they should work together, when a house party at Cass Elliot's mansion changed everything. There the two met Graham Nash from the Hollies, who upon hearing Stills' new composition "You Don't Have to Cry", as performed by Stills & Crosby, instinctively added his harmony vocals, with the now classic CSN sound being born in a matter of minutes. That proved to be a seismic shift for Stills and Crosby, canning whatever plans they had for solo careers and having them focus full-time on the newly born trio. Crosby, Stills and Nash recorded their first album in early 1969, and the rest is history.

What if that fateful meeting between Crosby, Stills, and Nash in July 1968 had never happened? To find out what it would be like if Stephen Stills had started his solo career two years in advance, we'll have to first put together some rules. There'll be roughly ten songs on the album, as with the first two CSN(&Y) and Stills solo albums, and anything written before the first CSN album was recorded in early 1969 is fair game. No covers, only originals, and this would have been recorded in late 1968 in New York as opposed to early 1969 in California. When it comes to the material itself, "Wooden Ships" is already used in David Crosby's album, and Stephen had more than enough songs to fill an album without it, so we'll be skipping it. And out of the Just Roll Tape session, we will only be considering songs that were later tackled in the studio properly afterward, as the sound quality of the tape itself is not great and features Stills alone on acoustic guitar and vocals. David Crosby would probably still guest on the album to do some harmonies alongside other of Stephen's friends, such as John Sebastian from The Lovin' Spoonful or even Judy Collins herself. But I can see him overdubbing most of the guitar, bass, and keyboards of the album himself, as he did with the first Crosby, Stills, and Nash album, earning the nickname of Captain Many Hands. With that out of the way, here's what the album looks like:

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Do for the Others (Stephen Stills)

You Won't Have to Cry (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Know You Got to Run (Stephen Stills 2)

Bumblebee (Manassas)

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Change Partners (Stephen Stills 2)

Black Queen (Stephen Stills)

Helplessly Hoping (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

So Begins the Task (Manassas)

49 Bye-Byes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Download link:
Stephen Stills - Songs for Judy (1968)

Stephen Stills, as photographed by Linda McCartney sometime in early 1968.

The April 26, 1968 date for the Just Roll Tape demo session is incorrect, as Stills couldn't possibly have been recording in New York at the same time as he played live with Buffalo Springfield in Arizona. It's suggested the session actually dates to August 26, 1968, making it firmly post-BS and certainly making a great deal more sense, timeline-wise, coming after the Springfield folded for good and Stills was already considering the options for his career. Alongside other songs that weren't taken further after that, "So Begins the Task", "Change Partners", "Know You Got to Run", "Black Queen", "The Love Gangster", "Suite Judy Blue Eyes", and "Helplessly Hoping" were recorded that day. Out of those, "Know You Got to Run" was considerably rearranged before being recorded for the Stephen Stills 2 album in 1971, but still resembles this demo enough for us to consider including it. Alongside it, "The Love Gangster" was retitled from its original (and much superior) "Bumblebee" title from 1968 before being recorded by Manassas, something we will be undoing in this reconstruction, restoring its original title. Meanwhile, all other songs from this August demo recording remained similar enough in lyrics, melody, and arrangement that we could substitute them for their finished versions from 1969/1972 without any problem, with only minor details left to be corrected.

With that, we already have seven songs set for the album, and all we have to do is find three other suitable Stills originals from the same time period to use here. The first and most obvious is "You Don't Have to Cry", which we already know to have been the first song Crosby, Stills and Nash sang together in July 1968 at Cass Elliot's house. At roughly the same time period,  "49 Bye Byes" was demoed as "49 Reasons" by Stills and Crosby in mid-1968, making it also eligible for inclusion on this album. Our final addition was slightly more difficult to find, but the demo of "Do for the Others" found in the deluxe edition of CSN's debut apparently dates to late 1968, giving us the right to include it as well and make it to ten songs. David Crosby and John Sebastian guest on harmony vocals in "Suite Judy Blue Eyes", "Helplessly Hoping", "You Don't Have to Cry" and "49 Bye-Byes" as a sort of surrogate CSN, with Crosby taking the high harmony as he did with the Byrds. "So Begins the Task" and "Change Partners" also don't feature the pedal steel guitar, as Stills hadn't yet befriended Jerry Garcia, but other than that the arrangements remain untouched. Session musicians such as bassist Harvey Brooks from Super Session and Paul Harris from the John Sebastian sessions would also make appearances, with Dallas Taylor playing drums throughout the album, as Stills' main collaborator.

A 40-minute long album with two 20-minute sides, Songs for Judy is a very strong album, featuring many of the greatest songs Stephen Stills ever wrote, certainly ranking alongside other classic albums of the late 60s. I can see the seven-minute-long "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" becoming an FM radio hit, as it was when released by Crosby Stills and Nash. But "Change Partners" would most likely be the actual lead single off the album, and I can see it (and the album for that matter) doing pretty well in the charts. Not CSN numbers, of course, but it'd hit the top 40 for sure. Our album title is shamelessly stolen from a Neil Young live album released a couple of years ago, as it applies pretty well to this collection of songs too. This is also a means of differentiating this reconstruction from Stephen's 1970 self-titled album. To reflect that, our album cover even features Judy Collins herself! If Stephen had managed to establish himself as a solo artist before being eclipsed by the megastardom brought on by CSN(&Y), I can see him becoming much more of a household name both critically and commercially, as did his former bandmate, Neil Young. He certainly had the talent to achieve even more than what he eventually achieved as a solo artist, as one of the finest singer-songwriters of the 70s. As it stands, his post-Buffalo Springfield career is a story of lost potential, drug abuse, and changing partners.

Sources:
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash

Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills 2

Stephen Stills - Manassas