Old times good times (Stephen Stills) (LP 3997 - 4006)

Stephen Stills  Just Roll Tape April 26 1968 (Vinyl, Everest Records, 2007) ****  

Stephen Stills  Stephen Stills (Vinyl and CD, Atlantic Records, 1971) *****

Stephen Stills  Stephen Stills 2 (Vinyl and CD, Atlantic Records, 1971) ***

Stephen Stills - Manassas  Manassas (Vinyl and CD, Atlantic Records, 1972) *****

Stephen Stills - Manassas  Down the Road (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1973) ***

Stephen Stills  Stills (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1975) ***

Stephen Stills  Stephen Stills Live (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1975) *****

Stephen Stills  Illegal Stills (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1976) ***

Stephen Stills  Still Stills: The Best of Stephen Stills (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1976) ****

Stephen Stills  Right By You (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1984) **

Genre: Rock, pop 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi, Real Groovy Records, Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Jet Set/Rocky Mountain Way/Jet Set (Sigh) (Stephen Stills Live)

Gear costume: Isn't it About Time (Down the Road) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1

; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Stephen (never abbreviated) Stills has appeared already through his involvement with Buffalo Springfield, and Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, now it's time for solo Stills, and Manassas (pretty much a couple of quasi solo albums).

Stephen Stills came after CSN&Y's Deja Vu (all four members released high profile, and successful, solo albums around this time). It wasn't solo in that Stills doesn't play all the instruments, but all of the songs are his compositions. He did have a load of superstar guests appearing on various tracks. These included Crosby and Nash, John Sebastian, Cass Elliot, Rita Coolidge, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

Given all the talent available and Still's brilliance, it's a superb debut. Love the One You're With was a big hit but the other songs are also superb. It's a confident start, audacious even.

A few years before the debut emerged, he'd recorded a bunch of solo demos (just him and his acoustic guitar) after a Judy Collins session. The tape was lost and then found and released in 2007. It is amazing! A bit rough at times (it's an after-hours demo after all) but a crucial link to his first album and the Crosby Stills Nash album. The Black Queen version is worth the price of the album on its own.

Change Partners is also on the demo, and it would eventually come out on Stephen Stills 2. It's a terrific lead off song (like Love The One You're With on his debut). Number 2 also has a few misses on it - showing that he actually did need some quality control via his CSN&Y bandmates.

His next project was Manassas. It's hard to know if this should be credited to Stephen Stills or Manassas so I've gone for both. There's only one song on the double album not written by, or part written by Stills. He is definitely the main man here. Stills calls the shots fersure and again used the marathon recording approach from previous solo efforts.

The album's four sides are themed - The Raven, The Wilderness, Consider, and Rock'n'Roll Is Here To Star. It's a sprawling set as Stills plus Chris Hillman from The Byrds and Still's preferred players (Dallas Taylor, Fuzzy Samuels, Joe Lala) display their considerable abilities across a variety of genres - rock, folk, folk-rock, blues, country, country-rock, Latin, and bluegrass.

Down the Road was the unhappy follow up, using the same cast. Drug use, Stills' marathon recording approach, a variety of recording locations, and some below par songs mean it was a patchy effort. It was no surprise that this was the final Manassas album. It does have a (should have been a) hit single on it - the groovy protest song - Isn't It About Time.

Stills was even worse than Down the Road. It was again a collection of songs dating back to 1971. Stills was in a poor run of form in the studio by 1975. It's soft rock and not even good soft rock. It's one bright spot is a CSN song with Ringo Starr on drums - As I Come of Age. Thankfully he was still a dynamite live act as Stephen Stills Live demonstrates.

It's a terrific set - one side acoustic and the other electric, with Donnie Dacus playing the Neil Young (guitar foil) role. Superb throughout - it is Stills in prime form.

Recorded in 1974 on his first solo tour after Manassas fell apart, Stills manages to segue in various covers that liven up the set - Crossroads, You Can't Catch Me. Everybody's Talkin' At Me and Rocky Mountain High. Wow! This would be the Stills album that I play the most.

Illegal Stills is better than Stills in that most of the songs are working to his strengths, but there are still a few duds. 

He clearly missed Crosby and Nash - many of these songs are crying out for their combined CSN harmonies. To offset that he used Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (otherwise known as Flo & Eddie and former Turtles) to provide the Crosby Nash element.

Maybe Atlantic could sense a drying up of his talent, as they chose to release a greatest hits compilation, clumsily titled Still Stills: the Best of Stephen Stills.

It includes material from the first four solo studio albums and the two Manassas albums, but nothing from his Buffalo Springfield or CSN years, so it is a long way from being a definitive collection.

In 1976 it merely served to show how far his standards had slipped on the two CBS albums. Could it get any worse? Probably, so I stopped buying his solo albums. Until...

Against my better judgment I bought Right By You - in 1984. I don't know what I was thinking - except I didn't have the benefit of hindsight, so I wasn't aware how dire this eighties album would be.

Although Jimmy Page appears on some tracks, this is as low as it goes for Stills - ironic that the cover has his speedboat zooming into space. All of the worst aspects of eighties sound production and instruments are right here on this album. And that's pretty bad. You have been warned!

Where do they all belong? A case of diminishing returns after that first Manassas album - you have been warned!