Like me, most people would probably first become familiar with Stephen Stills as a part of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. When I was young, the supergroup’s songs had already became such an iconic part of our vision of 1970s America that they overshadowed even the large amount success he and the other group members had in other venues. However, as I slowly started to piece together which songs reflected the style of which member of the group realized the connection of some of my favorites to other songs such as “For What’s It’s Worth” and “Love the One Your With”, I came to realize I was definitely a huge fan of Stephen Stills above all.
Stills’s signature style shines through in every iteration of his work—strong clear melodies, reflective songwriting, amazing guitar ability, ear for catchy rhythms, and a desire to infuse the folk genre with rock and blues and Latin elements. His was often the drive that helped pull together and blend the best elements of other colleagues into collaborations that pretty much invented folk rock.
After a wandering military brat childhood (that would influence his musical sensibilities enormously (taking him to places of rich musical heritage like Cuba and Louisiana), he formed the in-house group the Au Go Go Singers where he developed his musical talent and leadership enough to leave and bring Richie Furay along with him to join with a few others to become the powerhouse band known as Buffalo Springfield. Most notable of their releases was his summer protest anthem “For What It’s Worth” that captured the feel of the era.
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
While the Springfield didn’t rise to the level of fame that Stills and the other hoped, it did establish his place in West Coast scene where he hung out with and played backing to the likes of Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins. It was inevitable that he would meet up with David Crosby (of the Byrds) and Graham Nash (of the Hollies) at some point, and the story of their first time harmonizing together and realizing it was something special is well known. Their first release was much heralded and things kicked up a notch when he brought in his old band mate Neil Young to add his interesting musical style and guitar ability to their collaboration.
Since their collaboration was always intended to be rather loose as they pursued other interests, Stephen was able to focus on slightly different things like a set of solo albums that eclipsed those of his other bandmates and had huge names lurking in the background (Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Ringo Starr).
Soon after he started his other powerhouse collaborative group with Chris Hillman (of the Byrds) and several others. The debut double album of this multi-talented group known as Manassas was heralded for furthering the development of country rock as it blended Hillman’s interest in bluegrass into the fold of Still’s already established folk rock style. Though Manassas wouldn’t continue past a second album, Still’s solo work afterwards would bring in even more of his blues guitar interest as well as sliding towards his rhythmic interest in the emergence of disco and more.
Though his solo work after this point would not reach the same level as all this previous work, he maintained plenty of profile in his ongoing collaborations with Young and return to CSN in the 80s. The 90s and beyond were a bit quieter for Stills with some occasional releases and collaborations (including reunions with CSNY that I got to see back in 2001!) but nothing that had the huge impact of his past. Yet even as his voice has gotten older and rougher and his , he still takes part in many new collaborations like blues group The Rides and a duet album with old friends Judy Collins.