Stephen Stills (album)

The album was recorded mostly at Island Studios in London between the two CSNY tours, after buying a house from Ringo Starr in Surrey, England.[4] The songs recorded at Island Studios, include "Old Times, Good Times", "To A Flame" and "Go Back Home". After the 1970 CSNY Tour, Stills recorded a few more songs in LA, and most of the backing vocals. The album features an array of well-known guest musicians, including John Sebastian, David Crosby and Graham Nash, who contributed vocals. Ringo Starr drums on two tracks under the pseudonym "Richie,"[5] which he also used for his contribution to the London Sessions album by American bluesman Howlin' Wolf, recorded in England the same year. Stills' album is also the only album to which both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix supplied guitar work.

The song "We Are Not Helpless" was wrongly assumed by many critics to be a response to Neil Young's song "Helpless" from the Déjà Vu album.[6] "Love the One You're With," Stills' biggest solo hit single, peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 19, 1970, and another single pulled from the album, "Sit Yourself Down," went to #37 on March 27, 1971.[7] "Sit Yourself Down" and "Cherokee" are thought to be written about Rita Coolidge[8], with whom Stills was romantically involved during 1970[9]. "Do For The Others" was written for David Crosby about the death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton.

The front cover photo was taken by photographer Henry Diltz, during a snowy September morning outside Stills cabin in Colorado. The pink giraffe in the cover is thought to be a secret message to one of his girlfriends specifically Rita Coolidge, who has just left him for Graham Nash, which was one of the contributing factors for the demise of CSNY.[10] In the liner notes on the back cover Stills included a poem called “A Child Grew Up On Strings.” by Charles John Quarto[11] Stills dedicated the album to Jimi Hendrix, who had died two months before the album arrived in stores, as to "James Marshall Hendrix".

The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart[12] in the week of January 2, 1971, during a 39-week run.[12] It was reissued by WEA after being digitally remastered using the HDCD process on December 5, 1995. "We Are Not Helpless" and "Love the One You're With" were first performed in concert on May 12, 1970, during Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Déjà Vu tour. In 2009 Crosby, Stills, & Nash released Demos featuring an early demo of "Love the One You're With". It was certified Gold in the USA (RIAA) just eight days after release on November 24, 1970.[13] By 1974, according to Rolling Stone magazine, the album had sold an estimated 800,000 copies in the US alone.[14] Originally this was the highest selling album out of the four high-profile albums released by each member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their 1970 chart-topping album Déjà Vu, until it was overtaken by Neil Young's After the Gold Rush.[15] Stills commented it would have been No 1 (most likely on the Record World Charts where at peaked at No 2) if it hadn't been for George Harrison releasing All Things Must Pass at the same time.[16]

Reviews of the album were decidedly mixed ranging from lukewarm to positive. Ed Ward in a contemporary review in Rolling Stone felt that the album had an "elusive" quality, and though he didn't dislike the album, and admired parts, he felt it lacked "meat". However he felt that "Love the One You're With" would make a "killer single".[17] In another contemporary review, Robert Christgau awarded the album a C+, saying he "effortlessly swings," picking out "Go Back Home" for praise, and is too "damn skillful to put down". Yet he felt there was something "undefined about the record."[18] However, in three contemporary reviews Record World, Cashbox, and Billboard were full of praise for the album. Record World called Stills "one of the steadiest performers on the rock circuit" and said the "result of the album was stupendous".[19] Cashbox said Stills' "keyboard, guitars and vocals were brilliant" and the songs were "among the best he's ever written".[20] Billboard said Stills was "a complex talent bursting with soul and depth" and "via brilliant arrangements takes rock to new and musical heights."[21] Richard Williams for Melody Maker 1970, said "'Love the One You're With' and 'Sit Yourself Down' are both comfortable and smooth-harmonied songs which might have come from Deja Vu. 'Church (Part Of Someone)' is a stretched gospel song, maybe the best he's ever written with thick choral responses (I'd dig to hear Lorraine Ellisson singing it)'.[15]

In a retrospective summary Allmusic calls it "a jaw-dropping experience" just short of Crosby, Stills & Nash and Déjà Vu.[1]

The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[22]

It was voted number 129 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000.[23]

Mick Jagger was quoted in the NME 1970 saying he's 'been listening to.. and really likes Stills new album... finding it really funky'.[24] Such was Stephen Stills stature that the two biggest releases for Christmas 1970 were Stephen Stills' debut solo album and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. Harrison sent Stills a telegram complimenting him on the album.[25]

All tracks are written by Stephen Stills.

• Stephen Stills – vocals, guitars, bass, piano, organ, steel drum, percussion; horn and string arrangements on "Church," "To a Flame," and "Cherokee"; electric sitar on "Cherokee"
• Jimi Hendrix – electric guitar on "Old Times Good Times"
• Eric Clapton – electric guitar on "Go Back Home"
• Booker T. Jones – organ on "Cherokee"; backing vocal on "We Are Not Helpless"
• Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuel – bass on "Love the One You're With," "Church," "Old Times Good Times," "Go Back Home," and "Sit Yourself Down"
• Conrad Isidore – drums on "Church" and "Old Times Good Times"
• John Barbata – drums on "Go Back Home" and "Sit Yourself Down"
• Ringo Starr – drums on "To a Flame" and "We Are Not Helpless"
• Dallas Taylor – drums on "Cherokee"
• Jeff Whittaker – congas on "Love the One You're With" and "Old Times Good Times"
• Sidney George – flute, alto saxophone on "Cherokee"
• Rita Coolidge, David Crosby, Priscilla Jones, John Sebastian – backing vocals on "Love the One You're With," "Go Back Home," "Sit Yourself Down," and "We Are Not Helpless"
• Cass Elliot, Claudia Lennear – backing vocals on "Go Back Home," "Sit Yourself Down," and "We Are Not Helpless"
• Graham Nash – backing vocals on "Love the One You're With," "Sit Yourself Down," and "We Are Not Helpless"
• Judith Powell, Larry Steele, Liza Strike, Tony Wilson – backing vocals on "Church"
• Sherlie Matthews – backing vocals on "We Are Not Helpless"
• Arif Mardin – string arrangements on "Church" and "To a Flame"

• Album online on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company