Stephen Stills
Encyclopedia : S : ST : STE : Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Early years
Stephen Stills was born in Dallas, Texas on January 3, 1945 to a military family. Moving around as a child, he developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his teenage years in Costa Rica and the Panama Canal Zone, where he graduated high school.Stills dropped out of the University of Florida to pursue a music career in the early 1960s. He played in a series of unsuccessful bands including the Continentals, which featured future Eagles guitarist Don Felder. Stills eventually ended up in a nine-member vocal harmony group, the house act at the famous Cafe Au Go Go in NYC, called the Au Go Go Singers where he met Richie Furay. This group also did some touring in the Catskills, and in the South, released one album in 1964, then broke up in 1965. Afterwards, Stills, along with four other members from the Au Go Go Singers, Rick (nee Frederic) Geiger, Roy Michaels, Jean Gurney & Michael Scott, formed The Company, a folk/rock group. Immediately prior to performing in the Au Go Go Singers, Stills could be seen singing solo in Gerde's Folk City, a well-known coffee house in Greenwich Village. The four other performers in The Company, Geiger, Michaels, Gurney & Scott, were the Bay Singers, a popular folk/bluegrass quartet that eventually morphed into the formation of the Au Go Go Singers. The Company embarked on a 6-week tour of Canada where Stills met a young guitarist named Neil Young. On the VH1 CSNY Legends special, Stills would say that at that time, Young was doing what he always wanted to do, "play folk music in a rock band." The Company broke up in New York within four months, opening up the way for Geiger to join a light opera company in Los Angeles; Michaels to link up with Jimi Hendrix, Gurney to go on to college while doing TV commercials, and Scott to tour with a retro-Highwaymen. Stills did session work and went to various auditions (including an unsuccessful one for The Monkees). In 1966 he convinced a reluctant Furay, then living in Massachusetts at the home of another former member of the Au Go Go Singers, to move with him to California.
Buffalo Springfield & CSNY
Main articles: Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Stills, Furay, and Young reunited in Los Angeles and formed the core of the Buffalo Springfield. The band would release three albums (Buffalo Springfield, Buffalo Springfield Again, and Last Time Around) and one hit single (Stills' "For What It's Worth") before breaking up.
Stills' guitar playing continually evolved. Early on, it would display sources in generic rock'n'roll, blues, and country music, as well as the chordings familiar in the acoustic-folk music scene. Soon Stills' playing would show the influence of his friend Jimi Hendrix and also sometimes the rhythms and riffs of various kinds of Latin music. Stills is notorious for experimenting with the guitar itself. This includes such things as soaking strings in barbecue sauce or flipping pickups to mimic Hendrix playing a right-handed guitar left handed.
During the disintegration of Buffalo Springfield, Stills would join up with ex-Byrd David Crosby and ex-Hollie Graham Nash to form the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. Neil Young would be added for their second album, and the group would become Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, CSN and CSNY was one of the few North American groups to rival the Beatles in popularity. Despite several breakups and reformations, CSN (and sometimes CSNY) still records and tours to this day.
Solo years
In the wake of CSNY's success, all four members recorded solo albums. In 1970, Stills released his self-titled debut, which featured guests Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Ringo Starr as well as contributions from various members of the CSNY band. It provided Stills with the hit single "Love The One You're With" as well as the concert favorite "Black Queen." Stills followed this with Stephen Stills 2, which featured "Change Partners." Nash saw this song as a metaphor for the many relationships in CSNY, while Stills viewed the band as something much less bland and repetitive.
The next year, Stills teamed up with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman and several CSNY sidemen to form the band Manassas. Then he switched to Columbia Records before an attempted reunion with Young. At one point, Long May You Run was slated to be a CSNY record, but when Crosby and Nash left to fufill recording and touring obligations, according to both David and Graham the other pair wiped their vocals from the recordings, as Stills and Young decided to go on without their erstwhile partners as The Stills-Young Band. However, Young would leave midway through the resulting tour due to an apparent throat infection. Stills was contractually bound to finish the tour, but he did reunite with Crosby and Nash shortly afterwards. This has led to the semi-permanent CSN reunion even though all three have released solo records since then.
In 1997, Stills became the first person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice in the same night for his work with CSN and the Buffalo Springfield.
2005 saw Stills release 'Man Alive'; his first solo offering in 14 years. Although not troubling the chart compilers, the record was critically well received and is regarded by many fans as his best since the mid seventies.
Political activities
CSNY has long been associated with causes of the left. In 2000, Stills was an Al Gore delegate from Florida during the Democratic National Convention.Discography
Please also see discographies for Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young- Super Session (with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield), Columbia 1968
- Stephen Stills, Atlantic 1970
- Stephen Stills 2, Atlantic 1971
- Stills Live, Atlantic 1975
- Stills, Columbia 1975
- Still Stills: The Best of Stephen Stills, Atlantic 1976
- Illegal Stills, Columbia 1976
- Thoroughfare Gap, Columbia 1978
- Right By You, Atlantic 1984
- Stills Alone, Vision 1991
- Turning Back The Pages, Raven 2003
- Man Alive!, Titan/Pyramid 2005
As a member of the Au Go Go Singers
- They Call Us Au Go Go Singers, Roulette 1964
With Manassas
- Manassas, Atlantic 1972
- Down The Road, Atlantic 1973
The Stills-Young Band
- Long May You Run, Reprise 1976
External links
- [Official Site]
- [Stephen Stills Lyrics]
- [Short biography and discography]
- [CSN Official Site]
- [CSNY Official Site]
- [Comprehsive Fan site on Stephen Stills and CSNY]
| Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young |
|---|
| David Crosby | Stephen Stills | Graham Nash | Neil Young |
| Discography |
| Crosby, Stills & Nash | Déjà Vu | Four Way Street | So Far | CSN | Replay | Daylight Again | Allies | American Dream | Live It Up | CSN Boxed Set | After The Storm | Carry On | Looking Forward | Greatest Hits |
| Songs |
| | Marrakesh Express | Wooden Ships | Woodstock | Ohio | Southern Cross | Helpless |
| Other related bands |
| The Byrds | Buffalo Springfield | The Hollies | CPR | Crosby & Nash | The Stills-Young Band | Manassas | Crazy Horse |
| Other related people |
| Joni Mitchell | Judy Collins | Chris Hillman | Cass Elliot | Timothy B. Schmit |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.