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Stephen Stills "Man Alive!" (2005)

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Stephen Stills "Man Alive!" (2005)

Ain't It Always?/Feed The People/Heart's Gate/Round The Bend/I Don't Get It/Around Us/Ole Man Trouble/Different Man/Piece Of Me/Wounded World/Drivin' Thunder/Acadienne/Spanish Suite

'My heart is in my song - but my song is blowing in the breeze...'

Fan imagination, including mine, went into hyperdrive when we heard this album was on its way. Stephen Stills' first solo album in fourteen years - and his first full length album of new works in nineteen - was for the CSN cognoscenti, if not the world in general, a major event. Stills had been so long away (you could fit all eight of his solo albums in the gap between the last two records) and the last signs we'd heard from him on CSN/Y albums were generally good, with Stills' contributions the best thing by a country mile on both 'After The Storm' and 'Lookin' Forward' (albums which were themselves eleven and five years old by now respectively). At long last, after a wait that lasted most of his adult days, Stills' homelife was now stable and secure leading to hopes of a reprise of the loved-up Stills we had in the Veronique Sanson days of the mid-1970s. What's more 'Captain Manyhands' should have been the perfect for an early 21st century scene best described as 'eclectic' and we wondered where Stills might go next: folk, blues, rock, pop, blues or most likely a little bit of everything - in the age of sampling Stills' playful blending of genres and timeless production style (disco and 1980s pop album aside) suddenly looked like time-travel. When fans heard that both Nash and Young were heavily involved with the album there was already talk of 'career high' and 'comeback of the century so far' mooted around even before we'd heard a note.

So the album itself was something of a shock. It's not that this album is bad in a way that 'Right By You' often was. Or misguided as 'Thoroughfare Gap' sometimes could be. Or as unfinished and low budget as 'Stills Alone' turned out. But even so 'Man Alive' felt slightly...lacking. Stills songs, even the bad ones, generally come in at least three dimensions, often more. Even if you don't like a song in one style there's probably another one that sounds completely different to love moments later. Though Stills' most recent albums had been a little more one-note of late, at least they were largely good one-notes, returning to acoustic folk ballads or exquisite torch ballads, the sort of things fans had long been asking for. Even at his worst it's hard to fault the commitment or passion in Stills' songs. But 'Man Alive' finds the musician healthy but his muse largely dead. There are no songs here that weren't better told in past songs and so many of them seemed to tell the same story: things are rubbish, I hate them. That would be forgivable if Stills had stretched himself like the days of old, but this album has a curiously lifeless feel, a soul album of all things but a soul album in a 'glossy backing with a female choir' kind of soul rather than an Otis Redding emotional soul. Perhaps because this album had such a long genesis, some of these songs stretching back decades, this CD also had a curiously 1980s feel about it - the last decade which most fans would have picked to return to by choice. Usually Stills albums are full of chances to learn and understand one of the most guarded yet strangely emotional and honest writers at work - but there's nothing from 'Man Alive' you particularly want to learn, with this easily the most guarded of one of the 1960s' most unguarded writers' career.

The exceptions to that are the two acoustic songs, usually the moments at which Stills opens up the most. But he was at pains to point out in interviews of the day that these two cover songs that made the album were pure fiction. Interviewers salivated at the thought that he and Young trading lines on 'Different Man' meant that the pair were trying to be adult and putting bygones behind them; Stills just muttered something about thinking this traditional folk number had a good tune. Similarly critics all picked the cover of Booker T Jones' 'Ole Man Trouble' as an album highlight, revelling in how well Stills was able to tap into his heartbroken, self-destructive number of old - for the singer he admitted it was all something of a distant memory and simply a song he'd already meant to get round to one day. The long and short of it is that there's no great confessional moment on 'Man Alive', no moment when you realise that Stills is singing directly to us in his desperate attempt to get the truth of what he feels across and no great revealing moment when it all clicks and no one else could ever offer us what Stills does so effortlessly. Instead of answering what a 21st century Stills album or an eclectic Stills album made after a gap might sound like, 'Man Alive' answers what a settled Stills album sounds like instead. Not a happy or contented album either (that's 1975's gorgeous 'Stills') but a Stills album from a quiet era in his life where nothing much seemed to be happening. That's our loss maybe, but Stills' gain as the one and only great thing about this album is hearing how 'normal' life has become for someone who once suffered such agonising rollercoaster highs and lows.

Otherwise this is kinda Stills by numbers: there's the energetic opening pop number 'Ain't It Always?' that comes off as bland; the too-bad-to-be-a-charity-single 'Feed The People' which is almost a parody of CSN's hippie philosophy; the bland acoustic ballad 'Heart's Gate' which is a whole notch down even from 'Stills Alone'; demented rocker 'Round The Bend' (the only original song here that stabs at any autobiography, until it becomes another fictional song about a Vietnam Vet); cod white reggae on 'I Don't Get It'; cheery pop number 'Around Us'; fragmented blues 'Piece Of Me'; MOR soul 'Wounded World'; a remake of nobody's favourite CSN/Y moment 'Drivin' Thunder'; even flipping Zydecoe on 'Acadienne' and a needlessly ambitious 'Spanish Suite' that like the album as a whole promises much that never quite arrives. Stills is so busy ticking boxes about what he thinks people want to hear that he has no real time to offer up anything of himself on this album. The fragmentary sessions also means that there's never one 'house band' to get their teeth into these songs and offer any cohesion. Those that do play sound as if they're clock-watching or driven through one take too many, a booming bombast of old friends like Joe Vitale, Mike Finnigan and George 'Chocolate' Perry who all come from different periods of Stills' career and never quite gel when made to work together in the same room. Even Stills himself is largely quiet on this album, his guitar left in the box for half the record and prepared to lead from behind rather than from the front like the good ole days. Add in a sappy and dated production, that covers everything with an ugly surface sheen that screams shoulder pads and slickness and excess and the high expectation that surrounded this album and you have several reasons why 'Man Alive' might be Stills' weakest album - maybe the weakest of the CSN catalogue as a whole. Stills hasn't recorded another solo project since or indeed anything much besides his bit-part in spin-off band 'The Rides'. He doesn't sound as if he has anything much to say anymore, in stark contrast to the old days when Stills had so much to say fans often couldn't keep up with the rate at which albums seemed to be released.

However, no album is all bad and that goes doubly for CSN and there are moments - not whole songs but moments - when it all seems to be coming together. 'Spanish Suite' is at least eight minutes too long but the closing rousing finale is really gripping. 'I gave up on you!' spits Stills after toying with hiding his feelings in Spanish in the past tense for so long, 'It was the hardest thing I ever had to do!' Having been through all those other songs it wouldn't surprise me if there's an element of Judy Collins or Rita Coolidge or Veronique Sanson hiding in this song for one last time, a neat closing of the circle to a lifetime of watching Stills' relationships play out in song. 'Different Man' is a great song whether Stills means it or not and while his and Young's harmonies have always been a difficult pill to swallow without Crosby or Nash in the middle the two old friends and rivals bring out the best in each other here - would that the Stills-Young set 'Long May You Run' been half as good as this. 'Wounded World' is a clever idea that turned into a bad song, reflecting Stills' pain as he's abandoned not by a wife or mistress but by his teenage daughter going off to university and trying to live her own life, aware that he has to let her go but hating being apart all the same. 'Piece Of Me' at least tries to go back to old Stills with its haunted wounded bluesy feel, even if this is someone whose forgotten what it's like to have been hurt enough to write a song as deep as he used to. For the most part Stills sings brightly, far stronger than he ever did on 'Stills Alone' or 'Lookin' Forward' and he seems to be back in better health than he had been for a while (although admittedly I suspect some of these recordings might date back a wee while). The one moment that doesn't though, when his raw side slips, is fabulous and 'Ole Man Trouble' is a quite staggering reminder of just how deeply Stills used to feel, the old bluesman howling his way through Otis Redding's right-hand man Booker T Jones' pained howl of a song like a man possessed, rather than a man alive. Those are the moments that work best on this album - when Stills isn't simply surviving and waving, but drowning and while no fan would ever want to put him through the pain and misery of his younger years, he is one of those writers who writes best when his world is collapsing and everything is going wrong; on too much of this album he's making music for the sake of it rather than because he has anything burning to say.

Stills certainly outshines his guests, by and large, despite their names all mentioned on the sticker that came attached to the front of the CD (and which comes with some of the strongest superglue known to man alive or dead) and the 'special appearance' billing in the sleevenotes by nearly every song, even when the musicians can't be heard. Neil shines on 'Different Man' but barely turns up for the perfunctory solo on 'Round The Bend' which Stills could have played better himself. Graham Nash's fingerprints turn up across who swathes of the album but somehow none of them make much impact: his biggest collaboration is 'Wounded World', the first co-write between the pair since 'Turn Your Back On Love' back in 1982, but you wouldn't really know it from the low-mixed harmonies which lack the same sense of scale and wonder we usually have whenever two or more of CSNY get back together. I can't even hear him on 'Acadienne' despite the backing vocals credit, while I wish I couldn't hear him on 'Feed The People' where his cod-reggae lilt booms out above everyone else and makes a bad song worse. Even jazz legend Herbie Hancock, who'd have been the perfect instinctive soulful guest for any Stills project before this one, sounds awful and a little bit lost on the weird chord changes Stills asks him to play across 'Spanish Suite'. Frankly Stills could have performed the part a lot better himself. That goes double for the guitar solos (handed for the most part over to Young), the piano and organ work (handed over to Mike Finnigan), the bass (George Perry plays very simply, quite unlike his younger self), the drums (handed over to Joe Vitale on a migraine-inducing day) and especially the sea of backing vocals that swamp a good half of the album (featuring Finnigan again, Brooks Hunnicut, daughter Jennifer and seemingly anyone else within a hundred mile radius of the studio). The only truly magical musical moments on this album all come from Stills and then are fleeting in the extreme - the brief fiery solo on opener 'Ain't It Always?', the acoustic guitar on 'Different Man' and the angry electric guitar snarl on 'Drivin' Thunder' - the only aspect of this new arrangement that improves on the 1988 original. You'd have though, given the years spent crafting this album with only Stills always around and given that while his voice has faded down the years his playing might actually have been getting better, there'd be more actual Stills across this album. In the words of one of the album's more repetitive songs I don't get it, get it, get it.

The album's other best moment really is all down to Stills and is the cover. Stills drew his own self-portrait despite not ever having been known as much of an artist before and it's perfect, capturing all of his brashness and shyness in one go (his chin - now surrounded by a goatee - thrusts forward, his eyebrows connect into a frown and his mouth purses in a picture of stubbornness, but his eyes are closed and his head is turned as if in withdrawal). Stills also gives himself a full head of hair, something that hasn't been seen for real since the start of his music career! The back cover features another Stills self-portrait, this time of his hands wrapped around a precious guitar, another great sketch with more life to it than most of the album to be honest. Given how hands-on Stills has always been about all aspects of his career it seems odd that he hasn't tried to draw his own front covers before this. Full marks to the record label Talking Elephant for letting Stills do this instead of simply forcing him into putting a pretty picture of himself on the cover or something. The all-white background is a new one for Stills too, though it reflects the 'snow' picture of his first album (no giraffes this time around though!)

There isn't really an album theme - another sign of how many years the songs for this project cover - but if there is there's one then it's of feeling helpless. 'Your ship of life never goes where you steer it' sighs Stills on 'Wounded World', a line that rather sums up this album of passive-aggressiveness. This might explain why Stills is so hands-off for most of this album, frustrated that he can't make headway and get life how he wants even after this many years - though never in any big outpouring of emotion type way. 'Ain't It Always' is one long moan about how hard it is to stay in love and how easy it is to fall out of it, 'Feed The People' is one long moan about how some people always have too much while others go without even the basic necessities of life, 'I Don't Get It' is one long moan wondering why a loved one is 'so uptight', 'Wounded World' is one long moan about why hurting and suffering is an inevitable part of life and 'Ole Man Trouble' is the father of all moans. You get the picture: this could so easily have been an all-blues album or an outpouring of confessional grief a la 'Stephen Stills II'. Only instead of his heart being an open secret, leaving him gifted and robbed all at once, Stills is looking at the world in a more general sense. It's all of us and the world in general that's at fault not just Stills and even the two songs that seem to infer that come from cover versions. We're all robbed and never quite gifted enough to put things right, which is true enough but kinda obvious: we all know the world's messed up for somebody who doesn't deserve it (unless you're a millionaire Conservative/Republican and if you are what are you doing reading a CSN review at this site of all places?) but there's no aching fire to put that right anymore, just a general description. In retrospect the most telling song is the most low-key, the quiet blues hidden away as track nine that's so short you barely notice it. 'You all want a piece of me!' nags Stills before pleading 'Can I be excused?' That open secret seems a curse not a blessing here and Stills does his best to ignore it - but in doing so he comes up with his most generic, pointless, wasted album along the way.

Overall, then, there isn't much reason to own 'Man Alive'. There is that improved voice I guess, a far better pair of Stills-Young duels than we ever got on CSNY albums or the S-Y LP, a rousing emotional minute to an epic that lasts eleven, the pretty but pretty understated 'Heart's Gate' and one haunting blues cover version that fits Stills to a (Booker) T. But there's little in the way of invention or imagination and it's sad to say that the biggest gap between albums by far in Stills' catalogue still comes out sounding as if it needed a lot more time and effort spent on it. This is a man alive, but not a man thriving, at least creatively and Stills sounds a little lost here, not heartbroken enough to reach his A-game like he did in his glory years between 1967-1972 or even his sense of deja vu in 1990-1994 yet not happy enough either to reach his other high of 1975, his one great year of stability. This is instead Stills wishing we would all go away and leave him in peace but somehow not quite able to shut the door to the studio for good either, going through the motions and waiting for inspiration that never quite strikes instead. Maybe he's not such a 'different man' after all, but sadly without 'fear and anger' having 'power' he doesn't sound quite what to do with his new way of looking at the wounded world either. Please say the otherwise fabulous Stills canon doesn't end here - there's clearly another great album in there somewhere...

Most Stills albums start with something magical. This one starts with a thud. 'Ain't It Always' is as subtle as paint-stripper and as charming as The Spice Girls. The song starts with the repetitive clunky chorus, which is a bad move as it has Mike Finnigan at his most Mike Finnigan-ish and features a curious clipped riff that has no room to breathe, not to mention Joe Vitale drumming that sounds like a fistfight. Like much of this album, though, there's a layer of promise waiting underneath all that. The verses are actually quite inventive when we finally get to them, like every other Stills song that's come before it but at high speed. Stills' narrator meets a girl, he falls for her (presumably in 'an accident of faith'), worries that its going too well and he's bound to lose her somewhere down the line - and by worrying that's what happens and she leaves him. 'How much it hurts, she left you flat - ain't it always?' is his agonised, painful cry. An analysis of self-destructive tendencies we'd been waiting for across several decades, its perhaps fitting that this great idea should be lost behind such an ugly sounding song. Age hasn't mellowed Stills' responses to love as he howls 'falling - it's a trap!', which together with his much more with-it than usual voice suggests that this song dates back at least to the dark times of the early 1990s rather than the time around the date of recording when Stills had finally found stability and happiness. Certainly his riveting but all too brief guitar solo suggests he was at the time of recording going through some kind of hell and it may well be the best ten seconds on the record - edgy, dark, paranoid, stubborn and hopeful all at once. However it's gone so soon and then we're back with that ugly mock-soulful organ riff, choppy guitar chords and boom boom boom drums. I've got a headache....

'Feed The People' is worse. A world peace song performed with a Caribbean lilt, its heart is in the right place in calling for more love around the world, but its head is completely wrong with the most arrogant and needlessly patronising lyrics in the CSN canon and its sound is the single most 1980s sound I've heard outside the 1980s. Once again there are some bright spots, just to tease us with how well this song could have gone. When performed live by CSNY on their 'Freedom Of Speech' tour the opening flurry of a capella harmonies was a thrilling moment (even if it still sounds rather dead here played by an anonymous studio band of backing singers, plus Nash) and the middle eight is a far better song, adding a touch of danger and mystery. I quite like the line about 'turning swords to plough-sheds' too, which says a lot in few words, while the dig at politicians trading in guns when they ought to be trading for food to keep their people safe is exactly what CSN ought to be doing with their old age. Otherwise, though, this sounds like a tourist from a rich country wondering why we have to have poor in poor countries, something that even Stills realises has maybe gone  a tad far so he quickly backtracks with the line 'I mean no disrespect!' It's a bit late for that though: the music alone is patronising - the sort of twinkly 'gee isn't it hot?' reggae type number that's played without guts and is deeply unusual for Stills who usually grasps different styles from world cultures much quicker than this. Note how much worse his voice has suddenly got too - while the sleevenotes don't mention when this was recorded I'd bet my Crosby-Nash tour programme the backing track is an unfinished 1980s baby that Stills overdubbed sometime around the album's release in 2005. 

Misguided, misappropriated and mismatched, this song is one of Stills' bigger career mistakes.

Thankfully the album gets better from hereon in. The biggest crime of 'Heart's Gate', for instance, is that it's not very memorable. This 'Stills Alone' style acoustic song also suffers badly from Stills' now croaky slurred voice and his acoustic playing is perfunctory rather than spectacular as it so usually is. However the younger Stills would have made a pretty decent song out of 'Heart's Gate', which ponders some nicely philosophical thoughts similar to 'Move Around'. Debating love for the umpteenth time, Stills wonders why each relationship always feels so different and why none of his friends have the same story about how they met. Love comes in many shapes and forms Stills says and 'none of us gets to choose', whilst it 'pays attention to trust in divine intervention', but no matter how sure you are that a relationship is meant to be nobody is immune to heartbreak. Stills is alone again, trying to count his blessings - there's a gorgeous sunset before him (is he back in CSNY's old haunt of Hawaii?) and 'the air feels like velvet', but it's all to no avail because he has no one to share the picture with. The second half of the song - was this an older one abandoned and revived and finished off for the album? - has Stills suddenly cutting to being with his soulmate. He was wrong to worry about being nervous and plucking up the courage to ask her out because she said a big fat 'yes' and instead he's kicking himself for not doing this sooner and letting his nerves get in his way. Sweetly Stills reflects on his younger self's worry with confusion and laughter - was he really that messed up? He knows what security is now, the couple have 'had a few years, worked out our fears' and had 'lots of laughter and tears and growing'. For all the struggles they've been through, though, Stills knows this time that this was the love that was meant to be and the one pre-destined to be waiting for him on Earth at the 'heart's gate' and not any of the Judy Collins, Veronique Sansons or Rita Coolidges he used to chase. Anyone whose followed Stills' career with any interest across his difficult younger years is allowed to let out an 'ahhhhhhh' at this point on what's easily the album's most sophisticated and impressive lyric. I just wish Stills had spent more time on the melody instead of apparently singing the first thing that came into his mind as without it this song gets somewhat lost amongst the noisier songs jostling for your attention on this album. I bet this song would sound pretty great with CSN harmonies too, just a little extra hint.

'Round The Bend' is another of those songs that matches a fine lyric with a melody so generic it was pushing up daises when the blues was young. Stills writes a semi-autobiographical piece about his young Buffalo Springfield days. 'I was too young for where I'd been, trying to regain my innocence' spits Stills, struggling to cope with a difficult childhood as an adult who didn't have any role-models to help him act like one. The making of him is meeting an 'enigma...hard as Canadian ice' who can surely only be Neil, who urges Stills to calm down and care about living longer with the tip of the hat that his songs are 'classy', exactly the faith Stills needed at the time. Invited out to New York Stills sighs 'I couldn't find him so I headed West', cutting the story short with the lines 'well you know the rest!' (I was wondering how he was going to rhyme the line 'spotted a hearse with Ontario license plates!') Stills opens up further, adding that when the Buffalo Springfield finally hit the stage they found 'magic places' but were driven apart by 'hangers-on with four different faces' and once again his heart was too open and vulnerable to last the course. Throughout the song there's also a clever refrain at the end of each verse that great things are coming 'round the bend', that a band are about to meet in a traffic jam 'round the bend' and that finally, despite all that early promise, the Springfield drove each other 'round the bend!' This is a clever lyric, much more true to life and affectionate than Neil's surprisingly schmaltzy take on the saga (released as the song 'Buffalo Springfield Again' on 2000's 'Silver and Gold' CD), but it would have been better still had the music and arrangement been powerful enough to show why the members of this band were once talked about so often or held in such high esteem. It doesn't help either that Stills is guilty of fictionalising his past a little - he never did lose a friend in Vietnam and the 'real' story was that after a drug low one day he started having imaginary flashbacks of service over there (which Stills believed until someone pointed out that a show of the Springfield existed for the date he said he was over there). An intense experience all the same though, so it's a shame that the music for this one is same old, same old and enough to drive you round the bend!

'I Don't Get It!' is another very 1980s style recording, sounding like a long lost outtake from 'Live It Up!' with its synth Vitale drums and Finnigan keyboards. Why revive it now? I don't get it, get it, get it as the chorus runs, not that you can really follow the lyrics too well given that Stills sounds as if he hasn't put his teeth in and is drowned out by a choir of four female backing singers. Which is a shame because, again, the lyrics are better rather than the decidedly average mix of soul and reggae on the melody and the noisy backing would suggest. 'Maybe it's me' sighs Stills before spending a whole song wondering why his latest love has suddenly become distant from him and is pulling away without warning. 'We usually have so much fun, but now you up and change and run' complains Stills as he tries to read what his lover is trying to tell him and gets confused, finding the script 'too hard to swallow'. Stills ends the song deciding that this is surely about something bigger than just him but he's still cross his lover won't let him into her heart to help her - 'I know you're hurting, but I gotta sit here and watch you suffer!' he explodes. Sadly what should be a major revelation, on a par with the adulting of 'As I Come Of Age', becomes just another cue for a twee organ riff and more of those deeply insincere backing vocals. Had Stills recorded this when he was younger and with stronger vocals (preferably before the 1980s trappings came along) then this could have been a pretty nice number - but like so much of this album the potential is wasted under too many mistakes.

'Around Us' is the pop song none of Stills' fans were asking for. Though similar to 'Only Waiting For You', this song about finally being with your soulmate (good old Kristen again) is far inferior and just sounds like so many other twee pop songs, performed with yet more insincerity by the backing singers who rather take the song over from an actually pretty decent Stills lead (do these singers get trained to sound as uncommitted as possible?) The lyrics about being 'one heart beating' and Stills spending his time 'thinking of you' and other people being 'curious, probably jealous' may be some of the most one-dimensional Stills has ever written. Which is a shame because, this time, it's the melody that's worth a second listen with a nicely urgent five-note guitar riff and a kind of gentle relaxed sway that's unusual for the generally more uptight Stills (though the solo is so way out of Stills' usual zone its one of his weakest, bare and lifeless). The best part of the song is the middle eight which suddenly turns rhythmical and stomping, like soul suddenly switching in Motown, as Stills suddenly gets a fright that things are going too well and he pleads 'don't let them come between us baby!' However for once this is a Stills song happier to bask in the sunshine than spend its time with its head in the stormclouds and this at least makes for a change. You just wish Stills had kept this song to himself instead of inviting a faux soul band and a million backing singers in to chirp so unnecessarily beside him.

At last 'Ole Man Trouble' sounds like the 'real' Stills, even if it is in fact one of the album's covers and first appeared on a Joel Scott Hill record (goodness knows why author Booker T didn't keep it for one of the MG's albums and curse the fact he hadn't written it in fellow AAA member Otis Redding's lifetime because he'd have been perfect for it!) Stills probably learnt it thanks to two co-writers: Chris Etheridge, big friend of Manassas man Chris Hillman and an ex Flying Burrito Brother or drummer Johnny Barbata who'd once played with CSNY on their 1970 tour (before joining Jefferson Airplane). The song suits Stills to a tee and for once the strict upright backing contrasted with his own emotional maelstrom on the vocal is exactly what this album should be doing. Still starts off sad - there's a shadow that keeps following him around and making him sad and he can't shake it off no matter how much he tries. Little bit by little bit, though, parts of the 'old' Stills start peeking through as he realises just how angry and bitter he feels as yet another relationship dies a death prematurely. 'You know I worked hard for you!' he intones to 'Mr Charlie' (rockstar slang for cocaine) and moans at how much money and comfort he'd have by now if he hadn't wasted it all, finding his pockets emptied along with his mind. Calling out to God (a first on a Stills song) the guitarist pleads for 'somewhere to rest my lonely head' and dreams of a quick death to free him from his endless cycle of misery. In a couplet that could have been written by Stills himself, he also sighs that he's put too much of his life and heart into sings and now that no one seems to be singing them it feels like it's all been for nothing, his life and his worth 'blowing in the breeze'. The song reaches a mega-peak about two-thirds in as Mike Finnigan finally understands a Stills arrangement and pulses his way up the keys as Vitale gets noisy and Stills gets desperate, his wild wordless blues wailings lost in a sea of backing singers singing alongside him. Not the greatest thing Stills has ever done by any means, but for this album this recording is a quiet triumph and is easily the most committed Stills sounds across the whole album, a classy version of a classy song.

Almost as strong is the cover of traditional song 'Different Man'. Stephen and Neil sing it between them, bouncing lines and guitar lines off each other (that's clearly Stills taking charge on the right and Young playing catch-up on the left) and while this pair never sounded naturally singing together without a cushion of harmonies they still bring out the best in each other. The tune is a good one, Stills adding some very characteristic blues touches on the guitar parts while the arrangement is impressively bare and fragile to get the message across. And that message is basically 'As I Come Of Age' yet again, as Stills vows that he's getting younger in his old age and more contented now that 'pain and anger got no power over me'. You still doubt that statement, such is the quiver of pain in his voice at times, but it's good to hear Stills at least singing other people's words about moving on and trying to be a better person. The song doesn't shy away from despair though. The opening verse has the narrator digging a hole and jumping right in it, the second being loyal 'to a fault' to similarly loyal friends but finding that even so 'there ain't too much good we've done'. Clearly this CSNY-style message is crying out for CSNY style harmonies (a shame that Nash, underused on the rest of the album, isn't on this track - one he could really get his teeth into) and it's odd to hear a second Stills cover in a row reaching out to God (and asking for 'forgiveness' as a 'sinner'), but fans of the Stills-Young feud/competition/rivalry/friendship will find much to enjoy here as two old friends sing an old song about old ways before embracing the fact that they are now 'different men' and can find it inside themselves to put the past behind them. And so it has proved - while the C/N axis has been in trouble lately, the S/Y one still seems pretty healthy these days.

'Piece Of Me' suggests that Stills hasn't changed entirely however. A muted, acoustic piece of blues puffing, this song is the most sorry-for-itself in the Stills canon. In a reflection of his defensive interviews around the time of this album, Stills turns on his critics for thinking they know him and wanting 'a piece of me' without ever giving anything back (erm...hi Stephen! You know I love you really, right?...) and has rarely sounded sadder as this recording almost slinks its way across the speakers with a weary shrug. Stills likes mysteries and wants to preserve his and equates understanding his songs to staring at the wild blue yonder from afar, which is fair enough, but Stills always makes his insights so interesting it's hard to look away. Once again on this album the lyric is far stronger than the album. Stills comes out 'the shadows', cries down a 'wishing well' and waits for a sign - only to be given what people think he needs rather than what he actually does (no clue to what that might be, though). '#It's a hunger' he complains, though whether he means his need to write about himself or our need to speculate on it is ambiguous, while the last verse is a cop-out, Stills trying to dazzle us with how remarkable his 'guitar-phone' is (whatever that might be!), hoping that it will distract us from deeper questions. Me, though, I'm not fooled - there's a very dark and angry song in here that returns to the dilemma of 'Open Secret' with its cry of 'somebody tell me have I been gifted or robbed?' For now Stills feels robbed, but it's that gift of being open that allows him to write songs like this one. Perhaps the best original on the album, although sadly that's not saying much - you still wish this sad bluesy track would get a move on or throw a middle eight in there for variety's sake, while Stills seems to be struggling with a basic harmonica part his younger self would have knocked out in minutes without thinking.

'Wounded World' returns to 'Feed The People's bombast as it studies a modern-day life that seems to be blooming miserable (an unusual song, actually, for the immediate pre-credit crunch days when things were relatively settled 9/11 aside). Stills sings in the first person but later revealed he and Nash wrote it together on a CSN tour-bus after finding that they both had children leaving home and would be returning to an emptier nest one things were over. The first 'family' Stills song since 'To Mama From Christopher And The Old Man', however, is an odd response and more like Cat Stevens' song of warning 'Wild World' than a 'good luck' message. 'Like a ship at sea, your life goes where you steer it' sings Stills in the closest he gets to being kind, although even this line is clearly nonsense - did Stills really steer any of those courses he set sail for in his youth? I think not! Stills, with Nash's support, tells his youngster (Jennifer? She'd be the closest in age) that sometimes he'll 'hurt', feel like 'giving up' and might be abandoned and feel 'all alone' (plus weirdly that 'you used you like a drug'). At least there's some belated cheer near the end when Stills praises his offspring for managing to stay so upbeat and innocent in a 'cynical' age, something dad considers a 'miracle', but this only makes him worry more: he sees so much of himself in her/him and he knows how badly he took to life alone when he left home to become a singer before he was ready. Sadly what comes over most from this ugly song isn't parental worry or pride but one of fear and paranoia - this isn't a world that's black and white, it's just black and Stills (plus Nash) sounds as if they're manipulating their children to stay at home for selfish reasons. That's a little unfair, as is the fact that this father-daughter/son time is unbalanced by first Nash's less than fitting harmony vocal and then another whole great choir again. The melody, too, doesn't do much except chug along. One thing the blues ain't is pretty I suppose (well, that and funny) but it's a shame this song couldn't have had just a little dash more colour or I'm in danger of never leaving my door again.

You all know 'Drivin' Thunder' if you're a fan enough to be reading an obscure review of an obscure album on an obscure site in an obscure corner of the internet, but in case you don't its the song about cars that added way too much heavy metal to the CSNY reunion album 'American Dream'. Though its actually more in Crosby's taste (see the similar 'Drive My Car' from 1989's 'Oh Yes I Can!'), it was Young who re-arranged the song for the album and got a co-credit for his troubles though in truth he didn't do much except 'simplify' it, as only Neil can. Here's Stills' go at his own song, possibly one recorded before the CSNY one if the 1980s stylistics are anything to go by, but with the Young co-credit reinstated. Sorry to say the 1988 version was superior and even that was pretty weak. This is a dumb song by Stills' standards, revelling in going fast and hanging out with a crowd without much care for the danger and with the inevitable result that at the last corner Stills manages to 'wingshot and win this race' from the expected leader. This version lacks the dangerous guitar riff of the 1988 version and swaps it for an irritating single note squeal that keeps interrupting the action after every line or so, while the less-than-vital Vitale drums aren't so much thunder as lightning, jumping about nosily at random so that you're never quite sure where anything will land. Only a Stills guitar solo, played solo and less aggressively than the 1988 take, offers any real excitement. There is, by the way, still a good song to be had here if only Stills would re-arrange it a third way, adding more doubt to the outcome and making a dangerous sport sound a little less safe. Heard like this, though, it's a car crash and not worthy of the Stills name.

'Acadienne' though is easily the album's weakest song. In his time Stills has paid tribute to just about every branch of Northern/Southern/Latin America there is but here he slips in one more with a tribute to the 'Acadians', the French settlers who came to Nova Scotia and surrounding Canadian areas and were wiped out when the English arrived and accused them of helping the French. In recent years DNA tracing and more open-ness about different cultures (till Trump got into power anyway) has led to more and more Americans and Canadians embracing this aspect of their family tree and people have begun digging up their traditional music. Stills, of course, just has to have a go and the Cajun-style should be right down his alley (think Buddy Holly's 'Brown-Eyed Handsome Man' which kicked off a mini-craze for the style in the late 1950s). Unfortunately the closest any of his band can find to 'real' 'Acadian' music is an accordion, which Mike Finnigan plays in the same noisy way he does his organ, while the rest of the band carry on as normal and pretend they're having a hootenanny. The result was never going to work in a zillion years played like that but falls even flatter than expected, with nobody paying attention or caring enough to go the extra mile needed to make this song swing. As for the lyrics, goodness knows what's going on - one minute we're mixing with 'Spanish grass and Cyprus leaves', the next we're driving with Stills in his Cadillac, the next we're running wild with 'gators and snakes' and then somehow we're meant to sympathise with a 'father' who has 'wanderlust' and recalls the times before he started a family and grew roots. 'The life you get is the life I want' concludes Stills, but whether that's as the privileged rock-star who never gets to make any music for fun anymore, the family man who never gets to go interesting places or the locals who don't want to spend their days wrestling with crocodiles all their lives is never explained. Perhaps everyone in this song is jealous of each other and that's what this song is all about? It would have been nice to have had a clue though. Really this is just an excuse to mess around in a new style, but it's not one that suits Stills (who in years gone by suited everything) or Nash, who sounds even less suitable here than on 'Wounded World'.

'Spanish Suite' tries hard to be an ambitious closing finale to the record. A little too hard to be honest - like a lot of other foreign-language ten minute AAA suites (such as Cat Stevens' 'Foreigner') it's an exercise that seems to be more about breaking the listener and their patience than truly adding to what we know about the author. There is, at least, some superb moments of pure Stills in here as yet again he looks back on a relationship that went wrong and tries to force himself to break away. We've seen on here in the past how the 'real' Stills is often buried on his foreign-language Spanish and French songs, rightly guessing that most of his fans won't understand or be willing to go the extra mile to work out what he's saying so he can be truly honest and open with us. Here, though, he offers us the English translation as soon as he's sung the Spanish as if to draw our attention to it. The lyrics are clearly heartfelt though, more so than most of this album and quite painful and real even if - as I suspect - the subject of them dates back to at least Rita Coolidge (maybe with bits of Judy Collins in there too given that this lengthy formless poem resembles 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' more than anything else in his canon). 'Goodbye and good luck' his once loved one sings from her pedestal, 'I am not interested - your love is worth nothing'. Stills is crushed but obstinate enough to try again anyway, figuring that love is meant to be a 'trial' where some win and some lose, only to lose again. Finally Stills 'gets' it, that there is 'no more me and you' and wonders how long it will take him to forget her - forever? In the two minutes of this song that stop sleepwalking and suddenly matter this fragmentary song suddenly grows into a full band performance. 'I gave up on you' Stills snaps, over and over, a sentence he never thought he'd ever hear himself say. This is, after all, a lover who promised to do anything and go anywhere for his loved ones and meant it too and Stills is still in shock unable to believe he's saying it. But for once it's not a lover walking out on him, he's giving up on her ;finished with the chase' and he's in shock, spinning the sentences out over and over past their natural breaking point in a flurry of words as if, even now, he's adamant that he needs to get everything right and expresses just how hard this decision was to make. 'I have nothing left to lose, even though I know you'll never really face yourself or put your trust in someone else that's just the same as asking all of us to turn away and just give up on you'. That, as they say, is a sentence! Unfortunately it's not the end of the song, as it should be, but the excuse for five minutes of some of the worst jamming session noodling on record (a  decidedly non-super session if you will). Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock takes over but his jazzy chords are a world away from Stills' style and he doesn't seem to have been given much direction except to make a lot of noise and Stills' much more interesting flamenco style guitar doesn't get much of a look in alongside. To be honest it's all quite boring and no substitute for the 'doo doo doo' ending to 'Suite: Judy'. The song chills and you half-expect a verse reprise to stamp the song's authority back in the peak of the chorus, but no - this song just drifts away which is disappointing after that adrenalin rush. The middle, then, is great and back to the ambition and themes of old - but it's a great two minute song sitting at the heart of an eleven minute track you won't be able to stomach too many times unless you really like weak jazz or really really really like Stills' 'latin' songs (of which this is, sadly, the weakest).

Not that I'm giving up on Stills or anything. The middle of this CD is pretty decent and had this album been made for the LP-length days when a few of the weaker songs from the beginning and end had been kicked out it would have been just about up to standard. But even with a few moments that catch the ear, the good moments are rather swamped by everything this album gets wrong - every bland song (the melodies being a particular disappointment across this record for someone of Stills' standards), every repetitive 1980s arrangement and every lifeless performance just sucks the life out of this record before it's even had a chance to get going. This isn't the sound of a 'man alive' - well not up to the standards that a Stills album is generally so amazingly, remarkably, full-bloodedly alive. Instead this is another 'marking time' album like 'Stills Alone', albeit one made over a longer period of time and with more actual songs on it this time. There's an inside-sleeve picture that goes with this album that's obviously meant to be clever and cool, Stills playing his guitar in a Hawaiian shirt (Stills that is, not the guitar - his neck's not that big!) on a fast-speed camera that's all blurry. Instead of looking energetic and powerful, though, it just looks like an old man waving his arms around for a bit for no reason. That's the problem with this album, which spends too long concentrating on the daft speedboats of 'Right By You' and trying to make Stills look trendy instead of concentrating on what this album does get right - the wiser, cooler head, the occasional heartfelt autobiographical lyric the younger Stills wasn't yet grown enough to be writing and the passionate delivery on the pair of cover songs. This album tries so hard in so many ways, while in others it doesn't try anywhere near enough, being by far the lowest moment in Stills' solo canon. That said, though, I'd like to hear any other career lowpoints with the power of the performance heard on 'Ole Man Trouble' 'Different Man', the lyrics of 'Heart's Gate' 'Round The Bend' or 'Piece Of Me' or the sudden moment everything works in the middle of 'Spanish Suite'. Giving up on you? Hardly - this album still has enough to gets fans excited about for a future Stills album being as great as we know it can be as long as Stills ditches the production, bandmates and bland melodies. 

A Now Complete List Of CSN/Y and Solo Articles Available To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:



'Crosby, Stills and Nash' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-29-crosby-stills-and-nash-1969.html

'Deja Vu' (CSNY) (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-34-crosby-stills-nash-and-young.html

‘Stephen Stills’ (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/stephen-stills-1970.html

'If Only I Could Remember My Name' (Crosby) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-45-david-crosby-if-only-i-could.html

'Songs For Beginners' (Nash) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-46-graham-nash-songs-for.html

'Stephen Stills II' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-48-stephen-stills-ii-1971.html

‘Graham Nash, David Crosby’ (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/graham-nash-david-crosby-1972.html

'Stephen Stills-Manassas'  (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html

'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html

'Down The Road' (Stephen Stills/Manassas) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/stephen-stillsmanassas-down-by-road-1973.html

'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html

'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html

'Illegal Stills' (Stills) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stephen-stills-illegal-stills-1976.html

'Whistling Down The Wire' (Crosby-Nash) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-crosby-graham-nash-whistling-down.html

'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html

'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html

'Thoroughfare Gap' (Stills) (1978) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/stephen-stills-thoroughfare-gap-1978.html

'Earth and Sky' (Nash) (1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/graham-nash-earth-and-sky-1980.html

'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html

'Right By You' (Stills) (1984) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/stephen-stills-right-by-you-1984.html

'Innocent Eyes' (Nash) (1986) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/graham-nash-innocent-eyes-1986.html

'American Dream' (CSNY) (1988) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-american.html

'Oh Yes I Can!' (Crosby) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/david-crosby-oh-yes-i-can-1989.html

'Live It Up!' (CSN)  (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html

'Stephen Stills Alone' (1991) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/stephen-stills-alone-1991.html

'A Thousand Roads' (Crosby) (1993) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/david-crosby-thousand-roads-1993.html

‘After The Storm’ (CSN) (1994) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-final-review-crosby-stills-and-nash.html

'CPR' (Crosby Band) (1998) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cpr-david-crosby-band-1998.html

'Looking Forward' (1999) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-looking.html

‘So Like Gravity (CPR, 2001) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cpr-just-like-gravity-2001.html

‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html

'Crosby*Nash' (2004) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-21-crosby.html

‘Man Alive’ (S) (2005) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/stephen-stills-man-alive-2005.html

'Deja Vu Live' (CD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-crosby.html

'Deja Vu Live' (DVD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008_09_21_archive.html

'Reflections' (Graham Nash Box Set) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-graham.html

'Demos' (CSN) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-crosby.html

'Manassas: Pieces' (2010) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-manassas.html

‘Carry On’ (Stephen Stills Box Set) (2013) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stephen-stills-carry-on-box-set-2013.html

'Croz' (Crosby) (2014) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/david-crosby-croz-2014album-review.html

'CSNY 74' (Recorded 1974 Released 2014) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-csny-74.html

'This Path Tonight' (Nash) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/graham-nash-this-path-tonight-2016.html

'Lighthouse' (Crosby) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/david-crosby-lighthouse-2016.html

‘Sky Trails’ (Crosby) (2017) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/david-crosby-sky-trails-2017.html

‘Here If You Listen’ (Crosby) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/10/david-crosby-and-friends-here-if-you.html

The Best Unreleased CSNY Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/csny-best-unreleased-tracks-news-views.html

Surviving TV Appearances (1969-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/csny-surviving-tv-appearances-1969-09.html

Non-Album Recordings (1962-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_6.html

Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums Part One (1964-1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young.html

Live/Compilations/Rarities Albums Part Two (1982-2012) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_20.html

Essay: The Superest Of Super Groups? https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/csny-essay-superest-of-super-groups.html

Five Landmark Concerts and Three Key Cover Versions https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/csny-five-landmark-concerts-and-three.html

Stephen Stills "Alone" (1991)

Available to buy 'Change Partners - The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of CSNY' by clicking here!

Stephen Stills "Alone" (1991)

Isn't It So?/Everybody's Talkin'/Just Isn't Like You/In My Life/The Ballad Of Hollis Brown/Singin' Call/The Right Girl/The Blind Fiddler Medley/Amazonia/Treetop Flyer

Fans had been calling for an acoustic Stills album since time immemorial (well since at least 1969, possibly since the mid-1960s, which feels like the same thing sometimes when you see terrorism and Trump and war on the news every few minutes). After thirty-five-ish years of rockstardom, Stills finally listened to fans who'd been pestering him about making an album of 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' and recorded what is - to date - the only fully acoustic album of his career. The idea promised much, especially given that Stills' most recent acoustic song ('Haven't We Lost Enough?' from the previous year's CSN album 'Live It Up') was his best in years. Bells should have rung, birds should have sung, Pink Floyd should probably have come out of retirement and got it on by banging a gong - instead 'Stills Alone' disappeared to become arguably the hardest and most expensive of all the CSNY albums to track down (sorry about that). To this day even the most committed fans admit they can't get hold of this album, shrug their shoulders and say if it was any good they'd have heard about it by now and the tracks on the 'Carry On' compilation weren't much cop anyway, in a way even the critics would dare say about any other Stills album (well, maybe 'Right By You' if they'd come to it after seeing the trying-too-hard music video for the 'Stranger' single). So why is Stills Alone, the acoustic album so many fans dreamt of, not only alone but very much out in the cold?

Part of that is surely the timing: no one was asking for CSN solo product hot on the heels of the trio's 'Live It Up' album (even if it's pretty good, curious cocktail sausage munching album cover aside) and the Stills of 1991 wasn't the draw of Stills in 1971 or even 1981. In fact Stephen - once rightly hailed as one of the musical geniuses of his generation - has fallen so far down the star ladder he can't even get a decent record deal anymore and instead of Atlantic or CBS released this album as a one-off deal with Gold Hill Music (no doubt recommended to him by fellow Manassas man Chris Hillman, who released his Desert Rose Band records through the same label and - in an even bigger sign of outsold this one about twenty to one). Part of it is the album cover: for the first time Stills' busy Captain Manyhands lifestyle was catching up with him and he looks far older than his 46 years here while simultaneously dressed up to cash in on the (thankfully short-lived) 'lumberjack country' movement of the day. He sounds just as old across this record too, which is arguably the first to feature his more recent 'lived in' voice, which is just as emotional and expressive as ever but struggles with enunciation and precision compares to the days of old. Just as with the pop star trappings of 'Right By You' Stills looks incredibly uncomfortable - he was born to be a bluesman with folk roots, not a pop star no matter how much the record companies (even this record company) tries to think otherwise.

The worst of it, though, is that Stills doesn't seem to have cared too much about this record, recycling old songs from previous records (with even the four new songs sounding 'familiar'), finally giving a home to songs that had only appeared in concert and performing a record four cover songs - almost half the entire record. Though Stills hasn't made much fuss about it, it seems likely too that his hearing problems began around the time of making this record after too many years of amplified rock music (curiously at the exact same time his old partner Neil Young was suffering from Tinnitus after the world's loudest rock tour with Crazy Horse across 1991) - in other words this is an acoustic album out of necessity rather than inspiration. Note, for instance, how many of the songs are played on an 'electric' nylon-stringed acoustic guitar rather than the more usual 'pure' acoustic sound Stills always used before this (as a side note, this also makes the choice of cover song 'Everybody's Talkin' At Me but I can't heard a word they say' something of an in-joke). Considering that we're - just - into the CD age at this point, it also seems odd to report that this is Stills' shortest album, barely making the half hour mark (even the next shortest, 'Manassas Down The Road', runs twenty precious seconds longer). Stills himself doesn't seem that fussed by the contents either and has all but disowned it himself in the years since, never playing any of these songs in concert (except 'Treetop Flyer', which has been in the setlist for years). Let's put that in context: this isn't some Spice Girls let's-make-some-moolah-in-a-hurry act we're talking about here but Stephen Stills, the perfectionist's perfectionist, who would gladly spend 200 hours in the studio getting a song right, only to feel so inspired he's start another one in his lunch break. We don't know how long it took to make 'Stills Alone' from beginning to end, but it probably took less time in total than getting the drum-sound for the 'Manassas' album. Stills, the overdubbing master, adds at most an electric drum click-track and a few rainforest sound effects and for the most part not even that. No wonder 'Stills Alone' has somewhat got the 'short straw' after all these years and when most collectors learn how pricey it is they genuinely put it back on the shelf and save their money for something easier to get hold of, in this day and age probably a live Neil Young live album with real life snorting pigs.

There is, though, something to be said about having Stills let loose in your living room (or your car or wherever you happen to listen to your music) as openly vulnerable as this. 'Stills Alone' doesn't often get marks for bravery and it's probably not as courageous as running the whole first side of the debut Manassas LP into a genre-hoping exercise in eclecticism or breaking the rules of what you can do with a wah-wah pedal on the 'Super Session' LP, but it's brave for a 46-year-old former superstar nonetheless. Stills doesn't hide the fact he's got older - he's almost proud of it and the moments when he growls or misses the notes are arguably even more effective than the moments when he hits them spot on as usual. The lack of anything else here to hide behind also shows off Stills' acoustic playing - admittedly he made this in the wrong era when his hands and brain were slowing down so there's nothing even close to the league of a 'Suite:Judy' or a 'Helplessly Hoping' and indeed you spend some of the record helplessly hoping that Stills is actually going to make it to the end of the song. But he always does: even at less than his best and with one-take simple arrangements Stills is a player you can learn a great deal from and hearing his ideas stripped back to their basics brings out his inner bluesman, which is no bad thing. Especially on the stand-out covers 'Blind Fiddler Medley' and 'The Ballad Of Hollis Brown', in which we hear what a Stills born a century before and in an even deeper part of the blues belt than Texas might have sounded like. It could be, too, that the 'new' version of 'Singin' Call' and the suspiciously demo-like 'Amazonia' are both older songs, with the younger punchier Stills vocals rather than the deep growl of 1991. By and large though, fans sent through a time-warp here direct from 1969 would no doubt be upset at how things got so bad so fast (and wondered why Stills didn't make this sort of record sooner - a mid-1970s acoustic album around the time of the break-ups with Judy, Rita and Veronique in the manner of the 'Just Roll Tape' of 1968 would have been quite something to behold), but 'Stills Alone' isn't actually the wildcard it so often seems, being as brave and naked and intense as anything the Stills of old ever offered, if not quite as detailed or virtuoso. We like giving marks for bravery at the AAA, whatever the execution turns out like, and Stills Alone gathers a few extra points right here, whatever it loses in beauty or depth.

No, it's the songs where 'Stills Alone' falls down with nothing even in the same stratosphere as 'Haven't We Lost Emough?', not least because we've heard so many of them before - six of them if you're enough of a fan to have heard Stills in concert at any time since around 1976 with a fondness for early Dylan protest records. None of the songs here improve on the originals, with 'Singin' Call' (first released on 'Stephen Stills II' in 1971) swapping innocence and beauty for world-weariness and frustration, 'Do For The Others' (first released on 'Stephen Stills' in 1970) replacing a gorgeous folk-rock lilt for a simple note guitar pick and 'Know You Got To Run ('Stills II' again, via the opening half of CSNY's 'Carry On' from 1970) replacing either a haunting banjo lick or enthusiastic power-pop with a slow blues crawl. In addition, fans already knew Stills' cover of Freddy Neil's 'Everybody's Talkin' well from 'Stephen Stills Live' (1975) or bootlegs of the first CSN album and this slowed down sad lament isn't as cute as it once sounded when it was young and only a little bit fed-up, while concert favourite tale of Vietnam Vets turned bootleggers 'Treetop Flyer' seems to have had its wings clipped a little on re-entry compared to the original heights the song reached in the mid-1970s (still a mystery why this classic hadn't appeared on any of the albums from 'Illegal Stills' onwards though, where it would have been a highlight on any of them). Had we not been a fan enough to have heard any of these songs before then 'Stills Alone' might have impressed - but as it is this record was so obscure even on first release (with no tie-in tour and barely a mention of it since - and there's certainly been no re-issue since) that the few fans who bought it already knew Stills could do these songs better.

The album's reputation then rests on three covers and four new songs, to mixed results. On the plus side 'The Ballad Of Hollis Brown' reveals what Stills might have sounded like had we met him in his folk-club days before the Buffalo Springfield took off: exciting and mesmerising is the answer, with one of Dylan's better obscure tracks sounding as if it belongs in the Stills catalogue with its dark tale of depression and murder but also re-birth and renewal. Ditto 'Isn't It So?', a possible prequel to 'Panama' in which Stills tells us about his first love and coming of age - which is a nice song calling out for a full band arrangement. 'The Right Girl' too is a pretty song that deserves a makeover from the modern-day Stills and to sound young and vibrant again instead of slightly worn out as per here. 'Amazonia' nicks badly from Stills' own 'Fair Game' but its tale of tree-planting conservationism fills this album's 'latin' quotient well enough. The solo cover of The Beatles' 'In My Life' though isn't a patch on the version with added harmonies included on CSN's 'After The Storm' album in a few years time (never mind the fab four's fab original) and 'Just Isn't Like You' just isn't like Stills at all, being slow and clichéd and a little dull (though that might be the point, with Stills sounding as if he's telling his inner creativity to get a move on, thankyouverymuch). This album could and should have been so much more, with no end of blues or folk standards that would have perfect for this album and Stills' new growlier living room voice. However at the same time, 'Stills Alone' isn't quite the redundant money-making exercise so many people seem to think it is: Stills connects with the material on a good half of the album and even on the other half he tries his best and if he fails, well, at least he was brave enough to have a go.

It may be more than a coincidence that the general theme of the album seems to be lovable (sometimes unlovable) losers who don't seem to be connected to the rest of the world in some way. 'Isn't It So?' has the narrator desperately to learn about love, 'the secret that everyone knows' and wondering why it goes wrong for him so many times. 'Everybody's Talkin' finds the narrator unable to hear the many things everyone is trying to tell him, only the 'echoes in my mind'. 'Just Isn't Like You' might be addressed to a second person, but it sounds in places like a motivational prep-talk to someone who once had 'energy running through you' and is now fed-up and weary after one heartbreak too many. 'In My Life' is a song rightly recognised as celebrating moments from your past - but, especially in this slower version, sounds as much about the people wasted on the way as the ones who made it, with a sadness and grief that can only come from loss. 'The Ballad Of Hollis Brown' is a dark humoured tale of poverty where everyone loses the narrator-murderer finding salvation only when he turns on his family to take them away from the pain of life, only for them to be (possibly) re-incarnated scattered across the globe so they don't even have each other (well that's my interpretation; it's a Dylan song, so who knows what the author intended it to be about!) 'Singin' Call' cries out for a rest (even though that rest spells out doom on 'Just Isn't Like You') and recognises that the narrator is missing out on too much of life, damaging his relationships in the process and yet the narrator still can't bring himself to slow down, using what he feels in nature as inspiration for a song instead of living in the moment. 'The Right Girl' sounds like it's going to be a rare happy song, but it should come with the subtitle 'wrong timing' as the narrator regrets that he never gets to love the 'right girl' because she's too busy having a good time. The 'Blind Fiddler Medley' marries three songs about being poor and on the run with the warm-hearted reaching out of 'Do For The Others' the heart in the middle of this loneliness sandwich. 'Amazonia' is more about how the world is missing the point, with the world ignoring 'the forest for the trees' as poor people exploit the rainforest for a pittance and create global warming that will affect them worst of all. Finally, 'Treetop Flyer' tells the tale of a bunch of inventive Vietnam Veterans, ignored by their Government after coming home and unable to find jobs, seeking revenge by using their new-found skills of flying helicopters close to trees to carry out daring drug raids under the authority's noses. Though they're making the best of a tough situation, these too are 'outsiders' struggling to get by in a world that just isn't paying attention to them and which they don't quite understand - or is that the world doesn't them?

Apart from the last two songs, though, this is a notably inward-looking album for Stills and by far his most melancholy solo record. To understand why this album is quite so sad means digging into the debris of Stills marriage number two (or 'significant relationship number six' for those keeping count!) After the breakup of his marriage to Veronique Sanson in the late 1970s Stills had spent the better part of a decade alone, joking to CSN crowds about being the 'eligible bachelor of the group'. He surprised many by taking up a whirlwind romance with a Thai model named Pamela Ann Jordan in the mid-1980s, the two marrying in 1988 and having a daughter soon afterwards. Stills mentioned often in the publicity run-up to CSNY's 'American Dream' how in love he was and how things were going to be different this time, but sadly they weren't. The pair split 18 months afterwards, the despairing fallout from which can be heard on 'Haven't We Lost Enough?' and continuing on in this album's similarly structured new compositions. After so many years waiting for the 'one', finding out that she wasn't seems to have inspired a typical Stillisian binge of self-pity and neuroses, with a repeat of the run of songs heard after the splits from Judy Collins ('Bluebird Revisited'), Rita Coolidge ('Sugar Babe') and Veronique Sanson ('Myth Of Sisyphus', a song about being forever doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over). The trouble is that this Stills is older and more fragile and less able to bounce back than the charming charismatic genius of the mid-1970s and writing songs about pain and loss after secretly hoping he'd never have to again finds Stills in particularly downcast mood, while not being 'inspired' enough to write it out of his system. The saddest thing about 'Stills Alone' is that he's never sounded more alone and the title refers to more than just the solo performances; the narrator of this album feels like he's never going to be happy again. The good news is that this is - more or less - the last missive from the 'old' Stills and soon he's back to his even older, happier self writing songs about love and family for third wife Kristen and with a new bounce in his step we fans had missed for so long. Released ten years to the day before 9/11, it's amazing how big a difference a decade makes with the later Stills far happier.

Overall, then, 'Stephen Stills Alone' might not be the very best album ev-uh for a whole host of reasons - most of them outside Stills' control, but that doesn't make it an easier ride for fans who had to pay to hear it (especially the modern fans who have to pay a lot to hear it!) Though it's not the worst solo album in Stills' canon ('Man Alive' is weaker still), it is perhaps his flattest, suffering from a similar simple repetitive sound throughout and a lack of the energy and discipline and breadth that the man they once called Captain Manyhands used to be famous for. Given the billing - an acoustic album from a man whose just written one of his best songs in decades in a similar style - it's a bitter disappointment. However, even alone - perhaps especially alone - you can still hear the essence of Stills' talent across his singing calls and this album is still awfully good in a lot of places, far more than most people ever acknowledge, even if it's close to awful in a few, as close perhaps as Stills has ever been.

Usually Stills starts his solo albums with a barn-storming ear-catcher, but in common with the rest of this CD 'Isn't It So?' is understated and mellow, a grower that gets better with every listen rather than an immediate favourite. Stills seems to have spent much of the early 1990s pondering feeling nostalgic, with several songs dating back to the time of his first romance with an un-named older girl who taught the guitarist everything about love - and loss. This is the first time we meet her in song and love is a tough lesson hard learnt, with Stills setting off to earn fame and fortune on his own despite the major bond he feels. 'I wanted to wander' he sighs, 'she knew I would go' but she still loved him enough to let him leave. Only now, decades on, does Stills realise how selfish it must have seemed to her to 'chase rainbows' rather than her, but he credits her with being a 'prophet' who knew he'd only be happy making music for a living. She may even be the person who loved him the most, by letting him go to get what he wanted - she even pays for his food and 'gas for my car' on their last brief meeting. The unspoken feeling across this song is that maybe for all his success Stills should have stayed put and been happy, instead of chasing greater rewards that also came with greater risks and a work ethic that broke up all his relationships up to that point. It's hard not to feel sorry for Stills as he sings about the sheer pain of feeling 'love turned cold' and he's rarely sounded more fragile than here, with a crack in his voice as well as his heart. However he also recognises that this story is one that's pretty much universal and turns to us with a knowing nod as he ends every chorus with the line 'isn't it so?' Few people feel love as deeply as Stills though or at least have the means to turn it into music and 'Isn't It So?' may well be the best song on the album, full of his usual big emotional heart. You do miss the intensity of old though, with this simple arrangement of three guitars and one vocal with overdubbed harmonies not quite enough to bring out the true beauty at the heart of this song.

Everybody had been talkin' to Stills down the years about recording a definitive version of his favourite cover song 'Everybody's Talkin', a sweet ballad by his old coffee-house pre-fame mate Freddy Neil first released in 1966 just as both men were on the brink of fame. The story goes that the songwriter only wrote it at the last minute so he could quit sessions for his debut album early and go home - something he wasn't allowed to do unless he came up with a final song to make the album to a half-hour length! Stills played it on pretty much every solo tour and even coerced Crosby and Nash into singing it on a couple of occasions, although only the slightly rushed version on 'Stills Live' version from 1975 had ever made it onto an official release. By contrast this re-recording is too languid and laidback, less panicked than earlier versions as the narrator realises he's been living in his own little world of sunshine while everyone around him walks in the pouring rain. Sadly, though Stills' affection for the material is obvious, his delivery isn't up to speed and his vocal is quite alarming in places - cracking, croaking, reaching upwards for a flat falsetto his old self would have nailed without blinking; this is one of the harder Stills recordings to listen to out there and there for once there's no 1980s synthesiser to blame it on. Even the guitar playing is perfunctory rather than stunning.

'Just Isn't Like You' is tired and croaky too, but this time it only enhances a song about growing older and further apart. Though Stills appears on the surface to be talking to a long-term partner, in keeping with traditions he may well be singing to himself here. He senses a 'stranger' where 'I once knew you' and a 'dangerous energy' he's not used to feeling and even admits at one stage 'I wouldn't mind - except for the voices' like a wounded schizophrenic. Stills may well be singing about the return of demons he thought were long thought extinguished in his love life, with his drinking and constant touring making another key romantic relationship in his life a struggle and this song is at one with the 'what just happened?' shock of recent songs like 'Haven't We Lost Enough?' and 'Stranger' or - going back a bit - this song ids a sequel of sorts to 'As I Come Of Age'. By contrast 'this' Stills couldn't be nicer - he's considerate and caring for the 'other person' in the song and is calm and thoughtful, a million miles away from the possible temper tantrums and adrenalin rush hinted at taking place moments before. At the same time, though, the end of the song is spiced up by one of this album's few electric guitar passages as a half-snarl begins to build the tension all over again in the background as if Stills' narrator is already gearing up for another round. Then again, maybe Stills is singing for his recent ex Pamela too as he re-acts in horror as his intensity and seriousness is mistaken for 'joking' by someone who clearly doesn't understand the depth of his soul. Sadly the melody on this track is more forgettable than most and the lyric deserved to be explored more fully than three short verses can afford it. This is still another under-rated Stills song though!

'In My Life' is a much-covered Beatles song written by Lennon in a sudden rush of inspiration after hours of getting nowhere with a literal transcription of his childhood years for one of his books (the idea that later became 'Strawberry Fields Forever'). Cheered up by a letter out the blue from old school pal Pete Shotton full of memories Lennon had long forgotten, you can hear the joy in the Beatles' version, tinged with the sadness of the people 'gone' (with fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe, John's next close friend, very much on his mind). Stills' version is by contrast almost joyless: this isn't a twenty-five-year-old suddenly reminded of an occasionally happy past but a man who sounds on his death-bed and full of bitter regrets. Stills almost certainly chose this song to cover after his recent trials and tribulations in his marriage, suddenly going from laidback troubadour to howling with pain on the line 'There is no one to compare with you and these memories lose their meaning...' Chances are he had his own past loves like Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge and Veronique Sanson in mind too when he sang this song. Impressively raw and brave, this version is perhaps a bit too raw and brave for most tastes and again Stills' vocal is all over the place. It did however inspire a rather tighter, more expressive version that CSN recorded for their next reunion in 1994 and in which Stills sounds far sharper and more powerful compared to here.

The album's best cover is surely 'The Ballad Of Hollis Brown', a rare example of Bob Dylan writing a protest song that didn't require the listener to take a masters degree in English literature and old folk songs. Across eleven stark verses we hear a crushing tale of American poverty, with the title farmer walking miles for odd jobs while 'your children are so hungry they don't know how to smile'. The mare is poorly with 'bad blood', there are rats in the flour, the baby is crying and the wife is screaming - poor Hollis Brown can't bear it any more so he prays for better times day after day and all he gets for his troubles are pockets that get ever emptier. Unable to bear their suffering anymore, he takes a shotgun off the wall and - after a verse of getting the shakes - shoots his entire family dead (and possibly himself too). However Dylan's cruel humour has all seven re-born in an instant in different families and they're all doomed to go through the suffering all over again (there ain't no way out of here, said the farmer to the thief). This is clearly a song after Stills' own heart recalling the poverty and prejudice of 'Word Game' and 'Black Queen' and it really suits the bluesier side of his personality. He's also in good voice compared to the rest of this album, with less notes to navigate and a very real indignant howl in his voice by the end. Unfortunately though this is one of those Dylan songs that sounds better in cover versions with a full band even if the original (on 'The Times They're A Changin' from 1963) is just as bare. With only Stills' guitar to back eleven very similar sounding verses it had better be good and sadly, by Stills' standards, it's only adequate with his fingers sounding heavy and inept. Still, twenty-eight years after it was written, 'Hollis Brown' still has the power to shock and though I haven't heard all 23 cover versions of this song listed on the Dylan website, it seems safe to say that Stills is certainly one of the more sympathetic interpreters, maintaining the same sense of menace and bitterness of the original.

'Singin' Call' is an interesting choice, a song of Stills' own that dates back twenty years this time. This version sounds more like a demo for the original version on 'Stephen Stills II', lacking the bass, drums and echo-laden chorus. Which is a shame because it was the bass, drums and echo-laden chorus that went a long way to making that track one of Stills' most under-rated 1970s recordings. Not that this version is bad - Stills' guitar picking on a 'real' acoustic guitar for a change and a much more melodic vocal make this one of the best performances on the album (indeed so much does this performance stand out in the middle of this album that I'm not the first person to wonder if this is in fact the unheard 1971 demo masquerading as a 'new' track to make up the numbers and pad this album out?) The song is at least a fitting choice for an album that reflects on lost love and the hard work that seems to keep getting in the way of it. Stills 'wonders if I can do it all' while 'looking for the peace that the ancients bring me', admiring nature 's capacity to simply get on with living without asking too many questions about it. There's a twist ending: refreshed, Stills returns to the real world, so determined to 'tell my brothers what I saw' that he writes a song about it, even though that sort of work was exactly what he promised himself he wouldn't do!

'The Right Girl' is another album highlight, although as per most of this album the songs falls slightly flat in this version and desperately needs a re-recording some day. Having seen yet another romance fall apart, Stills starts wondering about just what it is that he is looking for - although his resulting picture of a feisty intense romantic ends up sounding exactly like the Judys, Ritas, Veroniques and Pamelas of his past all over again. The image Stills has in his head is of a 'honky tonk angel' who can make him feel loved whose tough enough to ride a bike but fragile enough to confess her emotions and fears to him so he can make them go away. Stills is adamant that he wants someone who knows her own mind whose 'tough enough to fight' recalling 'Tomboy', his slightly dodgy track from CSN's last album 'Live It Up' but this time he's less concerned about them making the 'wrong' choices by picking some thick-headed hard-nut man and more worried that he'll be put off his dream choice by seeing someone fighting when all he wants is calmness in his life. Stills sums up by deciding that his dream girl would also be too sensible and mature to stick around and get hurt a second time and absolutely has to leave when 'another man seems nice', perhaps summing up why he feels he's never got any of his relationships (up to this point in time at least) to last the course. More signs that this song is autobiography rather than purist pop comes in the last verse which repeats the refrain of 'Singin' Call' and 'Isn't It So?' both - 'If your head is all messed up and full of big plans you're going to miss her completely and never give her the chance'. In the end this song is much more about Stills being the wrong man for his dream right girl than it ever is about her, but that's what makes it all the more powerful. It's just a shame that this song wasn't performed by the younger Stills rather than the older, struggling one as of all the songs on 'Stills Alone' this is the track that demands the softest, lightest touch and it's rather hammered to death here. There's a nice balalaika solo in the middle though, proof that Stills was still interested in adding colour to his arrangements even on a project where he's clearly pushed for time and ideas.

'The Blind Fiddler Medley' is a moment of pure Stills that's one of the few here that suits the new rawer, lived-in voice. Sounding a little like 'Black Queen' and '4+20' combined, 'Blind Fiddler' is another 'Hollis Brown' tale of poverty and hardship from an old man who can't see and struggles to eke out a living for himself and his three daughters in an uncaring world. Legend has it the song is an American folk song that dates back to the country's earliest oral traditions - it was first written down during the great Folk Song Collection phase of the 19th century after the historians wrote it down from an old lady in return for the price of a cow! The song usually comes with an extra verse Stills doesn't sing here: 'Now my wife and three babes depend on me and they go through all my trials wherever they may be, I hope that they'll be happy while I'm forced to roam, I'm a blind fiddler that's so far from my home'. Instead of that resolution, though, Stills jumps to his 1970 classic 'Do For The Others'. What was once a song of solidarity written for Crosby after the death of his girlfriend Christine Hanton in a car crash has become a second song about poverty and having nothing. 'See, hear, sinking low, doesn't see the love there is to know' is the fitting opening verse, followed by the chorus, as instead of a heartbroken Crosby we follow the blind fiddler into dreaming of friendship and charity as he helplessly waits for others to help him. Hearing the two songs in such close proximity reveals just how close Stills' own writing style is to these old blues standards and just how well the lonely starkness suits his voice (though it's still not even close to being as good as the 'warmer' version from the 'Stephen Stills' record). Finally we land on a faster, angrier version of 'Know You've Got To Run' played on a wild acoustic guitar rather than a steady banjo this time. Stills reaches a howling climax as he again sings about being a lonely outcast chasing a 'great light deep within your eyes'.  The lesson here is that the blind fiddler needs to 'love himself' before others can do the same and needs to escape the 'lonely hole' without his friends before anyone can give him the love he needs. After sounding worryingly like a self-help manual, Stills flips the song back round again with a repeat of 'Blind Fiddler's open verse and rounding off with a short reprise from 'Do For The Others' again. Given the context in this album, it's hard not to see it as Stills commenting on the vicious cycle of recent years, making the point all the more profound by using two earlier songs that emphasis the same points made elsewhere on this album. No sooner does Stills learn the lessons then he forgets it all again with the next love of his life, turning into a self-destructive musician who isolates himself when things get tough and wonders why he ends up alone again time after time. Stills clearly identifies with the bruised and bloodied musician narrator stranded 'far from home' (the young Stills travelled endlessly across his childhood so this early favourite would surely have appealed to him) and delivers one of his best performance on the album on this tour de force which at five and a half minutes sounds like easily the most substantial moment on the record, cover songs and repeats as it may be.

'Amazonia' is a rare Stills ecological protest song performed in such basic and primitive terms that this too surely must be an older demo from the 1970s? Stills sounds younger and more powerful again, while the guitar riff is so close to 'Fair Game' from 1977's 'CSN' ('the one with the boat!') that it seems unlikely Stills would have written a second song so close to the first without assuming that the first would never be released. Certainly 'Amazonia' isn't in the first league of Stills songs: it's a little too 'charity single' in its depiction of a rainforest disappearing 'by an acre in the time it takes to sing this song'. However Stills makes some valid points in his idea that the people cutting down the forests for low pay aren't the criminals - if you're faced with the choice between starvation and unemployment and worrying about the impact of a tree on the planet's population then that isn't really a choice at all. Instead he sighs 'There's always someone getting hurt - sometimes you just have to do what's best', while still condemning the deforestation by greedy companies. Stills turns in some fun acoustic playing here (again, much sharper than on most of the album), but the unchanging drum track he sings along to (again, another sign that this is a demo) is quite irritating by the end of the song. Stills would probably be tickled to know that 'Amazonia' and its parent album 'Stills Alone' is currently the only Stills album not readily available from 'Amazon' (well, not as a vinyl record or CD anyway). He's probably less ticked that 'Amazonia' remains, more than ever in this day and age, a poignant and only too painfully truthful song.

We fans tend to think that nobody really got to hear 'Stills Alone' and that the album disappeared without trace. However it inspired at least one future star in Ray La Montagne who caught this recording of 'Treetop Flyer' on the radio and thought it a song of such genius that it inspired him to write the whole of his first album and beyond. It's certainly one of Stills' brighter ideas, the tale of Vietnam helicopter pilots who use their new skills for ill-gotten gains once they get back home. Stills is clearly on their side - after all they risked their lies for nothing but a phony war and have been given no help whatsoever at integrating back into society on their return - so why begrudge them a bit of money on the side? Full of clever couplets delivered with a grin ('I don't do business that don't make me smile, I don't pay taxes 'cause I never file!'), it's an inventive song that's subversive enough to win a wry chuckle and believable enough to work. 'I'm not trying to break the law' Stills sometimes giggled in concert, 'I'm just trying to tell a story' - but this is more than just a 'story' as his audience well know, it's another great tale of us versus them and the rich versus the poor. Unfortunately this version of a song that many fans had had on their wishlists for a decade and a half isn't really worth waiting for. The 1991 Stills doesn't have the lightness of touch to deliver the right amount of humour and the performance here is heavy-handed and bordering on boring. Far more entertaining are the official versions from earlier years that have been released in the years since - an entertaining demo (probably from the mid-1970s) released as a 'bonus' track on the 'Just Roll Tape' (otherwise recorded 1968, released 2007) and even better performance during Stills' solo spot on the 1982 gig at the La Forum (released on DVD as 'Daylight Again' (released 2004).

Overall, then, there are many bright ideas in 'Stephen Stills Alone' and a few of them even end up becoming excellent songs and great performances. Yet given the brilliance we used to have every time Stills picked up his acoustic guitar (the highlight of many a live set down the years) and the promise shown by the better half of Stills' contributions to CSN's 'Live It Up' album fans expected a lot more from this record. You get the sense that this was a record Stills made as quickly and cheaply as possible to stay afloat after a costly divorce rather than because he was burning with the urge to make music - and for a songwriter like Stills, who thrives on the need to communicate his life-story with his audience, this album never had a hope of working. In truth it's an idea he should have done years before, for the kudos - not in middle age for the money and with a fading voice and guitar skills. Hear this without knowing the great work that came before it however and you'd still take some flashes of genius from it. The highlights of this album however ('isn't It So' The Right Girl' and 'The Blind Fiddler Medley') most definitely belong in every Stills collection and 'Stills Alone' remains a most under-rated album in the CSN collection, if only because so few of us have ever heard it. Don't keep 'Stills Alone' so lonely - demand a CD re-issue along with me (hopefully with a few other acoustic odds and ends to bulk the running time up) and re-acquaint the fanbase with, if not exactly a lost classic, than a better work than it ever gets credit for. 

A Now Complete List Of CSN/Y and Solo Articles Available To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:



'Crosby, Stills and Nash' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-29-crosby-stills-and-nash-1969.html

'Deja Vu' (CSNY) (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-34-crosby-stills-nash-and-young.html

‘Stephen Stills’ (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/stephen-stills-1970.html

'If Only I Could Remember My Name' (Crosby) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-45-david-crosby-if-only-i-could.html

'Songs For Beginners' (Nash) (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-46-graham-nash-songs-for.html

'Stephen Stills II' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-48-stephen-stills-ii-1971.html

‘Graham Nash, David Crosby’ (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/graham-nash-david-crosby-1972.html

'Stephen Stills-Manassas'  (1972)http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-51-stephen-stillsmanassas-1972.html

'Wild Tales' (Nash) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-graham.html

'Down The Road' (Stephen Stills/Manassas) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/stephen-stillsmanassas-down-by-road-1973.html

'Stills' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-65-stephen-stills-stills-1975.html

'Wind On The Water' (Crosby-Nash) (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-67-crosby-nash-wind-on-water.html

'Illegal Stills' (Stills) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stephen-stills-illegal-stills-1976.html

'Whistling Down The Wire' (Crosby-Nash) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-crosby-graham-nash-whistling-down.html

'Long May You Run' (Stills-Young) (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-stills.html

'CSN' (1977) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-70-crosby-stills-and-nash-csn.html

'Thoroughfare Gap' (Stills) (1978) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/stephen-stills-thoroughfare-gap-1978.html

'Earth and Sky' (Nash) (1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/graham-nash-earth-and-sky-1980.html

'Daylight Again' (CSN) (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-131-crosby.html

'Right By You' (Stills) (1984) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/stephen-stills-right-by-you-1984.html

'Innocent Eyes' (Nash) (1986) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/graham-nash-innocent-eyes-1986.html

'American Dream' (CSNY) (1988) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-american.html

'Oh Yes I Can!' (Crosby) (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/david-crosby-oh-yes-i-can-1989.html

'Live It Up!' (CSN)  (1989) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-viedws-and-music-issue-104-crosby.html

'Stephen Stills Alone' (1991) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/stephen-stills-alone-1991.html

'A Thousand Roads' (Crosby) (1993) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/david-crosby-thousand-roads-1993.html

‘After The Storm’ (CSN) (1994) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-final-review-crosby-stills-and-nash.html

'CPR' (Crosby Band) (1998) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cpr-david-crosby-band-1998.html

'Looking Forward' (1999) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-looking.html

‘So Like Gravity (CPR, 2001) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cpr-just-like-gravity-2001.html

‘Songs For Survivors’ (2002) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/graham-nash-songs-for-survivors-2002.html

'Crosby*Nash' (2004) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-21-crosby.html

‘Man Alive’ (S) (2005) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/stephen-stills-man-alive-2005.html

'Deja Vu Live' (CD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-crosby.html

'Deja Vu Live' (DVD) (2008) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008_09_21_archive.html

'Reflections' (Graham Nash Box Set) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-graham.html

'Demos' (CSN) (2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-crosby.html

'Manassas: Pieces' (2010) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-manassas.html

‘Carry On’ (Stephen Stills Box Set) (2013) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/stephen-stills-carry-on-box-set-2013.html

'Croz' (Crosby) (2014) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/david-crosby-croz-2014album-review.html

'CSNY 74' (Recorded 1974 Released 2014) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-csny-74.html

'This Path Tonight' (Nash) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/graham-nash-this-path-tonight-2016.html

'Lighthouse' (Crosby) (2016) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/david-crosby-lighthouse-2016.html

‘Sky Trails’ (Crosby) (2017) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/david-crosby-sky-trails-2017.html

‘Here If You Listen’ (Crosby) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/10/david-crosby-and-friends-here-if-you.html

The Best Unreleased CSNY Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/csny-best-unreleased-tracks-news-views.html

Surviving TV Appearances (1969-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/csny-surviving-tv-appearances-1969-09.html

Non-Album Recordings (1962-2009) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_6.html

Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums Part One (1964-1980) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young.html

Live/Compilations/Rarities Albums Part Two (1982-2012) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/crosby-stills-nash-and-sometimes-young_20.html

Essay: The Superest Of Super Groups? https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/csny-essay-superest-of-super-groups.html

Five Landmark Concerts and Three Key Cover Versions https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/csny-five-landmark-concerts-and-three.html