Following the band’s show at the Long Beach Auditorium in California on May 5, 1968, Buffalo Springfield met to discuss their break up. The band’s split after two years and three albums together, left Stephen Stills at crossroads, and he began working on a few new songs he had written, many of which would make their way onto his solo albums and his next band Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN).
Born January 3, 1945 in Dallas, Texas, Still co-founded Buffalo Springfield in 1966 along with Neil Young, Richie Furay, Dewey Martin, and Bruce Palmer. Following the band’s third album, Last Time Around, Stills embarked on what turn into a 30-year run of music with Crosby, Stills, & Nash, along with Young.
Throughout his career with CSN, Stills delivered some of most captivating lyrics, from his lovelorn opening ode of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” on the band’s debut through his solely penned story of a poverty-stricken elderly man on “4 + 20,” and another song of fractured love, “Southern Cross.”
Stills’ other stories spanned the band’s eighth and final album Looking Forward in 1999 and were an extension of nearly five decades-worth of solo material.
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Crosby, Stills & Nash shared the stage together one final time with Young at the annual Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View, California on October 27, 2013. In 2017, Still released a collaborative album Everybody Knows, with Judy Collins, just four years before announcing his retirement in 2021. That year, Stills performed with Brandi Carlile and a tribute concert for Joni Mitchell.
In 2023, Stills performed with Young at the Light Up the Blues fundraising event, which he started his wife Kristen Stills to benefit Autism Speaks.
Though Stills’ songwriting contributions are plentiful, here’s a deeper look behind just five songs he wrote from CSN’s first five albums, from the band’s1969 debut through their ’80s close with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s American Dream.
1. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”
Written by Stephen Stills
Judy Collins has her very own Crosby, Stills & Nash song. The captivating opening of CSN’s eponymous debut, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” was one of four songs Stills wrote on his own for the band’s first album, along with “You Don’t Have to Cry,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “49 Bye-Byes,” and peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A play on the words “sweet Judy blue eyes,” the song referenced Stills’ girlfriend at the time, singer/songwriter Judy Collins and their “imminent” break up. In a 2007 interview, Stills said “We were just a little too big for one house” of their union.
It’s getting to the point where I’m no fun anymore
I am sorry
Sometimes it hurts so badly I must cry out loud
I am lonely
I am yours, you are mine
You are what you are
You make it hard
Remember what we’ve said and done
And felt about each other
Oh, babe have mercy
Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now
I am not dreaming
2. “Carry On” (1970)
Written by Stephen Stills
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” was the opening of Crosby Stills and Nash and “Carry On” carried on more of Stills’ mesmerizing lyrics to open Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 album Déjà Vu, their first release with Neil Young. Written by Stills, “Carry On” was originally released as the B-side of “Teach Your Children” but took on a life of its own on radio.
The song may have held a subtle message from Stills to keep the band, which started to unravel, together. Crosby, Nash and Young fired Stills in July of 1970 while the band were playing two nights at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. Stills rejoined the band that summer but Crosby, Stills & Nash broke up soon after. Déjà Vu was their final album together before reconfiguring the trio again for their third album, CSN, in 1977.
During the Déjà Vu sessions, it was Nash who originally prompted Stills to write “Carry On” since they needed another “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”-like opening for the album.
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Graham Nash Wrote for Other Artists]
“I said to Stephen one day, ‘You know, we don’t have “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,”’ said Nash in 2021. “He goes, ‘Yeah, I know. We did it on the first record.’ I said, ‘No, no, no. We don’t have the song that guarantees that people won’t get up and take the needle off the record. And when you hear ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,’ and we come to the end of it, I defy you to get up and turn the record off. You wouldn’t do that. We need that kind of song.’”
Nash continued, “The next day, he comes to me and he goes, ‘What do you think about this Willy?’ [sings opening notes to “Carry On”] and he played me ‘Carry On.’ It shows you the genius of Stephen Stills.”
One morning I woke up and I knew
You were really gone
A new day, a new way
And new eyes to see the dawn
Go your way, I’ll go mine
And carry on
The sky is clearing and the night
Has gone out
The sun, he come, the world
Is all full of love
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice
But to carry on
“Carry On” was the final track recorded for Déjà Vu. The song was written, recorded, mastered withing eight hours, faster than any other track on the album.
The second part of the song was pulled from “Questions,” a song Stills originally wrote for Buffalo Springfield’ 1968 album Last Time Around.
3. “Dark Star” (1977)
Written by Stephen Stills
Released on the band’s comeback album, CSN, in 1977, “Dark Star” follows the complexies of love, and its many expressions. It was written by Stills about his relationship with singer/songwriter Joan Baez, according to Nash’s 2013 autobiography Wild Tales.
Forgive me if my fantasies might
Seem a little shopworn
I’m sure you’ve heard it all before
I wonder what’s the right form
Love songs written for you
It’s been going down for years
But to sing what’s in my heart
Seems more honest than the tears
I am curious, don’t want to hurry us
I’m intrigued with us
Ain’t this song a bust
I don’t care, dark star
4. “Southern Cross” (1982)
Written by Stephen Stills; also credited to Rick Curtis and Michael Curtis
Appearing on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s fourth album Daylight Again, “Southern Cross” was originally based on the song “Seven League Boots,” written by Rick and Michael Curtis. “Seven League Boots” referenced a magical pair of boots that allow the wearer to stride seven leagues long (approximately 21 miles), which appears in many European folk and fairy tales.
“The Curtis Brothers brought a wonderful song called ‘Seven League Boots,’ but it drifted around too much,” said Stills in the liner notes of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1991 box set CSN.
Stills reworked some of the lyrics around his personal experience, following his divorce from French singer-songwriter Veronique Sanson. Once rewritten, the song explored a different form of navigation: around love.
“I rewrote a new set of words and added a different chorus, a story about a long boat trip I took after my divorce,” shared Stills of his trip through French Polynesia. Exploring an exotic place out on the water helped Stills find more perspective on his life and marriage.
“Southern Cross” peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Got out of town on a boat, going to Southern islands
Sailing a reach before a following sea
She was making for the trades on the outside
And the downhill run to Papeete
Off the wind on this heading lie, the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of the waterline
Nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon, I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized
Why twice you ran away
Read the full story behind “Southern Cross” HERE.
5. “Got It Made” (1988)
Written by Stephen Stills and Neil Young
Featured on the band’s fifth album, and second with Young, American Dream, “Got it Made” was sung by Stills and co-written with Young. It was released as the A-side to Young’s “This Old House” and was the only track on the album to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 69.
Know you are a friend of mine, babe you been gone
An awful long time. You might remember me, I tried
To set your soul free
Glad that you got it made, when did you finalize your last trade?
You are the only one I’ve ever seen do what you done
Anything that you done done, you are the only one
Don’t put me under your gun
I’m gonna be missing you, even though I understand that you’re not through.
Go on take it day by day, seems like I lost you anyway
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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