Stephen Stills
	Produced by Stephen Stills & Bill Halverson
	Released on November 1970
	US CHART POSITION #3 . . . GOLD RECORD . . . UK CHART POSITION #30
	Find it at GEMM
SD 7202 cover [high resolution scan]

I haven’t listened to every solo CS&N record, but this is the best of the lot so far. It opens with the most popular of the solo bits, “Love The One You’re With.” In the middle, Stills holds his own with guests Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton on guitar, Booker T. Jones on organ. It closes on a Beatle-y treat with Ringo Starr on drums. Yes, an auspicious start indeed. Solo releases from Graham Nash and David Crosby followed, each helping to bring into sharper relief the different musical personalities of CS&N’s members. Stills took most of the trio’s musical chops with him; he could have made a fine living playing keyboards and guitar and never opening his mouth. “Do For The Others” makes plain what a shame that would have been. The songs here range from thoughtful, acoustic bits sans support to electric blues-rock numbers with rock royalty. Those two sides of Stills won’t surprise anyone. Stills with strings (“We Are Not Helpless”) and Spector-al pop (“To A Flame”) might, but they’re also two of the more interesting avenues on here. Like Clapton’s coming out party, which also featured Rita Coolidge on backing vocals and Bill Halverson behind the boards, this debut had been a long time coming: Buffalo Springfield, the Bloomfield/Kooper session, CS&N. It’s tempting to speculate on whether some of these songs had been rolling around in Stills’ head for a while. “Black Queen,” rendered here in a fiery live acoustic version credited tongue-in-cheek to Jose Cuervo Gold Label tequila, was first recorded in a 1968 demo session unearthed 40 years later. Several of these tracks have since been folded into the extended CS&N canon (“Love The One You’re With” was even featured on 4-Way Street), and no harm done if you want to cross that Street and come directly here, since it has the most to offer of the early CSN solo albums (Young, of course, being another story entirely).

SD 7202 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH    3:03
2. DO FOR THE OTHERS    2:52
3. CHURCH (PART OF SOMEONE)    4:05
4. OLD TIMES GOOD TIMES    3:38
5. GO BACK HOME    5:56
6. SIT YOURSELF DOWN    3:05
7. TO A FLAME    3:10
8. BLACK QUEEN    5:28
9. CHEROKEE    3:25
10. WE ARE NOT HELPLESS    4:17
    
    All selections composed by Stephen Stills

CREDITS

STEPHEN STILLS -- vocals, guitars, organ, steel drum, percussion, bass, piano, arrangements
CALVIN "FUZZY" SAMUELS -- bass
John Barbata -- drums (5)
Eric Clapton -- lead guitar (5)
Rita Coolidge -- voices
David Crosby -- voices
Cass Elliot -- voices
Sidney George -- flute & alto solos (9)
Jimi Hendrix -- lead guitar (4)
Conrad Isedor -- drums
Booker T. Jones -- organ, voices
Priscilla Jones -- voices
Claudia Lanier -- voices
Arif Mardin -- arrangements, conductor
Shirley Matthews Chorus -- voices
Graham Nash -- voices
Judith Powell -- chorus (3)
John Sebastian -- voices
Ringo Starr (Richie) -- drums (7,10)
Larry Steele -- chorus (3)
Liza Strike -- chorus (3)
Dallas Taylor -- drums
Jeff Whittaker -- congas
Tony Wilson -- chorus (3)
Bill Halverson -- recording engineer, re-mix engineer
Andy Johns -- engineer
Gary Burden -- art direction/design, back cover photography
Henry Diltz -- front cover photography

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