Live (Stephen Stills album)

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live
Live album by Stephen Stills

Publication
(s)

4th December 1975

Label (s) Atlantic Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

9

running time

34m 55s

production

Stephen Stills

chronology
Stills
(1975) 		live Illegal Stills
(1976)

Live is the first live solo album by American rock musician Stephen Stills .

To the album

The recordings for Live were made on March 8th and 9th 1974 at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago on a solo tour by Stephen Stills, before he toured again with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young that summer . Since the international CSNY tour had become a resounding success in commercial terms, but a long-awaited new CSNY studio album did not materialize (all four members had fallen out again in the studio, so the recordings had to be canceled), the record company Atlantic Records still wanted from benefit from the popularity of their artists. In Stills' case, however, this turned out to be difficult, as he had switched to the Columbia Records label as a solo artist in early 1975 and had already released the album Stills there. Contractual commitments ensured Atlantic two more albums: The first of them went live .

The album is divided into two parts (corresponding to the two pages of the original record release): On the first page (tracks 1 to 4) still plays with band and amplified electrically. On the second page (tracks 5 to 9), Stills accompanies himself on the acoustic guitar. It is noticeable that when the songs were compiled, the three greatest hits that Stills had until then ( For What It's Worth , Suite: Judy Blue Eyes , Love the One You're With ) were omitted. Nevertheless, live offers the listener a very good insight into the qualities of the musician, who is in top form both on the guitar and vocally. Critics particularly praised his version of the CSN classic Wooden Ships as well as his "untamed" ("frenetic") guitar playing on the track Crossroads / You Can't Catch Me . In addition to the hits Change Partners , 4 + 20 and Wooden Ships , the album contains some rarely played pieces such as the protest song Word Game (about apartheid in South Africa ), Special Care or Jet Set (Sigh) from the album Manassas . The Barnstorm classic Rocky Mountain Way and Fred Neil's hit Everybody's Talkin ' were first released here on a Stephen Stills album, but have kept him busy throughout his career: Stills still plays the blues piece Rocky Mountain Way at concerts today (to be heard on the album Live at Shepherd's Bush , 2009); Everybody's Talkin 'was first recorded in 1969 during the Crosby, Stills & Nash sessions, but it did not appear on the final album (only the 2006 re-release included the recording as a bonus track ). In 1991 Stills brought a new solo version of the piece on his album Stills Alone and still plays it occasionally at concerts.

Although the album had to compete with the recently released album Stills , it did not sell badly compared to other live albums: However, number 42 on the Billboard 200 charts was not an outstanding result either. The album was received largely positively by the critics - as far as it was discussed at all at the time. In 1992 it was re-released on CD, which is out of print today.

Track list

A side: electrical side

  1. "Wooden Ships" ( David Crosby , Stephen Stills) - 6:32
  2. "Four Days Gone" (stills) - 3:55
  3. "Jet Set (Sigh) / Rocky Mountain Way" (Stephen Stills / Rocke Grace, Joe Walsh , Joe Vitale, Kenny Passarelli) - 5:26
  4. "Special Care" (stills) - 3:35

B-side: acoustic side

  1. "Change Partners" (stills) - 2:53
  2. "Crossroads / You Can't Catch Me" ( Robert Johnson / Chuck Berry ) - 4:41
  3. "Everybody's Talkin 'at Me" ( Fred Neil ) - 2:42
  4. "4 + 20" (stills) - 2:27
  5. "Word Game" (Stills) - 4:07

Instrumentation and instruments

  • Stephen Stills - vocals, guitar

The band can only be heard on the electrical side (tracks 1 to 4).

  • Donnie Dacus - guitar, backing vocals
  • Jerry Aiello - keyboards
  • Kenny Passarelli - bass, backing vocals
  • Russ Kunkel - drums
  • Joe Lala - percussion

supporting documents

  1. ↑ See the review on www.allmusic.com [1]
  2. ↑ See ibid.
  3. ↑ Song review by Matthew Greenwald, available at www.allmusic.com [2]

literature

Dave Zimmer / Henry Diltz : Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Authorized Biography , 1st A., 1984. ISBN 0-312-17660-0