STEPHEN STILLS

Just Roll Tape - April 26th 1968

$13.98 CD

 This historic collection from Eyewall/Rhino debuts remastered versions of twelve previously unreleased demos recorded by legendary singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stephen Stills at an impromptu 1968 session. Featuring Stephen in ultra fine voice and accompanied only by acoustic guitar, the disc includes the first-ever recorded takes of classics he'd later release solo and with CSN, CSN&Y and Manassas. Stripped-down song treasures include seminal recordings of the CSN hits “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping” and “Wooden Ships,” plus the solo favorites “Change Partners” and “So Begins The Task.” 

 The story of how these demos came to be released is as extraordinary as the tapes themselves. They were originally made in April, 1968, after Stills had left Buffalo Springfield and before CSN formed. Stephen was in New York City at a recording date with then-girlfriend Judy Collins, and when she finished her session, he handed one of the engineers a couple of hundred dollar bills and told him, “Just roll tape.” 

 After recording the demos, Stills left the masters behind in the studio, and they were almost discarded when the facility closed in 1978. Joe Colasurdo, a musician who happened to be rehearsing there around that time, was told by the owner that he could carry away any tapes he wanted before the place was vacated. Colasurdo figured he'd reuse whatever masters he carted off, but when he saw Stills' name on several of the boxes, he kept them safe until he found a reel-to-reel machine to play them on. 

 Realizing his amazing find, Joe attempted to get the masters back to Stills, an endeavor that ended up taking 25 years. In 2003, after by chance meeting a close friend of Graham Nash, he was able to pass the tapes to Nash, who in turn gave them to Stills and encouraged him to release them. Lost for almost forty years, “these songs,” Stephen has said, “now feel like great friends when they were really young.” 

 In addition to the twelve songs recorded in 1968, JUST ROLL TAPE also features, as a bonus track, the first demo of the Stills fan favorite “Treetop Flyer” from his acclaimed '91 solo album Stills Alone. 

Selection # 215676