The electric side, so labeled, gives him plenty of chances to wail, beginning with “Wooden Ships”, then getting moody for “Four Days Gone”, a hidden gem from the last Buffalo Springfield album. He neatly melds his own “Jet Set (Sigh)” with Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way”, which shares a riff and tendency to wah-wah. There’s even an excellent segue into “Special Care”, from the same Springfield album. The band is tight, as to be expected, and while Joe Lala’s in the mix, he’s not prominent.
Proof that less is more, the pointedly labeled acoustic side consists of Stills alone, but still showing off his flash. A medley of “Crossroads” and “You Can’t Catch Me” gives him an excuse to fly around in an open tuning, which he does to lesser extent in “Word Game”. In contrast, “Change Partners” is a simple strum, “4 + 20” nicely restrained and the cover of “Everybody’s Talkin’” a nice surprise.
Stephen Stills Live is short, typical of a label cash-in, and likely not to be expanded anytime soon. It’s still a better overview than Still Stills, a “best-of” released late in 1976 that leaned heavily on his first solo album and Manassas.
Stephen Stills Stephen Stills Live (1975)—3½
It’s clearly a contractual obligation release. It’s pretty good, as such things go. The selection on the electric side seems rather haphazard. “Wooden Ships” is easily the most well-known song here. It’s played well, but I miss the call and response vocals of the CSN and Jefferson Airplane versions. I suspect that Steve chose the two Buffalo Springfield songs because he never had the chance to perform them live before. Good choices. As for “Rocky Mountain Way”, at least Steve sings it better than Joe Walsh did.
ReplyDeleteThe acoustic side is where the listener really gets his money’s worth. Steve’s prowess on acoustic had never – or really hasn’t, since – been showcased like this. “Everybody’s Talkin’” had by demoed both with Crosby and by CSN, so Steve obviously was very fond of the song. The 2nd time that I saw CSN, in 1985, Steve chose “Word Game” and it absolutely blew the crowd away. It’s the major highlight here, too (and made eventually hearing the studio version a big letdown).
Steve’s 1st album is must for any collection. After that, if anyone wants to dive in further than an anthology, this might be a good second choice.