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hey everybody this is Tim and welcome to

the show So today we're going to feature

a legendary artist that I feel has

changed the landscape of Music itself

and it's singer songwriter and

Incredibly Innovative guitarist Steven

Stills and I figured on the way to our

first stop we may talk a little bit

about his earlier years he was born into

a military family they moved around a

lot obviously they lived in Texas

Florida Costa Rica he changed schools

constantly and as Steven said himself uh

he felt that he was a Perpetual stranger

so Stephen attended part of his high

school in Gainesville Florida and he

joined a band called The Continentals

where he played with a another young

15-year-old guitarist named Don Felder

and he and F to remain friends to this

day I think they still golf together but

when he was a young teenager he was

living in Tampa Florida and he had the

Good Fortune to come upon an old blues

man named Tampa red busking on a street

corner of course Steven struck up a

conversation with him and he persuaded

Tampa red to show him how to play slide

guitar using a pen knife it was one of

the baddest and most dangerous musical

moments he's ever experienced to this

day in 1964 he left school school and

moved to New Orleans and played the bars

on Bourbon Street for a few months

before relocating to New York City the

Greenwich Village folk scene had

suffered with the Advent of The Beatles

but by playing seven days a week Steven

was still able to keep himself barely

fed and along the way he joined a group

called The Agogo singers and this is

where he met another Young singer

songwriter guitarist and kindred spirit

named Richie Fay so not long after the

Agogo singers had broken up Steven

formed another group called The Company

great name and they embarked on a 6- we

Canadian tour and this is where Steven

made one of the most important

connections of his entire life so he

found himself in a place called

thunderbay Ontario and I want to be

careful how I describe this place cuz in

another video I inadvertently described

it as a godforsaken place and I suffered

the wrath of more than a few Canadians

so I'm just going to say it was on the

sunny beaches of the the north side of

Lake Superior and anyways he was playing

there and this is where he met a young

guitarist named Neil Young Neil was

doing what Steven really wanted to do

which was play electric guitar and write

his own songs but Ironically in

unbeknownst to him at the time Neil

wanted to do exactly what Steven had

been doing which was to play coffee bars

and sing folk songs it was a mutual

admiration society which lasts till this

day but it wouldn't be long before

Steven would lead New York City

and come out here to

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California so after a few weeks up in

San Francisco Steven made his way down

here to LA and although he was

relatively new as a songwriter he had

managed to sell the publishing rights to

one of his songs called sit down I think

I love you which kept him from starving

for the time being meanwhile after the

screen success of a hard day night a

couple young Hollywood producers named

Bob rafelson and Bert Schneider were

able to get a zany idea about the

everyday life of a rock and roll band

greenlit and they went about casting

their new series which was to be called

the monkeys so with nothing better to do

Steven went to the cattle call Auditions

and there were over 400 other guys there

and he went there as he said to try to

sell the songs not to try to get a part

that girls would be tearing his clothes

off over and he'd have to fight off uh

that was the furthest thing from his

mind I'm sure the other version of this

story is that the producers liked

Steven's by but not as less than Tab

Hunter teeth and as he was leaving

Stephen said you know I know somebody

that has my kind of look that you might

like better and it was an old friend of

his that he had recently run into in

Huntington Beach here in California from

his old folky days in New York and of

course that would turn out to be Peter

torlon or as he became known and love to

all Americans Peter torque but after

Peter hit the big time he ended up

moving into this beautiful Hollywood

Hills home and Stephen ended up as his

roommate for a while before uh Peter

moved into Studio City on Shady Oak and

more on that one later anyways the Peter

Tork

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house so obviously Buffalo Springfield

was an extremely important band and a a

large part of Steven Still's history and

we did a pretty detailed video about the

band a couple months back and I'm going

to put the link for that down below if

you want to check that out so we're just

going to pretend like uh it's 1968 all

of a sudden and Buffalo Springfield is

on the verge of breaking up and it

brings us to Malibu here so Steven

started hanging out with David Crosby

really just as both bands were breaking

up the birds and Buffalo Springfield and

uh actually

David Crosby sat in for Neil Young at

the moter Pop Festival in

1967 uh he played rhythm guitar for him

and it did not go over well with the

birds guys at all and it was really the

beginning of the end of Crosby's tenure

with them but the other connection that

was made in Monterey was Jimmy Hendrick

so a couple days after Monterey Hendrick

found himself here uh jamming with

Steven Stills at his rented malib Beach

House Hendrick was a kindred spirit and

over the next couple years they would

spend literally hundreds of hours

jamming together now after this all

occurred Al Cooper who was the leader of

Blood Sweat and Tears at the time was

doing a side project called super

sessions and Mike Bloomfield was going

to be the guitar player on it but he was

nowhere to be found after day one of

recording so Al gave Steven a call and

asked him to come down and it was really

the first outside recordings that Steven

had done after Buffalo Springfield

Steven's most well-known contribution to

Super was his version of Donovan's

Season of the Witch and garard Steven

his very first gold record and really it

went down so well that Steven was later

offered the job that Al Cooper had

recently vacated which was lead singer

of Blood Sweat and Tears which he of

course declined but more importantly I

think this all validated Steven's

ranking as a world class guitar player

anyways right here the Steven Stills

house in Melody

so the first song that stepen and Crosby

jammed on was a Crosby song called long

time gone and it was obvious that there

was something there and you know they

both had very similar backgrounds they

started out of spokis first and then

rock stars and I think they were both

somewhat jaded about the ridiculous

amount of success they garnered so early

in life and there weren't a whole lot of

other people in La that could relate to

that kind of

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thing Steven and David Crosby were

hanging out a lot at the time with Mama

Cass Elliot and John Sebastian from the

love and Spoonful and after some

impromptu singing one night at

Sebastian's pool he suggested they

needed a higher Harmony and the only two

acceptable voices in the world would be

either Phil Everly or Graham Nash of the

holl both who were rather preoccupied at

the time so Graham Nash was in town at

the whiskey goo playing with the holes

and Mama Cass went to see him and she

could sense that he wasn't happy with

the situation apparently uh the holles

were not happy with some of the new

songs he had written like mares Express

and teacher children which turned out to

be huge hits so mam Cass stealthily

ushered him here to what used to be

Davie Jones's house for a party that was

going on they walked inside and there

was an absolute maning pounding on the

piano and Cass turned to Graham Nash and

said this is the guy I want you to meet

and of course it was Steven Stills uh

the house is actually right up

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there depending on who you believe the

faithful first marriage of the voices of

Crosby Stillson Nash occurred either in

the home of Cass Elliot John Sebastian

Doug Weston or here in Laurel Canyon on

Lookout Mountain Avenue in Joanie

Mitchell's dining room it really doesn't

matter because by the time the three had

finished singing you don't have to cry

for the first time Graham Nash claimed I

hear bells one of the weirder things

that happened early on was the reworking

of the contracts so the three could all

legally record together the new

management team of Elliot Roberts and

David geffin were able to craft a deal

with Amit ergan at Atlantic Records that

would buy out Graham Nash's contract

from Epic Records in return for

delivering Atco records and former

Buffalo Springfield artist Richie Fay

and his new band Poco back to Epic

Records Not only was it like a baseball

trade it was a kind of the Yankees

stealing Babe Ruth from the Red

Sox in February of 1969 Crosby Stills

and Nash had finally finished with all

the legal rang

and we're ready to get started with

their debut record and thus began what I

think all three members would agree was

the most wonderful hassle-free sessions

of their entire careers this bar the St

Felix is what used to be the legendary

Wally Hider Studio 3 and Crosby Stills

and Nashwood start at 2 or so in the

afternoon work 12 to 14 hours and end

the day by going up the street to Norm's

coffee shop and having a wee hour's

breakfast Stephen has said that that one

of the secrets of singing in an ensemble

is being able to imitate each other that

it's not always who you think is singing

what Harmony part but I think the real

key to the vocals was crowding all three

singers around One mic and singing live

as opposed to everyone tracking

separately on individual mics now as far

as the instrumental backing except for

Dallas Taylor's drums it was pretty much

all Steven Stills uh he played guitar

keyboards bass and by the way he's a

really great basist and along with

engineer Bill Halverson Steven was also

the main architect of the production and

his efforts earned him the nickname by

his band of Captain many hands but for

the relatively short time it took to

make this record the band was a true

Brotherhood and when they were finished

they all knew full well that they had

recorded something that was going to be

huge right here Wally Haider

Studios all right

so after the release of the Crosby

Stills and Nash album in May of

1969 it didn't take a real long time for

these guys to realize that they needed a

ban to help them play this stuff and uh

they began rehearsing here up this long

driveway at what was then Peter Tor

estate and I believe Steven was in the

process of of BU buying it from him at

the time but they needed another

guitarist and Atlantic Records president

Amit Eran suggested Neil Young and

stepen loved the idea but it took some

Friendly Persuasion on the slightly

reticent Crosby and Nash but after

private performance by Neil with his new

song helpless uh Crosby was so impressed

he asked Neil if he could join his band

so they all love the way Dallas Taylor

had played on the record uh they got on

well together and he was all set to go

on the drums uh but the base situation

was a bit more complicated at first ex

Buffalo Springfield bases Bruce Palmer

rehearsed with them for a week but he

was just a bit of a weirdo and Crosby

and Nash just couldn't get used to him

so Neil Young's ex- manmaid head

recently moved to town and of course

that was Rick James and the word on the

street was he had a great bass player

with him a 19-year-old guy and his name

was Greg Reeds and after meeting him at

a party here at Torx Crosby and Nash had

to do uh Rick james' p in West Hollywood

the next day they asked Greg to grab his

base and come with them to the house and

jam and the short story is that he never

set foot at Rick James's again but the

lineup was finally set and they began

the process of rehearsing for some live

gigs one of which was going to be their

second gig at a place no one had ever

heard of before called Woodstock right

here

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so maybe you've noticed we're no longer

in LA and to be exact we're 350 Mi North

in the tenderloin District of San

Francisco at the former site of the

Caravan Lodge motel and in October of 69

Crosby Stills Nation young we all

staying here at this legendarily seed

rock and roll Flop House as he began

recording on Deja Vu and the big

difference this time besides the fact

that Neil Young was with them for the

first time was that they were all going

through romantic breakups and as a

matter of fact in David Crosby's case a

significant other Christine Hinton had

very recently died in a tragic car

accident but to say the least the band

was not of joyous heart staying here in

the cold and dumpy confines of the

Caravan motor in anyways the studio is

just a couple blocks away let's get to

it

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so this is Hyde Street Studios and it

was formerly Wally Hider studi San

Francisco and the first sessions for

Deja Vu began by gathering around Joanie

Mitchell where she taught them the song

Woodstock and of course Steven took the

lead on that one but unlike their

previous sessions for their uh Crosby

Stills Nash record this one was as

Steven described like pulling teeth but

my favorite story from the sessions here

is about what I feel is the most

enduring song on the record teacher

children well and it involved probably

the most San Francisco person you could

possibly think of Jerry

Garcia so at the time the Grateful Dead

was across the hall recording and Crosby

Still Sash and young W in here and they

were doing a song called teacher

children well and they wanted something

different on it and Steven still said

You know what I heard across the hall

that he was playing around with a petal

steel and I think it would be great on

it so they went over there and they

asked Jerry about playing and the p

steel guitar is impossible to play it's

got knee levers foot pedals and Jerry

told him he'd only been playing it a

couple weeks and he really hadn't

mastered it and they said let's give it

a try so we did and he actually nailed

it on first pass and in my opinion it's

really the signature sound on that

particular song which I think is the

best song on the record but you know

they had never pay Jerry for his work

and Graham Nash felt bad about that so a

while later he actually gifted him a

natural finish Stratocaster that he had

bought pawn shop in Tucson and Jerry

slapped a alligator sticker on it and it

became his go-to guitar for years and

years later anyways right here the

former Wally Hider

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Studios so not long after wrapping up

recording on Deja Vu the band embarked

on several tour dates including what is

possibly considered the most infamous

ever in the entire history of rock and

roll right smack dab here at Altamont

Raceway and it's hard to believe that

this bucolic Northern California

Hillside was once ground zero for the

total unraveling of the peace love and

Woodstock music

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era the day had an auspicious beginning

as there was no one to drive them here

from the small airport nearby and the

band actually had to hot wire pickup

truck park there and actually steal it

by the time they arve things had already

started getting ugly and the grateful

Dad who had talked David Crosby and

Steven into playing in the first place

decided to bail after watching singer

Marty Balon from the Jefferson Airplane

get knocked out cold on the stage by

some Uber drunk and angry Hell's

Angel as Crosby Stills Nation young took

the low stage here in front of 300,000

people things got quickly out of hand

and they ended up only being able to

play four songs as they fled the stage

in chaos Steven started yelling at

everyone in the band to grab guitars and

make a run for a waiting helicopter and

they were gone in 90 seconds flat even

before the Applause it died down they

never did get to see the stones play and

only heard about the death in Mayhem

later but right here Altimont

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race not too long after the Altamont

debacco Crosby Stills Nash and Young

took a hiatus I think California was

getting a m crazy for Steven so he

headed to England to chill out and right

and he ended up buying a house and not

just any house it was Ringo Stars he

hung out there a lot with fellow

American Jimmy Hendricks and began to

work on his first solo album Steven

Stills and in between all that he

managed to play guitar and Ringoes It

Don't Come Easy and Eric Clapton's Let

It Rain both returned the favor playing

on his album which included the hit Love

the One You're With and among other

things Steven's album Stills is the only

time Eric Clapton and Hendrick were

featured on the same record and one

other thing Steven's career as a session

musician sometimes gets overlooked

besides playing with Ringo he also

appeared on iconic songs like Ain't No

Sunshine by Bill withs 30 days in the

hole by Humble Pie Joanie Mitchell's

album Blue and you should be dancing by

the bees and that's just to name a few

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when Steven finally had access to money

he spent it generously and he had homes

all over the world including this one in

the very Tony La Enclave of belir on

Stone Canyon Road here you know I think

stevenh is an obsessive guy and

obsessive people tend to get things done

and if you look back at his post Deja Vu

career it's almost mindboggling besides

his solo records things like Manasses

where he finally got to pair up with

Chris Hillman and in 2010 Steven Stills

received what I feel is one of the

highest compliments of his career when

the movie Scott Pilgrim versus the world

named one of their main characters

Steven STS after him he was a

19-year-old musician anyways right here

Stone Canyon Road Steven

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Stills Steven Stills is still very

active in putting on his annual light up

the blues concerts for a charity that is

very near and dear to me Autism Speaks

and he did a recent one here at the

Pantages Theater featuring a very

obscure Canadian artist named Neil

Young one small story that I'd like to

relate that happened relatively recently

here uh was when Steven played with Judy

Collins when introducing his song Sweet

Judy Blue Eyes Steven turned to her and

said I don't know how to thank you for

this song and she answered back nor I

you and I think she was speaking

metaphorically for all of us anyways for

Tim I'd like to thank stepen for all the

cool music and the even cooler story and

this is a part of the show where I

shamelessly ask you to like And

subscribe to the show and by the way if

you like classic rock we've got a really

cool library and you should check it out

but anyways again for Tim thanks for

hanging out with us peace out byebye

a