Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Album

2012-05-06: The Human Rights Festival, Athens, GA, USA

Label

Atlantic Records

Genre

Folk-pop

Media Type

CD

Composer(s)

Stephen Stills

Entered Chart

Oct 4, 1969

Peak Date

Nov 29, 1969

Released

September 1969

Recorded

February 1969[

Catalog #

45-2676

B-Side

Long Time Gone

Stephen Stills wrote this song about his then-girlfriend, folk singer Judy Collins. In the Crosby, Stills & Nash 1991 boxed set, Stills said: "It started out as a long narrative poem about my relationship with Judy Collins. It poured out of me over many months and filled several notebooks. I had a hell of a time getting the music to fit. I was left with all these pieces of song and I said, 'Let's sing them together and call it a suite,' because they were all about the same thing and they led up to the same point." The title is a play on words. "Suite" is a reference to a part of a classical composition, but it can also be interpreted as "sweet." The full-length version of the song can be considered a suite, with lots of musical changes. The last verse is in Spanish and is about Cuba. It was sung in Spanish because Stephen Stills didn't want it easily understood since it had little to do with the theme of the song. Stills put that part in simply because the song had gone on forever and he didn't want it to just vamp out at the end. Here's the translation: How nice it will (or would) be to take you to Cuba The queen of the Caribbean Sea I only want to visit you there And how sad that I can't, damn! >> This album version runs 7:22, which was considered too long for radio, so the single was cut down to 4:35. Many FM radio stations played the album cut, which is now considered the definitive version. The Derek & the Dominos song "Layla," released the following year, had a similar trajectory: Cut to 2:43 as a single, the 7:10 album version is the one that endured. Released on their first album, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" was the second Crosby, Stills & Nash single, following "Marrakesh Express." It established the harmony style that would be the group's trademark and became one of their best-known songs. It's included on their 1974 compilation So Far, a #1 album in America. Crosby, Stills & Nash's set at Woodstock in 1969 - just their second gig together - opened with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." The event ran long, so they didn't go on stage until 3 a.m. the third night (The Who set a precedent by going on at 5 a.m. the night before). They played 16 songs in their set, the first nine acoustic and the last seven electric. Those who left to get to work Monday morning not only missed Crosby, Stills & Nash, but didn't see Jimi Hendrix close out the festival. All three band members contributed vocals, but Stephen Stills was the only one to play an instrument on this song - he handled guitars, bass and percussion. Session man Dallas Taylor was the drummer. Stephen Stills spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about this song: "It was the beginnings of three different songs that suddenly fell together as one. Actually on the demo the middle part is not exactly how they would play. Half of it is it just falls off in its own - but we actually split it in half, and they got started singing and boom, there it went. Once it all was there then we just kept adding parts. When I wrote it I used cardboard shirt-blocking, you know those things from the cleaner's - 'cause they were harder to lose than pieces of paper and they didn't crumple up. I could line them up on music stands and they'd stand up." Graham Nash was rather impressed when he heard this song. "When Stephen Stills first played me this song, I wondered what planet he was from," he told Rolling Stone. Judy Collins recalled to Mojo magazine the effect this song had on her after Stills played it in her hotel room. She said: "He sang me 'Suite Judy Blue Eyes' and, you know, broken hearts are a very good inspiration - and I just caved in and I suppose I made promises I couldn't keep. We both had personal struggles." Collins' battle was with alcohol. The 1971 CSN&Y live album 4 Way Street opens with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," but just the last 30 seconds. Compiled from a handful of shows on their 1970 tour, the album went on to sell over 4 million copies. The mid-'80s was a tumultuous time for the band, but somehow they made it to Live Aid in 1985, where they performed this song along with "Teach Your Children" and "Southern Cross." Organized by Bob Geldof, Live Aid was a benefit for famine relief in Africa. David Crosby was out on bail; by the end of the year he was jailed on drug and weapons charges. After dating Stills for two years, Judy Collins fell in love with the actor Stacy Keach. Devastated by their impending breakup, Stills wrote "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" as a response to his heartbreak. Stills sang it to Collins for the first time on her birthday. "I was out in California," she recalled to Uncut magazine. "Steven came and bought me flowers and a beautiful Martin guitar and sang 'Judy Blue Eyes' to me. We both wept and I said, 'It's gorgeous, but it's not going to get me back.'" In a 2022 interview with David Crosby, he told Songfacts that "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" was the definitive Crosby, Stills & Nash song, citing it as an example of "that acoustic tilt we had."

It's getting to the point
Where I'm no fun anymore
I am sorry
Sometimes it hurts so badly
I must cry out loud
I am lonely
I am yours, you are mine
You are what you are
And you make it hard

Remember what we've said and done and felt
About each other
Oh babe, have mercy
Don't let the past remind us of what we are not now
I am not dreaming.
I am yours, you are mine
You are what you are
And you make it hard

Tearing yourself away from me now
You are free and I am crying
This does not mean I don't love you
I do, that's forever, yes and for always
I am yours, you are mine
You are what you are
And you make it hard

Something inside is telling me that
I've got your secret. Are you still listening?
Fear is the lock, and laughter the key to your heart
And I love you.

I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
And you make it hard,
And you make it hard

Friday evening, Sunday in the afternoon
What have you got to lose?
Tuesday mornin', please be gone I'm tired of you.
What have you got to lose?
Can I tell it like it is? Help me I'm sufferin'
Listen to me baby-Help me I'm dyin'
It's my heart that's a sufferin', it's a dyin'
That's what I have to lose
I've got an answer
I'm going to fly away
What have I got to lose?
Will you come see me
Thursdays and Saturdays?
What have you got to lose?

Chestnut brown canary
Ruby throated sparrow
Sing a song don't be long
Thrill me to the marrow
Voices of the angels ring around the moonlight
Asking me, said she so free
How can you catch the sparrow?
Lacy, lilting, lady, losing love, lamenting

Change my life, make it right
Be my lady.
Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo

At the end of the Suite, Stephen Stills sings the following Spanish lines:
Que linda me la traiga Cuba,
La reina de la Mar Caribe.
Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi,
Why que triste que no puedo vaya,
Oh va, oh va, va.

Loosely translated that is:
How happy it makes me to think of Cuba,
The smiles of the Caribbean Sea,
Sunny sky has no blood, and how sad that
I'm not able to go
Oh go, oh go go