Collins, Stills an unlikely pairing on tour, album
Judy Collins had an instant and emotional response when Stephen Stills first played her an early version of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” the classic 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash song he wrote about their doomed love affair.
“I lost it!” she recalled. “The song was so beautiful. But it was also clear that our relationship was not going to work.”
Almost half a century later,
the two have reunited for a joint album, “Everybody Knows” — out today. The two have been promoting the album on a summer tour continuing this fall.
Their final encore each night: “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”
“It’s hysterical, really,” said Collins, 78. “Talk about an impossible dream!”
Collins and Stills’ two-year love affair imploded in 1969, after she left him for actor Stacy Keach.
But the two musicians rekindled their friendship and sustained it during the intervening decades. They now go on double dates with their respective spouses — Stills’ third wife, Kristen, and Collins’ second husband, Louis.
Collins was already an established folkmusic star in 1967 when she met Stills, then a member of the pioneering Los Angeles rock band Buffalo Springfield.
He soon achieved superstardom, singing and playing lead guitar in Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. His first solo outing, “Stephen Stills” in the 1970s, featured the hit single “Love the One You’re With” and illustrious guest artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Mama Cass, David Crosby and Graham Nash.
Collins, meanwhile, became one of the most prolific and versatile singers around. She has recorded 44 albums and at least 11 compilations. She has stood out whether performing folk, pop, torch ballads, spirituals, jazz standards, country or classics from the Great American Songbook.
Although she and Stills rarely worked together until now, they did collaborate in 1968, not long after meeting and becoming a couple.
The first song they recorded, the Sandy Denny-penned “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” became the title track for Collins’ 1968 album of the same name. A new version appears on “Everybody Knows,” being jointly released by Cleopatra Records and Collins’ Wildflower label.
The new album mixes songs by Stills and Collins with classics by other artists, including Bob Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country.”
Also featured are “Houses,” the 1975 song Collins wrote for Stills; “Questions,” which Stills wrote for Buffalo Springfield’s 1968 swan song; and “River of Gold,” which Collins wrote for “Everybody Knows.”
“The criterion for picking songs was that we love them," she said recently by phone. "That’s the only (tack) that worked."
The album and ongoing concert tour have been a discovery process, she said.
“You learn as you go along what to do, and what not to do."
The teaming of her and Stills, 72, is a dream come true for their most-devoted fans, especially those familiar with the short-lived but fiery romance the two had in the late 1960s.
“Over time, a lot of things have fallen by the wayside, a lot of those barriers between us magically disappeared," Collins said. "And, suddenly, here we are!”