Crosby, Stills and Nash – “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” Live
Listen To Me Baby!
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” was written by Stephen Stills and recorded by Crosby, Stills and Nash for their self-titled debut album which was released on September 1969. Stills penned the song for Judy Collins, a folk singer who was his then-girlfriend. It talked about their relationship and imminent break-up. Collins was even there during the recording of the demo tapes!
- Number 21 in the US Billboard Hot 100
- Number 418 in the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”
In their 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 group performed this track live as an opening for their set during the Woodstock Festival and also during Live Aid in 1985. It runs at seven minutes and 22 seconds and features an acoustic guitar with the “Bruce Palmer Modal Tuning.” While this may not be their biggest hit, it’s undeniably one of their most popular and well-loved songs.
In a 2000 interview, Collins gave her impressions of when she first heard the song:
“[Stephen] came to where I was singing one night on the West Coast and brought his guitar to the hotel and he sang me “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” the whole song. And of course it has lines in it that referred to my therapy. And so he wove that all together in this magnificent creation. So the legacy of our relationship is certainly in that song.”
That sure is one extraordinary legacy!
