Stephen Stills - Just Roll Tape

Discussion of CD reissues, including sound quality and track lists
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lukpac
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Stephen Stills - Just Roll Tape

Postby lukpac » Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:08 am

Thought this had been mentioned before...I guess not.

http://www.4waysite.com/index7.htm

Stephen Stills says... "Just Roll Tape"
2007 | June 5 | 4waysite.com

Rumor has it that the new Stills CD called "Just Roll tape" (from Rhino Records) will be available on July 10. It is a collection that features 12 Previously Unreleased Demos from Historic 1968 Session. "Just Roll tape" presents remastered versions of the 12 songs Stills recorded with engineer John Haney at Elektra Studios in New York City. An amazing glimpse into Stills’ songwriting genius, the recordings spotlight Stills’ instantly recognizable voice accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. The album includes the first recordings of future CSN hits “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “Wooden Ships.”

Also included are early versions of songs that would emerge on Stills’ solo albums such as “Black Queen” from his 1970 self-titled debut along with “Change Partners” and “Know You’re Got To Run” from his 1971 follow-up. “So Begins The Task” appears here almost four years before it was recorded by Manassas, the legendary group Stills formed in 1972. As a bonus, the collection is bolstered by a track not recorded during the April 26 session—the first demo of fan favorite “Treetop Flyer,” which showcases Stills singing and playing dobro.

Also:

http://www.4waysite.com/articles/2007_Simply-Stills.htm
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Aftermath » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:59 pm

Pretty cool. I've always wondered how far back some of that early CSN material went. If this session was April 26, 1968, it was before the Springfield's last concert.

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Postby lukpac » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:02 am

Aftermath wrote:Pretty cool. I've always wondered how far back some of that early CSN material went. If this session was April 26, 1968, it was before the Springfield's last concert.


I wonder if that date is correct. I don't have the booklet in front of me, but isn't the Four Days Gone demo on the BS box from around that time?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Rspaight » Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:16 pm

As a bonus, the collection is bolstered by a track not recorded during the April 26 session—the first demo of fan favorite “Treetop Flyer,” which showcases Stills singing and playing dobro.


A couple of local stores actually had to put up little signs in the racks to tell people that "Treetop Flyer" isn't in print.

Of course, the fact that this isn't the version people are looking for might well make it even worse. I predict a crushing wave of returns.

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Postby Aftermath » Sat Jun 09, 2007 12:21 pm

lukpac wrote:
Aftermath wrote:Pretty cool. I've always wondered how far back some of that early CSN material went. If this session was April 26, 1968, it was before the Springfield's last concert.


I wonder if that date is correct. I don't have the booklet in front of me, but isn't the Four Days Gone demo on the BS box from around that time?



The booket says "ca. April 1968"

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Postby Aftermath » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:15 pm


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Postby lukpac » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:44 am

Nice. I didn't get around to posting the track list:

* All I Know is What You Tell Me
* So Begins the Task
* Change Partners
* Know You Got To Run
* The Doctor Will See You Now
* Black Queen
* Bumblebee (Do You Need A Place to Hide?)
* Judy
* Dreaming of Snakes
* Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
* Helplessly Hoping
* Wooden Ships
* Treetop Flyer

Know You Got to Run has some fragments that were later recycled into Everybody I Love You.

Sounds pretty good to me.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby lukpac » Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:17 am

Considering Wooden Ships here is essentially the finished song from "Wooden ships, on the water..." on, this doesn't seem to jive:

"What happened," says David, "was that Paul Kantner came down to my boat in Florida, he and Stephen came down together, and we sat around and wrote it. I had already written all the music. Paul wrote two verses and Stephen wrote one, and I wrote the things at both ends.


This too:

We were sitting around in the main cabin of the boat, and we started fooling around, as we would naturally do, and we started playing that set of changes and we wrote that song together. Stephen came up with a couple of ways to arrange it, musically, and he wrote the "Horror grips us as we watch you die" verse. Paul came up with the original hook line, "Wooden ships on the water."
[...]
Then David had had this piece of music for about a year or two that he hadn't written lyrics to. He had passed it around and nobody did anything about it. We had gone sailing with him–me and Grace. David would take us on his boat here and there. Grace and I weren't together yet at that point. I knew how fond David was of the ocean. It was his song, really, to start with. So I just put "Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy," which charmed David to no end. Most of that is my lyric and most of it's David's music. Stephen Stills wrote one verse, the nasty verse about watching you die, which is sort of fitting for Stephen.


Unless Stills made the demo after all of that happened? But if that were the case, why make a demo at all, and why omit the opening dialogue? Anyone?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby lukpac » Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:30 pm

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 1039/ENT04

For the new album we removed about 10 minutes (of the session). The rest of it is as it appeared — you can hear me knocking the guitar mic.


Wonder what the missing 10 minutes are.

Also, the guitar has a very "ambient" stereo quality to it. I have to wonder if the recording was basically twin-track (vocal/guitar) and they added some type of processing to the guitar to "stereoize" it. The vocal is dead center.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Postby Aftermath » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:56 am

As for Wooden ships, since this was an impromptu session I suppose there could be a number of reasons why the first verse isn't there. Stills may have just wanted to get the verse he came up with on tape, as well as the general feel of the song. He does mention the session was simply an attempt to get this stuff down in a "semicoherent form," so maybe he couldn't remember some of Kantner's lyrics?

Dunno about the missing 10 minutes--maybe false starts, etc.

Very pleasant surprise to have this--a needed puzzle piece during an AMAZING creative peak for Stills. It would be nice to confirm the date though, as you've noted.

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Postby Aftermath » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:12 pm


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Postby lukpac » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:48 pm

lukpac wrote:Also, the guitar has a very "ambient" stereo quality to it. I have to wonder if the recording was basically twin-track (vocal/guitar) and they added some type of processing to the guitar to "stereoize" it. The vocal is dead center.


Aftermath wrote:Yet another interview:

http://www.acousticstorm.com/interview.php?id=91


STILLS:
I took out the stuff that was basically just mumbling and garbage and not fit for human consumption, which was only maybe eight minutes. The vocal was on one side and the guitar was on another. So I sent it to some guy and said 'center everything up' and then I listened to it and did my chart-booking and said 'don't change it from there.' I didn't want to mess with it too much. I remember the time, the cloudiness of '67 was just beginning to dissipate. 1967 was a very fractious year for me, but '68 was starting to get fun. We had just finally said OK, we might do this group so I wanted to get that material prepared.
[...]
STILLS:
Paul Kantner had started one little part and David had another little part and I showed up on the boat in Florida. You know, it was floating around the room and I just whacked it off. And then I'd flown to New York the next day and this session was the day after that, so that song was pretty fresh. I needed to get it down the way I heard it in my head before it got tumbled around too much.


Perhaps Wooden Ships was done after that writing session...
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD