Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Encyclopedia
"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is a suite of short songs written by Stephen Stills
and performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash
. It appeared on the group's self-titled debut album in 1969. It was also released as a single (edited and in mono), going to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100
pop singles chart. The song is ranked #426 on Rolling Stone
's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The group has performed this song at the Woodstock
and Live Aid
festivals. The title may be a play on words for "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes"; also, the song may be considered a suite
in the classical music sense (i.e., an ordered set of musical pieces, usually four in number).
The acoustic guitar for the song is tuned to a very unusual tuning. Rather than being tuned to the traditional EADGBE, it is tuned to EEEEBE, which is also known as "Bruce Palmer
Modal Tuning". Stills used this same tuning for "4+20". He uses a similar tuning for "Carry On" but drops the notes a half step. The fifth string is tuned down to the same note as the sixth string, and the third string is tuned down to the same note as the fourth string.
' former girlfriend, singer/songwriter Judy Collins
, and the lyrics to most of the suite's sections consist of his thoughts about her and their imminent breakup. Collins is known for her piercing blue eyes, which are referenced in the title. Stephen Stills on NPR, 15 July 2007, in talking about the release of demo tapes he made in 1968, called Just Roll Tape
,
reveals that Judy Collins was with him in the studio when these tapes were recorded. She told him "not to stay [at the studio] all night", Stephen said. "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is one of the demo songs. When the interviewer asked if he and Judy were still a couple then, because the interviewer had always thought the song was a breakup song, Stephen, after deferring an answer, went on to say that "the breakup was imminent." "We were both too large for one house." Stills said that he liked parts of this demo version of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" better than the released version.
Collins and Stills had met in 1967 and began a relationship that lasted for two years. In 1969, she was appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival
musical production of Peer Gynt
and had fallen in love with her co-star Stacy Keach
. She eventually left Stills for Keach. Stills was devastated by the possible breakup and wrote the song as a response to his sadness. 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."
The group Crosby, Stills and Nash was created for this song. Stephen Stills and David Crosby
had been toying around with the idea of creating a three-man vocal group for some time, but had been unable to find a suitable third partner. Among those seriously considered was John Sebastian
of The Lovin' Spoonful
. One evening, the two of them were at an informal gathering, possibly at Mama Cass Elliot's house, or Joni Mitchell
's apartment in Laurel Canyon
. Wherever it was, Stills and Crosby ended up performing a two-voice version of the new song they'd been rehearsing, called "You Don't Have to Cry". When they finished, one of the other guests, Graham Nash
, who had met Crosby when both were still in their respective former bands, asked them to perform it again, several times. After listening intently, Nash unexpectedly joined in, adding a third high vocal harmony part that stunned everybody present. Crosby and Stills had found their third partner.
. David Crosby
and Graham Nash
, meanwhile, sing harmonies.
. It runs from 2:55 to 4:43.
) is sung in Spanish
. The section starts at about 6:34 and runs until the end of the song. The "doo-doo-doot" backing vocals make the lyrics difficult to make out for some listeners. Stills has been cited, perhaps apocryphally, as saying that he intentionally made the final stanzas unexpected and difficult, even using a foreign language for the lyrics, "just to make sure nobody would understand it" (not even Spanish speaking people).
This section has been parodied many times, notably in Frank Zappa
's compositions "Billy the Mountain
" and "Magdalena" on The Mothers of Invention
's album Just Another Band From L.A.
It is also sampled in the 2010
Cypress Hill
song "Armada Latina
".
In the mid-1960s, Stephen Stills attended Lincoln School in San José, Costa Rica
. The private school was attended mainly by upper-class Costa Ricans and had many foreign teachers and students. Stills's longtime musical collaborator, the Cuban percussionist Joe Lala
, plays on the recording of the song.
The lines might be transcribed as follows:
A rough translation into English might read:
A variation of this occurs on the album 4 Way Street
, the live CSNY album, where Stills is heard singing:
The Woodstock version is much clearer.
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Crosby, Stills & Nash is a folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young...
. It appeared on the group's self-titled debut album in 1969. It was also released as a single (edited and in mono), going to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
pop singles chart. The song is ranked #426 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The group has performed this song at the Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
and Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
festivals. The title may be a play on words for "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes"; also, the song may be considered a suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
in the classical music sense (i.e., an ordered set of musical pieces, usually four in number).
The acoustic guitar for the song is tuned to a very unusual tuning. Rather than being tuned to the traditional EADGBE, it is tuned to EEEEBE, which is also known as "Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer
Bruce Palmer was a Canadian musician notable for playing bass guitar in the folk rock band Buffalo Springfield.-Early years:Palmer was born and raised in Toronto Ontario, Canada...
Modal Tuning". Stills used this same tuning for "4+20". He uses a similar tuning for "Carry On" but drops the notes a half step. The fifth string is tuned down to the same note as the sixth string, and the third string is tuned down to the same note as the fourth string.
History
The title refers to Stephen StillsStephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
' former girlfriend, singer/songwriter Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, and the lyrics to most of the suite's sections consist of his thoughts about her and their imminent breakup. Collins is known for her piercing blue eyes, which are referenced in the title. Stephen Stills on NPR, 15 July 2007, in talking about the release of demo tapes he made in 1968, called Just Roll Tape
Just Roll Tape
Just Roll Tape: April 26th, 1968 is a Stephen Stills demo album released in 2007. In the sleeve notes to the CD, Stephen Stills recalls that he was present at a Judy Collins session in New York in 1968, and when she finished with studio time remaining, Stills paid the engineer privately to let him...
,
reveals that Judy Collins was with him in the studio when these tapes were recorded. She told him "not to stay [at the studio] all night", Stephen said. "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is one of the demo songs. When the interviewer asked if he and Judy were still a couple then, because the interviewer had always thought the song was a breakup song, Stephen, after deferring an answer, went on to say that "the breakup was imminent." "We were both too large for one house." Stills said that he liked parts of this demo version of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" better than the released version.
Collins and Stills had met in 1967 and began a relationship that lasted for two years. In 1969, she was appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival
New York Shakespeare Festival
New York Shakespeare Festival is the previous name of the New York City theatrical producing organization now known as the Public Theater. The Festival produced shows at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, as part of its free Shakespeare in the Park series, at the Public Theatre near Astor Place...
musical production of Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
and had fallen in love with her co-star Stacy Keach
Stacy Keach
Stacy Keach is an American actor and narrator. He is most famous for his dramatic roles; however, he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy and musical...
. She eventually left Stills for Keach. Stills was devastated by the possible breakup and wrote the song as a response to his sadness. 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."
The group Crosby, Stills and Nash was created for this song. Stephen Stills and David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
had been toying around with the idea of creating a three-man vocal group for some time, but had been unable to find a suitable third partner. Among those seriously considered was John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
of The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American pop rock band of the 1960s, named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. When asked about his band, leader John Sebastian said it sounded like a combination of "Mississippi John Hurt and Chuck Berry," prompting his friend, Fritz Richmond, to suggest the name...
. One evening, the two of them were at an informal gathering, possibly at Mama Cass Elliot's house, or Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
's apartment in Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....
. Wherever it was, Stills and Crosby ended up performing a two-voice version of the new song they'd been rehearsing, called "You Don't Have to Cry". When they finished, one of the other guests, Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, who had met Crosby when both were still in their respective former bands, asked them to perform it again, several times. After listening intently, Nash unexpectedly joined in, adding a third high vocal harmony part that stunned everybody present. Crosby and Stills had found their third partner.
First section
This section of the song is a traditional pop song. It has the chorus "I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are." It runs for approximately 2:55. It features a solo sung by Stephen StillsStephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
. David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
, meanwhile, sing harmonies.
Second section
This section is much slower and features a solo sung by Stephen StillsStephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
. It runs from 2:55 to 4:43.
Third section
This section becomes more upbeat and features more poetic lyrics. It starts at about 4:43 and runs until 6:25. It leads directly into the fourth and final section.Final section
The final section (the codaCoda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
) is sung in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The section starts at about 6:34 and runs until the end of the song. The "doo-doo-doot" backing vocals make the lyrics difficult to make out for some listeners. Stills has been cited, perhaps apocryphally, as saying that he intentionally made the final stanzas unexpected and difficult, even using a foreign language for the lyrics, "just to make sure nobody would understand it" (not even Spanish speaking people).
This section has been parodied many times, notably in Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
's compositions "Billy the Mountain
Billy the Mountain
"Billy the Mountain" is a Frank Zappa song first made available on the album Just Another Band from L.A. in 1972. The original recording of this song, which took more than a half-hour to perform, was from a live tour performance on August 7, 1971 in Los Angeles, performed by Zappa with his band The...
" and "Magdalena" on The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...
's album Just Another Band From L.A.
Just Another Band from L.A.
Just Another Band from L.A. is a live album by The Mothers, released in 1972 . It was recorded live on August 7, 1971 in Pauley Pavilion on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. A notable inclusion on this album is Billy the Mountain, Zappa's long, narrative parody of rock operas, which were gaining...
It is also sampled in the 2010
2010 in music
2010 in music may refer to:*2010 in American music*2010 in Australian music*2010 in British music*2010 in Canadian music*2010 in European music *2010 in Irish music*2010 in Japanese music*2010 in New Zealand music...
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide...
song "Armada Latina
Armada Latina
"Armada Latina" is the fourth single from Cypress Hill's studio album, Rise Up . It features Cuban rapper Pitbull and Puerto Rican singer Marc Anthony, it was released on March 2, 2010. The song samples the fourth portion of the 1969 song Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.-Music video:The music video directed...
".
In the mid-1960s, Stephen Stills attended Lincoln School in San José, Costa Rica
San José, Costa Rica
San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation.Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San...
. The private school was attended mainly by upper-class Costa Ricans and had many foreign teachers and students. Stills's longtime musical collaborator, the Cuban percussionist Joe Lala
Joe Lala
Joe Lala is an actor and voice actor, notable for his dubbing of Kun Lan of the video-game Killer7.He also played drums and percussion on 32 gold and 28 platinum albums. His credits include Blues Image, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, and many...
, plays on the recording of the song.
The lines might be transcribed as follows:
- ¡Que linda! Me recuerdo a Cuba
- La reina de la Mar Caribe
- Quiero sólo visitarla allí
- Y que triste que no puedo. ¡Vaya!
- Aja Aja! (varies in different recordings)
A rough translation into English might read:
- How pretty! I'm reminded of Cuba
- The queen of the Caribbean Sea
- I only want to visit her there
- And how sad that I can't. Oh!
- Aha aha!
A variation of this occurs on the album 4 Way Street
4 Way Street
4 Way Street is the third album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, their second as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and their first live album. It was originally released as Atlantic Records SD-2-902, shipping as a gold record and peaking at #1 on the Billboard 200...
, the live CSNY album, where Stills is heard singing:
- Que lástima que no puedo. ¡Vaya! ("It's a pity that I cannot. Oh!")
The Woodstock version is much clearer.