I sometimes think Stephen Stills gets short-shrift in an annals of rock history. Not that I feel sorry for the guy wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” who is generally regarded as one of the greatest living guitar players (Still is #28 according to a Rolling Stone poll), or who was/is a member of one of the biggest grossing rock groups of all time (CSNY, of course), it’s just that the Stills made so much great music that’s seldom heard today and known mostly by middle-aged rock snobs, when that music should be as well-known as as the classic material he recorded with his fellow famous folk-rock compadres.

Case in point, the wicked double album Stills recorded with Manassas, with its rock, country, blues, bluegrass and Latin-influenced tunes. That album tears it up, but this live set, recorded in Germany in 1971 for the MusikLaden TV show is even better. It’s Stills at his very best—playing Jimi Hendrix-level guitar leads throughout—and what a band: Chris Hillman (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Bros.), the great Dobro player Al Perkins, Dallas Taylor on drums, Calvin “Fuzzy” Sameul on bass, Paul Harris on keyboards and a very “Greg Brady”-looking Joe Lala on drums.

Listen to this one LOUD people. If you don’t groove on this, I jes’ cain’t help you (but I’ll continue to try. I’ll promise I will still try).
 

 
Bonus clip, CSN at Woodstock performing “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” and becoming music legends in the process…