The breakup songs Judy Collins and Stephen Stills wrote about each other
Judy Collins and Stephen Stills were only romantically involved for two years, but it forever impacted them as people and artists. Once it became public knowledge they were an item, Collins ended things, and they both used songwriting to channel their heartbreak.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2017 about the collapse of the relationship, Collins explained that there were many reasons that led her to leave Stills. “My centre was in New York and his in LA,” Collins explained to the publication. “He hated New York and he hated therapy. And I was in both.”
Another extremely personal reason made Collins reassess her priorities and decide what was important in life. In 1958, the singer gave birth to her son with her first husband, Peter Taylor, but after their divorce in 1965, Collins lost custody of her child for several years. Once she was allowed to see him again, it understandably took precedence over her relationship with Stills.
She explained: “We both needed to find out where we were going next in our careers. Also, I had just gotten my son back after three or four years of losing custody of him. It was a very intense period.”
After their break-up, Stills let his feelings known in the most public forum imaginable by releasing ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, which appeared on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s eponymous debut album. Out of Stills’ splendid canon of work, the track is a highlight. He wrote it while they were still together. Although the cracks had begun to show in their relationship, Stills was aware they were on borrowed time.
Stills later recalled: 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.”
After completing the song, Stills first rushed to her hotel room to play it to Collins, which reduced the couple to tears. Collins recalled to The Guardian: “Afterwards, we both cried – and then I said: ‘Oh, Stephen, it’s such a beautiful song. But it’s not winning me back.'”
She waited for six years before sharing her version of events on ‘Houses’ in 1975, and Stills was none the wiser that it was about him until 2013. “I don’t think he was listening to my albums as much as I was listening to his back then,” Collins continued. “He was very touched by the song when I played it for him. He was [touched] that it was the counterpoint to ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’.”
Thankfully, the couple remained on good terms after they went their separate ways, and neither were upset about the other one using them as their muse. After all, they are both confessional songwriters who write about the experiences they’ve accrued in life and understand it’s a natural consequence of dating a musician.
Listen below to ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ and ‘Houses’.
