The Cover Uncovered: Stephen Stills’ nod to Jimi Hendrix on his self-titled classic
As the 1970s arrived, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young entered the new decade, eclipsing their respective former bands. Having cemented themselves as one of the leading countercultural figures after their Woodstock slot and 1969’s Crosby, Stills & Nash acclaimed folk-rock debut, Stephen Stills‘ former Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young joined the supergroup for 1970’s Déjà Vu. This followed their collapse into the first of its perennial disintegrations and on-off hiatuses that persisted right up until David Crosby’s death in 2023.
Across the next year, each member’s subsequent solo efforts were eagerly awaited. Young released his first classic with After the Gold Rush, and Crosby’s and Graham Nash’s If I Could Only Remember My Name and Songs for Beginners, respectively, were warmly received. Having cut the majority of his album at London’s Island Studios between the two CSNY tours, Stills’ eponymous debut was dropped in late 1970 during a retreat to England, away from Los Angeles and his fractured relationship with his former ensemble.
Corralling everybody from Ringo Starr, Booker T Jones and Eric Clapton to lend their musical chops—as well as Crosby and Nash—Stephen Stills was a star-studded affair that wasn’t lacking in big names eager to be involved. To top off the litany of illustrious credits slapped all over the LP, Stills roped in Jimi Hendrix’s guitar work for ‘Old Times Good Times’, one of many studio sessions they cut together that otherwise never saw the light of day.
“We once jammed for about five days, one long marathon session in my beach house in Malibu,” Stills revealed in the 1990’s CSN box set liner notes. “The sheriff’s deputy overheard our guitar playing. When he found out it was us he asked permission to park his police car directly outside the house so he could listen in while he fielded radio calls. Told us not to worry about a thing, he’d be looking out for us.”
Adorned with a pensive and contemplative cover, Stephen Stills‘ reflective artwork was born from tragic circumstances. Shot in the Gold Hill mountains of Colorado, the morose news of his former creative comrade’s death shook up the entourage he was with in his hideaway log cabin. “While we were there, Stephen received word that Jimi Hendrix had passed away, so everybody was very sad,” recalled photographer Henry Ditz in 2007’s California Dreaming: Memories And Visions Of LA 1966–1975.
He further added, “We sat up the whole night talking, telling stories and remembering him. When dawn came up the next morning it had snowed overnight and everything was blanketed in white. I grabbed my camera and Stephen grabbed his guitar, we ran outside and I started taking pictures of him sitting on a chair in the middle of the snow.”
The pink giraffe on his right is thought to be a subtle allusion to Rita Coolidge, who’d left him for Nash, representing a papier-mâché gift she’d given him not long before. Dissolved relationships and the death of a close friend belied Stephen Stills‘ funky and uplifting spirit, enjoying high chart success and peaking at number three on the Billboard Top LPs. The spirit of his old friend hovers quietly across the LP, however, with the album dedicated to “James Marshall Hendrix” in its notes.
