Stephen Stills- Illegal Stills

Illegal Stills

This is the finest album Donnie Dacus ever made. Unfortunately it's suppose to be a Stephen Stills album, and as such it is only mediocre. So the value of the album lies somewhere between
those two standards.

 

Dacus' contributions to the work are extensive, and in some respects exemplary. He collaborates with Stills in composing four songs, and writes another with Stills' wife, Veronique Sanson. It's to his credit that three of these numbers, `Midnight In Paris', `Closer To You', and `Soldier', are some of the better compositions on the disc. Dacus, formerly of the band Spirit, also contrbutes lead and background vocals and fine guitar work.

He is a worthy protege and second guitar foil for Stills. But one wonders why such a talented and accomplished artist such as Stills even needed a protege. Part of the answer lies in Stephen's
declining output as a composer. In his biography `Shakey", Neil Young notes that he resisted overtures from Stills, David Crosby and Graham Nash during their 1974 tour to release a second
CSNY disc simply because the others were not generating any new material. He states that he "couldn't believe they were finished". While none of them were "finished", in retrospect it
is clear that Neil recognized their diminishing output, especially in comparison to his own.  In addition, it seems Stephen lost his grip on the folk, country, and blues based rock, as well as the wah-pedal trademark guitar sound that he had parlayed into so much success. "Illegal" is dominated by the power-pop sound more suited to Dacus, who would go on to play in power-pop groups such as Chicago and Badfinger in the late 1970's and early 1980's, while Stephen joined forces again with Crosby and Nash for 2 successful albums and a couple even less successful than `Illegal' attempts to resurrect his solo career. `Illegal' only features one classic Stills tune, `Buyin' Time', an indictment of the failed economic policies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Stills began performing the song
in mid-1975 as an acoustic number, but this studio version really rocks the Casbah. His cover of Young's `The Loner' is also a hot tune, but was bound to pale in comparison to Young's pristine version. The closer, `Circlin', was first performed on the brief Stills-Young Band tour in the summer
of 1976, and is an upbeat, interesting number. `Soldier' is a gutsy protest song in the aftermath of Vietnam. Stills offers his requisite Latin-hued number in `No Me Neigas', but it is only a shadow of other Latino songs from Stills such as `Cuban Bluegrass'. `Stateline Blues' seems to lack the grit, and as Stills himself said in `Bluesman', "the blues is pain, the way men cry, like tired rain...", to be
considered a `true' blues song. It is a fun song about gambling, though Stills did a better take on the same topic with 1970's `Black Queen'. `Ring Of Love' is filler, a song Stills himself describes in the liner notes as one "Donnie pulled...out of his past". Shouldn't be part  of a Stills CD.

There are interesting comments included from Stills on the makings and origins of each song, as well as lyrics. While `Illegal' is certainly a departure from the formula that made Stills one of the premier artists in rock from 1966 to 1976, it contains enough quality material to be considered essential to Stills fans. For the more casual listener, there are many Stephen Stills releases that would be a more desirable purchase, especially the first Manassas CD, his first solo album, and his early collaborations with Crosby, Nash and Young.