(Credits: Far Out / Michael Stokes)
Sat 20 December 2025 19:49, UK
To be a truly great supergroup is to take all of the individual talents of those involved and bring them together into perfect harmony, both figuratively and, in the case of David Crosby, literally, as he brought together folk rock legends to create perhaps the best supergroup of all time.
When listening to Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the first thing that jumps out of the airwaves is the power of the harmonies. They would channel the greats of the past to make a powerhouse singing group that has rarely been beaten for pure harmonies.
The Beatles may have helped popularise the harmony work that people like The Everly Brothers started, but hearing every member of the supergroup harmonising throughout every verse feels like the rock and roll version of a choir whenever they stepped behind the microphone. Everything is in tune and perfect whenever their records are on, but David Crosby admitted that ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’ would not be equalled any time soon.
For all of the great music that they made, though, none of them were really looking to become superstars as a group. This was a group of friends just coming together to make a record, and the fact that they clearly didn’t put that much thought into the name gave you all you needed to know. These were solo artists who happened to make a record together…it was just one of the best records of the 1960s.
Since Crosby had already had experience with harmony working with The Byrds, his soaring voice sounded completely natural right in the middle of every song. Now that he didn’t have to rely on singing ‘So You Want to Be A Rock and Roll Star’, he could experiment a little more, which meant songs started to get a lot longer.
Even for a band of seasoned pros, it’s pretty daring coming out with ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ as your opening track. No time for getting people warmed up – they knew what their audience wanted, and they were going to get one of the most complex vocal songs in the classic rock canon.
The Beatles were already taking vocals to new places on Abbey Road, but this might just surpass them here. Outside of just the harmony, the medley of different musical selections feels like they shouldn’t work together, taking the basis of what sounds like three different ideas and layering the harmonies on top of each other to tie everything together.
The song has some more songwriting chops attached, as it was penned for Judy Collins. In the Crosby, Stills & Nash 1991 boxed set, Stephen 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.”
When the trio first cut the song, though, Crosby remembered they could never beat what they got on the first take, telling Music Radar, “[Stills] said, ‘I think we can do it even better’. Over the course of two days, we recorded the entire seven minutes and 22 seconds of it over again. The entire thing, from scratch, another version. After we were done, we played them back, and we had to say, ‘Nope. We did not beat the first version.’ The first one had the mojo”.
Granted, there are hardly any songs in the CSN catalogue that don’t have the mojo. There may be tracks with a few shoddy mixes, but even on some of the worst albums they ever produced, people could unanimously say that the harmonies were still kickass.
If anything, this song really says it all about what the group stands for. Dominated by acoustic guitars, getting the lead out when it needed to, and bringing together three of the best singers in rock under one roof…this wasn’t really as much of a song as it was a mission statement. That mission being…make way for one of the next biggest names in rock.
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