Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Stephen Stills Available Now
This listing for the White Hot Stamper pressing we put up years ago was written around 2007. A few points have been added since then.
When all the elements are working together as they do here, the music on Steve Stills’ first album is positively AMAZING. Until I hear something better, I’m going to have to call this Bill Halverson‘s engineering masterpiece.* Yes, on the best copies it’s that good.
*UPDATE 2024: We have now discovered something even better, an album from earlier in the same year in fact, Deja Vu.
What to Listen For
Both sides can be rich and full-bodied, as well as transparent, with lots of separation between the parts. Most copies tend to be murky, thick, and veiled. The overall sound here is airy, open, and spacious, with TONS of ambience.
Check out the sound of Booker T’s big organ solo on Love The One You’re With — you can really hear the air moving through the instrument. That’s what a Hot Stamper pressing is all about.
And that’s not all. Listen for the rosiny texture to the strings, the warmth of the midrange, and the breath in the vocals. These are all signs of a very good pressing.
The bottom end is well-defined and has substantial weight to it, something you won’t hear on most copies. They sure don’t record music that sounds like this anymore, and even if they did I doubt they could press a record from the tapes that sounds as good as this one does. That sound is gone and it shows no sign of coming back anytime soon.
We’ll keep trying to find the unbelievably rare Hot Deja Vu’s, but in the meantime all you CSN fans should consider taking a chance on one of our Stephen Stills Hot Stampers. We guarantee you’ll love it (or your money back of course).
We Can’t Get Enough Of This Stuff
Some of the most sought after records in the world, as well as the most difficult to find with top quality sound, are those involving the various groupings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
This album is no exception. It’s Stills’ masterpiece, a record I’ve been playing since I was in high school. The sound on the LPs I bought over the years has been pretty consistently disappointing. It’s refreshing to actually find a copy like this that lets you hear the album the way you remember it.
There’s a very good chance — bordering on a certainty — that the copy you played back then was no doubt just as poor sounding, but you remember it sounding good.
That, more than anything else, is why we audiophiles keep chasing after so many classic albums from our younger days. We’re trying to find the record that can give us the musical satisfaction now that we achieved so easily then.
- More Hot Stamper pressings of albums engineered by Bill Halverson
- More reviews, commentaries and letters for albums engineered by Bill Halverson
Stephen Stills’ Debut Checks Off Some Big Boxes for Us
- It’s a Must Own record.
- It’s a rock and pop masterpiece.
- It’s a personal favorite of mine.
- And it’s a record I have been obsessed with for a very long time, since it came out in 1970 as a matter of fact.
The blog you are on now as well as our website are both devoted to very special records such as these.
Side One
Love the One You’re With
Do for the Others
Church (Part of Someone)
Old Times Good Times
Go Back Home
Side Two
Sit Yourself Down
To a Flame
Black Queen
Cherokee
We Are Not Helpless
AMG Review
Listening to this album three decades on, it’s still a jaw-dropping experience, the musical equal to Crosby, Stills & Nash or Déjà Vu, and only a shade less important than either of them. The mix of folk, blues (acoustic and electric), hard rock, and gospel is seamless, and the musicianship and the singing are all so there, in your face, that it just burns your brain (in the nicest, most benevolent possible way) even 30 years later.
Further Reading
- New to the Blog? Start here
- More rock and pop albums we think we know well
- More well recorded albums that should be more popular with audiophiles
