This morning, as turned my free will over to the Spotify randomizer, I was enjoying my usual favorites of Tibetan throat singing, Alpine yodels, and Those Darned Accordions, up popped one of my favorites: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.
Is this the perfect love song? It embraces the euphoria of early love, the idealization of beauty, the secret shadowy hopes that one pours into a new love. But it also moves into the regrets, the tedium of relationships, the misgivings, the setting of boundaries, and, in this case, infidelity.
Tomorrow we’ll focus on the song’s structure and lyrics, but today let’s ease into it.
Some Background
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is a song written by Stephen Stills and performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN). It appeared on the group’s self-titled debut album in 1969.
The title “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (a play on words for “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes”) refers to Stephen Stills’ former girlfriend, singer/songwriter Judy Collins, and the lyrics to most of the suite’s sections consist of his thoughts about her and their imminent breakup.
Collins and Stills had met in 1967 and dated for two years. In 1969, she was appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival musical production of Peer Gynt and had fallen in love with her co-star Stacy Keach[1], eventually leaving Stills for him.
Wikipedia
Their first album. Imagine hitting a home run at your first at-bat.
[1] Semi-Sequitur: Stacy Keach
Keach was busted at Heathrow Airport for smuggling 1.3 ounces of cocaine inside a can of shaving cream. I remember a British customs making the statement, “If he was a better actor, he would have gotten away with it. He was so nervous it raised our suspicion.”
We’re not sure what brand of shaving cream was involved, so we’ll present a few options.
That being said, my favorite Stacy Keach movie is Nebraska.
An aging, booze-addled father (Bruce Dern) makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize. – IMDB
Nebraska is a 2013 American comedy-drama road film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Bob Nelson, and starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacy Keach, and Bob Odenkirk. Released in black-and-white, the story follows an elderly Montana resident and his son as they try to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize on a long trip to Nebraska.
At a bar, David meets Woody’s (Bruce Dern) former business partner, Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach), who stole Woody’s air compressor decades prior. Woody foolishly mentions winning the money, and the next day, the news of Woody’s “win” has spread through the town like wildfire. […stuff happens…] David punches Ed in the face.
Wikipedia
- Bruce Dern as Woodrow T. “Woody” Grant, David and Ross’ father, and Kate’s husband
- Stacy Keach as Ed Pegram, Woody’s former business partner and the main antagonist of the film
Semi-demi-sequitur: Not to be confused with The Nebraskan
Semi-hemi-demi-sequitur: Roberta Haynes
Let us pause for a moment to celebrate the acting career of the 5′ 3½″ tall native of Wichita Falls, Roberta Haynes.
A Cover
I wasn’t able to find a single cover of this song, with the exception of Weird Al. To truly achieve greatness, you must be parodied by Weird Al, and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is no exception.
Mission Statement
Weird Al Yankovic
We must all efficiently
Operationalize our strategies
Invest in world-class technology
And leverage our core competencies
In order to holistically administrate
Exceptional synergy
We'll set a brand trajectory
Using management's philosophy
Advance our market share vis-à-vis
Our proven methodology
With strong commitment to quality
Effectively enhancing corporate synergy
Transitioning our company
By awareness of functionality
Promoting viability
Providing our supply chain with diversity (-versity, ooooh)
We will distill our identity
Through client-centric solutions
And synergy
At the end of the day
We must monetize our assets
The fundamentals have changed
Can you visualize a value-added experience?
That will grow the business infrastructure and
Monetize our assets
Bringing to the table
Our capitalized reputation
Proactively overseeing
Day-to-day operations
Services and deliverables
With cross-platform innovation
Networking soon will bring seamless integration
Robust and scalable, bleeding-edge and next-generation
Best of breed
We'll succeed
In achieving globalization
Gaining traction with our resources in the marketplace
It's mission-critical to stay incentivized
Against this purple-poster-flexible-solutions for our customer base
If you can't think outside the box
You'll be downsized
It's a paradigm shift! (Hey, Hey! Look out!)
Well, it's a paradigm shift, now!
