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Judy Collins’s music conjures up different images. Judy was his inspiration, his muse, the older woman who broke his heart.

How could I not read Judy Collins’s memoir Sweet Judy Blue Eyes? Stephen Stills vividly captured the passion and pain of their love affair in his joyful, yet plaintive epic song. Each time I hear this song, I feel I missed the best part of a generation. It is "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", first performed by Crosby, Stills and Nash on Augat Yasgur’s farm, two weeks before I was born. It never fails to transport me to a time beyond my memory, a place that now fades into American mythology: California, late 1960's. It has always been one of my favorite songs. The sweet chords in E pour forth from Stephen Stills's guitar, sounding like early morning California sunshine feels: warm and flirtatious, dancing on an ocean breeze as it kisses you awake. That summer, nearly every track from the Crosby, Stills & Nash album was ubiquitous on WNEW-FM and made for a joyful accompaniment to our labors, the harmonies floating in the thick summer air.Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music by Judy Collins

I was 16 the summer that album came out, living in Pelham, New York, and my high school buddy Mark Bresnan and I were earning money doing odd jobs for folks-painting fences, digging a well, gardening, etc.-and our transistor radio was always perched close to us, cranked loud. And that first album was loaded with songs that quickly became classics of the era: “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Wooden Ships,” “Guinnevere,” “Marrakesh Express,” “Long Time Gone” there isn’t a weak song on the record. But CSN didn’t really sound like any of those groups they were completely fresh and new. Their sound was utterly unique, the product of three very distinct musical personalities: Stephen Stills had been a driving force in the Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby in the Byrds, and Graham Nash in the Hollies. Half a century down the line, its hard to put into words the effect that album had in an era that had been so dominated by brash electric music. Fifty years ago this week (May 29, 1969) Crosby, Stills & Nash‘s eponymous debut album was released, shaking the pop music world to its foundations with its wonderfully graceful harmonies and shimmering acoustic guitars.