Advice: Love The One You're With

Stephen Stills: Love The One You're With

[purchase]

I've been waiting for this one to show up all week, but I've waited long enough. Love The One You're With is the first song on Stephen Stills's first brilliant album. The liner notes on this album read like a dream team of 60's musicians and performers. Ringo Starr, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cass Elliot, Booker T. Jones, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and John Sabastian all make cameo appearances here. In fact, this is the only album in the world where both Hendrix and Claption make an appearance.

If this album has a flaw it is that it stretches so far and is so ambitious that it loses a bit of its cohesiveness, but you tend to forgive this tendency simply because each song, taken on its own, is so good.  Love The One You're With is actually one of the weaker tracks, in my opinion.  It's catchy, and kind of fun, but Do For The Others, Old Times Good Times, Go Back Home, and others overshadow it easily.

By the way, "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with" is actually terrible advice. I know it's very un-60's of me to say this, and it would probably make for a lousy song, but if you can't be with the one you love, wait a while until (s)he comes back! You'll save yourself a lot of heartache (and if you're married, you might save on lawyer's bills too).