Talk:Suite: Judy Blue Eyes/Archive 1

Talk: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Towerrecords.com lists the album release date as 1969. The inner sleave of the original album Jacket shows the song's copyright date as 1969. 18:57, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Alternate Versions
I know for a fact that there is another version of the song, but I've only heard it twice. I think the differences are only in the first section. I noticed a difference in drumming especially, but even more significant is the difference in the vocal solo verse ("Tearing yourself..."). A different voice is singing, and the melody is entirely different; it's much closer to the other verses. If anyone has any information on this, please post. 72.150.29.120 00:02, 16 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Though the main body of the song sounds much too similar to be a new, fully-cut studio take, the alternate version you've heard is featured on Disc 1 of the Crosby, Stills & Nash box set. The drum track does come in substantially earlier with the first verse of the song at 0:14, along with the other vocal difference you've already noted. I'll give both recordings a more intent listen soon, and let you know if I find any other distinguishable differences. KlassenT (talk) 04:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I would love to hear more about this. I've just discovered that the version I downloaded years ago and have been listening to for years and heard occasionally on the radio is not the version on the self-titled album. As mentioned, the vocals during the "Tearing yourself…" section are different. Was the other one released as a single? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.242.151.150 (talk) 21:25, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

"Final Section"
The section of the article called "Final Section" is very strange indeed. Not only does it not cite any sources, but it also is written very poorly. and. choppy. I'm not certain if this needs a re-write or to be removed until someone with references can come up with a logical and well written entry on the subject. Crocadillion 08:12, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Also, the "Weird Al" bit that was recently added is wrong. "Business Plan" is a style parody of the entire song, not just the final section. I don't know how that should be presented, but it is wrong now. Dickbalaska (talk) 08:30, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

4th section spanish
Someone erroneously wrote that the Spanish section was parodied "by The Beatles on the faux-Spanish section of "Sun King" from 1969's Abbey Road."

The Beatles parody is made all the more remarkable by the fact that it was recorded in July - two months prior to the release of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, which means that in addition to their other accomplishments, the Beatles had the capacity to travel in time and parody another band's song before that band released it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.223.12 (talk) 19:46, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

It is entirely possible that McCartney's idea for a medley on Abbey Road could have been inspired by Stills' suite - I'd say it's highly likely he'd have listened to the CSN album when it was released in May 69 (he knew Crosby and Nash, and the album was big news), so the idea of medleying several half finished songs could well have clicked with him - most of the Abbey Road medley was recorded and assembled in July. If Judy Blue Eyes was the model then maybe the idea for the Spanish gibberish in Sun King also rubbed off. 92.232.58.2 (talk) 11:34, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

The lyrics are pretty off. Just google "lyrics to suite judy blue eyes" and you can find the real ones. I'm gonna insert them now, though I don't know if it's appropriate to use lyrics sites as sources. I can offer a rough (though more accurate) translation. Lime in the Coconut  12:57, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * On second thought, that translation makes more sense grammatically. Literally, it's more like "What thoughts of beauty Cuba brings me"  I thought linda meant more along something that's beautiful, or evokes a feeling of affection. "The Queen of the Caribbean Sea" all good there "Sunny skies have no blood there" or "Sunny sky have no blood there" (cielo is singular, though I don't know if that's just idiomatic) I admit this sounds weird, but it's kinda poetic, and it sounds more like the Spanish in the song than the previous lyrics (this is also the only place on the internet I saw the incorrect lyric).  The rest is fine, it's just the first and third lines that are awkward to translate.  Lime in the Coconut   13:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I am hearing this:
 * Que linda me recuerdo a Cuba.
 * La reina de la Mar Caribe.
 * Quiero solo 'visitarte' ahí.
 * Y que triste que no puedo, vaya!
 * It sounds like Visitarme, but that doesn't make grammatical sense. If it is visitarme, then it's just incorrect Spanish, and it wouldn't be the first time Spanish got messed up by a foreigner. He's not going to visit himself to Cuba. Keep in mind that as a US citizen, he was prohibited by the US government from visiting Cuba when the song was written, so he might be making a political point with the last line, that he can't visit, even though he wants to.
 * It’s beautiful when I remember Cuba,
 * The queen of the Caribbean Sea,
 * I want to go visit you (Cuba) alone,
 * And I am sad that I can’t.
 * Go!
 * He sings other verses in concert, but this is on the CSN album best I can tell. The other responses here are definitely not correct. There is no blood, sangre. Guys! If you don’t know, don’t proliferate (copy and paste) others’ mistakes. And be nice. It is very hard to hear on the album, so don't start flaming people.Put on some headphones, and see if you agree!
 * If not, reply. He drags out the second word in each line… like Ray-eeh-na for queen. I've been listening to this song since the seventies, so hopefully I got it right. 181.41.56.2 (talk) 22:51, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

Any reason why you felt like reverting my edits without providing the least bit of summary, Jmac0585? I admit, I don't speak Spanish, but I can use the internet fairly well. The only place I could find the lyrics you inserted was wikipedia itself. All the other links I could find had it the way I inserted it in here. I guess the point was to make it hard to understand, but unless you've got a good reason for including the version you inserted, I'm going to stick with what's more popular and accepted. Lime in the Coconut  16:10, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Digging deeper, it appears just about every site I can find searching for the lyrics to this song must get them from wikipedia. If you look at the dates of the various webpages, they all correspond to the dates where someone changed the lyrics here. They've gone back and forth, and that's probably why there are multiple versions of the lyrics, all quoted from wikipedia at various points in time. With that being said, change it to whatever sounds correct to a native speaker. I realize what I've said (and many others) doesn't make as much sense as some of the less popular translations. Lime in the Coconut  16:30, 2 November 2009 (UTC)


 * This is driving me nuts! Listening to it again, it sounds like a cross between "Quiero solamente visitarla allí" and "cielo sol no sangre allí"... to the tune of "Quiero sol o la visitarle allí". Got the speakers turned up to "11" and that's all I can hear.  Actually starting to hear some crazy backmasking the more i listen... telling me to eat the purple berries...  Lime in the Coconut   14:29, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure "vaya" is a conjugation of "ir". Saying it doesn't make sense in Spanish is confusing. It would be better to say it's an incorrect conjugation or tense. It's not gibberish, it's just the wrong form of the word. Lime in the Coconut  13:48, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

As the article mentions, the Woodstock version is much clearer, and as a native Spanish speaker I'm quite sure this is what is actually said at least in this version:


 * ¡Que linda! Me la traigo a Cuba
 * La reina de la Mar Caribe
 * Quiero sólo visitarla allí
 * Y que triste que no puedo. ¡Vaya!
 * O va, o va

In English:


 * How pretty! I'll bring her to Cuba
 * The queen of the Caribbean Sea
 * I only want to visit her there
 * And how sad that I can't. Oh!
 * Oh go, oh go!

"Vaya" is not used as a conjugation of "ir" but rather as an exclamation (similar to "Ay"). This of course means it's actually perfect and not broken Spanish, although it may be very hard to tell from the studio recording alone. Seeing as no references are given for the current translation I'm editing this in, anyone opposed can revert it. --Lillanes (talk) 19:15, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

+1 on the "Vaya" explanation. As an exclamation it can have many different meanings. One of the most common is to express lament, which is the one that clearly applies to this context.

Also "me la traigo a Cuba" - I can clearly hear "me recuerdo a Cuba". The only thing he could possibly be saying that sounds like traigo is "me la trae pa' Cuba", and that isn't correct Spanish and he clearly is a fluent speaker. And he couldn't be saying "me la traigo a Cuba" (I'll bring her to Cuba) because he couldn't bring her. Where he says he is sad that he can't refers to visiting her there in the line before, not to the first line.Pjoalfa (talk) 13:46, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

I believe you are right, listening to the Woodstock version I can now tell he's clearly saying "me recuerda a Cuba". (Not "me recuerdo", that wouldn't be proper Spanish). However, I'm not really comfortable with "O va! O va!" being translated to "Oh go, oh go!" or with it being translated at all... I believe that's just scat singing Lillanes (talk) 18:46, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Note there's also a fairly detailed published piano-guitar-vocal score that's easily available and gives a different version of the Spanish words (in particular, "Cielo sol no tiene sangre ahi" as the third line). But I'm not sure wikipedia is really the place for song lyrics anyway. 173.13.23.225 (talk) 15:49, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

The working-out of the spanish lyrics is interesting, but not really necessary to the article, and given possible issues with accuracy and copyright, I think simplest is just to do away with it at this point.66.167.128.168 (talk) 23:44, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Musings on the Spanish
1.) It should be "qué triste" with an accent 2.) Having listened to this song hundreds of times before learning Spanish, and now returning to it years later, I'm struck by: a.) Stills' accent and pronunciation are surprisingly good - the way he says "Cuba" particularly b.) There's a glaring error (in the song itself) - "qué triste" should force "puedo" to its subjunctive form "pueda" - you'd think the Cuban percussionist on the track would have had him fix that.

It's strange that this song rather unexpectedly breaks into a style very different from the rest of CSN's music, with Stills singing in Spanish. I haven't found anything in cursory Internet searches, but has Stills never commented on this? Many of CSN's other songs make subtle political commentary. Given that this song is obviously carefully orchestrated, it seems like there would be an explanation for Stills' lament that he can't visit Cuba, especially given that this song was written/released fairly soon after the US invasion, embargo, and travel ban on Cuba. The discussion on what exactly the lyrics are and how they are translated is interesting, but also, why? What is Stills saying by singing about Cuba as the Queen of the Caribbean? While I know this isn't the arena for speculations/theory/original research, has there ever been comment by Stills or others on this?

Also, in the more recent live recording of this song from Daylight Again, circa 1983?, it sounds like Stills makes reference to Puerto Rico (although it's difficult to hear and I'm not a native Spanish speaker). Perhaps the difference in the content of the Spanish lyrics of the more recent performance is an indication of what Stills is trying to do politically with this song. --Wormwithaview (talk) 04:46, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

Consensus on Spanish lyrics?
Note: Don't copy these lyrics into the main article, at least not right now.

After reading the above two sections about the Spanish lyrics and listening myself, I'd like to propose a set. If you disagree with any of these, please feel free to leave a comment.

Spanish
¡Qué linda! Me recuerda a Cuba,

La reina de la Mar Caribe.

Quiero sólo visitarme allí;

Y qué triste que no puedo. ¡Vaya!

English translation
So beautiful! It reminds me of Cuba,

The queen of the Caribbean Sea.

I want only to spend some time there,

But so sad that I can't--shoot!

Thoughts appreciated, fellow Wikipedians and/or CSN fans. Human-potato hybrid (talk) 06:52, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

--Thoughts from a fluent Spanish speaker: "visitar en allí" is not said; the line uses the Spanish reflexive object "me" ("visitarme") for emphasis only; literal meaning "visit myself"; figurative meaning something stronger than just "visit", such as "spend some time"--no exact equivalent in English. The other parts are OK, except that "vaya", although it does, in certain contexts, constitute the command form "go", it is just as often, if not more so, used as an exclamation which can be translated into English in different ways, depending on the context. Here, the speaker is making an exclamation of regret that he cannot visit Cuba--so, "C'mon!" or "Damn!" or "shoot!"...I chose "shoot" because "vaya" is not in any way vulgar, as "damn" is....Also, I replace "how" as in "how sad" with "so", because English in the vernacular has steadily replaced "how" in such statements with "so".Kotosquito (talk) 01:00, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Edit: Listen to the left channel of this video to hear the lyrics well.

Confusion
I'm confused. If the song is partly about Stephen Stills' and Judy Collins' breakup, which happened in 1969, then how could it have been released on an album which came out in 1968? --Stlemur 03:36, 16 March 2006 (UTC)