Uploaded December 2012 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Stephen Stills - So Begins the Task - (Just Roll Tape, April 26, 1968)
Stephen Stills recalls that he was present at a Judy Collins session in New York in 1968, and when she finished with studio time remaining, Stills paid the engineer privately to let him record song demos. But Stills left the tapes in the studio and eventually considered them lost.
When the studio was about to close in 1978, musician Joe Colasurdo, who was rehearsing there, was told by the owner that he could take away any tapes he wanted to before they cleared the place out. After seeing Stills' names on several of the boxes, Colasurdo kept them safe until he could find a reel-to-reel machine to play them on. Colasurdo began attempting to get the masters safely back into Stills's hands, an undertaking that took 25 years. In 2003, he was connected to Graham Nash after happening to meet a close friend of his. Nash received the tapes, passed them on to Stills, encouraging him to release them.
And so begins the task
I have dreaded the coming of
For so long
I wait for the sun
To remind my body
It needs restin'
And I must learn to "live" without you now
I must learn to give only part some how
Camping on the edge
Of your city I wait
Hoping someday
You might
See
Beyond yourself
The shadows on the ceiling
Hard
But not real
Like the bars that cage
You within yourself
And I must learn to live without you now
I must learn to give only part some how
And I must learn to without you now
As I cannot learn to give only part some how
All of these cages
Must
And shall be set aside
They will only
Keep
Us from the knowing
Actors
And stages
Now fall before the truth
As the love
Shared
Between us
Remains
...Growing
And I must learn to live without you now
As I cannot learn to give only part some how
Stephen Stills - So Begins the Task - (Just Roll Tape, April 26, 1968)
Stephen Stills recalls that he was present at a Judy Collins session in New York in 1968, and when she finished with studio time remaining, Stills paid the engineer privately to let him record song demos. But Stills left the tapes in the studio and eventually considered them lost.
When the studio was about to close in 1978, musician Joe Colasurdo, who was rehearsing there, was told by the owner that he could take away any tapes he wanted to before they cleared the place out. After seeing Stills' names on several of the boxes, Colasurdo kept them safe until he could find a reel-to-reel machine to play them on. Colasurdo began attempting to get the masters safely back into Stills's hands, an undertaking that took 25 years. In 2003, he was connected to Graham Nash after happening to meet a close friend of his. Nash received the tapes, passed them on to Stills, encouraging him to release them.
And so begins the task
I have dreaded the coming of
For so long
I wait for the sun
To remind my body
It needs restin'
And I must learn to "live" without you now
I must learn to give only part some how
Camping on the edge
Of your city I wait
Hoping someday
You might
See
Beyond yourself
The shadows on the ceiling
Hard
But not real
Like the bars that cage
You within yourself
And I must learn to live without you now
I must learn to give only part some how
And I must learn to without you now
As I cannot learn to give only part some how
All of these cages
Must
And shall be set aside
They will only
Keep
Us from the knowing
Actors
And stages
Now fall before the truth
As the love
Shared
Between us
Remains
...Growing
And I must learn to live without you now
As I cannot learn to give only part some how
