# Spanish Lyrics in 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes?' **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940 "2004-01-25T02:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/1 "2004-01-25T02:46:52Z")
At the end of the song _Suite: Judy Blue Eyes_ by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Crosby and Nash sing “doo-doo-doo, doo-doo…doo! doo! doo-doo doo-doo…[repeat]” while Stills sings a few lines in what sounds (to me) like Spanish. Does any of you know what these last lyrics are? Do you have a link to them? Any bilingual dopers willing to listen to the song and transcribe? It’s one of my favorite songs, and I just bought the guitar tabs to it, but darn it, those last few lines aren’t in there. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/2 "2004-01-25T02:50:14Z")
From a lyrics website: > [@](#): > > At the end of the Suite, Stephen Stills sings the following Spanish lines: > > Que linda me la traiga Cuba, > la reina de la Mar Caribe. > Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi, > y que triste que no puedo vaya, > Oh va, oh va, va. > > Loosely translated that is: > > How happy it makes me to think of Cuba, > the smiles of the Caribbean Sea, > Sunny sky has no blood, and how sad that > I’m not able to go > Oh go, oh go go ---
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/3 "2004-01-25T03:37:17Z")
Wow! Thank you very very much, **Mr. Blue Sky**! Muchas gracias! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/4 "2004-01-25T03:40:05Z")
> [@Mariemarie](#): > > Wow! Thank you very very much, **Mr. Blue Sky**! Muchas gracias! De nada! (thus is the extent of my Spanish) ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/5 "2004-01-25T14:30:34Z")
Hopefully, some native Spanish speaker will show up, but I think the translation is a bit off. > [@](#): > > Que linda me la traiga Cuba, > la reina de la Mar Caribe. > Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi, > y que triste que no puedo vaya, > Oh va, oh va, va. > > Loosely translated that is: > > How happy it makes me to think of Cuba, > the smiles of the Caribbean Sea, > Sunny sky has no blood, and how sad that > I’m not able to go > Oh go, oh go go I’d translate it like this: What beauty Cuba brings me, The queen of the caribbean Sea, There’s no blood in the sun or sky. Oh, how sad I cannot go. Oh go, oh go, go. Reina is queen. sangreahi, I suppose that’d be ‘sangre alli’. ‘Smile’ is ‘sonrisa’ in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@SnoopyII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyII)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/6 "2013-06-16T01:25:08Z")
Um…No. Stephen Stills talked about it in an interview. He does variate the lyrics when performing the song live but on the original recording below are the correct lyrics: He purposely paused between certain syllables in each line to obscure the lyrics. "que lin----da, me recuerda Cuba la Rei----na de la Mar Caribe Quiero so----lo visitarle alli y que tri—ste que no puedo ¡Vaya! Oh va! Oh va! * * * Wiki entry: The final section (the coda) is sung in Spanish, starting at 6:34 until the song concludes. The “doo-doo-doo-da-doo” backing vocals are the best known segment of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, with Stills singing Spanish lyrics in the background. Somewhat apocryphally, Stills has said that he intentionally made the final stanzas unexpected and difficult, even using a foreign language for the lyrics, “just to make sure nobody would understand it” (not even Spanish speaking people) * * * ``` ¡Que linda! Me recuerda a Cuba La reina de la Mar Caribe Quiero sólo visitarla allí Y que triste que no puedo. ¡Vaya! O Va! O Va! ``` * * * ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/7 "2013-06-16T12:26:18Z")
Right. Stills lived in Costa Rica as a child for a couple of years, but by his own admission (IIRC) the grammar is way off, on the studio version at least. No point in nitpicking here – (just one example: “que triste que no…” should take the subjunctive, “pueda”) – just a warning that you shouldn’t use this to learn or work on your Spanish! ---
**Author:** ![Furutan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f1d935/32.png) [@Furutan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furutan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/8 "2015-08-25T23:34:40Z")
The heavenly sun has lost its blush. It is sad that I cannot go. Remember that this was only a decade after the Cuban revolution. Stills was a teenager, and up until he was 14 years old Cuba was considered a fun and romantic holiday spot. ---
**Author:** ![LauraMilagros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lauramilagros/32/21375_2.png) [@LauraMilagros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LauraMilagros)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2026, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-lyrics-in-suite-judy-blue-eyes/225940/9 "2026-06-13T01:16:02Z")
6/12/2026 A Laurel Canyon doc brought me here. Hadnt heard this song in 2 decades. One of my faves. **Original posted lyrics** : Que linda me la traiga Cuba, la reina de la Mar Caribe. Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi, y que triste que no _ **puedo** _ vaya, Oh va, oh va, va. _ **Corrected grammar** _ … la reina _ **del** _ mar caribe (“la mar” is French) (El) Cielo (heaven or sky) _ **Y** __**(and)**_ (el) sol (sun) no _ **tienen** _ (_ **plural of have** _) sangre (blood) _**ahí (ahí means “there” & is pronounced a-EE. The “h” is silent.)**_ O, va, o va, va (we dont write, “oh”) (You should really replace “ **no** **puedo vaya** ” (I cant go) with either “_ **qué triste que no pueda** _ _ **ir** _” or “_ **que triste que no** _ _ **pudiera ir** _”. They are both grammatically correct … but then, as you can see, you’d have to change “_ **vaya** _” to its _unconjugated_ _verb_, “_ **ir** _” (to go") **Stills is notorious for changing the Spanish lyrics for the past 5 decades EVERY TIME he sings the song live! ¡Carajo!** Moral of the story: get a native speaker to write “foreign language” lyrics for your songs so as not to look like an idiot & then have 30 different websites pop up discussing all the grammatical errors you made! Common sense. No brainer. D’oh! I am a Los Angeles born Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 & Cuban 🇨🇺, now 72, & this is the way I have always interpreted the somewhat chaotic Spanish lyrics to this classic song. ✌🏼