BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
 The
best American folk-rock band of the 60s besides The Byrds, Buffalo
Springfield mixed folk, country, and 'British Invasion' influences to
produce some of the most enduring California rock of the era. Boasting
sparkling harmonies and several excellent singer-songwriters, they were
enormously influential for an act with a catalogue of just three albums.
Besides establishing the careers of guitarists Neil Young, Stephen Stills
and Richie Furay, all of whom would go on to success in other bands or as
solo artists, their hybrid of styles inspired numerous folk and
country-rock acts throughout the 70s.
Although the line-up
constantly changed, the main members throughout their three turbulent
years were Stephen Stills (guitar, vocals), Neil Young (guitar, vocals),
Richie Furay ( guitar, vocals), Dewey Martin (drums), Bruce Palmer (bass)
and Jim Messina (bass). Furay and Stills worked together in the Au Go-Go
Singers in the mid-60s, where they met Young, who at that time was a solo
singer, having previously worked with Palmer in the "Mynah
Birds". Furay and Stills had moved to Los Angeles to start a band,
and decided to seek out the enigmatic Young. In a traffic jam on Sunset
Boulevard in Los Angeles in early April of 1966, the two chanced to pull
up behind a battered black 1953 Pontiac hearse bearing Ontario, Canada
license plates. Stalled in rush hour traffic ahead of them sat Neil Young
and Bruce Palmer, tired, broke and on their way out of town following a
cross country journey in search of their musical dreams. That chance
meeting would ultimately change the face of rock music forever. They took
their name from a brand of heavy asphalt roller and within weeks they were
setting the Sunset Strip music scene on its ears and challenging all
rivals.
Following a series of
successful gigs at the prestigious Whisky A Go-Go, and
boosted by verbal endorsements from the Byrds' Chris Hillman and David
Crosby, the band were signed by Ahmet Ertegun to the Atco label of
Atlantic Records. Any group containing three main songwriters who could
all play lead guitar was heading for trouble, and soon their egos and
fists clashed. The main antagonists were Stills and Young, but their
problems were compounded by the continual immigration and drug problems of
Palmer, who, like Young, was Canadian, and with their road manager Dick
Davis, even having to masquerade as the bassist for a television
appearance. Eventually, Young's former associate, Ken Koblun, was
recruited as a replacement. He, in turn, was replaced by Jim Fielder from
the Mothers Of Invention, but Fielder only lasted a couple of months.
The
band's only major hit was 1967's 'For What It's Worth (Hey What's That
Sound)'. The song remains one of the finest protest anthems of the 60s,
and exemplified the phenomenon of the 'right song at the right time'.
Stills' plaintive yet wry and lethargic plea for tolerance was written
after the police used heavy-handed methods to stop a demonstration outside
a club, Pandora's Box, on Sunset Strip in 1966. They were protesting about
the curfew times imposed. The chorus of 'Stop children, what's that sound
everybody look what's going down' became an anthem for West coast students
in their protests against the government.
The band always seemed doomed
throughout their brief time together. Neil Young's unpredictability also
meant that he sometimes did not arrive for gigs, or quite simply left the
group for long periods. His main replacement was ex- Daily Flash guitarist
Doug Hastings, and as a sign of things to come, David Crosby, (then still
with The Byrds) who briefly appeared with the group as Young's substitute
at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Seemingly poised for a big
breakthrough, the group was derailed in 1967 by major internal and
external pressures, which found Young leaving then re-joining the band,
and Palmer still under constant threat of deportation back to Canada.
Two
official albums were released (a third, "Stampede", was planned
but only appeared later as a compilation bootleg). "Last Time
Around" was patched together by producer and latter-day bassist Jim
Messina, after the band had broken up for the final time. "Buffalo
Springfield Again" remains their finest work. The album demonstrated
the developing talents of Stills and Young as major songwriters. The three
lead guitars duelled together and the three lead vocals meshed brilliantly
to produce for a brief moment of what could have been America's greatest
rivals to the Beatles.
Following the band's split in
1968, Furay formed the highly respected Poco, which also contained future
Eagle, Randy Meisener, and continued down the road to country rock.
Messina joined with Furay and later with Kenny Loggins as Loggins and
Messina. Fielder became highly respected as part of Blood Sweat And Tears,
while Hastings joined Rhinoceros. Dewey Martin formed the ill-fated New
Buffalo Springfield only to be forced to change the name to New Buffalo.
Together with Bruce Palmer, they continued on the nostalgia circuit under
the banner of Buffalo Springfield Again. Young and Stills went on to
mega-stardom when they joined up with David Crosby (from The Byrds) and
Graham Nash (of The Hollies) as members of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,
who, after turning out many hits and then dis-banding, reformed in early
2000.
Buffalo Springfield's prominent
place in the rock music fraternity was formally recognized in 1997 with
their long overdue induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland, Ohio.
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
Title Recording Date Billboard
chart position October 1966 Buffalo Springfield 1966 80 November 1967
Buffalo Springfield Again March - October 1967 44 July 1968 Last Time
Around 1967 - April 1968 42 1969 Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo
Springfield (compilation) June 1966 - April 1968 42 1973 Buffalo
Springfield (Collection) (compilation) June 1966 - April 1968 - July 17,
2001 Buffalo Springfield (box set) (compilation
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