Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield in 1966. From left to right: Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin, Bruce Palmer, Richie Furay, Neil Young.
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Folk rock psychedelic rock country rock
Years active	1966 (1966)–1968 (1968) 2010 (2010)–2012 (2012)
Labels	Atco Atlantic
Associated acts	Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Manassas Poco
Past members	Richie Furay Stephen Stills Neil Young Dewey Martin Bruce Palmer Jim Messina Ken Koblun Jim Fielder

Buffalo Springfield was an American-Canadian rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966. Their original lineup included Stephen Stills (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Dewey Martin (drums, vocals), Bruce Palmer (electric bass), Richie Furay (guitar, vocals), and Neil Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals).^[1] Pioneering the folk rock genre, Buffalo Springfield, along with the Byrds, combined elements of folk and country music with British invasion influences into their early works. Their second studio album, Buffalo Springfield Again, marked their progression to psychedelia and hard rock.^[2]

With a name taken from a steamroller, the group signed to Atlantic Records in 1966 and released their debut single “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing" - a regional hit in Los Angeles.^[3] The following January, the group released the protest song they were most prominently known for, "For What It's Worth".^[2] After various drug-related arrests and line-up changes, the group decided to break up in 1968. Stephen Stills went on to form the folk rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash with David Crosby of the Byrds and Graham Nash of the Hollies. Neil Young had launched his successful solo career and reunited with Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1969. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.^[3]

History

Origins

Neil Young and Stephen Stills first crossed paths in 1965, at the Fourth Dimension in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Young was there with The Squires, a Winnipeg group he had been leading since February 1963, and Stills was on tour with The Company, a spin-off from the Au Go Go Singers.

When The Company broke up at the end of that tour, Stills moved to the West Coast, where he worked as a studio musician and auditioned unsuccessfully for, among other things, The Monkees.^[4] He had been in a band called Buffalo Fish with fellow Greenwich Village transplant Peter Tork, who encouraged him to audition.

Told by record producer Barry Friedman there would be work available if he could assemble a band, Stills invited fellow Au Go Go Singers alumnus Richie Furay and former Squires bass player Ken Koblun to come join him in California. Both agreed, although Koblun chose to leave before very long and joined the group 3's a Crowd.

In early 1966 in Toronto, Young met Bruce Palmer, a Canadian who was playing bass for a group called the Mynah Birds. In need of a lead guitarist, Palmer invited Young to join the group, and Young accepted. The Mynah Birds were set to record an album for Motown Records when their singer Ricky James Matthews (later known as Rick James) was tracked down and arrested by the U.S. Navy for being AWOL. With their record deal canceled, Young and Palmer headed for Los Angeles, where they encountered Stills.

Drummer Dewey Martin, who had played with garage rock group the Standells and country artists such as Patsy Cline and The Dillards, was added to the roster less than a week later, after contacting the group at the suggestion of the Byrds' manager, Jim Dickson.

The group's name was taken from the side of a steamroller made by the Springfield, Ohio-based Buffalo-Springfield Roller Company, that had been parked on the street outside Friedman's house where Stills and Furay were staying at the time. The new group debuted on April 11, 1966, at The Troubadour in Hollywood. A few days later, they began a short tour of California as the opening act on a bill featuring The Dillards and The Byrds.

Management and first recordings

Chris Hillman persuaded the owners of the Whisky a Go Go to give the band an audition. Buffalo Springfield essentially became the house band at the Whisky for seven weeks, from May 2 to June 18, 1966. This series of concerts solidified the band's reputation for exhilarating live performances and attracted interest from a number of record labels. It also brought an invitation from Friedman to Dickie Davis, who had been lighting manager for The Byrds, to become involved in the group's management. In turn, Davis sought advice from Sonny & Cher's management team, Charlie Greene and Brian Stone; unbeknownst to Davis and Friedman, Greene and Stone then aggressively pitched themselves to the band to be their new managers. Friedman was fired, and Davis was made the group's tour manager. Greene and Stone eventually struck a deal with Ahmet Ertegün of Atlantic Records for a four album contract with a $12,000 advance, following a brief bidding war with Elektra Records and Warner Bros. Records, and arranged for the band to start recording at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood.

The first Buffalo Springfield single, "Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing", was released in August but made little impact outside of Los Angeles, where it reached the Top 25. Young and Stills have long maintained that their own mono mix was superior to the stereo mix engineered by Greene and Stone. The album, eponymously titled Buffalo Springfield, was originally released by Atlantic's subsidiary Atco in mono and in stereo in December 1966. A revamped version (see below) issued both in mono and stereo with a different track order, came in March 1967.

In November 1966, Stills composed his landmark song, "For What It's Worth", after police actions against the crowds of young people who had gathered on the Sunset Strip to protest the closing of a nightclub called Pandora's Box (contrary to later retellings by Stills, he was not present for the riot; rather, Buffalo Springfield was playing an engagement in San Francisco at the time). The song was performed on Thanksgiving night at the Whisky a Go Go, recorded within the next few days, and on the air in Los Angeles on radio station KHJ soon afterward. By March 1967, it was a Top Ten hit. Atco took advantage of this momentum by replacing the song "Baby Don't Scold Me" with "For What It's Worth" and re-releasing the album. "For What It's Worth" sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.^[5]

Lineup changes

In January 1967, the group took an advance from the record company and flew to New York to perform at Ondine's, a club where The Doors would also play. It was at this time that Palmer was first arrested for possession of marijuana and summarily deported back to Canada.

The band moved back and forth between recording sessions and live appearances on both coasts. A number of different bassists were used, such as Mike Barnes and Jim Fielder of The Mothers of Invention. In one instance – a live performance on the television show Hollywood Palace – Springfield's road manager, who couldn't play bass, held a bass with his back to the camera while the band mimed to a prerecorded track. An appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was taped on February 17, 1967, which aired on February 26.^[6]

Under these conditions work on the new album, tentatively titled Stampede, was markedly tense. Ever distrustful of Greene and Stone, Young and Stills bickered between themselves, and each insisted on producing the recording sessions for his own compositions. Furay, who had sung and played guitar on the first album but had not contributed any songs, also stepped forward and equaled Young's number for the group's second album.

Although Palmer returned to the group at the beginning of June, Young had already left and,as a result, missed the celebrated Monterey Pop Festival, at which the band performed with former Daily Flash and future Rhinoceros member Doug Hastings on guitar, and guest David Crosby. Young eventually returned on October 7 or 8th at the Third Eye in Redondo Beach, California, and after bidding adieu to Greene and Stone (Ertegün convinced the duo to release the band from production and management agreements), the band divided its time between playing concert gigs and putting the finishing touches on its second album, ultimately titled Buffalo Springfield Again, produced by Ertegün himself.

More of an amalgam of individual work than an integrated group effort, Buffalo Springfield Again was released in November 1967. It includes Mr. Soul (the version of which appears as the B side of the edited "Bluebird" has a completely different guitar lead from the stereo LP version and has yet to be issued on CD), "Rock & Roll Woman", "Bluebird", "Sad Memory", and "Broken Arrow". The group was featured playing "Bluebird" in the Mannix episode, "Warning: Live Blueberries", which aired on October 28, 1967.^[7]

Last Time Around

The band's career was plagued by infighting, drug-related arrests and line-up changes that, in part, led to its disbanding after two years.

With strong reviews appearing all over the country, not only of Buffalo Springfield Again but of the band's performance as part of The Beach Boys Fifth Annual Thanksgiving Tour, things were looking up.

However, in January 1968, Palmer's second deportation for drug possession once again threw a wrench into the works. This time, guitarist and studio engineer Jim Messina was hired as a permanent replacement on bass. With Palmer gone for good, Young also began to appear less and less frequently, and he often left Stills to handle all the lead guitar parts at concerts. Recording sessions were booked, and all the songs that appeared on their final album were recorded by the end of March, usually with Messina producing, but the group was clearly on the verge of disbanding. In April 1968, after yet another drug bust involving Young, Furay, Messina, and Eric Clapton, the group decided to break up.

The final 20th century concert appearance was at the Long Beach Arena on May 5, 1968. After the band played many of its best-known tunes, an extended 20 plus-minute version of "Bluebird" became the group's swan song. Buffalo Springfield disbanded a little more than two years after it had begun.

After the group's breakup, Furay and Messina compiled various tracks recorded between mid-1967 and early 1968 into a third and final studio album, titled Last Time Around (1968). Although it featured Furay's touching ballad "Kind Woman", Young's classic "I Am a Child", and Stills' subtle political "Four Days Gone", only a few of the songs included more than two or three members of the group at a time. Even the cover photo was a montage, with Young's image added to a group profile of the other four members. Stills and Furay appeared on more tracks than any of the others, essentially dominating the album, but it did not light up the charts.

Legacy

Three albums were released under the Buffalo Springfield name, but many demos, studio outtakes, and live recordings remained and were issued in the decades that followed.

Despite their popularity, Buffalo Springfield was never a major commercial success. "For What It’s Worth" was a significant hit, and the group's legend grew stronger after the breakup, increasing with the later successes of its members. The longevity and impact on popular music several members would experience in the years to come solidified their early years of artistic creativity.

Stills went on to form Crosby, Stills & Nash with David Crosby of The Byrds and Graham Nash of The Hollies, in 1968. Young launched a highly successful solo career, but in 1969 also reunited with Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ("CSNY"), which saw the beginning of his sporadic relationship with that trio. Furay and Messina were founding members of Poco. After CSNY Stills joined with Hillman (after his stint with the Flying Burrito Brothers) and others to form the group Manassas from 1971 to 1973. Furay later joined J.D. Souther and Chris Hillman to form the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, and Messina teamed with Kenny Loggins in Loggins & Messina.

Palmer was CSNY's first choice to play bass, but due to various personal problems was replaced by Motown prodigy Greg Reeves. After recording a commercially unsuccessful, jam-oriented solo album in 1970, Palmer faded into obscurity, although he did briefly play that same year with Toronto blues band Luke & The Apostles. In the early 1980s, he appeared on Young's Trans (1982) album and then played with Martin in the "Buffalo Springfield Revisited" tribute band in the mid-1980s.

New Buffalo Springfield

Martin formed a new version of Buffalo Springfield in September 1968. Dubbed New Buffalo Springfield, the lineup consisted of guitarists Dave Price (Davy Jones's stand-in with The Monkees), Gary Rowles (son of jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles), bass player Bob Apperson, drummer Don Poncher, and horn player Jim Price, who later became a top session musician for Delaney Bramlett, The Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, and others.

The new band toured extensively and appeared at the highly publicized "Holiday Rock Festival" in San Francisco on December 25–26, 1968, but soon fell afoul of Stills and Young, who took legal action to prevent Martin from using the band's name.

In February 1969, Martin and Dave Price formed a second version of New Buffalo Springfield with guitarist Bob "BJ" Jones and bass player Randy Fuller, brother of the late Bobby Fuller. The band made some recordings with producer Tom Dowd overseeing, but they were scrapped. Another guitarist, Joey Newman, was added in June 1969, but two months later Martin was fired, and the remaining members carried on as Blue Mountain Eagle. Martin then formed a new group called Medicine Ball, which released a lone album in 1970 for Uni Records. Martin also released two solo singles, one for Uni and one for RCA, which didn't appear on the album. During the 1970s, he retired from the music industry and became a car mechanic.

In 1984, Bruce Palmer teamed up with Frank Wilks and Stan Endersby to form the "Buffalo Springfield Revisited" Band. Dewey Martin was brought up to Toronto, Ontario, Canada to join in the band, and off they went on tour for the next four, almost five years under this band name. Neil Young and Stephen Stills gave the BSR permission to tour with this name.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In 1997, Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, although Young did not appear at the ceremony. Stephen Stills was also inducted that day as part of Crosby, Stills & Nash, who performed "For What it's Worth" with Tom Petty on behalf of the band. Stills is the only artist to be inducted twice in the same year.

In 2001, the career-spanning, four-disc Buffalo Springfield box set was assembled by Young and released. The first three discs feature many alternate takes, demos, and alternate mixes of the band's material, with the fourth containing the group's first two albums.

Reunion

On his album Silver & Gold (2000), Young sang of his desire to reform the group and to "see those guys again and give it a shot" (Buffalo Springfield Again). A full reunion is no longer a possibility, with the deaths of Palmer in 2004 and Martin in 2009. Surviving Buffalo Springfield members Young, Stills, and Furay reunited at the annual Bridge School Benefit concerts on October 23 and 24, 2010, in Mountain View, California. Rolling Stone called the performance "nostalgic, blissful, and moving."^[8]

Buffalo Springfield reunited for six concerts starting in Oakland on June 1, 2011, followed by dates in Los Angeles^[9] and Santa Barbara, before moving on to play the 2011 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The band consisted of Furay, Stills, and Young, with the lineup completed by Rick Rosas and Joe Vitale.^[10][11] According to Furay and a band spokesman, the group was supposed do a full tour in 2012, but this was put on hold, because Young was recording two new albums with Crazy Horse.^[12] On February 27, 2012, Furay announced that the band is on indefinite hiatus.^[13]

Band members

Former members

• Richie Furay – guitar, vocals (1966–1968, 2010–2012)
• Stephen Stills – guitar, keyboards, vocals (1966–1968, 2010–2012)
• Neil Young – guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals (1966–1968, 2010–2012)
• Dewey Martin – drums, vocals (1966–1968; died 2009)
• Bruce Palmer – electric bass (1966–1968; died 2004)
• Jim Messina - bass guitar (1968)
• Ken Koblun - electric bass (1966)
• Jim Fielder - electric bass (1967)
• Doug Hastings - guitar (1967)

Additional musicians

• Joe Vitale – drums, vocals (2010–2012)
• Rick Rosas – electric bass (2010–2012; died 2014)

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Singles

*Not on original version of the album, later added to reissue

See also

Neil Young portal

References

Bibliography

• Einarson, J. and Furay, R. (2004). For What It's Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield Lanham: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 978-0-8154-1281-6.
• Long, P. (1996). Ghosts on the Road—Neil Young in Concert London: Old Homestead Press. ISBN 978-0-9526517-1-0.
• Additional material from an 80-page booklet included in the 4-CD box set Buffalo Springfield featuring a discography, a concert chronology prepared by P. Long and essays by P. Long and K. Viola.

External links

• Expecting To Fly – The Buffalo Springfield Story
• Chrome Oxide Buffalo Springfield Gigography – List of Recording Sessions and Performances
• Buffalo Springfield at AllMusic
• Buffalo Springfield interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
• "Buffalo Springfield". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.