Rock Moment: Buffalo Springfield Disintegrates
UPDATE: Go here for our post on the death of Dewey Martin.
Buffalo Springfield could’a been a contender. Even though they were barely together for a year, the Springfield made incredible rock music that, for one moment, made them American rivals to the Beatles.
Maybe two geniuses in one group are too much: Stephen Stills and Neil Young got their respective starts here, and the rivalry/partnership crystallizes on the band’s 1967 Buffalo Springfield Again. This is a classic album – Stills contributes “Rock and Roll Woman” and “Bluebird,” two of his best songs ever, while Young points the way to his solo career with “Mr. Soul” and “Broken Arrow.” And yet there was still room for guitarist Richie Furay to crank out a country-rock classic, “A Child’s Claim To Fame.”
Of course, you know about Stills’ protest song “For What It’s Worth,” which hit the Top 10 in ‘67. But by the fall of that year Young had split, forcing the Springfield to recruit then-current Byrds member David Crosby to play with them at the Monterey Pop Festival.
Furay and Stills found a replacement, Jim Messina, and barely managed to scrape together a third and final album, Last Time Around. The album’s highlights included a leftover Neil Young song, “On The Way Home,” (sung by Furay), and Stills’ “Questions,” which he would later cannibalize for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Perhaps the album’s best cut is “Kind Woman” by Furay, which suggested the direction he would take when he would join Messina in the country-rock band Poco.
Every once in a while someone suggests there could be a Buffalo Springfield reunion (only bassist Bruce Palmer is deceased) and someone will release an obscurity like Young’s “Down To The Wire” or the ultra-rare extended jam version of “Bluebird” to get our interest up. However, Stills and Young are both burned out, so any reunion would be pointless and just sad.
MP3: Down To The Wire (alternate version)
MP3: A Child’s Claim To Fame (live at Monterey, 1967)
MP3: Bluebird (extended jam version)
January 26, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Define “burned out”. Because from what I see of Neil these days, he’s anything but.
January 26, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Well, “Living With War” and “Chrome Dreams” weren’t as good as “After the Goldrush,” were they? And we continue to trip through the live concert catalog … But no, I see what you mean. More than most of his peers, Neil Young has remained a vital artist by trying new things, being unafraid of failure and continuing to insist on originality and musicianship instead of cashing in endlessly on his past. He may be one of the only so-called “relics” from the 1960s who can yet surprise us all once again.
January 26, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I simply mean that he’s incredibly active, continually creative. No, they’re not the incredibly composed masterpiece of After the Gold Rush or Everybody Knows this is Nowhere… But Neil has an antagonistic bent, and lately it’s really apparent in his delivery. I don’t think it’s that he’s incapable of those intricate delicacies, just that he’s coming from somewhere different right now. And more active than most of the current crowd of songwriters. I appreciate the reply!
July 6, 2009 at 11:25 am
furay, messina, young and stills. and some drummer (not that important). a tour would be a boomer goldmine for those guys. they all need the money. i hear stills had a stroke or something; maybe he can’t play anymore.
shame. they were great. truly great. i am a child, nowadays clancy can’t even sing