Buffalo Springfield was a band formed in 1966 by two Americans - Stephen Stills and Richie Furay (both vocals, guitar) - and three Canadians - Neil Young (also vocals, guitar), Bruce Palmer (bass) and Dewey Martin (vocals, drums). They took their name from a steamroller parked outside of their house, manufactured by the Buffalo-Springfield Roller Company. With the five meeting in Los Angeles and playing in prominent nightclub Whisky a Go Go under the encouragement of The Byrds' bassist Chris Hillman, they garnered a reputation in the city for their virtuosic live performances, which featured complex solos and jamming courtesy of dual lead guitarists Stills and Young. It didn't take long for the band to acquire a record deal with Atco Records for a four-album contract. In the second half of 1966, Buffalo Springfield entered the studio to record their debut album, an engaging—if shoddily produced—set that drew from the popular British Invasion-inspired sounds of the time, as well as more homegrown folk and country influences.
Buffalo Springfield had made a name for themselves in Southern California, but were struggling to break through in the rest of the country. In November 1966, Los Angeles County closed down Sunset Strip nightclub Pandora's Box and initiated a strict curfew in response to resident complaints about noise and traffic, leading to confrontations between youths and police
. Stephen Stills wrote "For What It's Worth" in response, and upon its release in December, the song quickly became a hit, making the top ten nationwide.
No sooner had the band broken through, however, than Bruce Palmer was deported for possession of marijuana. He was temporarily replaced by Jim Fielder, but chaos reared its head again when, to Stills' outrage and horror, Young abruptly quit right before a crucial television appearance on Johnny Carson's show. In June 1967, Buffalo Springfield played the Monterey Pop Festival with the Byrds' David Crosby infamously guesting on guitar. Crosby and Stills had befriended one another, and Crosby helped co-write the Springfield track "Rock & Roll Woman," which featured on their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, released in November 1967. By this point, both Young and Palmer had returned to the band, with Young contributing three songs to the new record, although one—"Expecting to Fly"—was really a Young solo track which did not feature any of the other members.
A Genre Mashup of rock, blues, psychedelia, folk, country, bluegrass, soul and even jazz, Buffalo Springfield Again is generally recognized as the band's masterpiece, and they entered 1968 on an optimistic note. Unfortunately, history repeated itself when Bruce Palmer was once again deported for marijuana possession. This time, engineer Jim Messina was hired as a permanent replacement on bass when the band toured as a supporting act for The Beach Boys. Legal troubles continued, though, after Young, Furay and Messina were arrested in the aftermath of a rehearsal party hosted by Eric Clapton in April 1968. Demoralized and frustrated, the band officially broke up the following month. Later in the year Furay and Messina assembled the various tracks recorded between 1967 and early 1968 for their third and final album Last Time Around.
Stills and Crosby maintained their friendship and, with The Hollies' Graham Nash, went on to form the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1968, joined a year later by Young (who had also begun his solo career). Furay and Messina both went on to form the band Poco. The band was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and had a reunion concert with their surviving members in 2011 before declaring an indefinite hiatus the following year.
Discography
- Buffalo Springfield (1966)
- Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)
- Last Time Around (1968)
Principal members
- Richie Furay - guitar, vocals (1966-8; 2010-2)
- Dewey Martin - drums, vocals (1966-8; died 2009)
- Jim Messina - bass, vocals (1968)
- Bruce Palmer - bass (1966-8; died 2004)
- Stephen Stills - guitar, keyboards, vocals (1966-8; 2010-2)
- Neil Young - guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals (1966-8; 2010-2)
Stop, children, what's that sound, everybody look what's tropin' down:
- Chronological Album Title: Following their self-titled debut, their second album was called Buffalo Springfield Again. And their final record—released after they'd broken up—was, appropriately enough, Last Time Around.
- Creator Thumbprint: Neil's songs often relate to flying or falling ("Burned", "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong", "Expecting to Fly"). "Broken Arrow", meanwhile, is a precursor to his many solo-era songs that focus on the plight of the Native Americans.
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Neil had (and has) one. Most of his songs on Buffalo Springfield's first album were sung by Richie Furay, due to concerns that his distinctive—and, nowadays, largely beloved—whine would be a turn-off for general audiences.
- Five-Man Band:
- Stephen Stills - The Leader
- Neil Young - The Lancer
- Richie Furay - Perpetual Smiler
- Bruce Palmer - The Quiet One
- Dewey Martin - The Big Guy
- Foil: Stephen Stills and Neil Young. The former was a hard-driving taskmaster whose preferred method of operation was to run his bandmates into the ground military-style until they'd captured a perfect performance. The latter was a morose, withdrawn and somewhat inscrutable character with a habit of disappearing whenever he was most needed. Despite their differences, it wouldn't be inaccurate to describe the pair as Vitriolic Best Buds.
- Genre Mashup: Their second and third albums both feature this, largely due to Stephen, Neil and Richie diverging in their musical tastes.
- Gratuitous Spanish: "Uno Mundo" is an entire song pretty much based around this trope. Stephen Stills would later use this again in the coda of the CSN classic "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: "Broken Arrow" is an angsty minor-key number typical of Neil Young with a couple of false stops, that finally crossfades into a jaunty, jazzy instrumental, which crossfades into a heartbeat into the fadeout.
- Improv: The infamous "guitar duels" between Stephen and Neil. These were a major part of the band's live act, but were never convincingly captured on record (although the trade-offs between Stephen's dexterous acoustic riffing and Neil's fuzzed-out electric fills on "Bluebird" may provide something of an approximation).
- Jump Scare: The extremely loud, gnarly, distorted guitar note from Neil that opens Stephen's jazzy "Everydays". This reappears a few times throughout the song, on each occasion turning into a wave of controlled feedback that extends over the following verse.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing".Who should be sleeping but's writing this song,
Wishing and hoping he weren't so damn wrong? - Line-of-Sight Name: When Stephen Stills submitted their most well-known single, he said to record executive Ahmet Ertegun: "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it."
- Longest Song Goes Last: At over six minutes, Buffalo Springfield Again closer "Broken Arrow" is by some margin the longest track on the album.
- Non-Appearing Title: Several, "For What It's Worth", "A Child's Claim to Fame" and "On the Way Home" being a few.
- Protest Song:
- "For What It's Worth" was commonly used in Vietnam War contexts, but it didn't start out that way. The song was about the curfew riots in Los Angeles.
- It once again found relevance in 2020 in the USA during the various protests and riots against police brutality and Donald Trump in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. For what it's worth, the lyrics have some eerie
applicability to the contemporary events.
- It once again found relevance in 2020 in the USA during the various protests and riots against police brutality and Donald Trump in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. For what it's worth, the lyrics have some eerie
- The band did a song that was about Vietnam: "Four Days Gone", in which the protagonist is a draft dodger who's escaping the "government madness"
- "For What It's Worth" was commonly used in Vietnam War contexts, but it didn't start out that way. The song was about the curfew riots in Los Angeles.
- The Silent Bob: Bruce Palmer, who rarely spoke in band interviews and never sang lead vocals, but nonetheless was very influential within the band.
- Shout-Out: The riff to "Mr. Soul" was written as a deliberate homage to "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones.
- Silly Love Songs: "Sit Down, I Think I Love You", an infectious plea for love written by Stills.
- Song Style Shift: The album version of "Bluebird" starts as a hard rock song before shifting to an acoustic folk song with guitar and banjo for the last verse.
- Soprano and Gravel: Pleasant-voiced crooner Richie Furay contrasted with Stephen Stills' throaty shouts and Neil Young's high-pitched yowls.
- Stage Names: Dewey Martin was born Walter Milton Dwayne Midkiff.
- Step Up to the Microphone:
- Dewey handles lead vocals on "Good Time Boy" from Buffalo Springfield Again. The song was written by Richie Furay specifically for him to sing ("that's why they call me good ol' Dew").
- Jim Messina sings lead on his own "Carefree Country Day", on the final album.
- Uncommon Time: A frequent feature of Neil's songs in particular, most noticeably on "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", which shifts between 4/4 in the verses and 6/8 in the choruses.
- Vocal Tag Team: Stephen and Richie in the early days, although by the time of the second album, Neil was fully integrated into the tag team.
