The band made an interesting appearence at The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Playing a blistering set that included songs from their upcoming album, their set was noteworty for the presence of David Crosby of the Byrds playing in place of Neil Young, who had finally quit the band the previous month. Crosby's appearance with Buffalo Springfield was in defiance of Byrds leader Roger McGuinn's veto; The Byrds played a surly set of an almost punk intensity; the sound of a band breaking up. Crosby may have helped two bands break up that day, as his presence also left open the door for more collaboration with Stills, which would culminate in the formation of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Palmer and Furay were allegedly unhappy with Crosby's guitar playing during the set. In October 1967 the band appeared playing in a bar on an episode of the TV police drama Mannix; Stills is visible in hippie clothing as the band performs "For What It's Worth" and "Bluebird".
The band's second album, originally to be called Stampede, was Buffalo Springfield Again, released at the end of 1967. The album bears the scars of the drama that took place during the recording; only five tracks feature the full 5-man lineup, and sessionmen appear to fill holes left by Palmer and Young's missed sessions. Despite this, the album is an excellent one, ambitious and fully realized, if not quite indicative of the band's then-current circumstances. The 10 tracks are fairly equally divided between Young, Stills, and Furay; both Young and Stills have upped the ante considerably from the debut. The opener is the Young classic "Mr. Soul" a chiming and fuzzy psychedelic hard rocker with Young's "weird" voice front and center. "Expecting To Fly" is one of Young's most touching and sensitive early songs, given a full orchestral treatment that never seems maudlin; pedal steel treatment keeps things organic. Stills comes up with a pair of the best songs of his career, the hard rocking "Rock 'n' Roll Woman", which also features great group harmonies, and some of Still's often under-appreciated guitar work. "Bluebird" is a two-part suite; part psychedelic rocker, part country tune featuring banjo. Furay (whose songs weren't used on the debut) gets three here; his best is "A Child's Claim To Fame" featuring James Burton's dobro. The album's closer is Young's grandiose "Broken Arrow" which reprises "Mr. Soul" and gets progressive by adding a clarinet lead, sound effects, and repeated changes in tempo, key, and melody. It is among the best albums of the late 1960's, although at the time it was only lukewarmly received; it peaked at #44, an improvement over the debut, but the single, "Bluebird" disappointed, with a peak of #58.
Article comments
1 - Nathaniel Winn
It often strikes me that rock music was incestuous; the same few names and faces combining in different ways. It has since exploded in size and become fragmented. Will folks from the future look back and see the same kinds of connections in the current scene, with those unconnected left in the dust?
2 - Springfield
Club Springfield in Stockholm/Sweden.
http://walk.to/springfield
3 - Eric Olsen
another great job uao - that was a huge amount of talent that shockingly actually produced quite a few good songs - thanks!
4 - Lisa McKay
You have transported me back to my formative years, in which Buffalo Springfield (and all that good Kooper/Bloomfield stuff) figured largely. Great post!
5 - godoggo
Is it true that they took their moniker from the nickname of the great western hero Jebediah Springfield?
6 - Susan
What a fun, comprehensive read. I'm still asked to do Bluebird, which was one of my early favorites to play/sing. A few years after Woodstock, Stills also had a group called Manassas. Not sure of the spelling anymore. Anyway, thanks for the great post.
7 - Becky
My brother gave me Buffalo Springfield Again in 1967. I was 12 years old and have loved this music all my life. I just picked up Still's Man Alive CD today (just released) and will be seeing Crosby Stills and Nash in September. As a life-long fan, I salute you for your terrific blog!
8 - uao
Thank you very much everyone. I'm always happy to hear when one of my overviews brings back fond memories for someone; its one of the reasons why I do them.
godoggo-- funny thing is, I really am not sure where they got the name; I tried to find a definitive reference on that but came up empty. I'll look into the Jebediah Springfield connection...
Nathanial-- good question; in some cases of today's music, there is a lot of the same cross-pollinization, although it was probably more common in the 60's; music is much more fragmented now.
I had fun with this one; they were one of the first bands I ever got into, too.
9 - marcelstjohn
Except for one side comment, a thoroughly
enjoyable,well documented history on the
Buff. Spr..
I take issue when you say (arguably) that (Neil
Young) is the most relevant of the 60's
rockers. You've surely forgotten Bobby
Dylan's '97 masterpiece "Time out of
Mind" and his 2001's "Love and Theft"
10 - CSN Fan
Bruce Palmer played bass on Helplessly Hoping? Has the author ever even heard the song? The only instrumentation is Stills playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar and CSN singing 3-part harmony. There is no bass line. I would love to know where this (mis)information came from. It's a shame people don't listen to the music they write about.
As a side note, Stills played all of the bass lines on the CSN album (as well as lead guitar and organ). Of course, you would have to read the liner notes to learn this "rare tidbit".
11 - uao
CSN Fan:
I should have specified more clearly: Palmer plays bass on the version of "Helplessly Hoping" that is in the CSN box set. He also appears on "Horses Through A Rainstorm" from the same collection.
marcelstjohn:
I said "arguably"; Dylan would be worth arguing about too ;-)
12 - Natalie Davis
Ah, the Springfield. Great article, terrific research, fine, fine work. Thanks.
13 - George
nice article. i loved the first and last Springfield albums. somehow skipped the second, but did follow on w/ CSN's first two and saw Manassas in concert which was one of the best bands i've ever seen live.
btw: Neil is great but Dylan is still da man ! ! and don't forget Van Morrison !
14 - crooked spine
From The New Book of Rock Lists, by Dave Marsh & James Bernard (1994)... the origin of the name "Buffalo Springfield":
"From the brand name of a steamroller (not an airplane, as is commonly believed)."
They don't say where they got their information though.
15 - nice latin
Interesting blog, does this site get lots of activity or is it usually slow around here?
16 - uao
Why? Are you trying to decide whether or not to spam it?
(I'm suspicious of any post that begins "Nice blog." All spam-post start that way.)