Apart from the Byrds, no other American band had as great an impact on folk-rock and country-rock -- really, the entire Californian rock sound -- than Buffalo Springfield. The group's formation is the stuff of legend: driving on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay spotted a hearse that Stills was sure belonged to Neil Young, a Canadian he had crossed paths with earlier. Indeed it was, and with the addition of fellow hearse passenger and Canadian Bruce Palmer on bass and ex-Dillard Dewey Martin on drums, the cluster of ex-folkys determined, as the Byrds had just done, to become a rock & roll band.
Buffalo Springfield wasn't together long -- they were an active outfit for just over two years, between 1967 and 1968 --but every one of their three albums was noteworthy. Their debut, including their sole big hit (Stills' "For What It's Worth"), established them as the best folk-rock band in the land barring the Byrds, though Springfield was a bit more folk and country oriented. Again, their second album found the group expanding their folk-rock base into tough hard rock and psychedelic orchestration, resulting in their best record. The group was blessed with three idiosyncratic, talented songwriters in Stills, Young, and Furay (the last of whom didn't begin writing until the second LP) yet they also had strong and often conflicting egos, particularly Stills and Young. The group, who held almost infinite promise, rearranged their lineup several times, Young leaving the group for periods and Palmer fighting deportation, until disbanding in 1968. Their final album clearly shows the group fragmenting into solo directions.
Eventually, the inter-personal tensions and creative battles led to a perhaps inevitable split, starting with Young's departure for a solo career. He would later reunite with Stephen Stills in Crosby, Stills, & Nash, joining the trio once a decade for various projects. In addition to CSN, Stills released solo albums and worked with a nother band, Manassas. Initially, Jim Messina and Richie Furay stayed together, forming the country-rock group Poco, but Messina left after three albums to team up in a duo with Kenny Loggins. Furay himself left Poco and teamed with Chris Hillman and JD Souther in the Souther Hillman Furay Band before pursuing a solo career.
Richie Unterberger
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
Huntington Beach 1967 [no label, 1CD]
Live at The Teen And Twenty Club, Huntington Beach, CA; August 11, 1967. Very good audience recording.
Lineup:
Stephen Stills - guitar, vocal
Richie Furay - guitar, vocal
Doug Hastings - guitar
Bruce Palmer - bass
Dewey Martin - drums, vocal
A very interesting recording of the band while Young is off on one of his frequent decisions to leave the group . The band brings in Doug Hastings from the Daily Flash and he stays with the group for a couple of months. He plays Monterey with them and fills in for the on and off Young.
And for guitarist Doug Hastings, the Huntington show ended on a bittersweet note.
“It came completely out of the blue,” claims Doug (Hastings). “I got the call in late afternoon (August 12, 1967) and we had a gig that night. Stephen called me up and the conversation went something like, ‘Well old buddy, Neil’s (N Young) gonna be back in the band. Things just didn’t work out so good luck in your future and we’ll be seeing ya.’ Click. That was pretty much it. I felt like shit. I was disappointed but I never felt that secure in the group, that I was a solid member. One day I was in and two months later I was gone.”
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