Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield
The band in 1966, with, from left: Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and 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
Past members	Richie Furay Stephen Stills Neil Young Dewey Martin Bruce Palmer Jim Messina Doug Hastings Ken Koblun Jim Fielder

Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth",^[1] released three albums and several singles from 1966 to 1968. Their music combined elements of folk music and country music with British Invasion and psychedelic rock influences. Like contemporary band the Byrds, they were key to the early development of folk rock. The band took their name from a steamroller parked outside their house.

Buffalo Springfield formed in Los Angeles in 1966 with Stills (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Martin (drums, vocals), Palmer (bass guitar), Furay (guitar, vocals) and Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals).^[2] The band signed to Atlantic Records in 1966 and released their debut single "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", which became a hit in Los Angeles.^[3] The following January, they released the protest song "For What It's Worth", which became their only US top 10 hit and a counterculture anthem.^[1] Their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, marked their progression to psychedelia and hard rock^[1] and featured other songs such as "Bluebird" and "Mr. Soul".

After several drug-related arrests and line-up changes, the group disbanded in 1968. Their third and final album, Last Time Around, was compiled and released shortly after their dissolution. Stephen Stills went on to form the supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash with David Crosby of the Byrds and Graham Nash of the Hollies. Neil Young launched his solo career and later joined Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1969. Furay, along with Jim Messina, went on to form the country-rock band Poco.^[4] Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997,^[3] and briefly reunited for a comeback tour in 2011.

History

Origins

The first Buffalo Springfield single, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", was released in August, but made little impact outside 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 band's eponymous album was released by Atlantic subsidiary Atco in mono and in stereo in October 1966.^[7] A revamped version issued both in mono and stereo with a different track order was issued in March of the following year.

In November 1966, Stills composed "

Following a gig at the Long Beach Auditorium on 5 May 1968, the band held a meeting with Ertegun to arrange their breakup. Stills and Furay stayed with Atlantic, while Young moved to Warner Brothers.[13] Later, Furay and Messina compiled various tracks recorded between mid-1967 and early 1968 into the third and final studio album, Last Time Around (1968).

New Buffalo Springfield and reunion attempts

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Martin formed a new version of Buffalo Springfield in September 1968. Dubbed New Buffalo Springfield, the lineup consisted of guitarists Dave Price (

The new band toured extensively and appeared at the highly publicized Holiday Rock Festival in San Francisco on 25–26 December 1968, but soon ran afoul of Stills and Young, who took legal action to prevent Martin from using the band's name. Following an agreement to give up future royalties from Buffalo Springfield's recordings, Martin was allowed to use the name New Buffalo. He attempted to retrieve his rights in 1974 and though the matter was settled out of court, he felt that he had been mistreated.[14]

In February 1969, Martin and Dave Price formed a second version of New Buffalo 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 (formerly of Don and the Goodtimes, later of the pioneering prog group Touch), 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 did not 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 (vocals, guitar), Stan Endersby (guitar) and Alan Prosser (drums) to form the Springfield Band, which became Buffalo Springfield Revisited in 1985 when Dewey Martin was brought up to Toronto to join, and off they went on tour for the next three to four years under this band name (though Martin dropped out by 1987). Neil Young and Stephen Stills gave Buffalo Springfield Revisited permission to tour with that name.

In July 1986, Palmer, Martin, Furay, Young and Stills gathered at Stills' house, with Buffalo Springfield Revisited keyboardist Harlan Spector, to rehearse for an apparent reunion tour. One of the 1986 rehearsals was video recorded. It was the last time all five original members performed together. Plans for a subsequent reunion tour were abandoned.

By 1990, Bruce Palmer and Frank Wilks had moved to Topanga, California, where Dennis Knicely joined to perform percussion. The following year they started White Buffalo along with Dewey Martin and others, then Martin formed the short lived Buffalo Springfield Again in 1991 with Billy Darnell (guitar), Robin Lambe (bass) and Michael Curtis (vocals, guitar). But Furay issued a cease and desist order on Martin in 1992 and he^{[clarification needed]} retired from music again the following year.^[15]

2010–11 reunion

On his album Silver & Gold (2000), Young sang of his desire to re-form the group and to "see those guys again and give it a shot" in "Buffalo Springfield Again". Palmer (2004) and Martin (2009) later died, preventing a reunion of the original lineup.

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".^[16]

The band reunited for six concerts starting in

In 1982–1983, Palmer was a bassist on Young's album Trans and toured with him in America and Europe, as seen on Neil Young in Berlin, filmed in 1982.

In 1997, Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the

Personnel

• Jim Fielder – bass guitar (1966, 1967)
• Richie Furay – guitar, vocals (1966–1968, 2010–2012)
• Bruce Palmer – bass guitar (1966–1968; died 2004)
• 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)
• Ken Forssi – bass guitar (1967; died 1998)
• Ken Koblun – bass guitar (1967)
• Doug Hastings – guitar (1967)
• Jim Messina – bass guitar, vocals (1968)

Additional musicians

• Rick Rosas – bass guitar (2010–2012; died 2014)
• Joe Vitale – drums, vocals (2010–2012)
• Rusty Young – steel guitar on "Last Time Around" (died 2021)

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Singles

References