Buffalo Springfield 1: Buffalo Springfield

They were together for approximately two years, during which they released three albums and Neil Young quit twice. But the moderate success of Buffalo Springfield led to the emergence of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Poco, country-rock in general, and Neil’s own dizzying career.

They were something of a counterpart to the Byrds in that they had something of a vocal blend, but were more rounded as musicians. Rather than a distinct single instrument a la the 12-string Rickenbacker, the Springfield sported the dueling lead guitars of Stephen Stills and Neil Young, who both wrote their own songs as well. Richie Furay was the best singer of the three, resulting in great harmonies, and bassist Bruce Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin provided a powerful rhythm section.

However, while the music on their self-titled debut is certainly catchy and influential, the songs only hint at each writer’s potential. The production throughout is shackled to a fairly typical mid-‘60s California sound not unlike the first Monkees LPs, but a lot of albums sounded like that then, and considering the two “producers” were also Sonny & Cher’s managers, the boys would have to wait until their next album to really stretch. (And boy, did they.)

Stephen dominates side one, showing his knack for catchy pop songs off the bat with “Go And Say Goodbye” and “Sit Down, I Think I Love You”. “Leave” is almost punk garage (Velvet Underground, anyone?) with lots of manic soloing. “Hot Dusty Roads” is an awkward attempt at wordplay filling empty lyrics, done much better with “Everybody’s Wrong” and “Pay The Price”. Despite a menacing intro, “Baby Don’t Scold Me” is more garage pop, with a cute quote from “Day Tripper”.

Neil provides the balance, and the two he sings aren’t overtly indicative of where he’d go. “Burned” is average, with a honky-tonk piano that wasn’t on too many pop songs in those days, while “Out Of My Mind” illustrates his discomfort with this whole fame thing. Of the rest, Richie sings the sweet “Flying On The Ground Is Wrong” and “Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It”, which sound more like his eventual style than Neil’s. The hidden gem here is “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing”; also sung by Richie, it’s an early example of Neil’s tendency towards major 7th chords and 4/4 against 6/8 time.

Not long after the album was released, Stephen wrote a single called “For What It’s Worth”, which immediately became a huge hit and established his legacy as a songwriter. With no follow-up album close to being ready, the label simply reissued Buffalo Springfield with the single as the lead track, rejigging the track order slightly and dropping “Baby Don’t Scold Me” altogether. (It wouldn’t reappear until 1997, when the album was reissued with both the mono and stereo versions on a single disc.)

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield (1966)—3½