My third 1967 album review in a few days. My third West Coast 1967 album. Must be something in the water. Or something inspiring me. Probably Shakey, Jimmy McDonough's definitive Neil Young biography. This time Buffalo Springfield themselves, the band Neil started out with and their incredible, but odd second album Buffalo Springfield Again.
Buffalo Springfield encapsulate that strange, lost moment in time, perhaps better than any other band. They made three very good albums,(one released posthumously), but not a true masterpiece. They were hugely influential, but never reaped the commercial and critical acclaim they deserved during their time together. They also made all the classic mistakes that Rock and Roll groups make, but in a shorter period than other bands do, in an incredibly brief time. Three years essentially from 1966 to 1968 and they were gone. This is probably their best album. But it's also a rather troubled one.
They had three very talented singers, songwriters and guitarists in Young, Stephen Stills and Richey Furay. They had a beatnik bassist Bruce Palmer, who was probably the heart and soul of the band. They had an able, carefree drummer, Dewey Martin. They had a wonderful sound, like the sun coming up over LA. But they couldn't get along or stay together too long.
This record is a document of life lived incredibly fast. It might not sound it, there's plenty of happiness and calm on the surface of the record but dig a little deeper to the lyrical concerns and you can already sense things coming apart at the seams. The cover sleeve is exceptional, picturing the band, including Palmer, who is already departed, with his back turned on the horizon above a still lake. There's something elegaic about its composition. As if all concerned realise this isn't meant to last.
They were apparently astonishingly good live but those who saw them and the band members themselves say that they never nailed that incredible, magical chemistry on record. According to Young: 'The real core of the group was the three Canadians. We played in such a way that the three of us basically huddled together behind while Stills and Furay were always out front. 'Cos we'd get so into the groove of the thing , that's all we really cared about. But when we got into the studio, the groove just wasn't there. And we couldn't figure out why. This was the major frustration for me as a young musician. It fucked me up so much.'
By the time of Buffalo Springfield Again, Palmer had already gone. Busted and sent back to Canada replaced by another Canadian Ken Koblum, who didn't last long either, returning to Canada almost immediately because the inter-band chemistry was so toxic. The band had already recorded but pulled a semi-legendary, unreleased second album called Stampede. Young had left and come back and was looking to leave again. They had played the Monterrey Pop Festival without him, joined by a garrolous and plainly stoned David Crosby, who went into endless monologues about LSD and the JFK assassination onstage. See what I mean about living fast.
The record still sounds great, and surprisingly coherent given that Stills and Young were getting on so badly by this point that they could barely be in the same studio together. It has a good mixture of songs, brought to the table by Stills, Young and Furay. It has light and shade. Stills is just in front with four as you'd expect from an army brat, and the most overtly competitive member in the band. Furay has three and so does Young. But it's Neil's three, Mr. Soul, Expecting to Fly and Broken Arrow that mark him out as the exceptional talent in an exceptionally talented band. They take the record to another level.
Both Stills and Furay do their bit nevertheless. Stills songs are just great. Particularly Hung Upside Down and Rock and Roll Woman, which Crosby might have had a hand in writing, and points towards Crosby, Stills & Nash. Hung Upside Down hints at how frayed things are getting already in terms of inter-band relationships and general pressures of life in the fast lane. Furay meanwhile is a quieter presence. More laidback, more Country. The direction he was heading in. A Child's Claim to Fame, Sad Memory and Good Time Boy are as laidback and reflective as an old rocking chair. A man confident in his talent.
The album, by contrast with its predecessor, was recorded over a protracted period of time, in New York and LA, with changing personnel, orchestral instrumentation and a huge cast of hangers on, many of them credited on the back sleeve. It's a very good listen. Not a bad song on here and several great ones but you get this sense that this was not a 'flight', (a word constantly referred to in the band's songs), that was destined to go long distance. It got to # 44 in the Billboard Album Chart. A few months later Buffalo Springfield were gone.
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