 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
As rock 'n' roll has gone through time, there are some acts that, today, get unfairly remembered for one song they did, despite the fact that they had rather lucrative careers outside that song and would never be referred to as one-hit wonders. Procol Harum is remembered for "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Don McLean has "American Pie," Deep Purple has "Smoke on the Water," and so on. But there might not be a more egregious case then Buffalo Springfield. Their single, "For What It's Worth" is one of the most well known rock songs ever made. Everyone knows the song; it's a staple of the era.
And while most bands could only dream of having a "For What It's Worth" in its repertoire, the song also gets so much attention that it unfairly overshadows the brilliant "Buffalo Springfield Again. Buffalo Springfield Again" is a completely disjointed masterpiece, the sequencing is completely random, each song is distinct and diverse, yet at the same time, the album holds together brilliantly. There's something there throughout the entire album that gives it a great feel. It's tough to explain, but there are some albums that just have it, and this is one of them.
The patch work style of this album is very much in contrast of their self-titled debut album released only eight months prior to "Again". On their debut, guitarists Richie Furay, Neil Young, and Stephen Stills, bassist Bruce Palmer, and drummer Dewey Martin have a great group dynamic going throughout the album. The group is very tight; it's clear throughout the album that these were five musicians that really played well together. Furay, Stills, and Young blend their guitars perfectly and there is a very uniform folk-rock sound consistent throughout the entire album. As a result, they came out with a very strong freshman effort. The album has some real standout tracks like "Go and Say Goodbye," "Sit Down, I Think I Love You," "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," as well as the aforementioned "For What It's Worth."
The songs on "Again", on the otherhand, rarely consist of all five of the group's members playing together. One big reason for this was that Palmer, a Canadian, was arrested on marijuana charges in the States and sent back up north. Thus, Palmer appears on only a few of the songs on "Again". Another factor that was the souring the relationship between Stills and Young, for the first of what would be many times over the course of the next forty years, forging a bond not too far off from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" except they never invited any young couples to dinner. Young grew tired of Stills and the scene in general, left Buffalo Springfield, and then returned during the "Again" sessions.
Yet the fact that this album has some songs that are more a solo effort then a Buffalo Springfield song is what provides such a great deal of diversity on this album. One of the problems of their debut was that even though the songs were solid, it is somewhat tiresome to give the album a full listen-through just because it is too consistent of a sound throughout the entire album and doesn't stray away from it too far. But with the fractured sessions of their second album, it allows each of the 10 songs to take on a very distinct direction. At the base there's no real rhyme or reason going from song to song, they all come from different directions. But in the context of the album as a whole, they all work together; it's very similar to the way The Beatles' "Revolver" comes off.
What really puts "Buffalo Springfield Again" into the pantheon of great albums is the songwriting that is on display throughout it. If you just look solely at the songwriting, this album is one of the best in rock history; it is truly a songwriting gem. Of course, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise considering Buffalo Springfield consisted of three tremendous songwriters in Furay, Stills, and Young.
For Furay, "Again" serves as a springboard for the songwriting career he would embark on from this point forward. Furay sang quite a bit on the group's debut, including lead on three of Neil Young's five songs because the record execs that "produced" the album felt Young's voice was too "weird" (nice call there by the suits), so Furay had already established himself as a very good singer, but he hadn't contributed anything of his own.
Despite his lack of experience in songwriting, Furay really comes through and adds a great deal to "Again". Two of his songs, "Sad Memory" and "Good Time Boy" might be the two weakest tracks on the entire album, yet even these two songs are great to listen to. "Good Time Boy" is a tongue-in-cheek James Brown/soul style send-up sung by Dewey Martin. It's an odd song for sure, but it really is a fun song and adds to the diversity and spontaneous nature of the album. "Sad Memory," meanwhile is a tender ballad that sounds like a Jefferson Airplane song as Furay channels Marty Balin's singing on "Comin' Back to Me." Neil Young adds a cool lounge-style guitar and the lyrics are great, but the song is a little too sleepy and drags a bit; it's my least favorite song on the album, which tells you something because it really is a decent song.
The third of Furay's contributions, "A Child's Claim To Fame," is a real standout and one of the high marks on "Buffalo Springfield Again". The whole country-rock genre really didn't take off until mid-1968, but the seeds certainly were sowed by Buffalo Springfield, along with The Byrds and Bob Dylan and the Band's bootlegged work in 1967, and "A Child's Claim To Fame" certainly was one of the strongest songs in the progression of the movement. Furay uses his voice perfectly for a country song; it sounds wonderfully smooth yet down home, and the way he sustains his voice allows the lyrics to flow perfectly for a country song. James Burton, who played guitar for Ricky Nelson and later for Elvis Presley, adds a great dobro part, and the lead guitar gives the song a nice '60s rock twist. This song opened the door for Furay to discover the country-rock genre even further in the group he fronted after Buffalo Springfield broke up: Poco.
Stephen Stills, meanwhile, continued to show off his talents on this album that he had already made clearly evident on the first album. In a lot of ways, Stills was never as consistently great on an album as he was on this one. The song "Rock and Roll Woman," supposedly written about Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick, has a great melody and excellent guitar work with a great acoustic riff. This song also marks the beginning of the partnership between Stephen Stills and David Crosby as Crosby contributed to the writing of this song, although he is uncredited (probably due to the fact that he was still a member of The Byrds up until a month before the release of "Again"), and sings harmonies on the song (this has been disputed, however, it does sound like his voice is there). Much like "A Child's Claim To Fame" could be considered the first Poco song, "Rock and Roll Woman" could be considered the first Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song.
Because of his multi-instrument abilities, Stills earned the nickname "Captain Manyhands" during the sessions of the first Crosby, Stills, and Nash album because he played just about every instrument that you hear on that album besides drums. On "Again", Stills displays for the first time that, aside from being an excellent guitar player, he was a very talented piano player with his tickling of the ivories on the song "Everydays." Stills plays a great jazzy melody on the keys while Neil Young adds a guitar part that goes from a stinging fuzz laden chord to a humming feedbacked guitar that pervades over the song and gives it a great feel. This is a song that just oozes cool from the seams.
"Hung Upside Down" is the song on "Again" probably done most similarly in the vain of the group's first album. The guitar interplay between Furay, Young, and Stills is magnificent, the harmonies are very smooth and not forced, and Furay and Stills share the lead vocal, something that isn't as common on this album as it is on their first. There's a ton of energy coming from the group on this song and it really carries over to the listener. Moreover, Stills' voice is an absolute powerhouse on this song as he just lets it rip and sings the absolute hell out of the lyrics. Make no doubt that Stephen Stills is a great singer, and along with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," this song is probably his strongest vocal performance ever.
Then there is the last of Stills' contributions, "Bluebird." This song is one of the highlights of folk-rock and really should have been a big hit. Stills pens some of his prettiest lyrics on this song and the guitar playing by Stills, Furay, and Young is simply unreal, especially Stills' acoustic guitar in the solo section of the song. Stephen Stills is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated guitar players of all time and he really proves his meddle here. Once the solo section is over there is a great coda with a nice banjo part to fade the song out. This song is the centerpiece of the album and while "For What It's Worth" is a remarkable song, "Bluebird" might be an even greater highlight of the group's career.
Then there are Neil Young's three contributions, which you really can't say enough about. Pound for pound, this album consists of Young's best lyrics and, in a way, his three songs foreshadow three different aspects of the extraordinary solo career he would have for the next forty years. "Mr. Soul" is a gritty, tough rocker with a great, somewhat psychedelic solo played by Young. On his 1975 album "Tonight's the Night, Neil Young had a song called "Borrowed Tune," which was a reworking of The Rolling Stones song "Lady Jane." That being the case, Young should have called this song "Borrowed Riff" because he takes the riff from "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and makes it his own. It works though, and this song really foreshadows the quick, tough rockers he would compose in his solo career like "Cinnamon Girl."
The song "Expecting to Fly," which people will recognize from the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," sounds like Hank Williams had Hank put down the bottle for a minute and taken mescaline. It's very rare to find a song that could be described as "psychedelic country," but this is one of them, as it foreshadows the country road that Young would drive on and off of during his solo career. This is one of the great ballads from the era and while Neil is the only member of the group on this song, it marks the beginning of another partnership as Jack Nitzsche, who would play keyboards with Neil Young in the group Crazy Horse and on the album "Harvest", arranged the strings on "Expecting to Fly."
Finally, there is the album's closer, "Broken Arrow." This song is completely unpredictable and strange yet utterly brilliant; somewhat of a microcosm of Neil Young's career. It's very chopped up and suite like and, in a way, it's very similar to The Beatles' "A Day in the Life" in that it's very cinematic. The bits are so random and the verses continue to build up dramatically until the song goes into a jazzy clarinet bit before it closes out with a heartbeat. The lyrics of this song are the best Neil Young has ever written in his entire career, and that's really saying something considering this is a guy that is regarded as one of the greatest lyricists of rock 'n' roll behind Bob Dylan. This is undoubtedly a very strange song upon first listen and a lot of people don't get it after several listens, but if you really listen to it and allow it to take over you will realize how absolutely brilliant it is; it's one of my favorite songs.
Buffalo Springfield was a group that had a tremendous amount of potential and an unlimited ceiling, but like a young baseball pitcher sometimes, they just burned out. They released one more album, "Last Time Around", after they had pretty much split up, and the members went their separate ways. Ahmet Ertegun, the legendary founder of Atlantic Records on which Buffalo Springfield recorded for, once said of Buffalo Springfield breaking up. "I think it was one of the few times I cried because I just thought that I had the historic group." The group may not have been as historic as it should have been, but he certainly got a historic album in "Buffalo Springfield Again".
Be the first to comment on this article!