Interview With Richie Furay, Joe Vitale and Rusty Young on the Buffalo Springfield Reunion - Sound Waves Magazine

Sound Waves Magazine
August 2011

The cover story in the August issue of Sound Waves Magazine is “There’s Somethin’ Happenin’ Here: The Triumphant Return of Buffalo Springfield" by Mark T. Gould.

The article contains extensive interviews with Richie Furay, Joe Vitale and Rusty Young with a few revelations on how the reunion came together, what went into making the rehearsals, and where the Buffalo Springfield are stampeding to next.

Some highlights...

“Of course, we missed not having Bruce and Dewey with us to ‘experience’ the moment,” Furay said. “But, the addition of Joe and Rick could not have been any better. Those two guys are professionals and they delivered; they are always prepared and know their instruments. They were the perfect choice. The fact that they play regularly with Stephen and Neil certainly helps, because they are used to them, and know the music they are associated with. I love those guys and it’s an honor to have them along for the ride.”

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“There were certain songs we all knew needed to be in the set, and out of those we selected the ones came back to us the easiest,” Furay added. “The songs that most interested me were the ones from the first two records, where most of the songs came from, with the exception of ‘Kind Woman’ and ‘I Am A Child,’ which came from ‘Last Time Around’. For me, the ‘Whisky A Go Go’ songs were the ones I wanted to focus on because they were the songs that had the strongest memory of us as a band.

“Overall, we had a very nice selection from all of the albums, and we still have quite a few to learn,” he recalled. “There were some physical considerations that kept some off the playlist – ‘Sit Down I think I Love You’ has a repetitive figure that made it difficult to play at this time. I hope we’ll add it, as well as ‘Hung Upside Down.’ We started to work out ‘Down to the Wire’ at show rehearsals, and that one will probably be added as well.

“It was a nice challenge to do ‘Broken Arrow’ (which was slotted as the first encore at the shows). ‘My Kind Of Love’ was done to fill an up tempo need. ‘Hot Dusty Roads’ was one of those ‘Whisky’ songs that we all loved, as well as ‘Everybody’s Wrong.’ But, it’s amazing there are still a lot of songs we have to get to,” he said.

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Vitale agreed with Furay’s assessment, adding “the rehearsals were all so easy, just a piece of cake. It was pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had. We just got on royally.

“They’ve done and seen it all, all the different emotions, all the things that can drag you down out there,” Vitale observed about Stills, Furay and Young. “They’re way passed all that junk. We went back to why we do it; that is, to have fun. I’ve never had this much fun, ever.”

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“The crowds were amazing and appreciative. It was just us, and the audience appreciated that. It was definitely a mix (in the audience), not just “old timers,” but some young whippersnappers as well,” Furay recalled.

“One of the great things about Buffalo Springfield reunion was ‘what you saw and heard was what you got’ and I think everyone appreciated that,” Furay said. “All the music and all the singing was just us – we didn’t have 10 back-up musicians or singers on stage to enhance what we were doing – it was just us.”

Vitale agreed, noting that “the audiences were just spectacular. We walked on stage at the first Bridge show with butterflies, like we were kids again, and it was frightening how loud the crowd was. I would have liked the shows even if I weren’t in the band.”

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And, according to Furay, there will still be a next time. The band has postponed, not cancelled, Furay stressed, a national tour that was scheduled to begin this fall.
“I know we did have shows being sorted out for a fall tour, but there were some scheduling conflicts and when it got right down to it, we had to move the tour,” he said.

“The tour has not been cancelled – it has been moved. We were planning on covering most all the country, so that’s what I believe we will be doing when we decide to do it,” he added.

“The only indication there was ‘unfinished business’ came with the release of Neil’s ‘Silver and Gold’ album which included the song – ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ – about 10 years ago,“ Furay said. ”If you listen to the lyrics of that song, it would appear that there was ‘unfinished business’ in his mind. I’m certainly glad we got the chance to ‘deliver,’ if you will, because the reunion tour proved we could still deliver after all those years.”

So. Might we hear Rusty Young's pedal steel in 2012, as Peter D. speculates on Rust???

Full online interview in the August issue of Sound Waves Magazine “There’s Somethin’ Happenin’ Here: The Triumphant Return of Buffalo Springfield" by Mark T. Gould. (Also, see text and discussion Steve Hoffman Forums (Thanks Benjamin D & Peter D.!)

Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Neil Young
Buffalo Springfield at the Santa Barbara Bowl on June 7, 2011
Eleanor Stills Photography | © Eleanor Stills 2011

More on the Buffalo Springfield Reunion Tour and Reviews.

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