Buffalo Springfield Debut LP Released December 1966

Buffalo Springfield Debut LP Released December 1966  (Click photo to enlarge) 

Here is a comprehensive, in-depth look back at  Buffalo Springfield's debut album, released in December 1966, by Harvey Kubernik.

 

Harvey Kubernik is the author of 19 books, including "Neil Young - Heart of Gold" (see TW review). We interviewed author Kubernik while Thrasher's Wheat celebrated Neil Young's 70th birthday back in 2015. 

 

In 1966 and ’67 Harvey Kubernik saw Buffalo Springfield in two of their Southern California concerts and attended debut Neil Young solo concerts in the region. 

 

Thrasher's Wheat just recently published several highly popular articles by Harvey Kubernik:

• 50th Anniversary of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's  "Deja Vu" 
• 50th Anniversary of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush"
• REVIEW: "WHAT'S THAT SOUND? Buffalo Springfield Box 
• Buffalo Springfield's "Last Time Around"
  
• ‘For What It’s Worth’ - Still A Song For Our Times 

 Thanks Harvey! enjoy.

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Buffalo Springfield Debut LP Released December 1966
By Harvey Kubernik, Copyright
 

 

Buffalo Springfield - Third Eye, Oct 1966

     In December 1966 I purchased a mono copy of Buffalo Springfield in Hollywood at Wallachs Music City on Sunset and Vine.  I witnessed Buffalo Springfield. Twice. In December 1966 with my brother Kenny at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and in April 1967 inside the Hollywood Bowl.  

   It was in the spring 1966, when Neil Young and Bruce Palmer hit the road, blazing behind the wheel of a 1953 Pontiac hearse, natch. Finally, in early April ‘66 they arrived in Los Angeles, in search of Stephen Stills and musical dreams held desperately dear.

   Coincidentally, Stills had been anxious for Neil to join him as well. Richie Furay, another gypsy, was back with Stills, the promise of a band his inducement to come west.

   Where was Neil? Having given up their search for the mercurial Stills, Neil and Bruce decided to head to San Francisco and what sounded like a promising music scene.

   In one of the most fortuitous encounters in the history of pop music on that April afternoon on Sunset Boulevard which saw our two protagonists come to a traffic stop at the exact same moment—one going east and the other going west. But, good heavens, who else but Neil would be driving a hearse with Canadian license plates in Los Angeles? And thus, one of the enduring creation myths was born.

   Los Angeles, the city of noir, city of night, and city of light. For all its enticing charms—the vaguely toxic vermillion sky, the lustrous undertow of the adjacent Pacific—it could induce a palpable ambivalence. 

   By 1966, the city was undergoing a vivid reimaging, like a film set readying itself for its next call to “action.” The Watts riots of August 1965 had slapped the dreamy denizens into social/political consciousness, the smog-shrouded basin taking on an acrid, burnt-brown hue.  

 Buffalo Springfield @ Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 1967Photo  by Henry Diltz.

 
   There was, indeed, something definitely happenin’ here, something best documented in melodies and words of young troubadours who found in pop music the ideal platform to address all those roiling, inchoate concerns. Los Angeles was the epicenter of this sonic youth-quake. The strum of a D minor chord, the hurt in an orphaned voice, a transformative backbeat, a pulsing bass line, the sting of a lead guitar, this was the recipe for rebellion with a bullet, turning protest into publishing.

   In my 2016 book, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, I spoke with Dickie Davis, omnipresent Buffalo Springfield advocate, road manager turned guiding force, about his essential contributions to the band.   

Stephen Stills @ Gold Star Recording Studio 1966

photo by Henry Diltz

   “I met Stephen Stills when he was in the Au Go Go Singers in Houston. In 1966 I was now working at Doug Weston’s Troubadour in Hollywood selling tickets and running the Hoot nights. Neil Young and Bruce Palmer come into town and I hear about it. Stephen and Richie connect with a drummer, Billy Mundi. They were good. I’m watching Steve, Richie, Bruce, with Billy Mundi, and at this point their manager Barry Friedman asked me to help out with the band. Sort of like a road manager thing. Dewey Martin joined as drummer replacing Billy.

   “Returning from the Troubadour, in my faded red 1963 Volvo P1800, Richie and I pulled to the curb on Fountain Avenue outside Barry Friedman’s place. I stopped immediately behind a steam roller and noticed a small metal sign hanging loosely from it.

  “How about that?” I said. ‘I’ve heard of Mercedes-Benz, and Alfa Romeo, but there’s a Buffalo Springfield. Never heard of that one before.’

     “Everyone laughed and got out of the car. We proceeded to try to get the sign off the roller. It was hanging from only one bolt but it wouldn’t come loose. As they went inside, I drove away. Later, possibly the next day, I was at Barry’s. Stephen showed me the sign and said he’d decided that it was the name of the group. I liked the idea. It had a contemporary, sort of Jefferson Airplane ring.” 
          In my 2009 book, Canyon of Dreams The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon, Laurel Canyon resident, the multi-instrumentalist Van Dyke Parks, who was on the scene at a 1966 Buffalo Springfield practice on Fountain Avenue, emphasized his role suggesting naming rights of the band who never became a brand.

“I said, ‘This is the name of your group. Come out here and look.’ The boys were having an argument and I was so bored I went outside to have a smoke and I saw the grader (road-building tractor) that was in front of Stephen Stills’ rented apartment on Fountain Avenue. The street was being widened, and there was a sign on the grader. It said ‘Buffalo Springfield.’ I pointed it out to them. ‘This is it.’ That was no problem. And of course, they forgot because they were blinded by their own ambitions. They had no idea I came up with that.”  

Dickie Davis

 
Dickie Davis: In later years I heard many times that Van Dyke Parks was crediting himself with thinking of the name. He even said as much to me recently. I was politely skeptical — and silent — until I realized that I had no idea what happened between the time Richie went inside and Stephen’s showing me the sign. He (Stephen) could well have been inside Barry’s at the time they managed to remove the sign and would have been as unaware of my presence as I was of his. It’s just conjecture, but it’s an explanation. (Stephen) never mentioned Van Dyke Parks.
   I liked the idea. It had a contemporary, sorta Jefferson Airplanish sound with strong All American/western implication. And, as they say, the rest is history — the kind that’s written.”
    Rehearsals with the Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young. My first impression. Neil seemed shy. He seemed anxious to please and he seemed like he really knew how to play guitar. He played maybe a very Chet Atkins country style rock ’n’ roll but if asked he could adapt his playing. If someone said, ‘Give a surf run, Neil,’ he would do it like the Ventures. Nothing to it.
     We’d all hang out at Canter’s Delicatessen on Fairfax Avenue after the Whisky a Go Go shows and Ollie Hammond’s on La Cienega.

    There was magic at the rehearsals. I was immediately sold. Barry Friedman had seen it grow. I helped it happen at the first gig at the Troubadour. It took so long to set the amplifiers up the audience had lost interest. And it took them a while to get the audience back. But they did. There was a good reaction.”  

Richie Furay @ Gold Star Recording Studio 1966

photo by Henry Diltz

Richie Furay: Everything happened so fast. We were young. We were new. When we did a six-week house band stint at The Whisky we thought we had no competition. It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? Five young guys who brought five different elements together. When we put out stuff together, it was like ‘here’s what I want to contribute to your song, Stephen and Neil.’  We took elements of folk, blues, and country and we established our own sound.

   It was the Byrds’ Chris Hillman who got Buffalo Springfield their first Whisky A Go Go booking, which secured a future residency at the venue during May-June 1966.   

Buffalo Springfield @ Gold Star Recording Studio 1966 

photo by Henry Diltz 

 

Read more »

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INTERVIEW: Stephen Stills and Richie Furay on Buffalo Springfield and "For What It's Worth"

Here is a ~2021 interview with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay discussing Buffalo Springfield and the song "For What It's Worth" -- "one of the greatest songs of the 1960s".

 

In an exclusive interview with two of the founding members Stephen Stills and Richie Furay we get the first hand story of a song that was written in an artist head in car ride and then written down on paper as soon as he got home. An historic composition from 1967 that has become one of the greatest protest songs of the 20th century next on Professor of Rock.

More on Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Buffalo Springfield.

Buffalo Springfield 

Bonnaroo Festival  June 11, 2011

(see review @ Buffalo Springfield: Bonnaroo Festival 2011 Headliners - Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos)

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VIDEO: Richie Furay's New Song 'We Were The Dreamers'

Here's a video of Richie Furay's new song "We Were the Dreamers" from his new album Hand In Hand (Neil Young guests on Buffalo Springfield's "Kind Woman" bonus track.)

The inspiration for the song "We Were the Dreamers" is the band Poco. Richie Furay tells Billboard about the track:

"It's the story of Poco".

"Not that I sit around and dwell about Poco, but the lyrics began to tell that story and I just went with it. It was one of those natural things that just had a flow to it, and the (music) reminded me of what we were trying to do back in 1969. We wanted to bridge that gap between country music and rock 'n' roll music. The Byrds were doing it. The (Flying) Burrito Brothers were doing it. And Poco was certainly instrumental in creating that country-rock sound in southern California. So there was the song."

The autobiographical opening track and first single from Hand In Hand, Furay's first new solo album in eight years and set for release on March 31.

Richie Furay
THE DENVER POST | Cyrus McCrimmon

Furay does, however, acknowledge that part of the delay was staying open for the possibility of more Springfield performances, and perhaps even some new recording before the group went on an indefinite hiatus in early 2012. "I think I certainly had that thought in the back of my mind," Furay says. "I know I'd play some of these riffs while were doing sound checks and Neil would look over -- 'New song, eh?' I think Stephen and I thought maybe there would be a Springfield album that came out of it.

But things change, as they do and that's OK. There were a lot of fans out there that wanted to see the Springfield, and I would have liked to make that exclamation point a bit deeper.

But (Young) didn't feel the same way and, y'know what? That's just the way it goes. I've rolled with a lot of punches. I was just happy and satisfied I still had a place to go with my music after that."

Richie Furay - Hand In Hand
(Preview Tracks)

Also, see Buffalo Springfield's Richie Furay Looks Back & Forward.

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