Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", released three albums and several singles from 1966 to 1968. Their music combined elements of folk music and country music with influences from the British Invasion and psychedelic rock. Like the contemporary band the Byrds, they were key to the early development of folk rock. The band took their name from a steamroller parked outside their house.

Buffalo Springfield formed in Los Angeles in 1966 with Stills (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Martin (drums, vocals), Palmer (bass guitar), Furay (guitar, vocals), and Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals). The band signed to Atlantic Records in 1966 and released their debut single "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", which became a hit in Los Angeles. The following January, they released the protest song "For What It's Worth", which became their only US top-10 hit and a counterculture anthem. Their second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, marked their progression to psychedelia and hard rock and featured songs such as "Bluebird" and "Mr. Soul".

After Palmer was arrested multiple times and deported, engineer Jim Messina joined the group on bass in 1968, but the group disbanded shortly thereafter. Their third and final album, Last Time Around, was compiled and released shortly after their dissolution. Stephen Stills went on to form the supergroup Crosby, Stills and Nash with David Crosby of the Byrds and Graham Nash of the Hollies. Neil Young launched his solo career and later joined Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in 1969. Furay and Messina went on to form the country-rock band Poco. Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and briefly reunited for a comeback tour in 2011.

History

Origins

Neil Young and Stephen Stills met in 1965 at the Fourth Dimension in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Young was there with the Squires, a Winnipeg group he had been leading since February 1963, and Stills was on tour with the Company, a spin-off from the Au Go Go Singers. When Stills' band broke up at the end of that tour, he moved to the West Coast, where he worked as a session musician and auditioned unsuccessfully for, among other bands, the Monkees. Told by record producer Barry Friedman that work would be available if he could assemble a band, Stills invited fellow Au Go Go Singers alumnus Richie Furay and former Squires bass player Ken Koblun to come join him in California. Both agreed, although Koblun chose to leave before very long and joined the group 3's a Crowd.

While in Toronto in early 1966, Young met Bruce Palmer, a Canadian who was playing bass for the Mynah Birds. In need of a lead guitarist, Palmer invited Young to join the group, and Young accepted. The Mynah Birds were set to record an album for Motown Records when their singer Ricky James Matthews, later known as Rick James, was tracked down and arrested by the U.S. Navy for being AWOL.