“Sometimes I feel like I’m just a helpless child. Sometimes I feel like a king.”
The birds in the trees sing a different song, the last vestiges of summer are squeezed out of the garden and the sun sets on another grey day in the neighbourhood. In the background are the plaintive chimes of an electric guitar, happily playing one of the tunes you love the most. A simple, touching song, with heartbreaking lyrics and an unfathomable title.
The Buffalo Springfield were one of those great acts of the counter culture, three guitars, four-part harmonies. These days it’s assumed that due to the later success of its former members Stephen Stills and Neil Young, that they were much more successful in their life time than they actually were. Apart from the single success of ‘For What It’s Worth’ other commercial success eluded them completely.
Other than Stills, they were all Canadian, drawn to California by the folk explosion that threatened to take over the country only minutes before The Beatles landed and changed the mindset of the entire nation. Following an endoresment from Chris Hillman, bass player with the messiahs of the strip, The Byrds, The Springfield were installed as residents at the Whiskey A-Go-Go during the early summer of 1966. A well orchestrated bidding war for their talents ensued , and they were signed to Atco only a few weeks after making their own debut. Things -and indeed the music- were changing so fast that urgency to record these groups before the flavour wore off became paramount. Their debut single, the Neil Young penned, ‘Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing’ was released with plenty of fanfare but without much avail in August. They became a huge live draw, had connections to all and sundry in Laurel Canyon, The Byrds, The Monkees, the hippest of the newly found hip. They were feted for their electtrifying take on what was, very American music. Americana, you might say, decades befor it had a name.
In November 1966 a bunch of kids, tired of being pushed about by the bullish LAPD formed a protest on Sunset Strip to complain about the introduction of a curfew for minors and the closure of an all ages hang out called Pandora’s Box. The minor skirmishes that took place became known as ‘the riot on Sunset Strip.’ Stills wrote his wondrous ‘For What It’s Worth’ about the events. Lyrically it put the plight of the frustrated teenager to the fore and invented a clarion call for the new cultrure, ‘STOP! NOW! WHAT’S THAT SOUND? EVERYBODY LOOK WHAT’S GOING DOWN.’
The first Springfield LP was released in October/November 66, just before the hit single broke. It got hammered to death on the hip-speak new radio, used as signpost for where music was going. The band were certainlly ahead of the pack in that respect.
‘Flying On The Ground Is Wrong is one of the stand out tracks of that remarkable debut album. Inspired by The Byrds and Love and the folk music of his teenage years, 20 year old Neil Young captured a moment of sadness, uncertainty and woe infused with a happiness and waywardness that i’ve rarely heard anywhere else. You can tell it’s been written by a kid, albeit a very talented kid, because despite the gorgeous nature of the guitar and vocal arrangements, the lyrics, as beautiful and heartbreaking as they are, have a child like quality to them. They speak of the growing pains of teenage life, the anxieties of tomorrow. Today. They spoke to me as a young person in a language that a young person understands. As a kid myself, it was revelation, the whole LP was, still is. . I loved The Byrds but this was in a different league. The first Springfield lp knocked me out of the park.
The rest of their story is the typical tawdry tale of the clash of colossal egos, a band that found it impossible to work together despite their obvious combined talents. Their second lp, Buffalo Springfield Again was blighted by in fighting and walk outs by various personnel and was in reality a collection of solo recordings made before, during and after the collapse of their intended second album ‘Stampede’. Young’s contributions were the searing psychedelic pop monster ‘Mr Soul’ and the sumptuous, yet experimental ‘Expecting To Fly’ and ‘Broken Arrow’, produced and arranged as part of his debut solo record by the great Jack Ntszche and showing a departure from whatever was the accepted norm and a departure from the way pop seemed headed.
Months after the release of the second lp, it was all over. Young had decided his experiments with Nitszche required further attention and spent the remainder of 1968 constructing his debut solo lp. Also, during 1968 stephen stills and his friend David Crosby, recently removed from The Byrds, were introduced to Graham Nash from Salford, England at a party in Laurel Canyon. By the end of the following year they would be one of the bigggest recording acts on the planet and the actions of The Buffalo Springfield would be consigned to a footnotte in somebody else’s huge success. A third album was issued just after their demise and was even more fragmented and disjointed than their second outing. Over time their legend and the quality of the music therein increased exponentially. By the Eighties they were rightly revered as the pioneering wayfarers they obviously were and not just a springboard for a later triple platinum success. Things like these are a once in a lifetime opportunity, you have to catch them before they seem to disappear for ever. enjoy. x
The Buffalo Springfield – Flying On The Ground Is Wrong. (from) Buffalo Springfield. Atco SD 33-200. October 1966.
bernie@happening-things.com 