Album of the Day #176: BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD

Artist: Buffalo Springfield

Title: Buffalo Springfield

Year: 1966/1967

Label: Atco

Songs: 

First Release: Go And Say Goodbye*/Sit Down I Think I Love You*/Leave*/Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing**/Hot Dusty Roads*/Everybody's Wrong*/Flying On The Ground Is Wrong**/Burned**/Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It**/Baby Don't Scold Me*/Out Of My Mind**/Pay The Price*

Second Release: For What It's Worth*/Go And Say Goodbye*/Sit Down I Think I Love You*/Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing**/Hot Dusty Roads*/Everybody's Wrong*/Flying On The Ground Is Wrong**/Burned**/Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It**/Leave*/Out Of My Mind**/Pay The Price*

Written by: *Stephen Stills and **Neil Young

Produced by: Charles Greene & Brian Stone

Thoughts: It's truly amazing how much great material groups were able to produce in the 1960s with such short lifespans. Buffalo Springfield lasted just two years, releasing three records and one hit single. The group was lead by three men with huge egos, all of whom would go on to make significant impacts on the rock world in their own right. Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay were the three guitarists, with Stills singing his own songs and Neil's songs split between Richie and himself. Bruce Palmer played bass and Dewey Martin played drums, although anyone could really have filled those roles, I think. Palmer and Martin never really stand out as important pieces of a band that seemed cursed from the start. 

Their first record, however, has the image of a functioning, working band. The songs, even on the first version, are brilliant, even if the love songs seem to stand on the side of being excruciatingly cliche. How Atco decided songs like "Go And Say Goodbye", "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong" and "Hot Dusty Roads" were unsuitable for single releases is insane. 

Stills and Young's songs (especially Young's) are vastly different from songs they would write later in their careers, but they are still great. Young's love songs dominate the record, with Furay singing the majority of them. It's hard to believe that the same man who wrote all those nasty songs on On The Beach is the same man who wrote the beautiful "Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It". Stills' love songs are much less conventional, but his early brilliance doesn't show until the Furay-sung "For What It's Worth" came out.
"For What It's Worth" came out after the initial issue of Buffalo Springfield as a single-only track. Atco felt that since the original version didn't sell so well, rather than include it on their next album, they would just re-issue Buffalo Springfield with song added at the beginning (screwing up the fantastic intro that is "Go And Say Goodbye") and take off "Baby Don't Scold Me", which was easily the worst song on the album.
The CD version of the album includes the mono version of the original album and the stereo version of the second version on one disc. This means that we miss the mono version of "For What It's Worth" and the stereo version of "Baby Don't Scold Me" (both versions of the album had mono and stereo versions). It's not that big a loss, but considering that even with both editions of the album on one disc, there's still twenty minutes of disc space left, they would have made nice bonus cuts.
I think the album is pretty good, but it's not really one of the greatest ever. None of the songs on this album that aren't on their hits set are revelations. Their next album is where it's at, though.