Dez's Top Rock/Pop, #26: The Buffalo Springfield

You Can't Always Get What You Want

An interesting phenomenon in rock fandom is the “lost (masterpiece) record.” This is a record that falls within one of several categories: a. a band started recording the record but it was aborted, yet tapes exist; b. the band actually finished the record but never released it for some reason; or c. it was released at one time but has long been out of print, making it a collector’s item. Fans who obsess over certain bands need something further to obsess over, so what could be better than a mythical record that you can’t listen to but rumor states that the music is the greatest thing since Mozart. If only the suits at the record company had understood! The record was 20 years ahead of its time! The music was so great that if you touched the master tapes you would explode, therefore it was never finished. Whatever the story, music fans love to speculate and discuss and trade treasured bootlegs of these (sometimes) great lost records.

The most famous is probably The Beach Boys’s Smile, which was to be their bold follow-up to their beloved Pet Sounds. But mastermind Brian Wilson lost his marbles, and so it was never finished (Wilson recorded and released a reconstructed Smile earlier this decade). But there are many others. There is The Great Lost Kinks Album (creative title), and I have a bootleg of that and it really is quite great. There is Pink Floyd’s Household Objects, where they tried to make an entire record using only household items like pots and pans and cardboard boxes (David Gilmour: “in the end, after you’ve spent weeks trying to make cardboard boxes sound like bass drums and snare drums, you think, ‘well, why don’t I use a bass drum and snare drum?’”) There’s Neil Young’s Homegrown, which he deemed too depressing and personal, so instead he released Tonight’s the Night! There is also Neil’s Time Fades Away, which was released but has been long out of print. I’ve got a copy and love it. Prince’s notorious Black Album, Springsteen’s Electric Nebraska (the E Street Band recorded a full electric version of Nebraska before Bruce decided that he liked the acoustic demos better. This is a Holy Grail of sorts for Boss fans, since the Darkness on the Edge of Town-era material has been released on The Promise)…and many others. Each has its story.

Some have seen the light of day after a long delay. Chris Bell’s I Am the Cosmos (solo effort from the less famous partner in the Alex Chilton/Chris Bell collaboration that was early Big Star). Excellent. Big Star’s third album. A masterpiece. The stripped version of the Beatles’s Let It Be. Very good. The Who’s Lifehouse (Townshend’s intended follow-up to Tommy that became Who’s Next). Mixed bag. The Velvet Underground’s “VU”. Great. Dylan’s ’66 live material. Awesome. Dylan and the Band’s Basement Tapes. Fun, but not essential. Tragic Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s solo album Pacific Ocean Blue. Overrated.

What does this have to do with the Buffalo Springfield? Not much. I told you that I would use these selections as jumping off points for different types of essays. But The Buffalo Springfield also have a much-discussed Lost Album. After their debut, they almost completed a follow-up called Stampede. It was so far along that they even had cover art prepared for it…


ABOVE: The proposed album cover for the aborted Stampede. Dewey Martin down front has the cowboy hat over his face because that is not really Dewey Martin. It is a stand-in. Dewey was serving a short stint in jail for dope.

But the band was already ripping apart due to internal strife, and for still unknown reasons, the album was scrapped and they released their greatest accomplishment, Again, instead. I’ve done some research, and by collecting tracks from the Buffalo Springfield Box Set (a four disc set for a band that only released three records!) and from Neil Young’s Archives, vol. 1, I have reconstructed a fairly accurate version of Stampede, and it is really quite good. Equal to the debut, better than the third, but not as great as Again (so I guess they made the right decision at the time).

In case you are not familiar with the Springfield, they were a shortlived but very influential band from the late 60’s who were pioneers in mixing folk/country/rock. Kind of a less celebrated Byrds. Also significant because it was the first important band for three extremely talented musicians, Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. This was really Stills’s band (their one huge hit, “For What It’s Worth,” and their greatest song, “Bluebird,” were both his), but Neil’s always unpredictable presence made the group interesting. I think the group is significant also because although shortlived, Neil wrote some of his most experimental and interesting songs with the Springfield, and Stills’s best song of his career is “Bluebird.” Many people refer to The Buffalo Springfield as one of those “what could have been” bands, one of lost opportunity. There is definitely that element to their story (Neil Young and Stephen Stills both have to be in charge in any group they are in, so it was destined to implode), but we should not forget the small but substantial legacy that they actually left us.

What To Listen To:
They only put out three records. Debut Buffalo Springfield is tentative in spots, but has some great moments. They band had already broken up by the time the third, Last Time Around, was released, but it also has some high points. The one truly great record is the middle one, Again, featuring Stills’s greatest song “Bluebird,” Stills’s greatest pop/folk song “Rock and Roll Woman” (the best Byrds-like song not by the Byrds, although David Crosby sings on it, so there is at least one Byrd actually there), the prettiest song Neil Young ever recorded, the lush “Expecting To Fly,” one of his best rockers, “Mr. Soul,” and Neil at his most experimental in the multi-part “Broken Arrow.” All of those songs are essential. But honestly, the Springfield can probably be best appreciated on their concise but great compilation, Retrospective.