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90. 'Buffalo Springfield' - Buffalo Springfield (1966)
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In 1966, through a chance meeting in an LA traffic jam, Stephen Stills and Neil Young discovered they shared a similar musical ambition and formed Buffalo Springfield. Filled with differing personalities and varied musical characteristics, the 5 members of Buffalo Springfield headed to the studio to record an album that would play an integral part in bridging the gap between 60s Pop and 70s Folk-Rock.
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#BuffaloSpringfield #NeilYoung #StephenStills #Country #Folk #Rock #Psychedelic
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. In 1966, through a chance meeting in an LA traffic jam, Stephen Stills and Neil Young discovered they shared a similar musical ambition and formed Buffalo Springfield. Filled with differing personalities and varied musical characteristics, the five members of Buffalo Springfield headed to the studio to record an album that would play an integral part in bridging the gap between 60s pop and 70s folk rock.
00:00:29
Speaker
Joining me to discuss this album is my co-host, Mr. Felipe Amarin. How you doing, man? Doing great, man, and you? Good, yeah, very well. Thank you. Welcome back, everyone. We'll start off with the terms and conditions. We'd just like to throw a couple of little ones in there. If you're listening to us on Apple, Spotify or Amazon, please do us a massive favour and rate and review the show. Scroll down, give us five stars, write a little sentence what you love about it and hit submit.
00:00:50
Speaker
It does the world of good for us because it means we get seen by more people and flies us off the charts. It takes 20 seconds of your time but really is, you know, valuable to us. And if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you like and subscribe to stay up to date with new episodes and new content. so buffalish and Can I just add one term? and josh yeah yeah yeah um If you're listening to this in the year 3000 and there is time travel, please just come back and tell us how fucking great we are. Thank you. yeah ah Yeah. Tell us how great we're going to be by that time, you know. i
00:01:23
Speaker
Cool. Buffalo Springfield. Have you heard of these guys? I've heard of them, and ah but never, never listened to the albums. as They only did three albums. that it yeah and then they Obviously I know ah Stills and Young, you know, everyone knows those guys, but um I knew they had a band, that kind of shit. I never, never actually spent the time to listen to the album and I'm really, really impressed.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's very good, isn't it? Alright, I'll just start off with some quick fire album facts. So the album was released in October 1966, recorded between July and September 66 at the Gold Star Hollywood Studios. But one song, for what it's worth, was recorded at the columbus Columbia Studios. ah The genre is folk rock and the length is just under 33 minutes, released on the ACO label and produced by Charles Green and Brian Stone.
00:02:11
Speaker
So I think we'll start. off We want to talk a lot about the music about this in this episode because there's just such a varied amount of songs and styles. It's so good. But we'll just give a bit of background context um because it's quite important when you talk about the lyrics later on. So in terms of the band.
00:02:26
Speaker
ah Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. Well, actually, let's talk about the band quickly. So in the band, you have Stephen Stills on vocals, guitars, keyboards, who was known as being a really polished songwriter, really good at writing those pop and rock hooks. ah Neil Young on vocals, guitars, harmonica and piano. And Neil's reputation at the time was quite infamous, if you like. You know, he had this raw experimental style, a very distinctive voice, a very distinctive guitar style as well.
00:02:54
Speaker
Then you had Richie Fiore on vocals and rhythm guitars, who was known for you know being a ah good blender of styles, as well as quite a smooth vocalist. And then you had Bruce Palmer on bass and Dewey Martin on drums, who were both sort of solid rhythm section players. um So that was the band. But interestingly, this is quite a funny story, um the meeting of the band, because Stills and Fiore were working together in the folk scene of New York at that time. it was ah the Greenwich Village, which is obviously you know infamous for that time. They were playing with different bands. Stills was playing with a band called the Al Gogo Singers, and Fiore was playing with the Squires. um Now, Stills wanted Neil Young in the band beforehand, but he had no way of um contacting him, or even sort of you know just saying, come and audition for us.
00:03:44
Speaker
I don't know if you know the story, and this will be good for the listeners and viewers. In April 1966, they, who was it? Stills and Fury was stuck in a traffic jam in Los Angeles. And they saw Neil Young in his 1953 Pontiac Hurst, along with Bruce Palmer. The car matters. The car matters, yeah, because they spotted it. Imagine the scene. But imagine the scene. Of what a Hurst, yeah. That car.
00:04:12
Speaker
But they um they pulled alongside. They sort of, I don't know how you do that in LA traffic, but they got their cars next to each other and just started talking. and They found that they had a very similar ambition and music. They both wanted to do the same. I'd say both. There was four of them. All of them just had this ambition and this drive and this this longing to make some original music that was the so could could bring these musicians together. And Buffalo Springfield was formed. And then two months later, they were in the studio recording their first album. Amazing. Very cool, isn't it? um In terms of the context of folk music, so this is why this album is really important. Because folk music, prior to this, so you're only talking four or five years ago, folk music was completely acoustic. You had people like Bob Dylan, Joan Byers, Pete Seeger all playing this acoustic folk music that was very politically driven. You know, we did this when we did the Bob Dylan album a few episodes ago.
00:05:06
Speaker
um But it will change in 1965 with Bob Dylan's bring it all Bring It All Home album and his Newport Folk Festival appearance because that's the day he used electric instruments. And that moment in folk music is quite significant because it's the catalyst.
00:05:22
Speaker
that showed, well hold on, folk music doesn't just have to be acoustic guitars anymore. Yeah, but something quite offended by that, isn't it? You can't play folk music with electric instruments. What do you mean you can't? What do you mean you can only play folk on acoustic? But this this this this occasion, this development in folk and this catalyst of moving folk on then sparked a big emergence of folk music. You know, we already know what was going on in New York City, but then in L.A., and in particular a place called the Laurel Canyon,
00:05:49
Speaker
uh became a hub for like creative musicians and you had bands like The Birds, Mamas and Puppas, Love all doing this new kind of electrified revitalized folk music coming out of the Laurel Canyon scene and in the mid-60s it was the the increase of bands and musicians blending genres you would have blues bleed into folk you would have country and psychedelia mixed together with rock and it was just this hub this little this little passage of time in l.a where people realized folk can be more than just acoustic guitars interesting and so that's the musical background context um let's just talk politics as well
00:06:30
Speaker
Obviously, in the 1960s, you've got the Civil Rights Movement, a Fight for Racial Equality, you've got the March on Washington in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and many musicians at that time, we we know Bob Dylan was incorporating themes of injustice, inequality, racism, all this sort of stuff. Obviously, you've also got the Vietnam War, as well, escalating at that time, counterculture movement, where we had the youth of America rejecting societal norms, and they weren't really taking the conservative values, they were like, hold on, no, we just want peace, we want love, we want com communal living, we want hippiness, basically. just sum up um And because of this, there was a massive social upheaval in LA, where you had the clash between the law and the government and the youth of of the counterculture.
00:07:15
Speaker
And this actually resulted in what but what's known as the Sunset Strip Riots of 1966, where the police clashed with young people um because they were protesting curfews and restrictions um of the time. There you go. That's your background context of everything ah specifically to Buffalo Springfield, musically and politically, of the landscape of L.A. at that time.
00:07:40
Speaker
And we've just spent five minutes on that because it's quite important when when you talk about the lyrics and we see, but we yeah we can talk about the music and when you talk about the lyrics, how the politics was involved and how it's reflected in the lyrics. So let's talk about the album, man. I mean, where'd you want to start? Yeah, I don't know. It's difficult, isn't it? Can I start? Can I suggest? Yeah, yeah please. i just the One of the things I said in the intro, little paragraph, and this is the point that I really i really want to touch on most,
00:08:08
Speaker
when i When I heard this band and when i when I was told the members in it, my mind immediately went, okay, I think it's going to sound like this. And what this is, is Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Neil Young, Townes, Van Zandt, you know, there's timess of nash yeah. since um this kind of singer-songwriter meets folk, meets country, that little package. What I didn't expect was the the the longest song to be three and a half minutes. yeah I didn't expect the plethora, and I don't know of any way, let I'll just call it a plethora of 60s pop songs. And what I mean by that is songs that if if only if the vocals had been different, it could be a Beatles song.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah. Go and say goodbye. Reminded me of You Like Me Too Much by The Beatles. ah Sit Down I Think I Love You. Remind me of I Should Have Known Better by The Beatles. um Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It again was just another one of that 60s pop. Just really simple, short songs, great hooks, catchy choruses, lovely melodies, agreeable chord progressions, all summed up into a little two and a half minute song.
00:09:20
Speaker
Yeah, and ah well, you've mentioned the Beatles. It could be like they do sound like the birds. They do sound like the kinks or beach boys, because everyone who was doing the same sort of Well, I wouldn't say the same sort of sound, but there there was an atmosphere in terms of the the guitar effects and the vocal harmonies. There's a style you know that everyone who was kind of using at the time. yeah And yeah, I had the same impression as you. I was expecting an album that would be mainly acoustic guitar.
00:09:51
Speaker
and like really long lyrics about life and stuff. And and I was quite surprised by by the the by New Young's guitar playing the whole album, yeah which is I think when you're in a band, when you're not the ah the only songwriter and you play an instrument, you can be more of an instrumentalist less of the over an artist like and in a certain way. I think the in this album it wasn't only about him, so Stephen Stills wrote loads of of the songs in the album. I think New York was like, okay, that's your song, all I need to do is to play the guitar. Great point. ah you know so So his guitar playing this album is unlike anything I've heard of him. Yeah, let's yeah no that's absolutely fine.
00:10:35
Speaker
and I think every song has a moment of guitar on there that stands out. And what I mean by that, I mean, let's just go through it, man. I mean, the first song for what it's worth, you know, those guitar harmonics right at the start of the song. Yeah. um I love that. It's brilliant, isn't it? Because it got me to two notes. It plays two notes over and over. And that's like, ah that's like a song. Yeah. Yeah. And it creates the tension. You can imagine the people in the streets when you hear, you know,
00:11:02
Speaker
um The same song, you've got that unusual guitar effect, lots of delay and reverb on this so solo, plus little motifs here and there. ah Track two, you've got really country guitar solos. um Track three, you've got really super distorted guitar solo at the end, or you're kind of in the middle at the end, and it just doesn't, it shouldn't fit. but but but But the fact that it's an experimental and in places psychedelic album,
00:11:30
Speaker
allows it to fit. um In the track five, the guitars trying to sound like a sitar. um in In track eight burned, the guitars are made to sound like a honky-tonk piano. There's some effect that they've done just behind in the verses where the guitar has that little clicky, ah you know, texture to it. At the end, they actually use a piano, but I just think why didn't you just use it at the start?
00:11:58
Speaker
Because they could experiment with it. If you can't do it, why not? Track 10, again, very heavy distorted guitar tone, Hendrix-y, claptony, literal shredding in the solo at the end. Track 11, the psychedelic guitar intro with effects and delay and reverb again. I think that's it in terms of just, you know, that's nearly seven songs I've gone through where the guitar sounds different and is utilizing a different effect.
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah, but a cheap but still achieving a cohesive album when you get to the end of it. It's interesting, isn't it? Because, ah you know, one one interesting thing, like we talked about how American music influenced British music, and you have it happening the other way around with this album. Because, you know, after the British took American music and made it more psychedelic, more experimental, ah you have these guys in LA.
00:12:51
Speaker
Yeah. ah No, listening to, churchu I think they were listening to the to the British blues music as well, like all the the British invasion. And yeah, and then they they incorporated that to their style. So that is, ah so it's interesting how, how, ah you know,
00:13:08
Speaker
the the influence from both sides of the phone. It's like you have this American music influencing British bands and British bands influencing American bands. It's great. the It's like we'll take your influence, give us five years to do something with it, and then we'll give it back to you. And then you see what you do with that. But I hear completely what you're saying, and like I said right at the start, there's three tracks that just remind me so much of the Beatles.
00:13:37
Speaker
It could, it really could be. You just change, you get AI to change Stills' voice to John Lennon or Paul McCartney and that is just a Beatles song. I think the chord progression, the melodies, how quickly they go into a song, it's just really nice. You can also compare to Pink Floyd's first album.
00:13:55
Speaker
part of the Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd's first album, the whole album, the vibe of the album, so it's like it's the it' the kind of vocals and psychedelic sounds. Pink Floyd's first singles as well like Arnold Lane is a good one, it's not on the album I guess. Okay well what I'll do just for new listeners and viewers, what we do is we have a dedicated playlist to the show, so any song, so the full album will be in there as well as any song we've mentioned. So I've mentioned a few Beatles. I'm going to put in Astro Dominine for... Yeah, that's an instrumental one. Okay, I'll just put it in so... No, no, sorry. That's not an instrument. That's a great one. Okay, cool. Scroll down in the show notes and underneath our little description, you will see the link to the playlist. So go and you could, if we mention a song, you can listen to the one on the album, listen to the song we mentioned, and then you're up to date with how we're thinking. But yeah, the other thing is that
00:14:49
Speaker
i I always, and I make no apology for it, I always come back to when i'm when i talk when we talk about blending of styles, I always come back to the animals, because as brilliant as they were, what we noticed and identified with the animals in kind of 64, 65, was if they wanted to write an R and&B song, it would sound like an R and&B song. If they wanted to write a blues song, it would sound like a blues song.
00:15:13
Speaker
This really has to be, and I feel like I say this every time we find a band that that sort of blends styles, this really has to be one of the most impressive blends of an album because there's just hints of things everywhere. If you listen to the rhythm guitar in most songs, if you really just isolate and get your ears to just listen to the guitar, it's so country-esque, twangy tone, maybe some finger picking, country licks.
00:15:40
Speaker
But these aren't country songs. I mean, one of them may be. Which one? ah ah Go and say goodbye. It's a proper country in terms of instrumentation for me. Yeah, that one. Yeah. It's really country. the the The rhythm, the guitar, everything in it is really country. I think one of tracks, six or seven, everybody's wrong or flying on the ground is wrong. um just just Just has that country feel, like you said, like with track two. Go and say goodbye.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, there's one interesting um song, Leave, right at the end of the album is a blues. Yes. And that one is the only, in my opinion, the only known experimental song in the album. Yeah, it feels just like sweet yeah if it feels quite safe.
00:16:20
Speaker
But you say that, and I agree with you. But if we look at what else was happening with blues in 1966, over in England, we had cream, which only a couple of the weeks ago, we did fresh cream. And I think it's brilliant to see the difference. And I just think that if if you If you identify these two albums and these two bands and you look at Cream with Fresh Cream and Buffalo Springfield with their debut album,
00:16:44
Speaker
They sound so similar in so many ways, but what's different about Buffalo Springfield's, that I can just say one word, America. It is American. There are hints of America in it, whether that's the country guitar solos, the accent, even even the singing accent. Whereas Cream, the difference is in that at the British side of it. It's just brilliant, man. It's just so cool to see on two different sides of the world.
00:17:10
Speaker
the same product of what's been going on musically for the past five years back then and the different results we get. Yeah and it's ah ah it's it's there's something interesting about this which is like when I talk about Cream and and loads of those bands they were into showing how good they were as musicians and this album it's about the songs They spend a lot of time finding the right sounds, I guess. So the production is great. The playing is phenomenal, but it's all ah is all there to serve the composition. It's all about the lyrics and the melodies in the end. It's interesting. You have like that amazing guitar playing throughout the whole album, but it's still about the lyrics. Also, I think the um all the different genres that you've mentioned, the
00:17:57
Speaker
ah they are really well mixed, there's a really good balance of everything, there's not too much, like I've mentioned Pink Floyd's first album, it's too psychedelic, it's too much, but in in a good way, you know, yeah because obviously there's no folk or country in it, there's not none of the elements we're talking about here, but I think every single thing in the album, like there's the right amount of folk, country, 60s rock,
00:18:23
Speaker
you know, and and the right amount of guitar playing is so well balanced that if you like one of those genres, and you dislike the others, you can still listen to the album. Yeah, because the album comes together cohesively. That's a great point. yeah um Another music class aspect of it that I thought was really interesting and probably quite I don't want to say unusual because maybe it wasn't because the Beatles were doing it, but the the intricacy of the vocal harmonies. Yeah. Because you have three solid singers in this group um with Beatles, obviously you had Paul and John, but even with the Beatles. The Hammers are more country, isn't it? Yeah, they're much more complex instead of just the obvious interval of where you sing, um of how the Beatles might have done it. It's very more intricate and you can hear this lay the foundations for bands like Eagles, Grateful Dead,
00:19:09
Speaker
to come in and really just nail those American country harmonies. But you've got it here throughout the album as well. I mean, the one that that impressed me was Out of My Mind, um the second to last song, where most of the song is like being sung in harmony. So much so that one note I have here is, apart from the obvious effects on the guitar, the most obvious use of production in the album is halfway through out of my mind where they do something to the instruments. It's like ah what they just, it's like literally they just turn it down so that the emphasis is on the vocals and the harmonies. And I thought that was just a really nice way to draw attention ah to the vocals in a very simplistic manner. It's like, right, you we want you to listen to the vocals. So we're going to turn down all the instruments and please just listen to the voices. Yeah. Isn't it great? Yeah, it's great.
00:20:07
Speaker
I've really enjoyed it and musically, you know going from one song to another and having... a different style to sink your teeth into song to song. It just gets on my terms. I've listened to it two times in a row because it's a short album as well. If you listen to it two times, it's like 64 minutes. Yeah, it's one hour in it. The only other thing I want to say musically about this is that we were talking about at the time having bands like The Birds and other contemporaries. You have to remember that in this time, the album
00:20:40
Speaker
had only just one year prior been established, so to speak. We did, you know, go back and listen to our episode on Rubber Soul by The Beatles, where that was the moment in contemporary music history where a band said, hold on, we're not gonna focus on giving you 10 great singles that have nothing to do with each other. We're gonna link all these songs into a cohesive album. And you had bands like The Birds who were quite heavily relying on Bob Dylan covers yeah um and just releasing singles. And then you have this album come along which, although song to song varies stylistically here and there, it's a cohesive piece of work. yeah And I think what makes it cohesive is going to be the lyrical content. And do you want to get into it now, then? Yes. exactly Yeah, let's go into that. Now, we can start talking about for what is worth because it's. Yeah. great yeah And also just talking and just making a link between the think the the
00:21:34
Speaker
the instrumental analysis we're doing and the lyrics. What I like about the song is like, it's got a fast tempo, but the song is not heavy. So you don't perceive it as a fast song. The BPM is yes not slow. It's not slow. The groove is quite empty as well. There's not much going on with the drums, just mainly the bass drum and the snare like really quietly.
00:21:55
Speaker
yeah And because it's not heavy and there's not too much drumming, it's not like a heavy groove, you don't perceive it as a as a fast tempo. ah But it is. ah so And you have the acoustic guitar leading the song. Can I just talk talk just very quickly about the the tempo? Yes. I didn't even think about that, but you've made a great point because then it feels so slow and empty at the start and then suddenly the chorus comes in it's but daddy what's that sound and you're like hold on wait why are all these words coming at me so fast like it shouldn't be this fast but then you realise that it is like it is exactly a faster post song
00:22:31
Speaker
Because it it has that kind of a slow vibe atmosphere to it, but it's not it's not really slow. Yeah, and if you listen to other versions of this song, um Stevie Nicks and Ozzy Osbourne recorded. Okay, are they worth uploading in the playlist? Yeah, those two you should put, they're pretty cool versions of it.
00:22:48
Speaker
ah But in this case, I think none of them beat the original because you you know it's someone singing about an experience they had. So Stephen Stills was it was you know walking in Sunset Strip and he saw the so-called riots, which basically what he said was like the the young people that were ah protesting against the curfews. Basically, I think the people who who had commercial places in that road, they wanted the ah the bars and the live music venues and all that stuff. The noisy places for young people, they wanted them to close ah earlier. And then I think there was ah there was an official curfew going on. And the ah the young people obviously didn't like it. And apparently they were um doing like this funeral for a venue.
00:23:34
Speaker
they were not it wasn't like ah apparently a a loud protest whatever they were just pretending to be at a funeral for this bar they couldn't open after a certain time you know holding signs and stuff and the police came ah with guns and it was apparently quite violent and so that is the thing is it's interesting to see how how you want to bring that feeling to the lyrics. What makes the lyrics brilliant is, first of all, that the title of the song is not in the lyrics. How brilliant is that? There's no point in the lyrics that it says for what is worth. And and and and as a title, it really makes you it just makes you think of it. What's worth?
00:24:13
Speaker
you know, just makes you ponder for that second. Yeah, and I think the most brilliant thing about those lyrics is it leaves it open to you to ah to adapt to any other context of protest anywhere in the world at any point in time, because it doesn't mention the ah the any details of the situation, it doesn't place that situation in l LA. yeah it doesn't you know It's really cool because you can ah you can use that against ah yeah against any wars, you can use that against ah any government oppression. So basically,
00:24:45
Speaker
ah Because this is not it's not a political podcast we're not going to go too far into this but what I would say is like what you see nowadays with the polarization of politics is people tend to think that if someone's saying something that you don't like. So you should hate them should be against them, you should be on the other side of the fence there's only two sides and you need to fight there's no.
00:25:07
Speaker
and any And there's a lot of people who think, oh if you if you don't agree with me, you shouldn't be able to just so to say what you think at all. you should So basically in the lyrics, he he uses the phrase, speaking their minds. So just those young people speaking their minds, should they face police brutality for speaking their minds? Is there even a riot?
00:25:28
Speaker
So they call it this the riots. Is that even a riot? is Or is just people just holding signs and saying, we do not agree with the curfews? So is that was the the reaction ah of the police proportional to what they were doing? So it makes you think about all those things and and how many times that has happened all over the world, you know?
00:25:46
Speaker
yeah so yeah Yeah, exactly. So so it's it's it's really interesting that I believe you can read those lyrics in different contexts and still work. So I think it was um i he probably thought of it. The interesting thing about that ah still said that he wrote the song in about 15 minutes. He saw the scene. He walked back home, picked his guitar, played the chord progression, said this is it. This is the song and wrote the lyrics straight away. 15 minutes. Some of the best songs are made like that, isn't it?
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah that's incredible, but I feel like and when an artist has an idea and when they've been so inspired by something they just run with it. and they can just get out their feelings on from pen to paper in 15 minutes. Exactly. It's the only really political song in the album, in my opinion. ah i I didn't notice anything about the other lyrics that are political. They do talk about their views on relationships and stuff. And some of them are quite light, in a way. you know so but um um can i talk about another song another please go ahead i feel like i've had much say on the music you're the lyrics guys so yeah take it away yeah so uh hot dusty roads i love that because like if you have the folk slash country or a background
00:27:04
Speaker
ah Maybe people expect you to sing about specific, you know, country life and that kind of stuff. And the lyrics, so the first the first verse is just brilliant. I don't tell no tales about no hot dusty roads. I'm a city boy and I stay at home. So this is literally the opposite. You know that country road song? Yeah. This is the opposite. If I don't take me home to country roads, keep me in my city house. But you know, which which I believe is is is still stalking about himself because he was he was a city boy, apparently, yeah as far as i know as I know. So the thing is, that's the freedom of rock music, right? Because they are a rock band at the end. When you mix all those styles, you can only call it rock and roll. yeah So ah the thing with that for me is,
00:27:51
Speaker
um He's basically saying, am I not entitled to pick like country a influence and folk influence and talk about city life? Why not? yeah You know, that's what music should be about. You just do your own thing. It doesn't have to be. ah You can stick to the tradition. It's great if you do, but if it's great if you don't.
00:28:15
Speaker
It's about expression, always expression. yeah Exactly. you can't yeah You can't deny your country influences. On the other hand, you didn't live that lifestyle. So you can't be it's fake hard' pretend you're part of it. Exactly. but the instrument is a guitar play But the guitar plays part of your life because it comes from the radio, it comes from the records. Yeah, that's perfect. It's perfecty about really well said it like like I grew up in South America listening to British music.
00:28:39
Speaker
was there i couldn't you know I couldn't write a song pretending that I was living in London when I was 10. But musically, I could play like that because that was my influence. that's yeah So I believe this i believe this it's really cool that he put that in the lyrics. ah The other one I really liked is Flying on the Ground is Wrong. Do you know what this song is about? I don't know what it's about, but I heard the lyrics. what do you mean say What do you think it means by flying on the ground? That's New Young's lyrics, by the way.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, ah exactly. So he's getting high, he's flying on the ground. yeah So what I find beautiful about it, it's quite sad because he's talking about losing people. It's interesting because like, um if you go down that route, like taking drugs and stuff, ah you're not going to you're not going to belong to a certain group of people that you used to belong to, which it's totally understandable, in my opinion. You normally don't hang out with people who take different substances or whatever. It's just like... It's like music. A heavy metal guy doesn't hang out with someone who likes rap. Exactly. Exactly. So you have the weed guys, the booze guys, whatever. But I think when he started experimenting with drugs and going down that route, he lost a lot of friends.
00:29:54
Speaker
And so the the lyrics are about that, how sad he was for losing those people who were, you know, part of his life. I think there's something really interesting about this song that, coupled with what you've just mentioned, is how we know now we know a lot about Neil Young and his drug use. It's quite famously documented about how much he takes and all that stuff. You know, when you watch The Last Waltz by the band, you can literally see the powder on his nostrils, you know,
00:30:22
Speaker
But isn't it funny? This, if I'm not mistaken, this is Neil Young's first ever album, as in first album being part of a band yeah because Crosby, Stills and Ashton Young was after this 1969 and Neil Young's first album was 72 or something. So in the first album he's ever written, he's already talking about the detrimental effects of drugs on his life.
00:30:46
Speaker
Yeah. Unlosing friends is a big part of it. You know, I imagine what I'm saying is that if you, if I'd had five Neil Young albums and then on the fifth album, he starts saying all drugs are bad. You'd be like, okay, you've, you've started taking drugs. You know, it's now not for you. What are you telling us? But this is before, but this is the, do you know what I mean? I just find it crazy that I suppose what I'm trying to say is I think it's crazy that Neil Young was already had a relationship with drugs at this point.
00:31:12
Speaker
no judgment from me. but yeah he already He was already regretting it from the beginning kind of. i just you know It's it's it's is an interesting thing. and But this is a side of of of this sort of ah experience that I've never heard anyone talking about in music, the fact that that you're losing friends.
00:31:31
Speaker
Neil had a way with words, didn't he? yeah yeah they this title of the song is great and everything yeah yeah That sort of thing. I don't think the lyrics are predictable. The other one that I really liked, ah go and say goodbye. How many breakup songs do you have out there? you know um you know um we We need to mention some names like Taylor Swift kind of stuff. Let's write a breakup song. not a you know By all means, I'm not against it. I think she's that she's it's just really good at what she does. She's really, really good at what she does. ah So there's a lot of ah pop songs about breakups.
00:32:02
Speaker
ah Even when people are really creative with the melodies, even if they can come up with, ah you know, great arrangements and chord progressions, the lyrics are normally the obvious kind of thing. You're talking in first person, oh, I miss you, or so sad we're breaking up, or I can't stand you anymore, whatever, something like that. This song is about this guy.
00:32:26
Speaker
talking to his mate, because his mate wrote a letter to break up with his girlfriend. And he's like, dude, don't do that. Go there and tell her in her face. You can't do that. It's super cool. It's like, yeah, ah yeah. so they would say goodbye He says in the lyrics, don't run away and hide.
00:32:47
Speaker
he's trying to avoid dealing with her when she's crying or sad or mad or whatever's going to happen when they break up. ah But this this good friend is telling him, you got to go there and tell her. You can't just you can't just you know drop a letter and and run away, which is which something that, you know, ah you can experience in real life. if If I was in a situation like that, I would tell my friend, like, you should go and talk to her. You can't do that. You can't just drop a letter and and disappear. So that's the thing. i've I've never heard any any lyrics like that. So ah it makes it makes it so real, doesn't it? It's a real story, but it probably is a real story, even if it's not sounds like it. Yeah, no, no, I completely agree. and I think it's just interesting how
00:33:32
Speaker
the album doesn't i mean just just for examples you've given we know that the album doesn't have a clear it's not concept album it doesn't have a clear theme running through it but already we've looked at the politics of the 60s and one specific event and it's quite interesting that For What It's Worth was recorded at the separate studio Yeah, I wonder if they had and it does stand out to me and not in a bad way, but it does feel I mean, even the volume, um if you play track one is quite different. Yeah. And the volume, the master volume of the for what it's worth compared to the other tracks is is more so a it already stands out like that. Then you've got the the kind of a different approach to a romance song with girls say goodbye. Then you've got the talk of drugs on flying on the ground is wrong.
00:34:20
Speaker
um it's just It's just a nice eclectic mix of themes that probably weren't prevalent at those times. yeah Politics were prevalent, obviously, but drugs are a different way to look at a breakup. you know so exactly really like good stuff It's like talking about love and breakups in a non-obvious way. Yeah, exactly.
00:34:42
Speaker
um One other aspect I just want to talk about musically was the um the psychedelic sound because I feel that with all these different styles blended it feels like it feels likes like it feels like the psychedelic aspect was a by-product of it. I don't think they were trying to sound psychedelic but yet that intro of Ford It's Worth just has so much space there.
00:35:06
Speaker
so much so freedom to just to to to to let the music um express itself. yeah And even... um What else did I see? Oh, do you know what? That part, um track four, nowadays Clancy can't even sing. Did you clock that the whole song It's just, it's going from 4-4 to like 6-8 or 3-4 to a waltz. Yeah, it goes to a waltz for the chorus. yeah and that's really psychedelic water And it just goes back and forth. Then it goes back to 4-4 for a verse. Then for the chorus it goes... three four for the war That's kind of psychedelic. I was listening to it today and I was like, oh, hold on. Are we going back to the back to the waltz now? Fine, sure.
00:35:47
Speaker
yeah and it's it's Yeah, it's a clever way of ah arranging it. And also, again, the lyrics are interesting because that that's about New Young's frustration with not achieving what he wanted as a musician.
00:35:59
Speaker
How cool is that? Until that point, see? Until my album. What's the title about? It's so funny. Nowadays Clancy is a friend of his from from from school. okay I don't know. I don't know. the I think something is a friend from school. I don't remember why it's in the title. ah But it's I like I like when he says to sing in the meaning of what's in my mind before I can take home what's rightfully mine.
00:36:25
Speaker
So really cool. So he's he's he's talking about like, he wants to be true in his music. it' i I interpret this as like, I don't want to just go fully commercial and do what people expect from me. I want to do what I believe is the right thing to do. And I still want to be successful with this. it so It's a really difficult path to take. But you know, he did it brilliantly. That's a good point.
00:36:48
Speaker
Um, so I think that's it for the music and lyrics. I mean, unless you have anything more to say about lyrics. I mean, the writers of the album, it's obviously Stills and Young working yeah to go out separately and together. Um, interestingly, uh, Richie Furay sings on quite a few tracks. He sings on tracks, uh, two, three, four, six, seven, nine, 10. So he sings on quite a lot of them. And actually me or Young only sings on two, burned and out of my mind.
00:37:16
Speaker
So Neil hadn't quite found his front man voice yet. But as you said, that led us to a nicer, when we get his guitar tone, basically, don't we? Yeah, exactly. Amazing guitar playing in every song. And never predictable, you know. Not at all. That's completely why I said at the start how each song has a different effect on it of each guitar. um Excellent. and Cool. Well, let's just finally let's finish off with just talking about what this album did. You know, when we I don't think I think we're under no illusions. We never try and blow smoke up an album's arse unless it's worth it. So we're not going to sit here and say this changed music forever. It isn't a Sgt. Pepper. It isn't a Pet Sounds. But what it did do was, as I said in the in the opening bump, was it really did start the journey of
00:38:05
Speaker
commercialised, easy to listen to pop music, starting to develop a personality, starting to move away from your standard romantic romantic lyrics. yeah you you folk um You're figuring in politics, you're figuring in drug abuse, you're figuring in an anti-romance kind of you know vibe. But what this album did do,
00:38:27
Speaker
as I said is push more into seven what we know of the 70s folk rock, your Eagles, you know, your Jackson Brown, your James Taylor, the singer songwriter folk rock kind of era that ushered America in through the 70s that became very prevalent. You've got the pioneering of country rock,
00:38:47
Speaker
So country rock now is probably what I think its I read something that's the most profitable and most expensive genre of music in the world because hundreds and thousands of Americans love their country. And now that it's been rockified, i sorry, not love their country as in USA, ah love their country music. I'm sure they love USA as well. Yeah. But, you know, what this did is it took the lyrics of folk. Yeah.
00:39:16
Speaker
it took the warmth of country. And that when i read when I was doing my research and reading, someone read, ah there was a reviewer who said, this album takes country's warmth. And I thought that's just perfect because the country aspects are warm. The guitar tones are familiar. The the the the chord progressions are really agreeable and accessible. They sound lovely. It's a warm feeling. But then you add the edge the rock delivers.
00:39:42
Speaker
the crazy psychedelia moments, Neil Young's shredding guitars, um the drug abuse lyrics, and you mix that all together and you've got you you've got your beginnings of country rock. Exactly. And the lyrics in this case, that's when they open in a completely different avenue for for country, if you consider them as country in a way, ah because the lyrics are the opposite of country music. yeah that point Very, very, very different. Cool. Anything else left to say?
00:40:10
Speaker
No, we could talk about this all day, but we've got to end at some point. Well, we'll finish off with my monologue then as I chose this album. And, you know, let's talk about why I chose the album. um ah You know, I said i I said that as if I've got a great story prepared. I don't. ah My brother showed me Buffalo Springfield once. I think it was probably for What It's Worth, the the song. um And yeah, when I heard For What It's Worth, I thought this is exactly how I expected it to sound. It sounds like Neil Young. It sounds like Cosby Still's National Young.
00:40:40
Speaker
The minute track two starts, that's when I went, oh, hello, what's going on here? OK, this is not what I expected. Let's see where this goes. And the result has been fantastic because I loved it. I really, really loved it. but You know, most songs I really enjoyed. um There's just something different around every corner. But yeah, and anyway, thanks for bringing this album to my life, man. No problem. I'm going to listen to it again. Did you enjoy it? Fucking loved it. It's brilliant. isn't It really is good. OK, cool. Right. Well, let's finish off then. um
00:41:11
Speaker
This album sounds and feels like a cornerstone in music history. To me, it feels like the catalyst between classic 60s pop like The Beatles and The Kinks and established 70s folk rock like Crosby, Stills and Ashton Young, Eagles and Neil Young. The music contains enough catchy melodies, sing-along choruses, memorable hooks and agreeable chord progressions to entice and satisfy any generic pop music fan, yet contains several boundary pushing elements.
00:41:40
Speaker
Whilst kept to a minimum and used extremely tastefully, these little characteristics of the album would be enough to test the boundaries of folk and pop to move them together in a stronger force going forward. The blending of styles blurred the lines. One song sounds like it's a proto Neil Young track. Another song could be taken from an early Beatles album. One song sounds like it's from a 50s doo-wop compilation.
00:42:04
Speaker
and another sounds like it's been injected with Cream's recent blues rock medicine. Whilst these individual moments may hearken back to an already established artist or a decade gone by, the characteristics and personality that each musician in Buffalo Springfield brings to the table solidifies that this is the work of a unique band with unique ideas and a solidified, established direction of travel.
00:42:26
Speaker
The record is an easy to listen to pleasure of an album, but if you take the time to dig below the surface of the simple pop folk exterior, you can find a multitude of musical wealth and innovation ready to inspire countless other rock, folk, blues and country musicians. Amazing. I love the monologues, man. Great stuff. Thank you. Yeah, I just, you know me, I love getting all my thoughts down into a big, big, nice, big monologue. There we go. But yeah, that sums up for me, man. It's like it It feels like the start of something, doesn't it? And I'm sure in a year or so we'll come and do the second one, because I really enjoyed this. We'll have to add the second and the third one to the list. But yeah, cool. Why? Well, that concludes another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll podcast. So thank you for joining us. As I said at the start of the show, if you're listening on Apple's Spotify or Amazon, do us a favor, go down, give us a review, hit the five stars, and it helps us so much. And if you're watching on YouTube, hit like and subscribe to stay up to date with the content. Until then, we'll see you next time.
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for being with us one more time. Keep on rocking everyone and don't do anything I wouldn't do. And as usual guys, take care and long live rock and roll.