Richie Furay – Dewey Martin – Bruce Palmer – Stephen Stills – Neil Young

On April 11, 1966, the seminal rock group Buffalo Springfield made its live debut in LA, playing at The Troubadour. The gig led to a 6-week residency in May, 1966, at the nearby Whiskey A Go Go. There they attracted the attention of several record labels, setting off a bidding war won by Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, over Warner Bros. and Elektra. By the end of that year, they had recorded the rock anthem “For What It’s Worth” and were on their way to stardom.

Buffalo Springfield, a name taken from a steamroller spotted by a band in search of a name, was formed in LA in early 1966. The original lineup was Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay on guitars, Dewey Martin on drums, and Bruce Palmer on bass.

Stills and Young had crossed paths twice by the time, first in Ontario, Canada, and later in Greenwich Village, NYC. When the band Stills and Furay played in together broke up, they headed to LA, where Stephen unsuccessfully auditioned for The Monkees.

Neil had joined up with fellow Canadian Bruce Palmer in a band called the Mynah Birds. They were set to record at Motown with lead singer Ricky James Matthews (later, just Rick James), when the Navy tracked Ricky down and hauled him off for being AWOL. They decided to pile their belongings into Neil’s massive black Pontiac hearse and head to LA to look for Stills.

Neil and Richie had been driving around LA for a couple of weeks in a fruitless search and were almost broke. Heading out of town on Sunset Boulevard on their way to look for Stills in San Francisco, they spotted a van stopped in traffic on the other side of the streets and some guys waving them down. Stills and Furay had spotted the hearse and figured “That has to be Neil.” 

After adding Dewey Palmer on drums, the group quickly worked up a set of songs, including “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing” a single that was popular in California. The group’s sound was inspired by the Beatles, the Byrds and Dylan. They released 3 albums and broke up just over two years after getting together. It was enough to warrant induction into the rock HOF in 1997. Stephen Stills was also inducted with Crosby, Stills and Nash that year, making him the only artist to be inducted twice in the same year.

The best-known and loved Buffalo Springfield songs are:

• For What It’s Worth
• Mr. Soul
• Bluebird
• Down To The Wire
• Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
• Go And Say Goodbye
• Rock & Roll Woman
• Out Of My Mind
• Sit Down, I Think I Love You
• On The Way Home