SOD: Buffalo Springfield "Mr. Soul"

At a time when the British Rock n' Roll invasion swept the nation, Buffalo Springfield was one of the few North American bands to get their own foothold on the Rock charts. Their sound was an amalgamation of folk, rock, and country, but didn't quite sound like any of them when it all came together. Famously known for the Stephen Stills penned song "For What It's Worth" (which would become a national protest-song), Buffalo Springfield actually released three albums from '66 to '68. Most of it doesn't get any airplay at all though, which is surprising to me because I find much of their material to be easily digestible.

Buffalo Springfield had a short run, and trouble finding a permanent bass player. In the time that they did have, their lineup was generally based around the songwriting of Stephen Stills (guitar, keyboards vocals) and Neil Young (guitar, harmonica, piano, vocals). They were rounded out by Richie Furay (guitar, vocals) and Dewey Martin (drums, vocals). At one performance on "Hollywood Palace" they had to have a roadie sit in somewhat off-stage, and pretend to play bass. It's not as if they weren't all lip-syncing for television anyway, but it just goes to show how much difficulty they had finding a steady fill-in at bass.

"Mr. Soul" is off their second album from 1967, Buffalo Springfield Again. Though I've never met anyone that's raved about the album as a whole, I rather like it. It has a style all it's own. A lot of that may have to do with the fact that Neil Young was often M.I.A., and the original bass player (Bruce Palmer), was locked up on drug charges. Thus there were a lot of L.A. based session players who contributed. Most notable would probably be Jack Nitzsche, a name worth knowing in music. Stephen Stills contributed four tracks to the album, and his voice is part of what makes their sound so appealing to me. To have the option and ability to lead songs with either Stills or Young on vocals gave the band some good depth at that position.

When Neil Young was around, he did some great work with this group. He recorded the final track on the album all by himself (with session players), and it happens to be one of my favorites. "Broken Arrow" is a very experimental track. There's a lot of different sounds and noises used, and it's structure is musically interrupted in form, for effects like crowd noise and military snare drum rolls. In the end though, if you take the three verses that exist and judge the song off that alone, you truly get an emotional self-testimonial from Neil Young. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.