BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD

Buffalo Springfield showcased the prodigious talents of Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. With the possible exception of The Byrds, no other band had such an impact on the burgeoning folk rock scene and the California Sound of the 1960s.


"For What It's Worth (excerpt)" and "Mr. Soul" (1967)

In 1966, after witnessing the police riot on the Sunset Strip, Stephen Stills composed "For What It's Worth," and scored a top ten hit for Buffalo Springfield in 1967. The band broke up two years later, and Stills joined former Byrd David Crosby and Graham Nash of the Hollies to form Crosby, Stills, and Nash--soon to be joined by Neil Young.


"Rock and Roll Woman"(1967)

Cute outfits and pop folksiness gave way to heavier sounds in 1969, the year Buffalo Springfield broke up and Crosby, Stills, and Nash released their first album.


"Down by the River." Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at Big Sur (1969). The country folk pop was gone, and now an electric super group soared for the Northern California hippies.


"You Don't Have to Cry," Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on the Tom Jones Show (1970). They could still do wind chimes and beautiful harmonies.

WRECKING BALL

Emmylou harris - wrecking ball

Why do we like sad songs? Because we're sensitive human beings who enjoy some good healthy emotional release? Or because we're big dumb saps who wear our hearts on our sleeves? Probably a little of both. Aristotle said tragedy "achieves through the representation of pitiable and fearful incidents, catharsis." They say he could play the hell out of a country song.

Here's a sweet sad song for whiskey drinking, a plaintive late night tune written by Neil Young and sung beautifully by the lovely Emmylou Harris. Aw, shoot. I think I got something in my eye. Aw, hell.

WHISKEYTOWN!

See? This post isn't even Obama-related. With the release of a great new album by a cleaned-up Ryan Adams, "Cardinalogy," it's worth digging back to his old band, Whiskeytown. They were a rough and tumble band that played Americana, alt.country, no depression music--or whatever you want to call it--music built with equal parts old school country and indie rock, a continuation of the country rock lineage of Gram Parsons (the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers) and Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

These sweethearts of the rodeo occasionally ventured out from their gilded palace of sin to play for adoring fans, and I saw them one time, years back, and they were on fire. They say bad boy Adams has cleaned up his act, and that's good. In the clip above they play "Dancing with the Women at the Bar" on Austin City Limits.

Ryan Adams wakes up under a tree with his hair full of leaves: booze, drugs, and temper tantrums have plagued a career that zig-zags like a drunken sailor on a unicycle, but now he's clean and sober and the new album is great.


Ryan Adams and the Cardinals perform "Fix it" on the Letterman Show.

Read the Rolling Stone review of the "Cardinalogy" here.
For a Ryan Adams piece in the NYTimes, click here.
For a story from Paste Magazine click here.

NEIL YOUNG'S ELECTRIC LINCOLN

Old dogs and new tricks: Neil Young looks over his 1959 Lincoln Continental that has been converted from an inefficient fuel guzzler to a hybrid electric that can potentially get over 100 miles per gallon.
Johnathan Goodwin works on the motor that powers Neil's Lincoln. The two are cooperating on a project to make a car that has no emissions and requires no roadside stops. Why don't we all have electric hyrbid cars? For one thing, we don't have Neil Young's money to spend. More importantly, the automobile and oil lobbies have tried to squash the hybrid. For a great documentary that will get your blood boiling, rent "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

HELLO, MR. SOUL, I JUST DROPPED BY...

Here's The Buffalo Springfield, featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills, performing on The Hollywood Palace. This is a great clip of "For What It's Worth" and "Mr. Soul," with a priceless introduction by an old hack. This was beamed out across America when there were only three or four channels on your television. Imagine that.

Stephen Stills went on to join David Crosby, formerly of The Byrds, and Graham Nash, formerly of The Hollies, to form Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Neil Young joined them on their second album. Below, CSNY perform "Down By the River" in 1969.

STRANGE SCENES FROM AMERICA (1969)

Maybe these damn hippies seem naive by today's standards, but these clips of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young should melt your cynicism a little if you're not already too far gone. Hanging out, shooting the breeze, jamming on Stills' "Black Queen", "Find The Cost of Freedom", and Crosby's "Laughing".
The second part is the morning after Woodstock, so a little utopian enthusiasm is forgivable. Literally just off the plane from the festival, the band has arrived blissed-out at Dick Cavett's TV studio, ready to spread the news. Stephen Stills sings "4+20." Friends Joni Mitchell and some of the Jefferson Airplane are there, too. Use your imagination. For one golden moment it seemed the world might change for the better, and pessimism and superstition would be swept aside for peace, love, and understanding. Corny, right? I guess you had to be there.