Buffalo Springfield – Stampede
(soniclovenoize reconstruction)
Side A:
1. For What it’s
Worth
2. Mr. Soul
3. We’ll See
4. Pretty Girl Why
5. Down To The Wire
6. Everydays
Side B:
7. Sell Out
8. My Kind of Love
9. No Sun Today
10. Bluebird
Happy Fourth of July!
What better way to celebrate the birthday of Murica with a bunch of
expat Canadians who sang about the unfair treatment of peaceful protesters by the
uptight US government! This is a
reconstruction of the unreleased Buffalo Springfield album Stampede. The brainchild of more their label than the actual
band, Stampede was to be released in the summer of 1967 to capitalize on
Buffalo Springfield’s hit “For What It’s Worth”. Due to internal band conflict—namely ego
battles and the departure of vocalist/guitarist Neil Young and bassist Bruce
Palmer—the album never materialized and instead the fractured Buffalo
Springfield Again was released at the end of the year. This reconstruction attempts to recreate what
Stampede could have been, particularly focusing on full-band recordings rather
than the assemblage of nearly-solo tracks as heard on the eventual Again. This reconstruction is presented in mono and
all songs are volume adjusted and sequenced for a cohesive whole. And of course, as much Neil as possible!
After a bidding war over the young Los Angeles band with
stars in their eyes, Buffalo Springfield recorded their self-titled debut album
and released it at the conclusion of 1966.
Although a powerhouse in the local LA scene, the album and its lead
single "Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing" made little impact. It wasn’t until lead singer and guitarist
Stephen Stills witnessed the Sunset Strip Riots in November, in which local law
enforcement unfairly cracked down on the counterculture 'loiterers'. Influenced by the emerging madness and civil
unrest of the 1960s, Stills composed “For What It’s Worth”, a cautionary tale
of a government policing its citizens who should otherwise have the freedom to
peacefully assemble. Recorded in December, the song was released in
January 1967 and hit the Top Ten nationally, becoming a peace anthem as well as
eventual history as one of the greatest rock songs of the 20th Century.
While “For What It’s Worth” was the song that made Buffalo
Springfield, it was also the song that destroyed them, as the young band was
not ready to attain superstardom so quickly.
Neil Young had to briefly leave the group in January due to epileptic seizures,
but returned in time for their first recording sessions of 1967 in New York. After working on several new compositions for
a second album tentatively titled Stampede (Still’s “We’ll See”, Young’s “Mr.
Soul” and guitarist Richie Furay’s “My Kind of Love”), Palmer was arrested for marijuana
possession and deported back to Canada. Throughout the next six months, Palmer
was temporarily replaced by a number of revolving bass players including: Ken
Forssi of Love, Ken Koblum of The Squires, Miles Thomas of The Poor, Jim
Fielder of Blood, Sweat & Tears and The Mothers of Invention... and not to mention Buffalo Springfield road manager Dickie Davis who
famously mimed the bass parts on a television appearance!
The band went in and out of several studios in February and
March with Fielder on bass. Although the
label thought they were tracking Stampede, the bend felt they were just killing
time until the turbulence subsided: Stills’ “Pretty Girl Why”, “No Sun Today” and “Everydays” and Young’s “Down To The Wire”. In
April, the band tracked “Bluebird” with session player Bobby West on bass, as
well as more recording and mixing done to the January recording of “Mr. Soul”
in attempt to compile a follow-up single to “For What It’s Worth”. Meanwhile, Atlantic Records capitalized on
the success of the top ten hit by re-issuing the band’s self-titled debut album,
dropping “Baby Don’t Scold Me” for “For What It’s Worth”. The move worked and the album shot up the
charts, unlike its original configuration several months before. The label then booked Buffalo Springfield to
pose for an album cover photo shoot for the Stampede album they were pressured
to be making throughout the turmoil. While this picture itself became a classic—with
Davis posing as the missing Palmer, face obscured—Stampede never did, as the
album never was.
Aside from the missing bassist and thus a lack of a solid
foundation, a second variable was at play: Neil Young. In-fighting had developed between Stills,
Young and Furay, all vying to edge their compositions into the band, resulting
in each member essentially producing the sessions for their own songs. By June, Palmer was able to return to Buffalo
Springfield but Young had already left,
attempting a solo career free of the Buffalo Springfield. Young was
temporarily replaced by Doug Hastings of The Daily Flash and then briefly David
Crosby of The Byrds. More studio works
was done to ‘kill time’ during the summer: Furay’s “A Child’s Claim To Fame” and
Stills’ “Rock ‘n’ Roll Woman” and “Hung Upside Down”. Buffalo Springfield’s trajectory had only
increased after playing Monterey Pop Festival and the band was surprised to
find that Neil wanted to rejoin. Unfortunately
the damage was already done and by August the band realized they needed to
deliver an album to Atlantic.
Oddly enough, the fractured and reassembled Buffalo
Springfield scrapped most of the material recorded throughout the tumultuous year,
and instead cobbled together an album mainly consisting of solo
recordings. Chosen was: the Palmer-less “Bluebird” and “Everydays”; the Young-less “A Child’s
Claim To Fame”, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Woman” and “Hung Upside Down”; Young offered his
own recordings of “Expecting To Fly” and “Broken Arrow” originally meant for
his short-lived solo album; Furay offered his own recordings of “Sad Memory”
and “Good Time Boy” (the later which was sung by drummer Dewey Martin and session
musicians filling out the rest of the instrumentation!). Only “Mr. Soul”
featured all of the classic Buffalo Springfield lineup. Despite being full of fantastic material, Buffalo
Springfield Again was incongruent and was hardly Buffalo Springfield as a
band. Are these faults something we can
correct?
Many people have theorized and reconstructed what Stampede
could have been, but due to the lack of any finalized tracklist—or even the
confirmation that the band believed they were making an album in the first
place—the results vary wildly. Despite
this, there are two chief methods to organize the album: it could have either
been a collection of the songs Buffalo Springfield were working on in 1967
before Young quit, or it could have been a cash-cow album by the label using
unreleased 1966 material as filler.
Here we will attempt the former, making an album that would chronologically
follow their debut album and replace Again with a more unified “band-sound” with Neil, rather than a stopgap collection to stand alongside both Buffalo
Springfield and Again. Furthermore, we
will make the assumption that the Stampede album would have touted “For What it’s
Worth” and the debut Buffalo Springfield will remain as it was initially released
in 1966 without it. Finally, this
reconstruction will be presented in mono, which is what the Buffalo Springfield
preferred.
Side A begins with “For What It’s Worth”, taken from the
Buffalo Springfield boxset. It’s
followed by the rare single mix of “Mr. Soul” with a more upfront lead guitar
and bass track, taken from a vinyl rip by Professor Stoned. Next is “We’ll See” and “Pretty Girl Why” from
the Buffalo Springfield box set, followed by Neil’s vocal version of “Down To
The Wire” from his Archives Vol 1. Side
A concludes with the mysterious “Everydays” from the mono vinyl rip of Again by
Professor Stoned.
Side B gently departs from my theme of not using the 1966
outtakes, using Neil’s fantastic “Sell Out”, taken from Archives Vol 1. Recorded near the very end of the
Buffalo Springfield sessions in September 1966, Neil plays all the instruments
and the recording was meant as a publishing demo; regardless, it fits well in my
Stampede (not to mention it being my favorite track on the album!). Following is “My Kind of Love” and “No Sun
Today” from the Buffalo Springfield box.
Ending the album is the rare 9-minute version of “Bluebird”, taken from
a vinyl rip of the obscure 1973 Buffalo Springfield double LP, collapsed into mono to
match the rest of the reconstruction.
Sources used:
Buffalo Springfield (1973 Atco Records, noxid vinyl rip)
Buffalo Springfield (2001 Rhino Records 4CD box set)
Buffalo Springfield – Again (1967 Atco Records Prof Stoned mono
vinyl rip)
Buffalo Springfield – Bluebird b/w Mr Soul (1967 Atco
Records Prof Stoned mono vinyl rip)
Neil Young – Archives Volume 1 (2009 Reprise Records CD)
flac --> wav --> editing in SONAR
and Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8
* md5 files, track notes and artwork
included