80. Buffalo Springfield — Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)

Angelic buffaloooo

1. Hey look! It’s the S and Y in CSNY! Somehow I didn’t realize Neil Young and Steven Stills were in Buffalo Springfield; you don’t really hear either in their classic “For What It’s Worth.” But the combination of three separate lead singer/songwriters and such strong personalities creates a really unique, diverse sound, flitting from folk rock to psych rock to country and blues.
2. The album opens with “My Soul,” a Neil Young track that has all of the insistence and edge you expect from Young. This transitions into a very traditional 60s folk rock tune from Richie Furay with “A Child’s Claim To Fame,” and finally an excellent blues rock tune from Stills with “Everydays.” Those first three tracks really set the tone of the album, which jumps between these genres and leads repeatedly.
3. The result almost sounds like Speakerboxx/The Love Below, a group of solo artists releasing an album of their individual music vs a unified band. And in fact, some tunes were effectively solo tracks; Young’s “Expecting To Fly” was recorded with a full crew of session players and not a single other member of the band. It’s a strange effect, but it works, even if it raises questions about bands vs lead singer/songwriters and where the authorship truly lives.
4. I think on a whole, my favorite tracks here are split between Young and Stills; makes me pretty amped to get Crosby and Nash in the mix.

One Essential Song:

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