Buffalo Springfield's Last Jam
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| At the end of the last jam session. Richie Furay, Stephen Stills playfully choking Neil Young, a shirtless Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer. These guys would never all play together again. |
None are more cool than a 1986 rough video recording I recently came across featuring the original members of Buffalo Springfield jamming out in the second of what was supposed to be three rehearsals for a proposed 20th anniversary tour that never happened.
The plans were always tentative. The group was secretly meeting in one of Stephen's California homes. It was hoped that some new material would emerge to combine with their old songs. The videos mostly document the group working on a new tune Neil had "in his head." The lyrics were not finished and the instrumentation evolves right before your eyes, a lot of back and forth between Neil and Stephen.
It seems everybody feels very positive by the experience of being reunited. A third session was planned but, as with so many other times, Neil had a change of heart and never showed up again. The anniversary tour was scrapped.
What makes the rough video worth experiencing is to watch the collaborative aspects between Neil and Stephen, the rest of the band playing very crisply together, and a couple of moments where everybody is totally in sync. The song rocks along really nicely, even if it is unfinished.
The group is situated in a tight space, a small recording room in Stephen's house, which doesn't allow for a lot of movement. Though he gets in a couple of nice riffs, Neil's performance is understated (for him) as he is showing Stephen and Richie how the song in his head should work. Meanwhile, Stephen shreds his guitar on a couple of wild explorations into how a lead might play out.
Neil would later flesh out the song as "Road to Plenty" which he would take on tour with Crazy Horse later in 1986, instead of reuniting with Buffalo Springfield. The song was further refined into "Eldorado," an excellent cut from Neil's highly successful Freedom album. To be honest, I prefer the potential of the unfinished, rough-cut featured in the original video below.
Of course, Neil worked with Stephen off and on for many years, they are still the close friends even though Neil left the band yet again in 2012 after only a few gigs of a reunion tour. Buffalo Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer played with Neil at Young's historic 1982 Berlin concert. But Palmer died before the 2012 reunion. So these sloppy videos are all that is left of the last time the original band members played together.
Even though the two tunes presented are unfinished and not the tightest of performances, these videos (particularly the first one) reflect what it is like when superior musicians get together to explore creativity without a solid master plan; the scattered moments when everyone is spontaneously playing their best and in unison are fun to witness. Check out the first video at 7:10 for a great example of this.
I'm grateful that I came across this moment of rock history that never actually amounted to anything. These guys were great together, but that apparently wasn't enough for Neil unfortunately, who constantly struggles with himself between being defined by his successful past and the need to satisfy his restless muse with new music.
Whatever. Enjoy this jam.
This next video is of even rougher quality and overlaps the first video. Skip to 4:24 to watch the group play around with a new tune Stephen was working on. Neil plays keyboards. Some goofy fun afterwards.
This last video picks up where the first jam left off until Neil breaks a guitar string. Stephen, who is trying to retrieve his guitar at the end of the first video, has one more nice riff. The five guys then just joke around at the end of the session.
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