Song: Broken Arrow
Album: Buffalo Springfield Again
Released: October, 1967
Monday, President’s Day, was one of those rare, nothing-to-do
mornings. I’d be taking Peter and his
buddies to the YMCA for some basketball later, but the early goings of the day were
strangely free of commitments. How to
take advantage of the time? I turned the
Olympics on for some early-morning hockey, but this was not enough. I needed to listen to some music, and with
Neil Young constantly on the docket this year, I had both focus and range to
work with.
The reconnection with a free, tune-filled morning brought me back…way
back actually, to my college years, when a weekend’s early hours would often be
dedicated to broadening the music-knowledge horizons. I recalled my senior year, spring semester
’84 in North Adams, living with Bob Bouvier and two other music-loving roommates
(well, one of them had a steep learning curve) in an old, Victorian, 3-story, 3
apartment off-campus house-on-a hill.
Posters of the Who (and only the Who), decorated our T.V. room and quite
often it was the Who that was all we played.
But we would break from the norm on occasion and in these moments we could
be heard listening to quite a range of other stuff, including Neil Young, the Rolling
Stones, Pete Townshend solo (primarily the then-recently released ‘All the Best
Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes’) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (one of Bouv’s favorite
songs at the time was Vaughan’s version of Mary
Had a Little Lamb). We would also go
downstairs to our fellow tenants’ apartment to hang out and listen to their
collection, which was quite extensive. Thinking
back this past Monday, I recalled a good dose of Allman Brothers (it’s where I
got into ‘Eat a Peach’), Zappa and Steely Dan.
It was all coming back. And then another
album materialized in my mind: ‘Buffalo
Springfield Again’.
Upon that recollection, I knew what I had to do.
And so, for the next 5-6 hours, I listened to Buffalo Springfield.….
again. And not only did I listen to their
aforementioned 2nd album, but the 1st (‘Buffalo
Springfield’) and 3rd (the aptly named ‘Last Time Around’) albums as
well, along with a handful of outtakes, singles and bootlegs. Like the Beatles and the original Byrds, this
was a band that did not survive the 60s and so, the context of all their music
can be taken in entirely through that prism.
That thought helped put me in the right frame of mind, and before long,
I was immersed in it all.
What an eclectic band this was.
First, there was a young Stephen Stills on lead guitar/vocals, full of rock
swagger, vigor and raw talent, not one to shy away from the spotlight. There was rhythm guitarist/vocalist Richie
Furay, bringing a softer angle to the mix, who may have paved the way for country-rock
bands like the Eagles (though on their last album, Furay diversified nicely with
more experimental, Grateful Dead-like sounds).
There was drummer/vocalist Dewey Martin, who would not have been out of
place if he were picked up and dropped off behind the British-Invasion drum kit
of a band like the Herman’s Hermits or the Dave Clark Five (Buffalo Springfield
was an entirely North American band).
Looking at video footage, these 3 gents appeared to occupy the bright
parts of the stage.
Then there were the guys who occupied the darker corners, the two
Canadians in the band, bassist Bruce Palmer and lead guitar/vocalist Neil Young. Although there may have been other reasons
for this (both were in the USA illegally and without work permits during their
tenure with Buffalo Springfield) it appears to me as a natural fit for
them. Palmer and Young came across as
moody in demeanor and appearance. Bruce
Palmer combined his preference for dark corners with turning his back to the
crowd (more on this below). For Neil
Young, his talents would not allow the shadows for much longer; his time with
Buffalo Springfield proved to be the only period in his career where he would
be allowed to stand behind someone else.
Together Palmer and Young gave Buffalo
Springfield a deeper and more expansive, sound.
When I think of Buffalo Springfield, what often comes to mind is that now-famous
chance encounter at the crossroads. Driving
in one direction was Young and Palmer, at the tail end of a futile week-long search
for Stills and Furay in the streets of L.A. after a cross-country trip to get
there; now broke and about to give up and head back north. From another
direction was Stills and Furay, who spotted Young’s black hearse (which was
familiar to Furay, having connected with Young in New York) and flagged him
down. The rest history.
I believe we all have a crossroad moment in our lives. For me, it was in the summer of ’84, another memorable
visit to Ottawa, Canada, and long term implications this time with a job on the
line at one of the few places I could work:
The American Embassy (my lack of a work permit a mirror to Neil Young’s
predicament in the States). But it was
not to be. Several months later, back in
Massachusetts, I met Nancy, and I have never looked back (though I still recall
Fred’s comment to me in Ottawa that summer along the lines of “Pete, this is a
great fit for you”).
This and other road-trip experiences are one reason I believe I can
relate to Neil Young. I was in search
of something back then, though not quite knowing what it was or how it would
all come together. But I was willing to
travel to find it. Neil Young wandered
North America and eventually found what he wanted. His North American experience and the times
that it all happened are familiar to me, more so than say, what many of my
favorite British bands went through (though those experiences were challenging
in their own rights).
A few years back, the family and I took our second trip to
Newfoundland, a top drawer destination for me.
The trip included a 13 hour overnight ferry ride from the northern tip
of Nova Scotia to the Avalon Peninsula (east coast of Newfoundland). On the ferry was a young kid who sat out on
the cold deck during the dusk and dawn hours and played guitar, his girlfriend
close by his side. He played some great
music, and I stood out there longer than I would normally have, just to listen
and I guess to also offer support. We
talked a bit. He was Canadian. This was his first trip to Newfoundland, and
he, simply put, wanted to see what he could find in himself there - on a wing
and a prayer. Later I would run into him
several more times in the streets of St John’s.
He was drawing a small crowd, and yet it was clear he was a struggling
musician trying to make ends meet. I was impressed. Was this kid at a crossroads? I thought of
Neil Young and what it must have been like for him in his early break-away days
in Thunder Bay and Toronto. This young
man had painted an indelible image for me.
Over the past few months listening to Neil Young’s music, I’m beginning
to see a triple pattern with what he does.
Concepts seem to come in 3s for Mr. Young. There’s the “Ditch” trilogy (discussed in
Forever Young # 7); there’s the fever-inspired triple set of Cinnamon Girl, Cowgirl in the Sand and Down
by the River on ‘Everybody Knows this is Nowhere’ (see Forever Young #
5). There are references linking Young’s
acoustic albums, ‘Harvest’, ‘Comes a Time’ and ‘Harvest Moon’. There’s the triple album retrospective
‘Decade’.
And there’s Neil Young’s classic triple contribution to ‘Buffalo
Springfield Again’; Mr. Soul, Expecting to
Fly, and this week’s Forever Young tune, Broken Arrow ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXqR8fj0MUM
). These three songs complement one
another with themes of soul, love and peace (respectively) which were the 3 core
ideals in the hippie movement of the late 60s.
Young seems to be making a pact with himself here: To keep his soul intact on his path to fame (which
he appears to fear losing in Mr. Soul)
he would focus all his energies on writing music about love and peace. These two themes would remain the
cornerstones upon which he would weave his magic for the rest of his career. He’s never lost those hippie ideals.
It’s fascinating seeing the rise of Neil Young during his period with
Buffalo Springfield. The band’s
appearance on ‘Hollywood Palace’ (where they lead off with Stills’ hit For What It’s Worth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY
) is indicative of this. The second song
of the night was Mr. Soul (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRhHDS69iU0 ). Neil Young
is intense here, which comes across most clearly during the 1:22 to 1:37
stretch of the clip, when Young walks up to Bruce Palmer (who looks as if he is
conducting an orchestra, his back to the camera, directly in front of the
audience!) and goes into overdrive; oh too short, but still sweet. Young is playing off the bass. It may have been the moment Crazy Horse was
born, as he would search for this type of lock-in often with Billy Talbot in
the decades that followed. I love Palmer’s
bass jam here, but make no mistake that Neil Young is the catalyst.
My final thoughts here though are on the song Broken Arrow. What a play
with lyrics in the refrain:
“Did you see him in the
river?
He was there to wave to you.
Could you tell that
the empty quivered,
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow,
Held a broken arrow? “
“Broken Arrow” is another triple theme with Neil Young. It’s not only a song title for him, but a
1996 album title and the name of his Northern California ranch as well. Clearly, the term means a lot to him. “Broken
arrow” has several meanings, but Young’s use of the term is in relation to it
being a peaceful gesture by Native American warriors, which brings to mind the
500 year struggles of these first Americans since Europeans first landed on these
shores.
It’s another struggle though, the Vietnam War, that jumps out at me
even more starkly in this song’s second verse:
“Eighteen years of American dream,
He saw that his brother
Had sworn on the wall.
He hung up his eyelids
And ran down the hall,
His mother had told him
A trip was a fall,
And don't mention babies at all”
Wow. A young man coming to grips
with what his older brother went through in the jungles and small villages in
Southeast Asia. The line “And don’t
mention babies at all” the most poignant.
Broken Arrow starts off with
a brief live clip of Mr. Soul…. “Well,
hello Mr. Soul I dropped by to pick up a reason” (sung by Dewey Martin). Neil
Young picked up a reason all right, not only with Broken Arrow, but with most everything he’s written subsequent.
Peace!
-
Pete
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