Buffalo Springfield debut released 50 years ago today

I'm going to have to check out their version....I don't think I ever had a reason to listen to the Carpenters before, so let me tip my hat to y'all!!

 

That's the sad part of the story. After the show, I got busy breaking down my gear and later on two of the other guys on stage crew came up to me and said, "Lux, where the heck were you?!" I asked them what they were talking about and one of them said, "Didn't you hear? We were invited to meet the band after the show!"
No one had told me that. Major disappointment!

 

Yes, the stereo mix sucks...it's wimpy. Go for mono, as it's cohesive.

But the cover is cool...I dig it.

 

For the first album, allot of the multitrack tapes that were recorded at Gold Star (Sonny & Cher, Iron Butterfly, Dr John) were still in their possession when they closed.

How old was I in 1966: 5

Hearing what Dowd did to FWIW, I wished he would remixed the whole album behind the producer's backs.

 

The coolest band to be named after a steam roller.

 

FWIW was done at Columbia on 8-track. Neighbor Don't You Worry was done at Gold Star though, and remixed for the box. Presumably the other multis exist.

The age question was for Grant.

I doubt Dowd would have made a difference mixing. FWIW sounds the way it does because it was recorded at Columbia, not because Dowd mixed it. He didn't even do the mono mix.

 

we get to celebrate its 50th anniversary again in February when they re-released it!

 

It is a great album. For years all I listened to was Retrospective. One of the few cases of a group or artist where all I had was a "best of". Only maybe five years ago did I pick up the self titled first album and I have grown to appreciate it more and more.

 

I know FQIW was done at Columbia, and Greene and Stone did the mono mix.
Dowd hated the track layout (from what he was saying). "It wasn't like a rhythm track with some overdubs and vocals, but a different instrument on each track".

It would have been nice if Neil Young or somebody would have done a remix of the first album when they did the box set.

 

Four. But I was obsessed with music, and we had it on all day long. That's the kind of home I grew up in.

I understand that *most* people don't discover or get into music until their teens, but some of us are different.

 

I have no idea why Dowd would have hated the track layout. He had been using 8-track for 9 years, doing exactly the same thing. A very strange complaint.

A remix of that album would be nice, but I suspect for the most part it wouldn't sound very different unless the recordings were made in stages and the earlier stages were available to sync with. A few stereo mixes are a bit problematic, but for the most part the problem is the recordings (or at least what's on the final 4-tracks).

Being into music and being acutely aware of the whole music scene are a bit different, especially when one is four.

 

Didn't Neil say (in the liner notes to Decade?) that the guys in the band gave him some "uppers" before he sang Burned to get his courage up? Maybe he was too nervous/shy to sing his other songs on the first album?

 

Friend of mine had a really beat up copy of this that he picked up somewhere, signed by everyone from the original lineup except Neil.

We were looking at it one day and noticed a tiny scribbled "Neil" signed on the price sticker still attached to the front cover.

I hope that didn't get trashed when he died (my friend, not Neil).

 

Yeah, Neil says that about the uppers in the liner notes to Decade.
In Einarson and Furay's book on the Springfield, it says that Neil pushed to have himself sing Burned and Ritchie was hurt as he saw himself as lead vocalist on that track, and indeed in the group.
In fact, the book claims that this was a factor in the eventual unraveling of the band. Ritchie even says that he got to sing some of Neil's songs on the first album as a form of appeasement.
Of course, this is Ritchie's side as he co-authored the book. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
I think I read somewhere about Greene and Stone not wanting Neil to sing lead but I don't know where. Don't know how the other members of the band felt either.

 

And, how old were you in 1966, Luke?

 

i played 'again" in my class yesterday while they were doing seat-work and 3 kids asked me after class who the band was!

 

I've never claimed I was a pop music expert at the age of 4.

 

'Crosby, Stills, and Nash.'

 

I never did, either. And, you still didn't answer the question.

 

Oh?

 

Grant, beat me by a year.

We had one o' them stereo consoles but it would be another
12yrs before I would seriously look into that. I didn't discover
FM 'til my teens.

No, the debut is not the ball knocked out of the park its successor
is, but it's quite the achievement for a freshman band. You can tell
these guys had been throwing that ball around awhile and were
not all wet behind the ears. To me it's comparable to "Please Please
Me" or many other debuts BUT it's a Hell of a debut.


CSN never rocked this hard!

 

That's not the same as calling oneself an expert. And, you still dodged the question of how old you were in 1966. That's OK, though. Your silence speaks for itself.

All I did was state that I was around in 1966, and heard lots of music, and was conscious of what I was hearing, even at the age of four.

 

I've never stated I know more about the music of any time period because I was there at the time, so it's a moot point.

 

Neither did I. So, I would appreciate it if you'd stop trying to insinuate that I said something that I didn't.

Man, in all these years, i've never had a beef with you, and have a lot of respect for your research of recording. I'd like to keep it that way.

 

Slightly tangent to the subject: does anyone know of a different, faster version of 'FWIW' done by the band, maybe as a demo? I interviewed two people who hung out with the Springfield in LA (they were with different bands on the scene ca. '66) and both recall being played two different versions of the song. They both remembered that one was much faster than the other, and the slower one became the hit.