1966-1968Neil YoungGuitar, vocals
Stephen StillsVocals, guitar
Richie FurayVocals, guitar
Dewey MartinVocals, drums
Bruce PalmerBass1966-1967
Jim FielderBass1967
Doug HastingsGuitar1967
Ken KoblunBass1967
Jim MessinaBass1967-1968
Before forming Buffalo Springfield, guitarists Richie Furay and Stephen Stills had played together in a nine-piece New York folk group called the Au Go Go Singers (they released their lone album, They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers, in 1964). Bassist Bruce Palmer and guitarist Neil Young had played together in the Mynah Birds in Toronto, Canada. That band featured Rick James (of "Super Freak" fame) on lead vocals and was signed to Motown.
The band took their name from a Buffalo Springfield Roller Company steamroller that Stills and Furay saw outside the home of producer Barry Friedman. They just thought it sounded cool.
They were originally named The Herd (also the name of Peter Frampton's first group).
From May 2 to June 18, 1966, they were the house band at the Whisky a Go Go, one of the most popular and culturally significant venues of its era. The exposure was huge for Buffalo Springfield and led to several contacts and performances that significantly elevated their status.
In 1967 their bass player, Bruce Palmer, was deported to Canada after being busted for weed in Los Angeles. It was one of three times he was deported. The second occurred in 1968 when he was arrested for speeding without a license and possessing drugs, and the third happened in 1972 because he tried to get back into Los Angeles without permission of the Attorney General. Palmer played bass for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for a couple weeks in 1969, just before his final deportation.
Neil Young quit in May 1967, only to rejoin in September. In 1995, Young
told Mojo that he was inspired to walk away when the band got slated to play the
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Show. Young felt the show would belittle Springfield's music and make a novelty out of it. Tensions had been building for him before that, though. "I just couldn't handle it towards the end,"
he explained. "It wasn't me scheming on a solo career. It wasn't anything but my nerves. Everything started to go too f--king fast. It was going crazy, joining and quitting, joining and quitting again. I began to feel like I didn’t have to answer or obey anyone. I needed more space. That was the big problem."
Drummer Dewey Martin went on to a solo career, as did Young. Young and Stills also got together in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which very briefly included Palmer (as noted above). Fielder joined Blood, Sweat & Tears. Messina and Furay formed Poco, and Messina later partnered with Kenny Loggins to form Loggins and Messina.
The group may have never existed if not for a traffic jam.
Neil Young and Stephen Stills shared a billing at an Ontario folk club in 1965, hit it off, and shared vague ideas about working together someday. In '66, both men migrated to California independently. Stills was trying to put a band together with Furay, while Young was still recovering from the abrupt breakup of The Mynah Birds. Young looked for Stills but couldn't find him in Los Angeles, so he headed up to San Francisco. There, on April 6, 1966, Stills and Furay happened to notice Young's signature black hearse (Morty) during a rush hour traffic jam on Sunset Boulevard, and Buffalo Springfield was born.
Drummer Dewey Martin died of natural causes at age 68 on February 1, 2009. Before joining Buffalo Springfield, he was in the The Standells. Neil Young wrote of him in his autobiography: "You get harder, he hits harder. You pull back, he hits back. He can feel the music - you don't have to tell him."
Bassists Jim Fielder and Ken Koblun filled in for Palmer after his first deportation, but the band didn't officially boot him out until his second deportation in 1968. At that point they brought in Doug Hastings to be the permanent long-term replacement, but Buffalo Springfield broke up shortly after.
Neil Young's leave of absence coincided with Buffalo Springfield's appearance at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. David Crosby filled in for Young during the performance.
