My SW Interview With Richie Furay, Joe Vitale and Rusty Young on the BS Reunion

Shameless self promotion of article that is cover story in the August issue of Sound Waves Magazine. Many thanks to Richie, Joe and Rusty for their time.

“There’s Somethin’ Happenin’ Here”

The Triumphant Return of Buffalo Springfield


By Mark T. Gould



Buffalo Springfield again?

No chance, right? Not after 43 years, even after a highly successful, one-off Bridge School benefit reunion show last year.

No chance, right?

Wrong. Faster than you can say “Stop, hey, what’s that sound,” and more than four decades after their last aborted tour in 1968, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Neil Young, the heart and soul of Buffalo Springfield, arguably one of the most influential of American bands in the 60s, reformed for an energetic, raucous Western mini-tour of six shows this summer, culminating in a scorching climax before a crowd estimated at over 100,000 people at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee.

In its hey day, Buffalo Springfield made an indelible impression on American popular music. In its short, 25-month existence, the band released only three albums, but influenced countless bands to follow, including country rock pioneers Poco, whose genesis came at the very end of the Springfield, when steel guitarist Rusty Young played on Springfield’s “Kind Woman” sessions. Long lamented in the band’s demise, the three singer songwriters nonetheless went their separate, successful, ways, until last year’s Bridge Benefit, an annual event created, sponsored and nurtured by Young, brought them back together. Little did they know what the camaraderie, audience reaction and just plain fun of those two shows would mean for them.

“When we got together (for the Bridge shows), there was no mention of making it any more than just the two days at the benefit,” Furay recalled in an interview with Sound Waves about a month after the reunion shows this year. “ It wasn’t until after those (Bridge) shows, and seeing and hearing the audience appreciation and realizing what we had just done, that we said to each other ‘let’s take a deep breath, drink it in and see how we feel after the holidays – whether we want to do a few more shows.’"

Clearly, it was, indeed a good feeling all around, but, as Furay stressed, a Buffalo Springfield reunion was far from his mind. He had been continuing his Calvary Chapel ministry in Colorado and doing occasional shows with the Richie Furay Band. And, although Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, there was still little push for a reunion, he said.

“This reunion was not on my radar, there was never a blip on the screen,” he said. ”Over the years, people have always asked the question ‘do you ever think … … …’ and my answer has always been ‘no.’

“When the phone call came (from Neil), I was as surprised as anyone,” he recalled. “It was in late August or early September (last year). My mind was on taking a group of people to Israel to visit the Holy Land in October, visiting the places we read and study about in the Bible.”

The reunion idea had been around for a bit, though, according to legendary drummer Joe Vitale, who played with the trio at the Bridge benefit and the reunion shows, and has worked with Stills and Young on various projects for many years.

“Both Neil and Stephen had spoken to us about it about five years ago,” Vitale told Sound Waves. “Neil said we would do Buffalo Springfield one day, and he wanted me in the group. When Stephen told me about the Bridge show, it was the most exciting news for me in many years.”

And, the results were a great deal different than when the band was in its limited, yet influential, run in the mid 60s, and it was clearly different from an aborted reunion in the mid 80s, according to Furay.

“Getting together this time was different. There were no agendas, no distractions – we were getting together because we wanted to; we didn’t ‘need to,’” he stressed. “This was not a career building attempt – we wanted to get together as friends and musicians who could enjoy each other and appreciate each other from a far more mature perspective.
“The attempted reunion in ’86 – got ‘86’ed before we ever got off and running. It was not the right timing,” he added. “We got together three times at Stephen’s house in LA – we literally were not focused to do it, and consequently it didn’t happen.

“I was still trying to establish Calvary Chapel Boulder (his church), and learning what it meant to be a pastor; I didn’t go to a seminary so it was all ‘on the job’ training for me, and I was focused on that, but, still, I was willing to give it a try,” he remembered. “Stephen and Neil were very much involved in their careers and focused on continuing the momentum, and it just wasn’t the right time. I can’t even remember how that one was initiated.”

Regardless, the three stayed in touch over the years, and collectively and individually mourned the deaths of former Springfield members Bruce Palmer, the bassist, and Dewey Martin, the drummer. This time around, the three were augmented by Vitale, and bassist Rick Rosas, who has also worked with Young.

“Of course, we missed not having Bruce and Dewey with us to ‘experience’ the moment,” Furay said. “But, the addition of Joe and Rick could not have been any better. Those two guys are professionals and they delivered; they are always prepared and know their instruments. They were the perfect choice. The fact that they play regularly with Stephen and Neil certainly helps, because they are used to them, and know the music they are associated with. I love those guys and it’s an honor to have them along for the ride.”

With their new rhythm section intact, Stills, Furay, and Young started rehearsing for the reunion tour, and selected the songs for their set list, some of which were, essentially, “no brainers” from the short, but deep Springfield catalog, but which also included some comparatively obscure nuggets, all with a definite purpose in mind, according to Furay.
“For the Bridge School, we looked at the time we had to play and worked on songs we thought would easily come together for us without too much stress. After the first initial greetings and getting to ‘know’ each other it became serious fun – we were all looking forward to walking out on stage together and making our music again,” he said.

“There were certain songs we all knew needed to be in the set, and out of those we selected the ones came back to us the easiest,” Furay added. “The songs that most interested me were the ones from the first two records, where most of the songs came from, with the exception of ‘Kind Woman’ and ‘I Am A Child,’ which came from ‘Last Time Around’. For me, the ‘Whisky A Go Go’ songs were the ones I wanted to focus on because they were the songs that had the strongest memory of us as a band.

“Overall, we had a very nice selection from all of the albums, and we still have quite a few to learn,” he recalled. “There were some physical considerations that kept some off the playlist – ‘Sit Down I think I Love You’ has a repetitive figure that made it difficult to play at this time. I hope we’ll add it, as well as ‘Hung Upside Down.’ We started to work out ‘Down to the Wire’ at show rehearsals, and that one will probably be added as well.
“It was a nice challenge to do ‘Broken Arrow’ (which was slotted as the first encore at the shows). ‘My Kind Of Love’ was done to fill an up tempo need. ‘Hot Dusty Roads’ was one of those ‘Whisky’ songs that we all loved, as well as ‘Everybody’s Wrong.’ But, it’s amazing there are still a lot of songs we have to get to,” he said.

“We had fun (at the rehearsals), but no doubt we were all about business, since we knew we had set the bar pretty high, and we wanted to deliver,” he said. “So, for about five or six hours a day we worked on our songs.”

Vitale agreed with Furay’s assessment, adding “the rehearsals were all so easy, just a piece of cake. It was pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had. We just got on royally.
“They’ve done and seen it all, all the different emotions, all the things that can drag you down out there,” Vitale observed about Stills, Furay and Young. “They’re way passed all that junk. We went back to why we do it; that is, to have fun. I’ve never had this much fun, ever.”

Interestingly, for all the work he’s done with Stills and Young, in various combinations, over the years, Vitale had never worked with Furay, but ultimately found it extremely rewarding.
“Riche’s just a wonderful person,” Vitale said. “He’s inspirational, genuine, just one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the music business.”

Perhaps the most interesting addition to the set list was Young’s anthemic rocker, “Rockin’ In the Free World,” which ended the almost 100-minute performances.

“ ’Rockin’ In The Free World’ was introduced (by Young) as a song that ‘had we stayed together, this is what we would have sounded like,’” Furay said, “and it worked for our encore because the audience certainly recognized the chorus and really got into it.”

With the set list finalized and a genuine camaraderie back within the band, they opened the mini-tour at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, moved to the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, and then to the County Bowl in Santa Barbara. The reaction, to put it mildly, was stunning, Furay recalled.

“The crowds were amazing and appreciative. It was just us, and the audience appreciated that. It was definitely a mix (in the audience), not just “old timers,” but some young whippersnappers as well,” he recalled.

“One of the great things about Buffalo Springfield reunion was ‘what you saw and heard was what you got’ and I think everyone appreciated that,” Furay said. “All the music and all the singing was just us – we didn’t have 10 back-up musicians or singers on stage to enhance what we were doing – it was just us.”

Vitale agreed, noting that “the audiences were just spectacular. We walked on stage at the first Bridge show with butterflies, like we were kids again, and it was frightening how loud the crowd was. I would have liked the shows even if I weren’t in the band.”

The reunion also impressed Rusty Young, who attended one of the Los Angeles shows.
“The concert was something I never thought I'd see, but I'm so glad it happened. I enjoyed seeing Richie standing shoulder to shoulder with Stephen and Neil-just as it should be,” Young said. “I wish Dewey and Bruce could have been there too. I appreciated that they didn't try to 'recreate' the original recordings in their live performance. It's not 1966 anymore.”

And, it gave Rusty Young a chance to see the complete, original Springfield, unlike when he worked in the studio on ‘Last Time Around.’

“When I played on 'Kind Woman' it was pretty much just Jimmy Messina, Richie and me,” Young recalled. “Neil only stopped by the studio very briefly, and Stephen was busy working on his own songs, and running between his studio and David Crosby's, who was producing Joni Mitchell's first recording.”

The Bonnaroo festival was, of course, the crowning achievement of the reunion, with Stills, Furay and Young playing in front of more than 100,000 people, by far the largest crowd to ever attend a Springfield show.

“I had never heard of Bonnaroo before I was told we were going to play it, and, yes, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever played in front of, but you know, a crowd is a crowd,” Furay said. “Truthfully, I find it exciting to play in front of any crowd, but the smaller venues might make me a little more nervous because you are really close to the audience.

“That being said, I found it interesting that we were able to ‘connect’ with the crowd at Bonnaroo – we made the people in the first few rows the ones we connected with,” he added. “It was fun to see what we knew would be a younger crowd, singing along to our songs – they made us feel right at home. It was a fun event and I’m certainly glad for the experience.

“These were people who never thought they would ever see this event happen. When you made eye contact you knew they were in awe and they were with us,” Furay remembered. “When we walked out on stage, and felt the reaction and appreciation of the audience, it just made us want to assure them we were glad they had come out to hear us.

“Believe me, it was a mutual experience of appreciation from both sides of the stage and we did our very best each night to make sure they went home saying ‘wow, awesome, can’t wait ‘til the next time.’”

And, according to Furay, there will still be a next time. The band has postponed, not cancelled, Furay stressed, a national tour that was scheduled to begin this fall.
“I know we did have shows being sorted out for a fall tour, but there were some scheduling conflicts and when it got right down to it, we had to move the tour,” he said.

“The tour has not been cancelled – it has been moved. We were planning on covering most all the country, so that’s what I believe we will be doing when we decide to do it,” he added.

Through it all, Furay has focused on this reunion being about the present, and maybe the future, of Buffalo Springfield, rather than, as Neil Young put it at the shows, being “from the past.”

“Was there a sense of ‘unfinished business’ (when the band broke up)? I can only speak for myself and the answer was ‘no,’” he said. “Was I hoping we could have continued on (back then) – sure, but when it was over – it was over, and there was no looking back at what could have, should have, or would have been. For me, it was on to the next adventure.”

“I had made my mind up during that time as long as Stephen wanted to go on, I would be there as well,” Furay said of the break up in 1968. “When he made the decision he’d had enough and it was time to move on – it was time to move on. I’m not sure any of us thought much more about it.

“The only indication there was ‘unfinished business’ came with the release of Neil’s ‘Silver and Gold’ album which included the song – ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ – about 10 years ago,“ Furay said. ”If you listen to the lyrics of that song, it would appear that there was ‘unfinished business’ in his mind. I’m certainly glad we got the chance to ‘deliver,’ if you will, because the reunion tour proved we could still deliver after all those years.”

“Everybody loved (them) back then,” Vitale remembered. “Buffalo Springfield set the pace and the standard for combining great vocals with the rock and roll sound.”

“Buffalo Springfield was and is unique; there is no other band of that era that could be doing what we are doing and generate as much interest as we are,” Furay added. “When you think about all the little nuances of this band that laid dormant for 42 or 43 years and then to have it bounce back on the world stage of music with such interest, you have to stop and say – ‘there’s something happening here.’”

“We were together for only two years; that’s a pretty short life span; we could have easily been a ‘one hit wonder,’ he added, “but that hit became the ‘national anthem’ of all the protests songs, and it was enough of a hit that made it, and Buffalo Springfield, known all over the world, bringing attention to a band that could easily have slipped into obscurity along with the thousands of other bands from that era.

“The principal songwriters are still very much alive - two of whom - Neil Young and Stephen Stills- have had very high profile careers in the entertainment world,” Furay concluded. “All of this gives the band enough notoriety in the music world to make this reunion not only valid, but a significant event in music."