On this day (May 5) in 1968, Buffalo Springfield performed their final show as a group at the Long Beach Arena. The dissolution of the band led to the rise of multiple classic rock bands that are still loved by fans around the world today.
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Buffalo Springfield was a Los Angeles-based band formed in 1966 by Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay. In their short time together, they released three studio albums. Their final release, Last Time Around, was released in July 1968, months after the band split.
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Tensions were high by the time Buffalo Springfield decided to call it quits. However, it was Young who left the band first. He had previously left his bandmates hanging when he refused to play the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967. As a result, Stills brought in David Crosby of the Byrds to fill in. Later, another major opportunity for the band pushed Young to leave permanently.
“Actually, the reason I initially left the group was because I didn’t want to do the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. I thought that it was belittling what Buffalo Springfield was doing,” he said in a 1995 interview. “That audience wouldn’t have understood us. We’d have been just a f**kin’ curiosity to them,” he added.
The End of Buffalo Springfield Was the Beginning of Two Classic Bands
Buffalo Springfield split 57 years ago today. However, the members of the band weren’t ready to walk away from music. As a result, the moved forward and formed new bands.
Richie Furay and Jim Messina enlisted Rusty Young, Randy Meisner, and George Grantham to form Poco. Interestingly, Meisner left the band while they were recording their debut album. Timothy B. Schmit stepped in to replace him. Meisner went on to be one of the founding members of the Eagles. Then, in 1977, Meisner left the Eagles, and Schmit stepped in to replace him.
Not long after Buffalo Springfield split, Stephen Stills enlisted David Crosby and Graham Nash to start Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby had been pushed out of the Byrds in late 1967. At the same time, Nash’s band, the Hollies, broke up near the end of 1967. With all three musicians free, they came together to form one massively influential supergroup.
By this time, Neil Young had already formed Crazy Horse. However, CSN needed another member to be able to play their music live. Young was a guitarist who could also play the keyboard. As a result, he was a solid fit for the position. Initially, though, Stills objected to him joining the group due to his experience working with him in Buffalo Springfield. Nash was against the idea because he didn’t know Young. In the end, though, he joined the group.
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