Neil Young Hints That Buffalo Springfield Have Unfinished Business
Neil Young's busy 2012 was partly to blame for a planned Buffalo Springfield reunion tour falling through earlier this year, but it sounds like a get-together with Richie Furay and Stephen Stills could be moving up his priority list for 2013. In a recent interview, Young expressed regret that the '60s group never reached their potential.
"There was always something wrong, always somebody missing, always some kind of conflict, always a problem," he tells the Guardian of the troubles that held Buffalo Springfield back. "It stopped us from being as great as we could be, and we didn't know how to deal with it and so we really didn't quite succeed."
Bruce Palmer's deportation was one "conflict," but the group was plagued by arguing and other drug-related arrests in their short history together. Palmer and original member Dewey Martin have both died in the last decade.
"We lost what made us great," Young says, speaking of the group's early momentum, "and when we got the chance to record with the band in the first place we didn't have anyone good to take us into the studio and make the best of what we were. Two of the guys are no longer with us, so it's difficult, but we're yet to do something that..." Young trails off there.
The remaining three members played a few successful dates in 2010 and 2011 and were reported to have scheduled 30 days in 2012, until Furay told Rolling Stone the group was on indefinite hiatus as of February 2012.
"You know, Neil is just fickle, and even though it boils down to all three of us making a decision … without the three of us, really there can’t be anything that would even resemble a Buffalo Springfield ... I gotta say that we probably lost a little bit of our momentum. That isn’t to say it couldn’t be picked up again, but I certainly don’t see anything happening this year," he said.
Young released 'Americana' earlier this year and released his new memoir 'Waging Heavy Peace' last month. Another new album called 'Psychedelic Pill' is planned for Oct. 30.