Nostalgia suits Neil Young.
During his last show at the Ryman, Young barely acknowledged the audience, performing an impressive set of songs with a stage presence somewhere between oblivious and sullen.
Contrast that with Young, the exuberant frontman for Buffalo Springfield, the legendary (and for once, the adjective is apt) sixties band that has just reunited after four decades on ice.
“We’re Buffalo Springfield and we’re from the past,” Young said gleefully. Buffalo Springfield wasn’t a supergroup in 1967; it was a prequel to a supergroup, as future stars Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Young developed their craft. Its ambitious blending of folk and country would set the stage for Crosby, Stills and Nash, Young’s solo career, Poco and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.
Little wonder that Young was enthusiastic. Stills, Furay and Young mesh together beautifully and those who only know the band from old vinyl have to think “Oh, now I get it.” This is a vibrant, vital and occasionally possessed rock and roll band making up for lost time.
Each member has his moments, but the show serves as a reminder that Furay was at the heart of Buffalo Springfield. His vocals were dominant on the records and anticipated the Eagles generation of country-rock.
Young’s “Mr. Soul” and ” Broken Arrow” and were highlights of the show, and his guitar playing (and duels with Stills) ignited the set.
Stills was not in the spotlight as much, but he did step up to sing lead on the band’s only Top 40 hit, ‘For What It’s Worth,”a song about a disturbance on the Sunset Strip. The arrangement was raucous and hard-edged, closer to what Stills has been doing with Crosby and Nash and, possibly a concession to Still’s age and voice. Still, it wears very well.
The show closed with Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” a song Young introduced by saying that this is what it would have sounded like if they had ever recorded it. Clearly he was running out of stage patter, but the song brought the evening to an electrifying end.
This was perhaps the most unlikely rock reunion of all, a longer shot even than putting the three surviving Byrds together would be. To have Buffalo Springfield reunite and be a musical force rather than just an exercise in nostalgia is an even bigger blessing.
“There’s something happening here…” and it’s remarkably good.
