The Buffalo Springfield

The Buffalo Springfield formed in Los Angeles in 1966 with Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin. They were together for just over two years, but managed to record three albums that mixed folk, rock, and country in a way that felt specific to that moment. Their best-known song, 'For What It's Worth,' came out in 1967 and became a kind of shorthand for the era's unrest.

Young and Stills were the main songwriters, and their different approaches defined the band's sound. You can hear it in the contrast between a track like Stills's direct, harmonized 'For What It's Worth' and Young's more sprawling, orchestrated 'Expecting To Fly.' Other songs like 'Mr. Soul' and 'Kind Woman' showed the range they could cover, from garage rock to gentle country.

The band was famously unstable, with members coming and going and internal tensions running high. They broke up in 1968, but almost everyone involved went on to significant work in the next few years with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Poco, and their own solo careers. What they left behind was a small, concentrated catalog that still sounds like a particular time and place.