Photos from Whittier High School by Don Kelsen...
Hi all...
I recently attended my 40th (yikes!) high school reunion...
Quite the experience, to say the least...
Anyway, one of the artifacts on display at the reunion was the enclosed flyer for the Buffalo Springfield concert held at the Whittier High School Auditorium on January 20th, 1968.
Opening for the Springfield were classmates Bob Wahler, and the band he played in, Hard Candy...
Tim Wardner played in Hard Candy (along with Bill Brumback. Mike Peters, and Rick Huhnke), and had the presence of mind to lug his Sony TC-200 stereo tape recorder to the gig...
The resulting tape is the only live recording of the Buffalo Springfield that I've heard that comes close to capturing the power and intensity of the band that I saw in it's prime...
Tim parked the recorder right on stage, and thus did not pick up the vocals very well. But what you can hear is a band firing on all cylinders, and sounding great...
Your imagination hopefully fills in the blanks...
It's especially interesting to hear Neil Young's role in the band...
This recording documents an early version of the guitar style that he would ride all throughout the Crazy Horse days...
Lots of Bigsby, and great distorted tone.
His solos on "Mr. Soul" are classic, and a must hear for any fan...
There has been a ton of misinformation out there about this gig...
Wrong dates, and even a bootleg LP ("Stampede") claiming to be the recording from Whittier High School.
(It wasn’t).
Here's a blurb from Jimmy McDonough's great biography on Neil Young, “Shakey”:
"Perhaps most disappointing is the lack of any Buffalo Springfield live material, especially of the original lineup.
"The curse of the Buffalo tapes," sighed Joel Bernstein. "There are no usable live tapes anywhere...we really did try."
This one too fits into that category, but at least we get to hear them playing well...
So-ooo, here’s what we have:
Sony mics > TC-200 stereo reel-to-reel (master is lost) > Revox B77 reel-to-reel > Tascam DA38 (pitch correction, EQ’ing, etc.) > CD
The Band:
Steven Stills - lead guitar, vocals; Neil Young - lead guitar, vocals; Richie Furay - rhythm guitar, vocals; Jim Messina - bass (first Springfield gig?); Dewey Martin - drums, vocals
The setlist:
Rock ‘N Roll Woman (not recorded), On The Way Home, Good Time Boy, Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing, Mr. Soul, Child’s Claim To Fame, For What It’s Worth, Bluebird
Enjoy!
Bruce Harvie Email me...
