Podcast appearances and mentions of James Burton

The lowdown on Fender's concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium to celebrate the Telecaster's 75th Anniversary.  What a night at the Mother Church of Country Music. On May 4th, I had the honor of hosting and performing at the Tele Town concert celebrating 75 years of the legendary Fender Telecaster at the historic Ryman Auditorium.This recap captures some of the unforgettable moments from an incredible evening filled with world-class players, iconic tones, deep musical history, and a whole lot of Telecaster magic. From blazing solos to emotional tributes, the night brought together generations of artists who have helped shape the sound of modern guitar music.Featuring performances and appearances from an all-star lineup including Brad Paisley, Brent Mason, Brothers Osborne, James Burton, Ricky Skaggs, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Zach Top, Guthrie Trapp, Trey Hensley, Jack White, Billy Gibbons, and many more.Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the instrument that changed music forever. The Telecaster's story is still being written, and this night was proof that its spirit is alive and well.Support the show

If You Missed Romeo In The Morning We Talked About: Hating your job, insurance with James Burton and how your pets got their name.

On this episode of The Bandwich Tapes, I sit down with guitarist, singer, and songwriter Trey Hensley, and it's a conversation I've been looking forward to for a long time. Trey has built a reputation as one of the most electrifying acoustic guitar players around, and we talk about the moment he finds himself in now—stepping back into a solo role after a decade performing as part of a duo. He's candid about what that transition felt like at first and how embracing that shift has opened the door to new creative possibilities.A big part of our conversation centers on feel and energy in recordings. Trey and I dig into why so many of the records we love breathe and move in ways that feel alive—often recorded without a click track—and why some of that electricity can disappear when studio perfection becomes the goal. It's a thoughtful discussion about spontaneity, musical trust, and the value of leaving room for human feel.We also talk about his upcoming album Can't Outrun the Blues, releasing March 6. The record leans heavily into an acoustic-forward sound, with most of the performances captured live in the room and minimal overdubs. Trey shares how the project came together, the importance of strong songs at the center of it all, and the collaborators who helped bring the music to life.Then we look ahead to another exciting chapter: a new electric, country-leaning project with guitarist Brian Sutton. Trey talks about what it feels like to plug in again after years of acoustic focus, the mix of intimidation and inspiration that comes from playing alongside someone like Brian, and how his time on electric guitar has quietly shaped the way he approaches the acoustic instrument.Along the way, we also get into the realities of modern musicianship—social media and the pressure to produce “content,” stage sound challenges like wedges versus in-ears, bluegrass timing tendencies, and the ongoing challenge of simply hearing yourself onstage. It's a conversation about music, but also about identity, growth, and trusting your instincts as an artist.Key TakeawaysWhat it's like for Trey Hensley to return to a solo role after a decade performing in a duo.Why many of the most beloved recordings breathe without a click track.The philosophy behind recording Can't Outrun the Blues mostly live in the room.How focusing on songs first shaped the direction of the new record.The creative spark—and challenge—of working with Brian Sutton on a more electric project.How playing electric guitar has influenced Trey's acoustic phrasing and tone.Real-world musician topics: social media pressure, stage monitoring (wedges vs. in-ears), and bluegrass timing tendencies.Music from the EpisodeCan't Outrun the Blues — Trey HensleyOne White Line at a Time — Trey HensleyTucson — Trey HensleyAbout the PodcastThe Bandwich Tapes is a long-form conversation podcast where host Brad Williams sits down with some of the most thoughtful musicians, composers, and artists working today. The show explores the stories behind the music—creative process, collaboration, career paths, and the human experiences that shape the sounds we love.Connect with the ShowEmail: contact@thebandwichtapes.com

Alan and Ian fire through a packed episode covering rising OCR costs, season passes, and whether monthly subscriptions could make racing affordable again. They bounce from Beer to Manchester's new Thunderdome, with a detour into credit scores and Born Survivor's "pay monthly" entry model. Park Run culture gets a lively debate — from global competitiveness to bizarre incidents — before the focus shifts to kids' OCR, junior race ideas, and the upcoming HYROX Youngstars event. The pair dig into community, nostalgia, and bargain‑hunting (including Alan's throwback Cliff Bar haul), then spotlight the Imber Ultra and the confirmed five‑race UKOCR Series backed by British Obstacle Sports. There's news on Tough Mudder and Spartan price rises, Alan's upcoming wedding‑day ,Tough Mudder, and James Burton joining to unpack the governance updates, BOS integration discussions, Theres a call for data‑savvy volunteers, and excitement for Manchester HYROX and the UKOCR Awards. A fast, fiery episode packed with big opinions, big updates, and big changes coming to OCR.    If you have any questions about the show or would like to explore advertising opportunities, feel free to reach out to us at admin@ukocr.com.

 On this weeks Episode < a little apology for sound quality as we had a few technical issues with Alan's Mic>

Tonight on The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian interviews James Burton, Founder and Managing Director of Percy Ellis, a Purpose-Built Rental development company, about the current real estate market and two interesting projects he is currently developing in Leslieville. James discusses the current state of the real estate market, particularly focusing on purpose-built rentals with some commentary on pre-construction condos.He explains that while the condo market has slowed significantly, the rental market remains relatively stable, especially in the lower to middle price points. James notes that economic conditions, including a challenging job market for young people, have affected higher-priced units but have not significantly impacted the lower-end market segment where they focus their business. He emphasizes that the longer-term nature of purpose-built rentals allows them to be less concerned with short-term market fluctuations, as the sale of units is not necessary to move a project forward. By understanding more permanent market trends, such as population growth and upcoming supply shortages, they can focus on what things will look like at the end of their projects rather than the beginning.James also discusses two rental development projects in Toronto's Leslieville neighborhood. Eastern Logan, located at the northeast corner of Eastern and Logan, is near the upcoming East Harbour transit hub, which will connect subway, GO train, and streetcar lines. The second project, Laing, is approximately one kilometer east of Eastern Logan, near Queen Street and Leslie. Both projects emphasize walkability and transit accessibility, with limited parking, reflecting Leslieville's urban lifestyle. The Eastern Logan project is also touched on and Brian closes the show with an outline of an opportunity for accredited investors to invest in a secured convertible debt security issued by The Eastern Logan project. 

When the UIPM announced its takeover of Obstacle Course Racing, the OCR community was left buzzing with questions. In this episode, we bring you exclusive insights as James Burton and Becky Neal from British Obstacle Sports sit down to address your biggest concerns. From governance shifts to the future of competition, we unpack what this major change means for athletes, fans, and the sport itself. If you're passionate about OCR, this is the conversation you don't want to miss.   If you have any questions about the show or would like to explore advertising opportunities, feel free to reach out to us at admin@ukocr.com.

Tyler James hosts an engaging discussion with a panel of comic creators featuring both new and returning guests. Joseph Kamer and Jared Burris introduce their action-packed comic series 'Collision Force,' a tribute to '80s and '90s cinema, while James Burton talks about his heartfelt project, 'The Ballad of Nod,' inspired by personal experiences with grief and loss.

It's been more than two months since LPL Financial rocked the US wealth management world by acquiring broker-dealer rival Commonwealth Financial Network. InvestmentNews senior columnist Bruce Kelly sits down with colleague James Burton to discuss the aftermath, including angry Reddit chat groups and aggressive recruiters.

Six String Hayride Classic Country Podcast, Episode 58 Louisiana Guitar Man, James Burton.James Burton is the guitar behind the classic Ricky Nelson hits, The Elvis Presley TCB Band, The Emmylou Harris "Hot Band" , John Denver's 1980's music, and much more. The man Keith Richards calls, "Master of the Telecaster" , Burton and his pink paisley telecaster are all over country, western, rockabilly, and rock and roll records you have been listening to for years. Working with Ricky Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, Buffalo Springfield, Merle Haggard, Gram Parsons, Michael Nesmith, and Keith Richards, Burton has the talent and the telecaster to bring the perfect guitar parts to anything he plays. Chris and Jim discuss Burton's guitar playing and share a fine recipe for Louisiana Beignets. Join us for Six String Hayride Podcast Episode 58.https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086513555749https://www.patreon.com/user?u=81625843

The Cars' self-titled 1978 debut record changed the world of power pop forever. Guitarist and co-vocalist Ric Ocasek penned all the tunes, but lead guitarist Elliott Easton transformed them with his tasteful 6-string stylings. This time on Shred With Shifty, Easton sits down with Chris Shiflett to show him how to play the solo from “My Best Friend's Girl.” Born in Brooklyn before winding up in Long Island, Easton washed dishes to save up for his first 1971 Fender Telecaster, and after high school he studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he picked up key theory and technique that he still holds dear. Reared on country and rockabilly players like Roy Buchanan, Jesse Ed Davis, Gram Parsons, James Burton, and Roy Nichols, Easton brought a slick twang to Ocasek's new-wave gems. Easton tells Shifty how the band came to work with producer Roy Thomas Baker in London, while crashing at a label-provided mansion nearby and driving a loaned Jaguar and Land Rover to the sessions. Easton's celebrated leads didn't take long to come together. “On my mother's memory, I did all my guitar parts in a day and a half,” he says. All he had with him was a 1978 or '77 Telecaster with a Bartolini Firebird-style mini humbucker in it, a red Les Paul, a Martin acoustic, and two effects: the brand-new Boss CE-1 and a Morley EVO-1 Echo Volume pedal. His amp of choice in those days? An Ampeg VT-22 or VT-40. After running down his giddy-up guitar parts from “Best Friend's Girl,” Easton talks about which modern players impress him, why he doesn't consider himself a shredder, and the experience of working with Mutt Lange: “I spent as much time tuning with him as playing!” If you're able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:  https://guitarcenterfoundation.org https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html https://www.musiciansfoundation.org https://fireaidla.org https://www.musicares.org https://www.sweetrelief.org Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty  Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314 Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion Video Editor: Addison Sauvan Graphic Design: Megan Pralle Special thanks to Jon Romeo, Michelle Yoon, Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.

Bruce Kelly, senior columnist at InvestmentNews, and a man with deep experience covering M&A, sits down with InvestmentNews colleague James Burton to talk about the acquisition that rocked the wealth management world - the LPL-Commonwealth deal. The two talk about the CEOs' roles in the merger, the fundamental differences between the two firms, and what this means for Commonwealth advisors.

In this episode of the SeerNova Podcast, we sit down with indie comic creators Sean Wood and James Burton to discuss the art of worldbuilding, storytelling, and the challenges of self-publishing. Sean, the writer behind The Fog Within and upcoming projects like Recon and The Little One, and James, the creator of The Ballad of Nod, share their experiences crafting compelling horror, sci-fi, and supernatural stories.

Join us as friend of the show James Burton join us toRead More

Derek Downham is an award-winning songwriter/producer. A formidable multi-instrumentalist, Derek has recorded and played live/toured with many of Canada's finest bands and artists. He has performed/recorded/written with (in no particular order): The Beauties, Gordon Downie, Don Felder (of The Eagles), Broken Social Scene, Andy Kim, James Burton, Albert Lee, July Talk, Alex Lifeson, Serena Ryder, Sarah Slean, Nels Cline, Redd Volkert, Cindy Cashdollar, Junior Brown, Kellie Loder, Jim Cuddy, Whitehorse, Sam Roberts, Lights, Paul Pigat, Amos Garrett, Brent Mason, Julian Taylor, Jeffery Straker, Freeman Dre, Hayden Neale, Sloan, Jason Collett, Kim Stockwood, Jully Black, Jeen O'Brien, Amy Millan, Colin Cripps, Ron Sexsmith, Justin Rutledge, Rik Emmett, Jeff Healey, Emm Gryner, Damhnait Doyle, Holy F*ck, Beans, Elliott Brood and many more. Contact Derek:Website: https://www.derekdownham.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekdownham/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derekdownham This Episode is brought to you by..Go to BETTERHELP.com/apologue for confidential online counselling.use the code word Apologue for a 7 day free trial Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. A weekly release on Tuesdays .https://www.youtube.com/@simonhead666 Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologueShop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shopCheck out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ephttps://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-sevenhttps://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home--21st-anniversary-remix-remasteredhttps://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

This recording, composed and performed by the criminally underestimated Rick Nelson and his right-hand man James Burton, is a tone poem of psychedelic disorientation. It lopes along, taking its sweet time, floating in mid-air, then seeps out through the singer's enthralled brain in a sensual vortex. It reminds me of my virgin night of acid enlightenment, when I crawled across my cousin's floor, following the swirling carpet patterns, whispering: “Oh, Wow,” over and over again.The tune features the sitar, a trope of the time, sensitively voiced by a musician mysteriously listed as “unknown,” and they stand out as the unsung hero of the whole enterprise. Appearing as it did in 1967, Marshmallow Skies signifies that time in Rick's career between his teen idol period and when he emerged, fully realized, as a progenitor of country rock. He's in experimental mode here, searching for a new direction. And, with characteristic aplomb, he makes his case convincingly. An interesting side note: “Marshmallow Sky” is also a flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream - and, a sweet smelling iris which resembles floating clouds. Appropriate, I think.

The year 2024 was certainly not dull as markets soared, rates finally fell, CEOs moved on and, oh yes, a new president was elected. Bruce Kelly, InvestmentNews senior columnist, is joined by managing editor Emile Hallez, renowned multimedia anchor Gregg Greenberg, and James Burton, Key Media's VP of Editorial, to discuss their respective highs and lows.

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul affirms both singleness and marriage as good options for Christians. But when he is asked about issues of separation and divorce, Paul applies the teaching of Jesus and the heart of God in a way that offers both grace and truth. There is hope for every marriage to stay together, there is hope for victims, and there is hope for life after divorce.The sermon today is titled "Body Matters." It is the twelfth installment in our series "City Lights: Bearing Witness To A Culture In Crisis." The Scripture reading is from 1 Corinthians 7:8-15 (ESV). Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on November 17, 2024. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under LEARN: Christian Scripture.Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.Podcast Notes (resources used or referenced):Coffman, James Burton. 1 Corinthians. Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible.Hays, Richard B. “Divorce and Remarriage,” in The Moral Vision of  the New Testament, pp. 347-78, NY: HarperOne, 1996.Instone-Brewer, David. Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006.Adams, J. E. Marriage, Divorce, & Remarriage in the Bible: A Fresh Look at What Scripture Teaches, Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980 / Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.Grudem, Wayne, Heimbach, Daniel R., Mitchell, C. Ben, & Mitchell, Craig. “Divorce and Remarriage,” in ESV Study Bible, pp. 2545-47, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.Collier, Gary D. “Rethinking Jesus on Divorce,” RQ 37/2 (1995): 80-96.Lightfoot, Neil. “Paul on Marriage & Divorce (1 Cor 7).” ACU lectures 1982. (Audio)I'd love to connect with you!Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.Follow me @nathanpguy (facebook/instagram/twitter)Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

Bruce Kelly, senior columnist at InvestmentNews, hosts another top pod in which he is joined by managing editor James Burton to chat about the biggest stories impacting the industry. In this episode, the pair address the state of play at Osaic, talk through its history and Bruce's latest story on the firm, and wonder out loud how the potential of job cuts might affect advisors.

Author, radio host and songwriter Binnie Klein (WPKN Radio, In These Trees) brings us Joni Mitchell and her stunning 1972 release, 'For The Roses'. Searching for balance in her life after a tumultuous relationship with James Taylor - and trying to escape the craziness of Los Angeles - Joni trekked back up to the Canadian wilderness and wrote most of this, her 5th studio album, while in retreat: "You've got to shake your fists at lightning now You've got to roar like forest fire You've got to spread your light like blazes all across the sky They're going to aim the hoses on you Show 'em you won't expire Not till you burn up every passion, not even when you die" Songs discussed in this episode: Blonde In The Bleachers (Joni Mitchell cover) - Lou Barlow; Winter's Girl - Tartie; Orchard, Quiver - In These Trees & Tartie; You Can Close Your Eyes - James Taylor; Banquet, Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire - Joni Mitchell; Heroin - The Velvet Underground; Barangrill - Joni Mitchell; Visions Of Johanna - Bob Dylan; Lesson In Survival, Let The Wind Carry Me, For The Roses, See You Sometime, Electricity, You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio, Blonde In The Bleachers, Woman Of Heart and Mind, Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune) - Joni Mitchell; Orchard, Meet Me On The Mountain Top - In These Trees & Tartie

AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on James Burton, John Anderson and Toby Keith getting inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

It was definitely the story of the week, month, and probably year. Dan Arnold, regarded as an extremely successful data-driven CEO of LPL, was fired for comments that breached the firm's code of conduct. Bruce Kelly, InvestmentNews senior columnist, is joined by managing editor James Burton to discuss the ramifications, what it means for LPL, and why the story is likely far from over.

The Keokuk Chiefs football team, sponsored by Henshaw Trailer Sales, House Reps Helena Hayes and Jeff Shipley, Partners for Profit Fundraising, Wyatt Moore and the Livestock Risk Management Partnership, and Westerdrug, are gearing up for an exciting season. Coach McNutt shares insights on team bonding, offensive and defensive strategies, and the players who are stepping up to make an impact. In this episode, Coach McNutt discusses the outcomes of their recent scrimmage against Central League, highlighting the team's strengths and areas for improvement. He also provides an in-depth analysis of their upcoming matchup against the Tomah Bulldogs, emphasizing the challenges and strategies needed to secure a win. Listeners will get a glimpse of standout players like James Burton and Lincoln, and the preparation required for a successful season. Coach McNutt also sheds light on the importance of special teams and the progress of their new field. Tune in to hear about the anticipation and excitement surrounding the Keokuk Chiefs as they prepare for a high-stakes football season.

754. Celebrating guitar legend James Burton's 85th birthday with a slew of his signature riff-strewn songs -thrill to James & Dale Hawkins' immortal "Susie-Q" licks, his legendary Ricky Nelson hits, Bob Luman rockers and even some killer 60's era instrumentals you may have never heard! Plenty of NEW rockin' material to display in the show including Glam Parson, Charlie Thompson, Darrel Higham, The Centuries, The Surfrajettes, Jared Petteys, The Honky Tonk Wranglers, Dixie Fried and MORE! "Go Kat, GO! The Rock-A-Billy Show!" broadcast LIVE, exclusively from the Motorbilly Studios on www.RockabillyRadio.net -tune in every Wednesday nite, won't you please? Always great and always... good to the last bop!™Please follow on FaceBook, Instagram & Twitter!

Elvis, abandonó "el edificio” definitivamente -como una voz solía recordar al final de sus actuaciones- un 16 de Agosto de 1977 ante la consternación generalizada pero también el reconocimiento que su impronta merecía. Sus compañeros de viaje, los músicos que le acompañaron en sus primeros tiempos como Scotty Moore, Bill Black o D.J. Fontana, sin embargo, en silencioso goteo desaparecidos . "Heartbreak Hotel", "King Creole" o "Jailhouse Rock”, les deben tanto como "In the Ghetto o "Suspicious Minds” a Ronnie Tutt o James Burton sus sucesores en la ardua tarea. Del diminuto sello independiente Sun Recods al "Comeback 68" para cerrar con "Aloha from Hawaii", 1500 millones de espectadores su canto de cisne. Traje de lamé dorado, imagen del mesias de una nueva religión, el rock´n´roll, o enfundado en un mono blanco cual Supermán, Debido homenaje, memoria sin filtrar de "todos los hombres" de Elvis. Puedes hacerte socio del Club Babel y apoyar este podcast: mundobabel.com/club Si te gusta Mundo Babel puedes colaborar a que llegue a más oyentes compartiendo en tus redes sociales y dejar una valoración de 5 estrellas en Apple Podcast o un comentario en Ivoox. Para anunciarte en este podcast, ponte en contacto con: mundobabelpodcast@gmail.com.

Episode Description: Join us on Finding Certainty with Patrick Laing as we bring together two icons in their industries, James Burton and Rob Hagen, for an insightful conversation about collaboration and strategic partnerships. Both previous guests on the show, James and Rob will delve into the power of working together. In this episode, we'll explore the synergy between CBI as a closing tool and James's Fuel International offerings, demonstrating how these can work together in a reciprocal, win-win relationship. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best and discover how strategic partnerships can drive success for everyone involved. Tune in for an engaging and informative discussion on Finding Certainty. To learn more about Burton International, go to https://www.burtoninternational.com. For further insights into Vital 110, CrossFire IQ, Finding Certainty, our veteran owned consulting firm, Certainty Management, or our global JV firm, Certainty Global, please go to www.certaintyteam.com or call us at (888) 684-3122. Thanks for being a fan if you are or thanks for just stopping by if you have. We appreciate your patronage and support and hope to see you again next Friday from 9-10 am Pacific/12-1 pm Eastern.

Join host Patrick Laing as he sits down with James Burton, a trailblazer in the automotive and technology industries, on this episode of Finding Certainty. As the co-founder of CarMax and owner of Burton International, and with over two decades of proven experience, James has been at the forefront of creating industry-shifting SaaS and sales solutions and mindsets that transform how products and services are bought, sold, and remarketed. In this episode, James will share his insights on: developing generational engagement tools to better connect with the modern-day shopper; the future of paperless transactions and virtual contracting processes; utilizing disruptive informative media to meet buyers and sellers where they are through technology; strategies for people development to stabilize the automotive workforce; implementing cradle-to-grave connectivity for seamless automotive life-cycle management, and more. James's company, Burton International, is built on the foundations of Faith, Family, Fitness, and Finances. Their mission and subsidiaries all align under these four verticals offering limitless potential to change the world! Additionally, Patrick and James talk about how they're working together to leverage each other's expertise, networks, and more, to serve each party's clients even more. To learn more about Burton International, go to https://www.burtoninternational.com. To learn more about Finding Certainty, our veteran owned consulting firm, Certainty Management, or our global JV firm, Certainty Global, please go to www.certaintyteam.com or call us at (888) 684-3122. Thanks for being a fan if you are or thanks for just stopping by if you have. We appreciate your patronage and support and hope to see you again next Friday from 9-10 am Pacific/12-1 pm Eastern.

Welcome to the premiere "Song Dive" bonus episode: a way to hear the story behind a song that has made (or will soon make) our collective mixtapes & playlists! On this "Song Dive" episode, I am joined by Guy Fletcher of Dire Straits, and we're talking about the story behind Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes' “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero),” which Guy produced. This new 10-minute rendition was recorded in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America, and features over 60 musical legends on the track.  We also take some time to discuss tracks from Dire Straits' catalog including: Money For Nothing, Walk Of Life, Heavy Fuel & The Bug; working with “Weird Al” Yankovic on his Dire Straits' parody “Money For Nothing / Beverly Hillbillies;” recording the soundtrack for The Princess Bride; the experience of mixing Dire Straits' "Live At The Rainbow, London UK, 12/1979" album from the original tapes; Guy's accreditation as a Dolby ATMOS engineer and how that factored into the new Going Home mix; bringing ATMOS to households via the Airsound Spatial speaker technology; and so much more!  The full list of artists who appear on “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” are (in alphabetical order): Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender, Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, & Zucchero. A minimum of 50% of the proceeds from the single are being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America. To purchase the 12" vinyl, CD or digital edition of the single, please visit: https://www.markknopflersguitarheroes.com/ Be sure to visit MyWeeklyMixtape.com to hear all of the songs we discussed in this episode, and join the My Weekly Mixtape Discord Server via the link on the main menu! FOR MORE ON MY WEEKLY MIXTAPE Website: http://www.myweeklymixtape.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/myweeklymixtape Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/myweeklymixtape Twitter: https://twitter.com/myweeklymixtape Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myweeklymixtape TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@myweeklymixtape Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.” - Nassim Nicholas TalebJames Burton is an investor, the founder of Fuel, and CEO of Burton International and we are excited to have him here for his first appearance on The Culture Matters Podcast!  James shares his thoughts on what the modern customer looks like and what their preferences have done to the market, what keeping a multi-subsidiary business moving in the right direction looks like, and even his experience with  being defibrillated and heart surgery.  James is a very interesting guy with a lot of wisdom and experience to share, so we hope you enjoy this conversation with James Burton! 

To Support the Channel:Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac Or check out my store for merch  - https://my-store-be0243.creator-spring.com/Nashville is a "Telecaster-Town," a common phrase bandied about, and many will stress the  importance of Tele ownership if one wants to work as a pro guitarist in Music City.  Surprisingly, the Tele did not immediately earn this status the day Leo Fender introduced the Broadcaster in 1950. In fact, it took more than a decade after its release before it became an essential for 615-area session men. The trailblazers of the Tele include, Jabo Arrington, Billy Sanford, and Fred Carter Jr, though lesser known names, they made both the sound and the playing techniques associated with it Nashville essentials. A major sub-plot of this story takes place in Shreveport, LA, where Billy Sanford & Fred Carter Jr, along with James Burton, and Roy Buchanan were all performing and hanging out together in the late 1950s. Together, these players forged a style based around the use of the Telecaster, and utilizing a mix of Delta Blues, Rockabilly, Western Swing, and wild string bending allowed by their shared use of banjo strings.   Jabo Arrington article from VG maghttps://www.vintageguitar.com/40127/jabo-vince-and-broadcaster-0048/Strings: D'Addario NYXL 95-44https://amzn.to/41rnl0V2023 Headstrong Lil' King with 12" Eminence GA-SC64 speakerhttps://headstrongamps.com/lil-king-amp#askzac #telecasterSupport the Show.

Welcome to the premiere "Song Dive" bonus episode: a way to hear the story behind a song that has made (or will soon make) our collective mixtapes & playlists! On this "Song Dive" episode, I am joined by Guy Fletcher of Dire Straits, and we're talking about the story behind Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes' “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero),” which Guy produced. This new 10-minute rendition was recorded in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America, and features over 60 musical legends on the track.  We also take some time to discuss tracks from Dire Straits' catalog including: Money For Nothing, Walk Of Life, Heavy Fuel & The Bug; working with “Weird Al” Yankovic on his Dire Straits' parody “Money For Nothing / Beverly Hillbillies;” recording the soundtrack for The Princess Bride; the experience of mixing Dire Straits' "Live At The Rainbow, London UK, 12/1979" album from the original tapes; Guy's accreditation as a Dolby ATMOS engineer and how that factored into the new Going Home mix; bringing ATMOS to households via the Airsound Spatial speaker technology; and so much more!  The full list of artists who appear on “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” are (in alphabetical order): Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender, Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, & Zucchero. A minimum of 50% of the proceeds from the single are being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America. To purchase the 12" vinyl, CD or digital edition of the single, please visit: https://www.markknopflersguitarheroes.com/ Be sure to visit MyWeeklyMixtape.com to hear all of the songs we discussed in this episode, and join the My Weekly Mixtape Discord Server to join in the musical discussions: https://discord.gg/hhDQAnXasm FOR MORE ON MY WEEKLY MIXTAPE Website: http://www.myweeklymixtape.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/myweeklymixtape Discord: https://discord.gg/hhDQAnXasm Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/myweeklymixtape Twitter: https://twitter.com/myweeklymixtape Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myweeklymixtape TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@myweeklymixtape Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The all-seeing telescope of truth scanned this week's rock and roll heavens and noticed a few patterns emerge, among them … … the real story of the writing of Layla and who nicked what from where. And who didn't get paid. … why Sally Grossman was on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home.   … album sleeves with overflowing ashtrays that screamed ‘welcome to my bohemian world!' – Soft Machine's Third, Man's Rhinos, Winos + Lunatics, Back Street Crawler …   … album sleeves that said “meet my girlfriend!” – McDonald And Giles, the Madcap Laughs, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Love Chronicles, the Paul Simon Handbook …   … album sleeves suggesting the powerful aphrodisiac of music and the allure of ‘the bachelor pad' … .. our night out at a Leo Sidran show and what we'll expect – indeed insist upon - at all gigs in the future. … when rock stars read 12th Century Persian poetry. …the time Lucinda Williams toured with Dylan and Van Morrison and never met either of them. … the glorious squalor of ‘70s flats. … “comedy is tragedy at a different speed”. … mentioned in despatches: Sharleen Spiteri, John Mellencamp, James Burton, Bobby Whitlock, Daniel Kramer.   The Everly Brothers' Walking The Dog. Is that the original Layla riff at 2.20? …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072OpLw-l_sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The all-seeing telescope of truth scanned this week's rock and roll heavens and noticed a few patterns emerge, among them … … the real story of the writing of Layla and who nicked what from where. And who didn't get paid. … why Sally Grossman was on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home.   … album sleeves with overflowing ashtrays that screamed ‘welcome to my bohemian world!' – Soft Machine's Third, Man's Rhinos, Winos + Lunatics, Back Street Crawler …   … album sleeves that said “meet my girlfriend!” – McDonald And Giles, the Madcap Laughs, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Love Chronicles, the Paul Simon Handbook …   … album sleeves suggesting the powerful aphrodisiac of music and the allure of ‘the bachelor pad' … .. our night out at a Leo Sidran show and what we'll expect – indeed insist upon - at all gigs in the future. … when rock stars read 12th Century Persian poetry. …the time Lucinda Williams toured with Dylan and Van Morrison and never met either of them. … the glorious squalor of ‘70s flats. … “comedy is tragedy at a different speed”. … mentioned in despatches: Sharleen Spiteri, John Mellencamp, James Burton, Bobby Whitlock, Daniel Kramer.   The Everly Brothers' Walking The Dog. Is that the original Layla riff at 2.20? …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072OpLw-l_sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The all-seeing telescope of truth scanned this week's rock and roll heavens and noticed a few patterns emerge, among them … … the real story of the writing of Layla and who nicked what from where. And who didn't get paid. … why Sally Grossman was on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home.   … album sleeves with overflowing ashtrays that screamed ‘welcome to my bohemian world!' – Soft Machine's Third, Man's Rhinos, Winos + Lunatics, Back Street Crawler …   … album sleeves that said “meet my girlfriend!” – McDonald And Giles, the Madcap Laughs, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Love Chronicles, the Paul Simon Handbook …   … album sleeves suggesting the powerful aphrodisiac of music and the allure of ‘the bachelor pad' … .. our night out at a Leo Sidran show and what we'll expect – indeed insist upon - at all gigs in the future. … when rock stars read 12th Century Persian poetry. …the time Lucinda Williams toured with Dylan and Van Morrison and never met either of them. … the glorious squalor of ‘70s flats. … “comedy is tragedy at a different speed”. … mentioned in despatches: Sharleen Spiteri, John Mellencamp, James Burton, Bobby Whitlock, Daniel Kramer.   The Everly Brothers' Walking The Dog. Is that the original Layla riff at 2.20? …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072OpLw-l_sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on the newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Justin and Bec explore Elvis' "marathon" sessions from June 1970, starting with laying the groundwork for the return to Nashville's RCA Studio B, pondering why Elvis may not have chosen to return to Chips Moman's American Sound in Memphis. Instead Elvis is joined this time by a new band led by his live guitarist James Burton but otherwise comprised largely of country-soul players who had worked alongside producer Felton Jarvis in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, including Chip Young, Jerry Carrigan, David Briggs, Norbert Putnam and Charlie McCoy, and rather than a meticulous planned session with Chips' guiding vision... they tear through dozens of songs across four nights, with a follow-up session later that September. Part 1 focuses on the establishing information and the first two nights, June 4-5 and June 5-6, 1970.  For Song of the Week, Bec highlights "I Met Her Today," the understated Don Robertson ballad that was cut in 1961's Pot Luck sessions but held until the hodgepodge Elvis For Everyone album four years later. Meanwhile, Justin goes way back to the Sun era, selecting the middle child single "Milkcow Blues Boogie" - couched between Good Rockin' Tonight and Baby Let's Play House, yet containing that same genius melding of blues (it was written and originated by Kokomo Arnold) and country (also highly popularized by western swing artists like Bob and Johnnie Lee Wills) in a new rockabilly style as anything else he did at Sun. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

This week the guys are joined by indie comic creator James BurtonRead More The post #545: James Burton 4 peat appeared first on Super Hero Speak.

James Burton is the Co-Founder of Percy Ellis, a central Toronto real estate development and asset management company with a focus on residential properties near public transit lines and other amenities important to urban city-dwellers. — Read the Magazine and Join the Community for Impact: ⁠⁠https://⁠⁠⁠⁠real-leaders.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Apply for the The 2025 Real Leaders Impact Awards: ⁠⁠⁠https://real-leaders.com/impact-awards-application/⁠⁠

Starting off Season 2 in 2024 with an episode featuring trombonist, educator, and composer James Burton III! We delved into James' trombone origin story, exploring his musical evolution across various music institutions and alongside legends like Illinois Jacquet to his professional stints on Broadway and in the broader music scene. Beyond his illustrious career, we explored his impactful role as an educator at Juilliard and beyond. Our Q&A session also featured insightful inquiries about setups, what James' has been listening to recently, and the prospect of relocating to NYC to pursue a career in music. This is THE episode to catch if you've ever been curious about what goes into a vibrant music career in NYC! Don't know much about James? Let's catch you up: “Trombonist, composer, arranger James Burton III has lent his sound to multiple Grammy Award-winning albums and Tony Award-winning Broadway productions. Born in Queens, now a resident of Harlem, Burton III is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute at the Hartt School of Music. While earning his Master's Degree and Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School, Burton held both the Morse and Gluck Fellowships and received the Schuman Prize, an award named for Juilliard's founding president and given to one graduating Masters Degree candidate annually.Burton got his professional start playing with many of the great large ensembles; the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, the Dizzy Gillespie All Stars, the Lincoln Center and Vanguard Jazz Orchestras etc. Additionally, the opportunity to perform/record with legends Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Ron Carter and Christian McBride inspired Burton to co-found a 10-piece ensemble called the Uptown Jazz Tentet, which celebrated the release of a second album in late 2020, to much critical acclaim. Currently, Burton's playing and original compositions can be heard alongside band mates Jeremy Pelt and Wayne Escoffery in a dynamic new ensemble; Black Art Jazz Collective. BAJC has released three albums since its inception, the latest two reaching the #1 position on the JazzWeek Charts for international radio play. In the model of jazz education pioneer Jackie McLean, Burton is an avid educator and has been a full time associate professor at both the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music as well as Director of Jazz Education at New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Burton continues to pass on the legacy of the music via master classes, ensemble coachings and workshops for arts education institutions across the globe.” Our next live episode will be during the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, later this month and will feature special guest Trent Austin! Stay tuned for airing date and time details by following our social media channels and checking our newsletters. For more insights and updates, be sure to follow us on Instagram: James Burton III's Instagram Virtuosity Musical Instruments' Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠J. Landress Brass' Instagram⁠⁠⁠ You can also explore more about our businesses on our websites: ⁠⁠⁠Virtuosity Musical Instruments' Website⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠J. Landress Brass' Website⁠⁠⁠ Happy listening, friends!

Something a bit different to kick off 2024. This is a mini episode reflecting on how a stunning duet by Elvis Costello and Elton John introduced me to the wonderful music of David Ackles. They performed a beautiful version of Ackles' Down River on Spectacle, backed by James Burton, Allen Toussaint, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher. In this episode, I look back at that performance and the career of David Ackles, who released four fine albums between 1968 and 1973.

The gruesome twosome talk about how their Halloween's went, they address the Lauren Hill situation and Alex shows Jordan the new Beatles song.

To Support the Channel:Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - https://my-store-be0243.creator-spring.com/A deep dive on Luxury Liner, the album that was my gateway drug for both the Telecaster and Country Music. My father bought the album for me on a road trip, and once I got home and placed the album on the turn table, I was hooked as soon as I heard the opening guitar riff from the title track. Luxury Liner is filled with top-notch songs, superb playing/singing, and beautiful production work from Brian Ahern. This album changed my musical direction.Amazon linkhttps://amzn.to/46d1UCREmmylou Harris - Luxury Liner Released in 1977, by Warner Bros Records and Produced by Brian AhernFeaturing:The Hot BandAlbert Lee, Rodney Crowell, John Ware, Hank DeVito, Emory Gordy Jr, Glen D. Hardin GuestsDolly Parton, James Burton, Ricky Skaggs, Herb Pedersen, Mickey Raphael, Rick Cunha, Mike Auldridge, Fayssoux Starling, Dianne Brooks, Nicolette Larson #askzac #albertlee #emmylouharrisSupport the show

Enter promo code "ASKZAC30" to save 30%Truefire https://prf.hn/l/LbY3nGLTo Support the Channel:Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.comIn 1969, Burton put his 52 Telecaster into semi-retirement, and would use his 1969 paisley Telecaster all throughout the 70s and 80s playing on countless recordings, and touring with Elvis, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Costello. During that time, he made quite a few modifications to the instrument, including changing pickups, bridges, hardware, and even a neck swap or 2. Today's episode spotlight all the changes the guitar went through in the years he used it as his main guitar for both the studio and the road.Spotify Playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/47J...Gear Used:Crook Paisley Tele.Strings: Webstrings pure nickel 9-42 Pick:Blue Chip TPR 35Amp:2021 Fender Handwired 64 Princeton Reverb with a Jensen Neo 10-100 speaker.#askzac #jamesburton  #zacchildsSupport the show

To Support the Channel:Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.comThe history of James Burton's iconic 1952 Telecaster. From his parent's purchase of it in 1952, through all of the aesthetic variations, it underwent until its current incarnation of a red finish and a white pickguard.  Spotify Playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/29f...Gear Used:1957 Fender Esquire with a 1954 neck pickup, and original bridge pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Both pickups were rewound by Ron Ellis. Pickguard design by Jay & Kristi Smith of Juicebox Designs.Strings: D'Addario NYXL 10-46Pick:Blue Chip TPR 35Amp:2021 Fender Handwired 64 Princeton Reverb with a Jensen Neo 10-100 speaker.#askzac #jamesburton  #zacchildsSupport the show

To Support the Channel:Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac  Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.comI recently went to the Musicians Hall of Fame with my friend JD Simo and was just gobsmacked the entire time as we walked through it. Today, I champion the Hall and tell a bit about its late founder, Joe Chambers. If you come to Nashville, this is an absolute must-do. Also, you get a look at JD and I goofing on James Burton's 1952 and 1969 Telecasters.Book link Memphis Boys https://amzn.to/3XdioY6#askzac #musicianshalloffame #jamesburtonSupport the show

James Burton was appointed Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and to the newly created position of BSO Choral Director, in February 2017. He'll return to Tanglewood next week leading the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in a prelude concert at Ozawa Hall and then on August 20, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will be on a program with The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra featuring Tippett's Five Spirituals from “A Child of Our Time” and Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the Koussevitzky Music Shed.

Join the guys as they sit down with independent comic creator JamesRead More The post #518: James Burton Returns appeared first on Super Hero Speak.

On this Hershel Yatovitz Interview: Getting the gig with Chris Isaak and how it almost didn't happen, GREAT conversation about getting sober and some really amazing advice about asking for help, experiences playing with Joe Walsh, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Warren Haynes, Bonnie Raitt… growing up in Palo Alto and moving to Portland, Charlie Hunter, Wicked Game, kindness and more. Really sincere convo: Cool Guitar & Music T-Shirts, ELG Merch!: http://www.GuitarMerch.com Hershel's been Chris Isaak's lead guitar player since 1995, playing on 12 LPs, touring the world, and appearing as a cast member on The Chris Isaak Show. Hershel's also played with Art Alexakis, Junior Brown, James Burton, Mark Ford, Warren Haynes, Joe Pass, Bonnie Raitt, Richie Sambora, Joe Walsh and LOADS of other artists Subscribe & Website: https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/subscribe Support this show: http://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/support

James Burton from British Obstacle Sports and Graham Wells from Scotland give us their takes on the latest UK OCR news. A weekly news show with Matt B. Davis and special guests discussing items of the week for Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, and all other OCR-related news. Intro and Outro Music by: Eric Leland All ORM Links

Episode 152 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “For What It's Worth”, and the short but eventful career of Buffalo Springfield. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" by Glen Campbell. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, there's a Mixcloud mix containing all the songs excerpted in the episode. This four-CD box set is the definitive collection of Buffalo Springfield's work, while if you want the mono version of the second album, the stereo version of the first, and the final album as released, but no demos or outtakes, you want this more recent box set. For What It's Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield by Richey Furay and John Einarson is obviously Furay's version of the story, but all the more interesting for that. For information on Steve Stills' early life I used Stephen Stills: Change Partners by David Roberts.  Information on both Stills and Young comes from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young by David Browne.  Jimmy McDonough's Shakey is the definitive biography of Neil Young, while Young's Waging Heavy Peace is his autobiography. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before we begin -- this episode deals with various disabilities. In particular, there are descriptions of epileptic seizures that come from non-medically-trained witnesses, many of whom took ableist attitudes towards the seizures. I don't know enough about epilepsy to know how accurate their descriptions and perceptions are, and I apologise if that means that by repeating some of their statements, I am inadvertently passing on myths about the condition. When I talk about this, I am talking about the after-the-fact recollections of musicians, none of them medically trained and many of them in altered states of consciousness, about events that had happened decades earlier. Please do not take anything said in a podcast about music history as being the last word on the causes or effects of epileptic seizures, rather than how those musicians remember them. Anyway, on with the show. One of the things you notice if you write about protest songs is that a lot of the time, the songs that people talk about as being important or impactful have aged very poorly. Even great songwriters like Bob Dylan or John Lennon, when writing material about the political events of the time, would write material they would later acknowledge was far from their best. Too often a song will be about a truly important event, and be powered by a real sense of outrage at injustice, but it will be overly specific, and then as soon as the immediate issue is no longer topical, the song is at best a curio. For example, the sentencing of the poet and rock band manager John Sinclair to ten years in prison for giving two joints to an undercover police officer was hugely controversial in the early seventies, but by the time John Lennon's song about it was released, Sinclair had been freed by the Supreme Court, and very, very few people would use the song as an example of why Lennon's songwriting still has lasting value: [Excerpt: John Lennon, "John Sinclair"] But there are exceptions, and those tend to be songs where rather than talking about specific headlines, the song is about the emotion that current events have caused. Ninety years on from its first success, for example, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" still has resonance, because there are still people who are put out of work through no fault of their own, and even those of us who are lucky enough to be financially comfortable have the fear that all too soon it may end, and we may end up like Al begging on the streets: [Excerpt: Rudy Vallee, "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?"] And because of that emotional connection, sometimes the very best protest songs can take on new lives and new meanings, and connect with the way people feel about totally unrelated subjects. Take Buffalo Springfield's one hit. The actual subject of the song couldn't be any more trivial in the grand scheme of things -- a change in zoning regulations around the Sunset Strip that meant people under twenty-one couldn't go to the clubs after 10PM, and the subsequent reaction to that -- but because rather than talking about the specific incident, Steve Stills instead talked about the emotions that it called up, and just noted the fleeting images that he was left with, the song became adopted as an anthem by soldiers in Vietnam. Sometimes what a song says is nowhere near as important as how it says it. [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"] Steve Stills seems almost to have been destined to be a musician, although the instrument he started on, the drums, was not the one for which he would become best known. According to Stills, though, he always had an aptitude for rhythm, to the extent that he learned to tapdance almost as soon as he had learned to walk. He started on drums aged eight or nine, after somebody gave him a set of drumsticks. After his parents got sick of him damaging the furniture by playing on every available surface, an actual drum kit followed, and that became his principal instrument, even after he learned to play the guitar at military school, as his roommate owned one. As a teenager, Stills developed an idiosyncratic taste in music, helped by the record collection of his friend Michael Garcia. He didn't particularly like most of the pop music of the time, but he was a big fan of pre-war country music, Motown, girl-group music -- he especially liked the Shirelles -- and Chess blues. He was also especially enamoured of the music of Jimmy Reed, a passion he would later share with his future bandmate Neil Young: [Excerpt: Jimmy Reed, "Baby, What You Want Me To Do?"] In his early teens, he became the drummer for a band called the Radars, and while he was drumming he studied their lead guitarist, Chuck Schwin.  He said later "There was a whole little bunch of us who were into kind of a combination of all the blues guys and others including Chet Atkins, Dick Dale, and Hank Marvin: a very weird cross-section of far-out guitar players." Stills taught himself to play like those guitarists, and in particular he taught himself how to emulate Atkins' Travis-picking style, and became remarkably proficient at it. There exists a recording of him, aged sixteen, singing one of his own songs and playing finger-picked guitar, and while the song is not exactly the strongest thing I've ever heard lyrically, it's clearly the work of someone who is already a confident performer: [Excerpt: Stephen Stills, "Travellin'"] But the main reason he switched to becoming a guitarist wasn't because of his admiration for Chet Atkins or Hank Marvin, but because he started driving and discovered that if you have to load a drum kit into your car and then drive it to rehearsals and gigs you either end up bashing up your car or bashing up the drum kit. As this is not a problem with guitars, Stills decided that he'd move on from the Radars, and join a band named the Continentals as their rhythm guitarist, playing with lead guitarist Don Felder. Stills was only in the Continentals for a few months though, before being replaced by another guitarist, Bernie Leadon, and in general Stills' whole early life is one of being uprooted and moved around. His father had jobs in several different countries, and while for the majority of his time Stills was in the southern US, he also ended up spending time in Costa Rica -- and staying there as a teenager even as the rest of his family moved to El Salvador. Eventually, aged eighteen, he moved to New Orleans, where he formed a folk duo with a friend, Chris Sarns. The two had very different tastes in folk music -- Stills preferred Dylan-style singer-songwriters, while Sarns liked the clean sound of the Kingston Trio -- but they played together for several months before moving to Greenwich Village, where they performed together and separately. They were latecomers to the scene, which had already mostly ended, and many of the folk stars had already gone on to do bigger things. But Stills still saw plenty of great performers there -- Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk in the jazz clubs, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, and Richard Pryor in the comedy ones, and Simon and Garfunkel, Richie Havens, Fred Neil and Tim Hardin in the folk ones -- Stills said that other than Chet Atkins, Havens, Neil, and Hardin were the people most responsible for his guitar style. Stills was also, at this time, obsessed with Judy Collins' third album -- the album which had featured Roger McGuinn on banjo and arrangements, and which would soon provide several songs for the Byrds to cover: [Excerpt: Judy Collins, "Turn, Turn, Turn"] Judy Collins would soon become a very important figure in Stills' life, but for now she was just the singer on his favourite record. While the Greenwich Village folk scene was no longer quite what it had been a year or two earlier, it was still a great place for a young talented musician to perform. As well as working with Chris Sarns, Stills also formed a trio with his friend John Hopkins and a banjo player called Peter Tork who everyone said looked just like Stills. Tork soon headed out west to seek his fortune, and then Stills got headhunted to join the Au Go Go Singers. This was a group that was being set up in the same style as the New Christy Minstrels -- a nine-piece vocal and instrumental group that would do clean-sounding versions of currently-popular folk songs. The group were signed to Roulette Records, and recorded one album, They Call Us Au-Go-Go Singers, produced by Hugo and Luigi, the production duo we've previously seen working with everyone from the Tokens to the Isley Brothers. Much of the album is exactly the same kind of thing that a million New Christy Minstrels soundalikes were putting out -- and Stills, with his raspy voice, was clearly intended to be the Barry McGuire of this group -- but there was one exception -- a song called "High Flyin' Bird", on which Stills was able to show off the sound that would later make him famous, and which became so associated with him that even though it was written by Billy Edd Wheeler, the writer of "Jackson", even the biography of Stills I used in researching this episode credits "High Flyin' Bird" as being a Stills original: [Excerpt: The Au-Go-Go Singers, "High Flyin' Bird"] One of the other members of the Au-Go-Go Singers, Richie Furay, also got to sing a lead vocal on the album, on the Tom Paxton song "Where I'm Bound": [Excerpt: The Au-Go-Go Singers, "Where I'm Bound"] The Au-Go-Go Singers got a handful of dates around the folk scene, and Stills and Furay became friendly with another singer playing the same circuit, Gram Parsons. Parsons was one of the few people they knew who could see the value in current country music, and convinced both Stills and Furay to start paying more attention to what was coming out of Nashville and Bakersfield. But soon the Au-Go-Go Singers split up. Several venues where they might otherwise have been booked were apparently scared to book an act that was associated with Morris Levy, and also the market for big folk ensembles dried up more or less overnight when the Beatles hit the music scene. But several of the group -- including Stills but not Furay -- decided they were going to continue anyway, and formed a group called The Company, and they went on a tour of Canada. And one of the venues they played was the Fourth Dimension coffee house in Fort William, Ontario, and there their support act was a rock band called The Squires: [Excerpt: The Squires, "(I'm a Man And) I Can't Cry"] The lead guitarist of the Squires, Neil Young, had a lot in common with Stills, and they bonded instantly. Both men had parents who had split up when they were in their teens, and had a successful but rather absent father and an overbearing mother. And both had shown an interest in music even as babies. According to Young's mother, when he was still in nappies, he would pull himself up by the bars  of his playpen and try to dance every time he heard "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie": [Excerpt: Pinetop Smith, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"] Young, though, had had one crucial experience which Stills had not had. At the age of six, he'd come down with polio, and become partially paralysed. He'd spent months in hospital before he regained his ability to walk, and the experience had also affected him in other ways. While he was recovering, he would draw pictures of trains -- other than music, his big interest, almost an obsession, was with electric train sets, and that obsession would remain with him throughout his life -- but for the first time he was drawing with his right hand rather than his left. He later said "The left-hand side got a little screwed. Feels different from the right. If I close my eyes, my left side, I really don't know where it is—but over the years I've discovered that almost one hundred percent for sure it's gonna be very close to my right side … probably to the left. That's why I started appearing to be ambidextrous, I think. Because polio affected my left side, and I think I was left-handed when I was born. What I have done is use the weak side as the dominant one because the strong side was injured." Both Young's father Scott Young -- a very famous Canadian writer and sports broadcaster, who was by all accounts as well known in Canada during his lifetime as his son -- and Scott's brother played ukulele, and they taught Neil how to play, and his first attempt at forming a group had been to get his friend Comrie Smith to get a pair of bongos and play along with him to Preston Epps' "Bongo Rock": [Excerpt: Preston Epps, "Bongo Rock"] Neil Young had liked all the usual rock and roll stars of the fifties  -- though in his personal rankings, Elvis came a distant third behind Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis -- but his tastes ran more to the more darkly emotional. He loved "Maybe" by the Chantels, saying "Raw soul—you cannot miss it. That's the real thing. She was believin' every word she was singin'." [Excerpt: The Chantels, "Maybe"] What he liked more than anything was music that had a mainstream surface but seemed slightly off-kilter. He was a major fan of Roy Orbison, saying, "it's almost impossible to comprehend the depth of that soul. It's so deep and dark it just keeps on goin' down—but it's not black. It's blue, deep blue. He's just got it. The drama. There's something sad but proud about Roy's music", and he would say similar things about Del Shannon, saying "He struck me as the ultimate dark figure—behind some Bobby Rydell exterior, y'know? “Hats Off to Larry,” “Runaway,” “Swiss Maid”—very, very inventive. The stuff was weird. Totally unaffected." More surprisingly, perhaps, he was a particular fan of Bobby Darin, who he admired so much because Darin could change styles at the drop of a hat, going from novelty rock and roll like "Splish Splash" to crooning "Mack The Knife" to singing Tim Hardin songs like "If I Were a Carpenter", without any of them seeming any less authentic. As he put it later "He just changed. He's completely different. And he's really into it. Doesn't sound like he's not there. “Dream Lover,” “Mack the Knife,” “If I Were a Carpenter,” “Queen of the Hop,” “Splish Splash”—tell me about those records, Mr. Darin. Did you write those all the same day, or what happened? He just changed so much. Just kinda went from one place to another. So it's hard to tell who Bobby Darin really was." And one record which Young was hugely influenced by was Floyd Cramer's country instrumental, "Last Date": [Excerpt: Floyd Cramer, "Last Date"] Now, that was a very important record in country music, and if you want to know more about it I strongly recommend listening to the episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones on the Nashville A-Team, which has a long section on the track, but the crucial thing to know about that track is that it's one of the earliest examples of what is known as slip-note playing, where the piano player, before hitting the correct note, briefly hits the note a tone below it, creating a brief discord. Young absolutely loved that sound, and wanted to make a sound like that on the guitar. And then, when he and his mother moved to Winnipeg after his parents' divorce, he found someone who was doing just that. It was the guitarist in a group variously known as Chad Allan and the Reflections and Chad Allan and the Expressions. That group had relatives in the UK who would send them records, and so where most Canadian bands would do covers of American hits, Chad Allan and the Reflections would do covers of British hits, like their version of Geoff Goddard's "Tribute to Buddy Holly", a song that had originally been produced by Joe Meek: [Excerpt: Chad Allan and the Reflections, "Tribute to Buddy Holly"] That would later pay off for them in a big way, when they recorded a version of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over", for which their record label tried to create an air of mystery by releasing it with no artist name, just "Guess Who?" on the label. It became a hit, the name stuck, and they became The Guess Who: [Excerpt: The Guess Who, "Shakin' All Over"] But at this point they, and their guitarist Randy Bachman, were just another group playing around Winnipeg. Bachman, though, was hugely impressive to Neil Young for a few reasons. The first was that he really did have a playing style that was a lot like the piano style of Floyd Cramer -- Young would later say "it was Randy Bachman who did it first. Randy was the first one I ever heard do things on the guitar that reminded me of Floyd. He'd do these pulls—“darrr darrrr,” this two-note thing goin' together—harmony, with one note pulling and the other note stayin' the same." Bachman also had built the first echo unit that Young heard a guitarist play in person. He'd discovered that by playing with the recording heads on a tape recorder owned by his mother, he could replicate the tape echo that Sam Phillips had used at Sun Studios -- and once he'd attached that to his amplifier, he realised how much the resulting sound sounded like his favourite guitarist, Hank Marvin of the Shadows, another favourite of Neil Young's: [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Man of Mystery"] Young soon started looking to Bachman as something of a mentor figure, and he would learn a lot of guitar techniques second hand from Bachman -- every time a famous musician came to the area, Bachman would go along and stand right at the front and watch the guitarist, and make note of the positions their fingers were in. Then Bachman would replicate those guitar parts with the Reflections, and Neil Young would stand in front of him and make notes of where *his* fingers were. Young joined a band on the local circuit called the Esquires, but soon either quit or was fired, depending on which version of the story you choose to believe. He then formed his own rival band, the Squires, with no "e", much to the disgust of his ex-bandmates. In July 1963, five months after they formed, the  Squires released their first record, "Aurora" backed with "The Sultan", on a tiny local label. Both tracks were very obviously influenced by the Shadows: [Excerpt: The Squires, "Aurora"] The Squires were a mostly-instrumental band for the first year or so they were together, and then the Beatles hit North America, and suddenly people didn't want to hear surf instrumentals and Shadows covers any more, they only wanted to hear songs that sounded a bit like the Beatles. The Squires started to work up the appropriate repertoire -- two songs that have been mentioned as in their set at this point are the Beatles album track "It Won't Be Long", and "Money" which the Beatles had also covered -- but they didn't have a singer, being an instrumental group. They could get in a singer, of course, but that would mean splitting the money with another person. So instead, the guitarist, who had never had any intention of becoming a singer, was more or less volunteered for the role. Over the next eighteen months or so the group's repertoire moved from being largely instrumental to largely vocal, and the group also seem to have shuttled around a bit between two different cities -- Winnipeg and Fort William, staying in one for a while and then moving back to the other. They travelled between the two in Young's car, a Buick Roadmaster hearse. In Winnipeg, Young first met up with a singer named Joni Anderson, who was soon to get married to Chuck Mitchell and would become better known by her married name. The two struck up a friendship, though by all accounts never a particularly close one -- they were too similar in too many ways; as Mitchell later said “Neil and I have a lot in common: Canadian; Scorpios; polio in the same epidemic, struck the same parts of our body; and we both have a black sense of humor". They were both also idiosyncratic artists who never fit very well into boxes. In Fort William the Squires made a few more records, this time vocal tracks like "I'll Love You Forever": [Excerpt: The Squires, "I'll Love You Forever"] It was also in Fort William that Young first encountered two acts that would make a huge impression on him. One was a group called The Thorns, consisting of Tim Rose, Jake Holmes, and Rich Husson. The Thorns showed Young that there was interesting stuff being done on the fringes of the folk music scene. He later said "One of my favourites was “Oh Susannah”—they did this arrangement that was bizarre. It was in a minor key, which completely changed everything—and it was rock and roll. So that idea spawned arrangements of all these other songs for me. I did minor versions of them all. We got into it. That was a certain Squires stage that never got recorded. Wish there were tapes of those shows. We used to do all this stuff, a whole kinda music—folk-rock. We took famous old folk songs like “Clementine,” “She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain,” “Tom Dooley,” and we did them all in minor keys based on the Tim Rose arrangement of “Oh Susannah.” There are no recordings of the Thorns in existence that I know of, but presumably that arrangement that Young is talking about is the version that Rose also later did with the Big 3, which we've heard in a few other episodes: [Excerpt: The Big 3, "The Banjo Song"] The other big influence was, of course, Steve Stills, and the two men quickly found themselves influencing each other deeply. Stills realised that he could bring more rock and roll to his folk-music sound, saying that what amazed him was the way the Squires could go from "Cottonfields" (the Lead Belly song) to "Farmer John", the R&B song by Don and Dewey that was becoming a garage-rock staple. Young in turn was inspired to start thinking about maybe going more in the direction of folk music. The Squires even renamed themselves the High-Flying Birds, after the song that Stills had recorded with the Au Go Go Singers. After The Company's tour of Canada, Stills moved back to New York for a while. He now wanted to move in a folk-rock direction, and for a while he tried to persuade his friend John Sebastian to let him play bass in his new band, but when the Lovin' Spoonful decided against having him in the band, he decided to move West to San Francisco, where he'd heard there was a new music scene forming. He enjoyed a lot of the bands he saw there, and in particular he was impressed by the singer of a band called the Great Society: [Excerpt: The Great Society, "Somebody to Love"] He was much less impressed with the rest of her band, and seriously considered going up to her and asking if she wanted to work with some *real* musicians instead of the unimpressive ones she was working with, but didn't get his nerve up. We will, though, be hearing more about Grace Slick in future episodes. Instead, Stills decided to move south to LA, where many of the people he'd known in Greenwich Village were now based. Soon after he got there, he hooked up with two other musicians, a guitarist named Steve Young and a singer, guitarist, and pianist named Van Dyke Parks. Parks had a record contract at MGM -- he'd been signed by Tom Wilson, the same man who had turned Dylan electric, signed Simon and Garfunkel, and produced the first albums by the Mothers of Invention. With Wilson, Parks put out a couple of singles in 1966, "Come to the Sunshine": [Excerpt: The Van Dyke Parks, "Come to the Sunshine"] And "Number Nine", a reworking of the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: [Excerpt: The Van Dyke Parks, "Number Nine"]Parks, Stills, and Steve Young became The Van Dyke Parks Band, though they didn't play together for very long, with their most successful performance being as the support act for the Lovin' Spoonful for a show in Arizona. But they did have a lasting resonance -- when Van Dyke Parks finally got the chance to record his first solo album, he opened it with Steve Young singing the old folk song "Black Jack Davy", filtered to sound like an old tape: [Excerpt: Steve Young, "Black Jack Davy"] And then it goes into a song written for Parks by Randy Newman, but consisting of Newman's ideas about Parks' life and what he knew about him, including that he had been third guitar in the Van Dyke Parks Band: [Excerpt: Van Dyke Parks, "Vine Street"] Parks and Stills also wrote a few songs together, with one of their collaborations, "Hello, I've Returned", later being demoed by Stills for Buffalo Springfield: [Excerpt: Steve Stills, "Hello, I've Returned"] After the Van Dyke Parks Band fell apart, Parks went on to many things, including a brief stint on keyboards in the Mothers of Invention, and we'll be talking more about him next episode. Stills formed a duo called the Buffalo Fish, with his friend Ron Long. That soon became an occasional trio when Stills met up again with his old Greenwich Village friend Peter Tork, who joined the group on the piano. But then Stills auditioned for the Monkees and was turned down because he had bad teeth -- or at least that's how most people told the story. Stills has later claimed that while he turned up for the Monkees auditions, it wasn't to audition, it was to try to pitch them songs, which seems implausible on the face of it. According to Stills, he was offered the job and turned it down because he'd never wanted it. But whatever happened, Stills suggested they might want his friend Peter, who looked just like him apart from having better teeth, and Peter Tork got the job. But what Stills really wanted to do was to form a proper band. He'd had the itch to do it ever since seeing the Squires, and he decided he should ask Neil Young to join. There was only one problem -- when he phoned Young, the phone was answered by Young's mother, who told Stills that Neil had moved out to become a folk singer, and she didn't know where he was. But then Stills heard from his old friend Richie Furay. Furay was still in Greenwich Village, and had decided to write to Stills. He didn't know where Stills was, other than that he was in California somewhere, so he'd written to Stills' father in El Salvador. The letter had been returned, because the postage had been short by one cent, so Furay had resent it with the correct postage. Stills' father had then forwarded the letter to the place Stills had been staying in San Francisco, which had in turn forwarded it on to Stills in LA. Furay's letter mentioned this new folk singer who had been on the scene for a while and then disappeared again, Neil Young, who had said he knew Stills, and had been writing some great songs, one of which Furay had added to his own set. Stills got in touch with Furay and told him about this great band he was forming in LA, which he wanted Furay to join. Furay was in, and travelled from New York to LA, only to be told that at this point there were no other members of this great band, but they'd definitely find some soon. They got a publishing deal with Columbia/Screen Gems, which gave them enough money to not starve, but what they really needed was to find some other musicians. They did, when driving down Hollywood Boulevard on April the sixth, 1966. There, stuck in traffic going the other way, they saw a hearse... After Steve Stills had left Fort William, so had Neil Young. He hadn't initially intended to -- the High-Flying Birds still had a regular gig, but Young and some of his friends had gone away for a few days on a road trip in his hearse. But unfortunately the transmission on the hearse had died, and Young and his friends had been stranded. Many years later, he would write a eulogy to the hearse, which he and Stills would record together: [Excerpt: The Stills-Young Band, "Long May You Run"] Young and his friends had all hitch-hiked in different directions -- Young had ended up in Toronto, where his dad lived, and had stayed with his dad for a while. The rest of his band had eventually followed him there, but Young found the Toronto music scene not to his taste -- the folk and rock scenes there were very insular and didn't mingle with each other, and the group eventually split up. Young even took on a day job for a while, for the only time in his life, though he soon quit. Young started basically commuting between Toronto and New York, a distance of several hundred miles, going to Greenwich Village for a while before ending up back in Toronto, and ping-ponging between the two. In New York, he met up with Richie Furay, and also had a disastrous audition for Elektra Records as a solo artist. One of the songs he sang in the audition was "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", the song which Furay liked so much he started performing it himself. Young doesn't normally explain his songs, but as this was one of the first he ever wrote, he talked about it in interviews in the early years, before he decided to be less voluble about his art. The song was apparently about the sense of youthful hope being crushed. The instigation for it was Young seeing his girlfriend with another man, but the central image, of Clancy not singing, came from Young's schooldays. The Clancy in question was someone Young liked as one of the other weird kids at school. He was disabled, like Young, though with MS rather than polio, and he would sing to himself in the hallways at school. Sadly, of course, the other kids would mock and bully him for that, and eventually he ended up stopping. Young said about it "After awhile, he got so self-conscious he couldn't do his thing any more. When someone who is as beautiful as that and as different as that is actually killed by his fellow man—you know what I mean—like taken and sorta chopped down—all the other things are nothing compared to this." [Excerpt: Neil Young, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Elektra demo)"] One thing I should say for anyone who listens to the Mixcloud for this episode, that song, which will be appearing in a couple of different versions, has one use of a term for Romani people that some (though not all) consider a slur. It's not in the excerpts I'll be using in this episode, but will be in the full versions on the Mixcloud. Sadly that word turns up time and again in songs of this era... When he wasn't in New York, Young was living in Toronto in a communal apartment owned by a folk singer named Vicki Taylor, where many of the Toronto folk scene would stay. Young started listening a lot to Taylor's Bert Jansch albums, which were his first real exposure to the British folk-baroque style of guitar fingerpicking, as opposed to the American Travis-picking style, and Young would soon start to incorporate that style into his own playing: [Excerpt: Bert Jansch, "Angie"] Another guitar influence on Young at this point was another of the temporary tenants of Taylor's flat, John Kay, who would later go on to be one of the founding members of Steppenwolf. Young credited Kay with having a funky rhythm guitar style that Young incorporated into his own. While he was in Toronto, he started getting occasional gigs in Detroit, which is "only" a couple of hundred miles away, set up by Joni and Chuck Mitchell, both of whom also sometimes stayed at Taylor's. And it was in Detroit that Neil Young became, albeit very briefly, a Motown artist. The Mynah Birds were a band in Toronto that had at one point included various future members of Steppenwolf, and they were unusual for the time in that they were a white band with a Black lead singer, Ricky Matthews. They also had a rich manager, John Craig Eaton, the heir to the Eaton's department store fortune, who basically gave them whatever money they wanted -- they used to go to his office and tell him they needed seven hundred dollars for lunch, and he'd hand it to them. They were looking for a new guitarist when Bruce Palmer, their bass player, bumped into Neil Young carrying an amp and asked if he was interested in joining. He was. The Mynah Birds quickly became one of the best bands in Toronto, and Young and Matthews became close, both as friends and as a performance team. People who saw them live would talk about things like a song called “Hideaway”, written by Young and Matthews, which had a spot in the middle where Young would start playing a harmonica solo, throw the harmonica up in the air mid-solo, Matthews would catch it, and he would then finish the solo. They got signed to Motown, who were at this point looking to branch out into the white guitar-group market, and they were put through the Motown star-making machine. They recorded an entire album, which remains unreleased, but they did release a single, "It's My Time": [Excerpt: The Mynah Birds, "It's My Time"] Or at least, they released a handful of promo copies. The single was pulled from release after Ricky Matthews got arrested. It turned out his birth name wasn't Ricky Matthews, but James Johnson, and that he wasn't from Toronto as he'd told everyone, but from Buffalo, New York. He'd fled to Canada after going AWOL from the Navy, not wanting to be sent to Vietnam, and he was arrested and jailed for desertion. After getting out of jail, he would start performing under yet another name, and as Rick James would have a string of hits in the seventies and eighties: [Excerpt: Rick James, "Super Freak"] Most of the rest of the group continued gigging as The Mynah Birds, but Young and Palmer had other plans. They sold the expensive equipment Eaton had bought the group, and Young bought a new hearse, which he named Mort 2 – Mort had been his first hearse. And according to one of the band's friends in Toronto, the crucial change in their lives came when Neil Young heard a song on a jukebox: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"] Young apparently heard "California Dreamin'" and immediately said "Let's go to California and become rock stars". Now, Young later said of this anecdote that "That sounds like a Canadian story to me. That sounds too real to be true", and he may well be right. Certainly the actual wording of the story is likely incorrect -- people weren't talking about "rock stars" in 1966. Google's Ngram viewer has the first use of the phrase in print being in 1969, and the phrase didn't come into widespread usage until surprisingly late -- even granting that phrases enter slang before they make it to print, it still seems implausible. But even though the precise wording might not be correct, something along those lines definitely seems to have happened, albeit possibly less dramatically. Young's friend Comrie Smith independently said that Young told him “Well, Comrie, I can hear the Mamas and the Papas singing ‘All the leaves are brown, and the skies are gray …' I'm gonna go down to the States and really make it. I'm on my way. Today North Toronto, tomorrow the world!” Young and Palmer loaded up Mort 2 with a bunch of their friends and headed towards California. On the way, they fell out with most of the friends, who parted from them, and Young had an episode which in retrospect may have been his first epileptic seizure. They decided when they got to California that they were going to look for Steve Stills, as they'd heard he was in LA and neither of them knew anyone else in the state. But after several days of going round the Sunset Strip clubs asking if anyone knew Steve Stills, and sleeping in the hearse as they couldn't afford anywhere else, they were getting fed up and about to head off to San Francisco, as they'd heard there was a good music scene there, too. They were going to leave that day, and they were stuck in traffic on Sunset Boulevard, about to head off, when Stills and Furay came driving in the other direction. Furay happened to turn his head, to brush away a fly, and saw a hearse with Ontario license plates. He and Stills both remembered that Young drove a hearse, and so they assumed it must be him. They started honking at the hearse, then did a U-turn. They got Young's attention, and they all pulled into the parking lot at Ben Frank's, the Sunset Strip restaurant that attracted such a hip crowd the Monkees' producers had asked for "Ben Frank's types" in their audition advert. Young introduced Stills and Furay to Palmer, and now there *was* a group -- three singing, songwriting, guitarists and a bass player. Now all they needed was a drummer. There were two drummers seriously considered for the role. One of them, Billy Mundi, was technically the better player, but Young didn't like playing with him as much -- and Mundi also had a better offer, to join the Mothers of Invention as their second drummer -- before they'd recorded their first album, they'd had two drummers for a few months, but Denny Bruce, their second drummer, had become ill with glandular fever and they'd reverted to having Jimmy Carl Black play solo. Now they were looking for someone else, and Mundi took that role. The other drummer, who Young preferred anyway, was another Canadian, Dewey Martin. Martin was a couple of years older than the rest of the group, and by far the most experienced. He'd moved from Canada to Nashville in his teens, and according to Martin he had been taken under the wing of Hank Garland, the great session guitarist most famous for "Sugarfoot Rag": [Excerpt: Hank Garland, "Sugarfoot Rag"] We heard Garland playing with Elvis and others in some of the episodes around 1960, and by many reckonings he was the best session guitarist in Nashville, but in 1961 he had a car accident that left him comatose, and even though he recovered from the coma and lived another thirty-three years, he never returned to recording. According to Martin, though, Garland would still sometimes play jazz clubs around Nashville after the accident, and one day Martin walked into a club and saw him playing. The drummer he was playing with got up and took a break, taking his sticks with him, so Martin got up on stage and started playing, using two combs instead of sticks. Garland was impressed, and told Martin that Faron Young needed a drummer, and he could get him the gig. At the time Young was one of the biggest stars in country music. That year, 1961, he had three country top ten hits, including a number one with his version of Willie Nelson's "Hello Walls", produced by Ken Nelson: [Excerpt: Faron Young, "Hello Walls"] Martin joined Faron Young's band for a while, and also ended up playing short stints in the touring bands of various other Nashville-based country and rock stars, including Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers, before heading to LA for a while. Then Mel Taylor of the Ventures hooked him up with some musicians in the Pacific Northwest scene, and Martin started playing there under the name Sir Raleigh and the Coupons with various musicians. After a while he travelled back to LA where he got some members of the LA group Sons of Adam to become a permanent lineup of Coupons, and they recorded several singles with Martin singing lead, including the Tommy Boyce and Steve Venet song "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day", later recorded by the Monkees: [Excerpt: Sir Raleigh and the Coupons, "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day"] He then played with the Standells, before joining the Modern Folk Quartet for a short while, as they were transitioning from their folk sound to a folk-rock style. He was only with them for a short while, and it's difficult to get precise details -- almost everyone involved with Buffalo Springfield has conflicting stories about their own careers with timelines that don't make sense, which is understandable given that people were talking about events decades later and memory plays tricks. "Fast" Eddie Hoh had joined the Modern Folk Quartet on drums in late 1965, at which point they became the Modern Folk Quintet, and nothing I've read about that group talks about Hoh ever actually leaving, but apparently Martin joined them in February 1966, which might mean he's on their single "Night-Time Girl", co-written by Al Kooper and produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche: [Excerpt: The Modern Folk Quintet, "Night-Time Girl"] After that, Martin was taken on by the Dillards, a bluegrass band who are now possibly most famous for having popularised the Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith song "Duellin' Banjos", which they recorded on their first album and played on the Andy Griffith Show a few years before it was used in Deliverance: [Excerpt: The Dillards, "Duellin' Banjos"] The Dillards had decided to go in a country-rock direction -- and Doug Dillard would later join the Byrds and make records with Gene Clark -- but they were hesitant about it, and after a brief period with Martin in the band they decided to go back to their drummerless lineup. To soften the blow, they told him about another band that was looking for a drummer -- their manager, Jim Dickson, who was also the Byrds' manager, knew Stills and his bandmates. Dewey Martin was in the group. The group still needed a name though. They eventually took their name from a brand of steam roller, after seeing one on the streets when some roadwork was being done. Everyone involved disagrees as to who came up with the name. Steve Stills at one point said it was a group decision after Neil Young and the group's manager Frazier Mohawk stole the nameplate off the steamroller, and later Stills said that Richey Furay had suggested the name while they were walking down the street, Dewey Martin said it was his idea, Neil Young said that he, Steve Sills, and Van Dyke Parks had been walking down the street and either Young or Stills had seen the nameplate and suggested the name, and Van Dyke Parks says that *he* saw the nameplate and suggested it to Dewey Martin: [Excerpt: Steve Stills and Van Dyke Parks on the name] For what it's worth, I tend to believe Van Dyke Parks in most instances -- he's an honest man, and he seems to have a better memory of the sixties than many of his friends who led more chemically interesting lives. Whoever came up with it, the name worked -- as Stills later put it "We thought it was pretty apt, because Neil Young is from Manitoba which is buffalo country, and  Richie Furay was from Springfield, Ohio -- and I'm the field!" It almost certainly also helped that the word "buffalo" had been in the name of Stills' previous group, Buffalo Fish. On the eleventh of April, 1966, Buffalo Springfield played their first gig, at the Troubadour, using equipment borrowed from the Dillards. Chris Hillman of the Byrds was in the audience and was impressed. He got the group a support slot on a show the Byrds and the Dillards were doing a few days later in San Bernardino. That show was compered by a Merseyside-born British DJ, John Ravenscroft, who had managed to become moderately successful in US radio by playing up his regional accent so he sounded more like the Beatles. He would soon return to the UK, and start broadcasting under the name John Peel. Hillman also got them a week-long slot at the Whisky A-Go-Go, and a bidding war started between record labels to sign the band. Dunhill offered five thousand dollars, Warners counted with ten thousand, and then Atlantic offered twelve thousand. Atlantic were *just* starting to get interested in signing white guitar groups -- Jerry Wexler never liked that kind of music, always preferring to stick with soul and R&B, but Ahmet Ertegun could see which way things were going. Atlantic had only ever signed two other white acts before -- Neil Young's old favourite Bobby Darin, who had since left the label, and Sonny and Cher. And Sonny and Cher's management and production team, Brian Stone and Charlie Greene, were also very interested in the group, who even before they had made a record had quickly become the hottest band on the circuit, even playing the Hollywood Bowl as the Rolling Stones' support act. Buffalo Springfield already had managers -- Frazier Mohawk and Richard Davis, the lighting man at the Troubadour (who was sometimes also referred to as Dickie Davis, but I'll use his full name so as not to cause unnecessary confusion in British people who remember the sports TV presenter of the same name), who Mohawk had enlisted to help him. But Stone and Greene weren't going to let a thing like that stop them. According to anonymous reports quoted without attribution in David Roberts' biography of Stills -- so take this with as many grains of salt as you want -- Stone and Greene took Mohawk for a ride around LA in a limo, just the three of them, a gun, and a used hotdog napkin. At the end of the ride, the hotdog napkin had Mohawk's scrawled signature, signing the group over to Stone and Greene. Davis stayed on, but was demoted to just doing their lights. The way things ended up, the group signed to Stone and Greene's production company, who then leased their masters to Atlantic's Atco subsidiary. A publishing company was also set up for the group's songs -- owned thirty-seven point five percent by Atlantic, thirty-seven point five percent by Stone and Greene, and the other twenty-five percent split six ways between the group and Davis, who they considered their sixth member. Almost immediately, Charlie Greene started playing Stills and Young off against each other, trying a divide-and-conquer strategy on the group. This was quite easy, as both men saw themselves as natural leaders, though Stills was regarded by everyone as the senior partner -- the back cover of their first album would contain the line "Steve is the leader but we all are". Stills and Young were the two stars of the group as far as the audience were concerned -- though most musicians who heard them play live say that the band's real strength was in its rhythm section, with people comparing Palmer's playing to that of James Jamerson. But Stills and Young would get into guitar battles on stage, one-upping each other, in ways that turned the tension between them in creative directions. Other clashes, though were more petty -- both men had very domineering mothers, who would actually call the group's management to complain about press coverage if their son was given less space than the other one. The group were also not sure about Young's voice -- to the extent that Stills was known to jokingly apologise to the audience before Young took a lead vocal -- and so while the song chosen as the group's first A-side was Young's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", Furay was chosen to sing it, rather than Young: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing"] On the group's first session, though, both Stills and Young realised that their producers didn't really have a clue -- the group had built up arrangements that had a complex interplay of instruments and vocals, but the producers insisted on cutting things very straightforwardly, with a basic backing track and then the vocals. They also thought that the song was too long so the group should play faster. Stills and Young quickly decided that they were going to have to start producing their own material, though Stone and Greene would remain the producers for the first album. There was another bone of contention though, because in the session the initial plan had been for Stills' song "Go and Say Goodbye" to be the A-side with Young's song as the B-side. It was flipped, and nobody seems quite sure why -- it's certainly the case that, whatever the merits of the two tracks as songs, Stills' song was the one that would have been more likely to become a hit. "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" was a flop, but it did get some local airplay. The next single, "Burned", was a Young song as well, and this time did have Young taking the lead, though in a song dominated by harmonies: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Burned"] Over the summer, though, something had happened that would affect everything for the group -- Neil Young had started to have epileptic seizures. At first these were undiagnosed episodes, but soon they became almost routine events, and they would often happen on stage, particularly at moments of great stress or excitement. Several other members of the group became convinced -- entirely wrongly -- that Young was faking these seizures in order to get women to pay attention to him. They thought that what he wanted was for women to comfort him and mop his brow, and that collapsing would get him that. The seizures became so common that Richard Davis, the group's lighting tech, learned to recognise the signs of a seizure before it happened. As soon as it looked like Young was about to collapse the lights would turn on, someone would get ready to carry him off stage, and Richie Furay would know to grab Young's guitar before he fell so that the guitar wouldn't get damaged. Because they weren't properly grounded and Furay had an electric guitar of his own, he'd get a shock every time. Young would later claim that during some of the seizures, he would hallucinate that he was another person, in another world, living another life that seemed to have its own continuity -- people in the other world would recognise him and talk to him as if he'd been away for a while -- and then when he recovered he would have to quickly rebuild his identity, as if temporarily amnesiac, and during those times he would find things like the concept of lying painful. The group's first album came out in December, and they were very, very, unhappy with it. They thought the material was great, but they also thought that the production was terrible. Stone and Greene's insistence that they record the backing tracks first and then overdub vocals, rather than singing live with the instruments, meant that the recordings, according to Stills and Young in particular, didn't capture the sound of the group's live performance, and sounded sterile. Stills and Young thought they'd fixed some of that in the mono mix, which they spent ten days on, but then Stone and Greene did the stereo mix without consulting the band, in less than two days, and the album was released at precisely the time that stereo was starting to overtake mono in the album market. I'm using the mono mixes in this podcast, but for decades the only versions available were the stereo ones, which Stills and Young both loathed. Ahmet Ertegun also apparently thought that the demo versions of the songs -- some of which were eventually released on a box set in 2001 -- were much better than the finished studio recordings. The album was not a success on release, but it did contain the first song any of the group had written to chart. Soon after its release, Van Dyke Parks' friend Lenny Waronker was producing a single by a group who had originally been led by Sly Stone and had been called Sly and the Mojo Men. By this time Stone was no longer involved in the group, and they were making music in a very different style from the music their former leader would later become known for. Parks was brought in to arrange a baroque-pop version of Stills' album track "Sit Down I Think I Love You" for the group, and it became their only top forty hit, reaching number thirty-six: [Excerpt: The Mojo Men, "Sit Down I Think I Love You"] It was shortly after the first Buffalo Springfield album was released, though, that Steve Stills wrote what would turn out to be *his* group's only top forty single. The song had its roots in both LA and San Francisco. The LA roots were more obvious -- the song was written about a specific experience Stills had had. He had been driving to Sunset Strip from Laurel Canyon on November the twelfth 1966, and he had seen a mass of young people and police in riot gear, and he had immediately turned round, partly because he didn't want to get involved in what looked to be a riot, and partly because he'd been inspired -- he had the idea for a lyric, which he pretty much finished in the car even before he got home: [Excerpt: The Buffalo Springfield, "For What it's Worth"] The riots he saw were what became known later as the Riot on Sunset Strip. This was a minor skirmish between the police and young people of LA -- there had been complaints that young people had been spilling out of the nightclubs on Sunset Strip into the street, causing traffic problems, and as a result the city council had introduced various heavy-handed restrictions, including a ten PM curfew for all young people in the area, removing the permits that many clubs had which allowed people under twenty-one to be present, forcing the Whisky A-Go-Go to change its name just to "the Whisk", and forcing a club named Pandora's Box, which was considered the epicentre of the problem, to close altogether. Flyers had been passed around calling for a "funeral" for Pandora's Box -- a peaceful gathering at which people could say goodbye to a favourite nightspot, and a thousand people had turned up. The police also turned up, and in the heavy-handed way common among law enforcement, they managed to provoke a peaceful party and turn it into a riot. This would not normally be an event that would be remembered even a year later, let alone nearly sixty years later, but Sunset Strip was the centre of the American rock music world in the period, and of the broader youth entertainment field. Among those arrested at the riot, for example, were Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda, neither of whom were huge stars at the time, but who were making cheap B-movies with Roger Corman for American International Pictures. Among the cheap exploitation films that American International Pictures made around this time was one based on the riots, though neither Nicholson, Fonda, or Corman were involved. Riot on Sunset Strip was released in cinemas only four months after the riots, and it had a theme song by Dewey Martin's old colleagues The Standells, which is now regarded as a classic of garage rock: [Excerpt: The Standells, "Riot on Sunset Strip"] The riots got referenced in a lot of other songs, as well. The Mothers of Invention's second album, Absolutely Free, contains the song "Plastic People" which includes this section: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Plastic People"] And the Monkees track "Daily Nightly", written by Michael Nesmith, was always claimed by Nesmith to be an impressionistic portrait of the riots, though the psychedelic lyrics sound to me more like they're talking about drug use and street-walking sex workers than anything to do with the riots: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] But the song about the riots that would have the most lasting effect on popular culture was the one that Steve Stills wrote that night. Although how much he actually wrote, at least of the music, is somewhat open to question. Earlier that month, Buffalo Springfield had spent some time in San Francisco. They hadn't enjoyed the experience -- as an LA band, they were thought of as a bunch of Hollywood posers by most of the San Francisco scene, with the exception of one band, Moby Grape -- a band who, like them had three guitarist/singer/songwriters, and with whom they got on very well. Indeed, they got on rather better with Moby Grape than they were getting on with each other at this point, because Young and Stills would regularly get into arguments, and every time their argument seemed to be settling down, Dewey Martin would manage to say the wrong thing and get Stills riled up again -- Martin was doing a lot of speed at this point and unable to stop talking, even when it would have been politic to do so. There was even some talk while they were in San Francisco of the bands doing a trade -- Young and Pete Lewis of Moby Grape swapping places -- though that came to nothing. But Stills, according to both Richard Davis and Pete Lewis, had been truly impressed by two Moby Grape songs. One of them was a song called "On the Other Side", which Moby Grape never recorded, but which apparently had a chorus that went "Stop, can't you hear the music ringing in your ear, right before you go, telling you the way is clear," with the group all pausing after the word "Stop". The other was a song called "Murder in my Heart for the Judge": [Excerpt: Moby Grape, "Murder in my Heart for the Judge"] The song Stills wrote had a huge amount of melodic influence from that song, and quite a bit from “On the Other Side”, though he apparently didn't notice until after the record came out, at which point he apologised to Moby Grape. Stills wasn't massively impressed with the song he'd written, and went to Stone and Greene's office to play it for them, saying "I'll play it, for what it's worth". They liked the song and booked a studio to get the song recorded and rush-released, though according to Neil Young neither Stone nor Greene were actually present at the session, and the song was recorded on December the fifth, while some outbursts of rioting were still happening, and released on December the twenty-third. [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "For What it's Worth"] The song didn't have a title when they recorded it, or so Stills thought, but when he mentioned this to Greene and Stone afterwards, they said "Of course it does. You said, 'I'm going to play the song, 'For What It's Worth'" So that became the title, although Ahmet Ertegun didn't like the idea of releasing a single with a title that wasn't in the lyric, so the early pressings of the single had "Stop, Hey, What's That Sound?" in brackets after the title. The song became a big hit, and there's a story told by David Crosby that doesn't line up correctly, but which might shed some light on why. According to Crosby, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" got its first airplay because Crosby had played members of Buffalo Springfield a tape he'd been given of the unreleased Beatles track "A Day in the Life", and they'd told their gangster manager-producers about it. Those manager-producers had then hired a sex worker to have sex with Crosby and steal the tape, which they'd then traded to a radio station in return for airplay. That timeline doesn't work, unless the sex worker involved was also a time traveller,  because "A Day in the Life" wasn't even recorded until January 1967 while "Clancy" came out in August 1966, and there'd been two other singles released between then and January 1967. But it *might* be the case that that's what happened with "For What It's Worth", which was released in the last week of December 1966, and didn't really start to do well on the charts for a couple of months. Right after recording the song, the group went to play a residency in New York, of which Ahmet Ertegun said “When they performed there, man, there was no band I ever heard that had the electricity of that group. That was the most exciting group I've ever seen, bar none. It was just mind-boggling.” During that residency they were joined on stage at various points by Mitch Ryder, Odetta, and Otis Redding. While in New York, the group also recorded "Mr. Soul", a song that Young had originally written as a folk song about his experiences with epilepsy, the nature of the soul, and dealing with fame. However, he'd noticed a similarity to "Satisfaction" and decided to lean into it. The track as finally released was heavily overdubbed by Young a few months later, but after it was released he decided he preferred the original take, which by then only existed as a scratchy acetate, which got released on a box set in 2001: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Mr. Soul (original version)"] Everyone has a different story of how the session for that track went -- at least one version of the story has Otis Redding turning up for the session and saying he wanted to record the song himself, as his follow-up to his version of "Satisfaction", but Young being angry at the idea. According to other versions of the story, Greene and Stills got into a physical fight, with Greene having to be given some of the valium Young was taking for his epilepsy to calm him down. "For What it's Worth" was doing well enough on the charts that the album was recalled, and reissued with "For What It's Worth" replacing Stills' song "Baby Don't Scold", but soon disaster struck the band. Bruce Palmer was arrested on drugs charges, and was deported back to Canada just as the song started to rise through the charts. The group needed a new bass player, fast. For a lipsynch appearance on local TV they got Richard Davis to mime the part, and then they got in Ken Forssi, the bass player from Love, for a couple of gigs. They next brought in Ken Koblun, the bass player from the Squires, but he didn't fit in with the rest of the group. The next replacement was Jim Fielder. Fielder was a friend of the group, and knew the material -- he'd subbed for Palmer a few times in 1966 when Palmer had been locked up after less serious busts. And to give some idea of how small a scene the LA scene was, when Buffalo Springfield asked him to become their bass player, he was playing rhythm guitar for the Mothers of Invention, while Billy Mundi was on drums, and had played on their second, as yet unreleased, album, Absolutely Free: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Call any Vegetable"] And before joining the Mothers, Fielder and Mundi had also played together with Van Dyke Parks, who had served his own short stint as a Mother of Invention already, backing Tim Buckley on Buckley's first album: [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Aren't You the Girl?"] And the arrangements on that album were by Jack Nitzsche, who would soon become a very close collaborator with Young. "For What it's Worth" kept rising up the charts. Even though it had been inspired by a very local issue, the lyrics were vague enough that people in other situations could apply it to themselves, and it soon became regarded as an anti-war protest anthem -- something Stills did nothing to discourage, as the band were all opposed to the war. The band were also starting to collaborate with other people. When Stills bought a new house, he couldn't move in to it for a while, and so Peter Tork invited him to stay at his house. The two got on so well that Tork invited Stills to produce the next Monkees album -- only to find that Michael Nesmith had already asked Chip Douglas to do it. The group started work on a new album, provisionally titled "Stampede", but sessions didn't get much further than Stills' song "Bluebird" before trouble arose between Young and Stills. The root of the argument seems to have been around the number of songs each got on the album. With Richie Furay also writing, Young was worried that given the others' attitudes to his songwriting, he might get as few as two songs on the album. And Young and Stills were arguing over which song should be the next single, with Young wanting "Mr. Soul" to be the A-side, while Stills wanted "Bluebird" -- Stills making the reasonable case that they'd released two Neil Young songs as singles and gone nowhere, and then they'd released one of Stills', and it had become a massive hit. "Bluebird" was eventually chosen as the A-side, with "Mr. Soul" as the B-side: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Bluebird"] The "Bluebird" session was another fraught one. Fielder had not yet joined the band, and session player Bobby West subbed on bass. Neil Young had recently started hanging out with Jack Nitzsche, and the two were getting very close and working on music together. Young had impressed Nitzsche not just with his songwriting but with his arrogance -- he'd played Nitzsche his latest song, "Expecting to Fly", and Nitzsche had said halfway through "That's a great song", and Young had shushed him and told him to listen, not interrupt. Nitzsche, who had a monstrous ego himself and was also used to working with people like Phil Spector, the Rolling Stones and Sonny Bono, none of them known for a lack of faith in their own abilities, was impressed. Shortly after that, Stills had asked Nitzsch