In 1966, Neil Young drove his battered 1953 Pontiac hearse from Toronto, Canada to Los Angeles. He wanted to form a band with Stephen Stills, and was hoping he would be able to track him down.
Young had first met Stills in Fort William, Ontario in April 1965, where he had taken his first band The Squires to get gigs. They ended up opening for a band called The Company, featuring Stills. They met and hit if off right away, with a mutual unspoken feeling that they could do more together than in the bands they were with at the time. When The Company had done their contracted week, Stills had to move on. He gave Young a note with his address in New York in case he should ever get there.
Failing to get anything going in Canada, in December 1965 Neil Young travelled to New York hoping to score a solo recording contract. He also went to the address Stills had given him only to discover that his new-found friend was now in California. He did meet Stills’ friend Richie Furay and played him a new composition called Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing, but ultimately returned to Toronto after a failed demo session with Elektra Records.
Stills was audition to join The Monkees around that time, but when that fell through he contacted Furay in February 1966, asking him to join him in Los Angeles. Furay brought Neil Young’s song with him and taught it to Stills. They both agreed it would be interesting to do something with this guy.
In Canada, Young had joined Mynah Birds only to see it fold shortly after. He had at least struck up a friendship with bass player Bruce Palmer. Sometime in March 1966, Young turned to Palmer and uttered the immortal words ‘Let’s go to California.’ They decided to head out to Los Angeles with the aim to find Stills, unaware of his exact whereabouts or the fact that Furay was with him.
Eventually they got there and started hitting all the music hotspots asking for Stephen Stills. They asked about him in clubs, music stores, in coffeehouses and at gigs around town. To get money for gas, cigarettes and food, they would make a few bucks driving people they met around town Über-style. Their search seemed to be fruitless, though, and after a week of no luck the two of them decided to head north to San Francisco.
It was rush hour on the afternoon of April 6 when Young and Palmer attempted to wend their way northward on Sunset Boulevard heading out of town. At that same time, Stills, Furay and manager Barry Friedman were driving south on Sunset in a white van. Traffic was slow and turned into a jam.
Suddenly, Stills caught glance of a black hearse with Ontario plates going the other way. He knew Neil drove an old black hearse, and got a distinct feeling that it had to be him.
They honked. So did everybody else. They waved, to no avail. Somehow they managed to change lanes, and set out after them. They managed to catch up, honked at them and waved them over. And, sure enough: it was Neil Young and Bruce Palmer!
The two vehicles managed to pull into the parking lot of the Ben Franks restaurant on Sunset, where the occupants got out and hugged one another. Buffalo Springfield was formed right there and then, in the middle of chaotic Los Angeles traffic.
“I looked around out the driver’s window of the hearse,” Neil Young later said. “It was Stills! We got out and hugged right there on Sunset Boulevard in the middle of traffic. Horns were honking! To us it seemed like everybody was celebrating!”
They may have managed to find each other eventually, but as Young was en route to San Francisco, things could very easily have turned out differently. It truly was a genuine ‘sliding doors’ moment – just imagine if Stills had looked the other way at the critical moment, and if that meant there had never been any Buffalo Springfield or any of its many offshoots (Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Neil Young & Crazy Horse; Manassas; Poco; Loggins & Messina). It hardly bears thought.
Later that day, Stills and Furay performed a well-arranged version of Young’s song Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing for Young and Palmer. They were aghast at how good it sounded. Young never even knew that Stills was aware of it.
A mere five days later their traffic jam meet, the band made its public debut at L.A.’s Troubadour club. The members were Stephen Stills (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Neil Young (vocals, guitars, harmonica, piano), Richie Furay (vocals, rhythm guitar), Bruce Palmer (bass guitar), and new recruit Dewey Martin (drums, backing vocals).
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