http://www.birdpages.co.uk/magazine2/bu ... boxset.htm
‘Box Set’ begins. From the earliest known ‘66 session where they cut Young’s ‘There Goes My Babe’ as a demo for Sonny and Cher up until ‘Buffalo Springfield Again’ (their last official album, the tiresome hodge-podge ‘Last Time Around’ is not included as it did not involve all the band members and truthfully adds nothing to the history)...
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... xuak3k5m3l
The internal dissension that was already eating away at the group's dynamic on their second album came home to roost on their third and final effort. This was in some sense a Buffalo Springfield album in name but not in spirit, as the songwriters sometimes did not even play on cuts written by other members of the band. Young's relatively slight contribution was a particularly tough blow. He wrote only two of the songs (though he did help Furay write "It's So Hard to Wait"), both of which were outstanding: the plaintive "I Am a Child" and the bittersweet "On the Way Home" (sung by Furay, not Young, on the record). The rest of the ride was bumpier: Stills' material in particular was not as strong as it had been on the first two LPs, though the lovely Latin-flavored "Pretty Girl Why," with its gorgeous guitar work, is one of the group's best songs. Furay was developing into a quality songwriter with the orchestrated "The Hour of Not Quite Rain" and his best Springfield contribution, the beautiful ballad "Kind Woman," which became one of the first country-rock standards. But it was a case of not enough, too late, not only for Furay, but for the group as a whole. — Richie Unterberger
Most reviews, All Music Guide included, rate Last Time Around as the group's worst LP, behind s/t and Again. Neil made sure three songs (Carefree Country Day, The Hour Of Not Quite Rain and the original mix of On The Way Home) didn't make it on the box set. Yet most reviews don't really mention what they think is "wrong" with the album. Fragmented? Not a "group effort"? Perhaps, but then again, Again is just as fragmented, and that's regarded as their best work. Weak songs from Stills? What songs are weak?
I guess it's just popular to not like this album for some reason. Nobody else likes it, so why should I, right?
So, what do *I* think? Well, I wouldn't keep listening if I didn't like it. Are there some low points? Perhaps, but then again, what I consider "low points" (Pretty Girl Why, Carefree Country Day, The Hour Of Not Quite Rain) are the favorites of others. And I don't really dislike those songs; I just like the rest of the songs better.
How does it compare to the other two albums? Well, I'd probably give Again the edge, but that's mainly because Again is *so* strong. How about in comparison to the first album? There are some great songs there, but everything has a very unpolished feel to it, both in terms of production and the types of songs they were writing. Sure, it's "cohesive", but only in that the arrangements aren't all that different from song to song. Still a great album, but I really don't understand how people can put it ahead of Last Time Around.
I do feel slightly vindicated, though, in reading the original review of Last Time Around in Rolling Stone:
From RS 16
Last Time Around
by Barry Gifford
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As a final testament to their multi-talent, the Buffalo Springfield have released Last Time Around, the most beautiful record they've ever made.
This is the second record album by a largely Canadian group (the first was Music From Big Pink by the Band) of major importance to be released this month. They both have their country roots showing. The great difference lies in their separate "heaviness distinction." The Band are overwhelming seriousness and pointed profundity, and the Buffalo Springfield are happier sounding, more sweet-country flavored. They sound, as Jim Messina croons, like a "carefree country day."
"Four Days Gone" is one of the best tracks the Springfield has ever done. Stills' vocal is, as usual, uniquely trembly. It's a sad, C&W-flavored song about a guy on the road running from the government, trying to get to his chick ("I'm four days gone into runnin'"), who can't tell his name because he's "got reason to live." The piano tinkles [Floyd] Cramer-rily in the background as Stills tells the story. "Government madness," he complains.
Stills has written five of the cuts on the album. "Special Care" and "Uno Mundo" show his amazing versatility as a songwriter. Both are entirely different from the C&W-ish "Four Days Gone." "Special Care" is a rock number in the finest sense. After a keyboard into in the style of Dylan's "Black Crow Blues," it's led by a furious, screaming guitar and a crashing, closely following organ. Stills trembles the paranoid lyrics: "Hey there you on the corner / staring at me / Would you like to shoot me down?" The guitar's buzzing vibrato lays down the melody as he raves on in the background, yelling at the people. It sounds as if he's being dragged away.
"Uno Mundo" is a Latin-based maracas-congos-trumpet Jamaican ska-beat polity-calypso blast at the world: "Uno Mundo / Asia is screaming / African seething / America bleating / just the same."
On "I Am A Child," Neil Young sounds more like Tim Hardin than Tim Hardin. It's not very often that this happens, that two performers sound almost identical. Oscar Peterson sounds so similar to Nat "King" Cole that for years, during Cole's career, Peterson did not sing. Then, when Cole died, Peterson put out a memorial album dedicated to him - he sang all of Cole's best loved songs - an almost perfect duplication of the original recordings. And the similarity was unintentional, as is the likeness between Young and Hardin. Moreover, "Child" is done exactly in Hardin's electrified country-fold vein. It's a nice tune, very pretty, with some strikingly poignant lines: "You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile." It's very simple and light. Even the harmonica bit reminds one of Herb Shriner playing "Back Home in Indiana."
Furay is a beautiful singer, and his best efforts here are the ballads "It's So Hard To Wait" and "Kind Woman." "Hard To Wait" is a plaintive love song: "I'll never forget you / I hope you care" - it moves slowly, backed by clarinet, acoustic guitar, drums and bass, all of which are played down appropriately, highlighting Furay's lingering falsetto. "Kind Woman" is similar and is performed just as nicely.
But the best track on the album is "Carefree Country Day." Messina's crackly-voiced lead vocal ("I get up in the morning with a cock-a-doodle-doo / I get myself together if and when I choose") has the most relaxed country flavor this side of Jack Elliott. Some great backup harmony by Furay and Stills and a funky "wha-wha-wha" horn interlude complement Messina's vocal superbly. It even has a "dot-in-doo-wah-wap-en-doo-wat-en-dah" fade-out, which is the finest bit of country doodling since Elliott's "Guabi Guabi."
Too bad this isn't the first time around.
As they say in The Onion, What do you think?
