Stephen Stills and Neil Young play rare Buffalo Springfield song for first time in 57 years

Posted On October 7, 2024October 7, 2024

The lives of Stephen Stills and Neil Young are undeniably intertwined. After all, the pair have been writing, recording, and performing together—on and off—for the past six decades. Although much of their work together has focused on moving forward and developing a totally unique and distinctive sound, the duo very occasionally pulls something special from their expansive repertoire.

On October 5th, Stills and Young were together again, performing at a benefit concert in Lake Hughes, California. The bill also included John Mayer, Lily Meola, and Massanga among others. Throughout the gig, the pair selected highlights from their joint career, predominantly focusing on the material created with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young during the 1970s.

Beginning the show with 1976’s ‘Long May You Run’, a surprising highlight of the charity gig came with the third track, which saw Stills and Young hark back to their early careers, playing together with the iconic folk rock outfit Buffalo Springfield. “The worst four words you can hear in a live performance are ‘here’s a new song,’” Stills joked to the audience, “But this is actually a new version of an old song that took two centuries to write. It’s called ‘Hung Upside Down.’”

Although the initial run of Buffalo Springfield only lasted from 1966 to 1968, they were among the most important and groundbreaking groups of the era. Combining a vast mixture of folk, rock, psychedelia, and even country, Buffalo Springfield played an essential role in developing the folk-rock genre. Young and Stills had both been members of the band prior to forming Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, yet they do not often play Springfield tracks live, much less ‘Hung Upside Down.’

Originally a Stills composition, ‘Hung Upside Down’ was the first track on side two of Buffalo Springfield’s 1967 record Buffalo Springfield Again. Before this performance, it had been 57 years since either musician has played the song during a concert, having never been aired by CSNY, or Stills and Young in a solo capacity.

Digging out this classic Buffalo Springfield track contributes to a recent pattern by the pair, with the songwriters increasingly paying homage to their early material as they enter old age. For instance, Young famously did not play his solo track ‘If I Could Have Her Tonight’ for 48 years after its composition, only to revisit the song in 2016.

The remainder of the California concert, ‘Harvest Moon: A Gathering,’ included renditions of fan favourites from across the CSNY discography, as well as a particularly good version of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth,’ one of the Springfield tracks that still makes regular live appearances.

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