Why did Neil Young leave Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?
It’s nearly impossible for someone to be a part of one legendary band. Neil Young somehow managed to be a part of two. After pioneering the Los Angeles version of psychedelia and folk rock with Buffalo Springfield, Young jumped ship and started his solo career as a singer-songwriter. Only a short while later, Young still had some unfinished business with former bandmate Stephen Stills.
When Buffalo Springfield imploded, Stills jumped ship over to David Crosby, who was a free agent himself after getting kicked out of The Byrds. The pair soon were joined by Graham Nash, who had left The Hollies and entered the duo’s orbit through Joni Mitchell. Crosby, Stills, and Nash soon became a band of their own and released their self-titled debut in 1969. When it came time to tour, the idea of getting a keyboard player soon morphed into bringing on Young as a full-fledged member.
Young was surprisingly on board with the pairing, but his contract specified that he was able to embark on a parallel solo career outside of the band. The quartet only lasted long enough together to record one album, 1970’s Déjà Vu, before all four members split apart to make solo records. Young’s focus was always on moving forward. When he sat down with Howard Stern in 2021, he explained how that often meant leaving his bands at their peaks.
“I never really thought much about anything other than the people we were writing our songs for and the crowds that we played for live when they would come to see Buffalo Springfield – not 100 bands, Buffalo Springfield,” Young said. “We had our own thing. So I’m saying, ‘We don’t need to dilute it with all of that and become part of that whole thing.’ I just thought that it would be good if we stayed focused on our message and what our songs were about and sing our songs directly to our fans, who loved us because of what we did.”
“It’s just what I wanted to do – focus on what the songs were about and the look on people’s faces who came to see us and how we connected with them,” Young added. “To me, that was the Holy Grail … it was all that mattered to me. And once we started drifting away from that, I was gone. I didn’t think about it from the standpoint of anybody else… I can’t do what I do if I don’t act like I believe.”
Young would be coerced back into CSNY a number of times over the years, including for the band’s infamous ‘Doom Tour’ in 1974. Stills and Young even reformed Buffalo Springfield with founding member Richie Furay in 2010. But Young’s whims didn’t keep him in either band for very long, as he always made his way back to his solo work or his main band, Crazy Horse.
