The 40 Essential Albums of 1967

Fractious from the moment they formed, Buffalo Springfield made their superb second album in fits and starts alternately dominated by combative singer-guitarist-song-writers Stephen Stills and Neil Young. The latter predicted the wild eclecticism of his solo career with the California-Stones-style fury of "Mr. Soul" and the symphonic restlessness of "Expecting to Fly," written after Young briefly quit the group in the summer of 1967. A gilded spider web of guitars and harmonies, Stills' "Rock& Roll Woman" pointed to his subsequent lifetime with Crosby, Stills and Nash: David Crosby is an un-credited voice on the track. It was left to singer-guitarist Richie Furay, who later co-founded Poco, to lament the internal warring in the stone country of "A Child's Claim to Fame," written in frustration with Young's coming and going. Young took no offense, contributing vocals and sharp down-home guitar.