Poco

One of the problems with creating new rock bands out of old ones is recording contracts:  Just because a rock band breaks up doesn’t usually mean that the members of the band are no longer bound by them.  You might have noticed over the years that even guest musicians playing on someone else’s album appear “courtesy of” another record company. 

When Last Time Around was being wound up, Stephen Stills and Neil Young had already exited Buffalo Springfield; and Richie Furay (guitar and vocals) and Jim Messina (bass guitar) were about the only ones left.  For the final track laid down by Buffalo Springfield, Furay and Messina were joined by Rusty Young (pedal steel guitar); he was a rarity in that time period in being one of the few steel guitarists who felt comfortable playing rock music.  The three stuck together; at Young’s suggestion, they added Randy Meisner (bass guitar and vocals), who had been in a band called the Poor, and George Grantham (drums and vocals), who had been in a psychedelic folk/rock band called Boenzee Cryque with Rusty Young. 

The band first began calling themselves Pogo, but Walt Kelly, the creator of the popular comic strip Pogo objected, so they switched to Poco.  Poco became one of the earliest and most long-lived country-rock bands.  

Several record companies were interested in signing the new act, but they hit a road block:  Richie Furay and Jim Messina were still signed to Atlantic Records as part of Buffalo Springfield.  Meanwhile, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were having the same problem getting signed.  David Geffen, then a young talent scout, arranged for the recording contracts for Stephen Stills and Neil Young to be swapped for those of Richie Furay and Jim Messina, so that CSNY could be signed to Atlantic Records, and Poco could be signed to Epic Records. 

*       *       * 

Poco’s first album, Pickin’ up the Pieces is considered to be a classic of the country-rock genre, the leading sound emerging from Southern California in the 1970’s and into the 1980’s.  But their internal problems began almost immediately:  Randy Meisner played on the first album but was asked to leave the band after becoming angry at being left out of the final mixing and production of the tracks on the record.  Poco went further than most in its acrimony:  Although his instrumental contributions were left in, Meisner’s lead vocals were removed from the album (George Grantham sung new ones to take their place), and he was taken out of the cover painting and replaced with a dog. 

After leaving the band, Randy Meisner played with Rick Nelson for a while and then joined another country-rock outfit that eventually dubbed themselves the Eagles.  Jim Messina left not long after that and started a fruitful collaboration with Kenny Loggins as Loggins and Messina. 

Richie Furay stayed with the band through their sixth album, Crazy Eyes (1973); the album made the Top 40, but with the lackluster sales of both albums and singles, even he was starting to get discouraged.  

Poco hung in there and hit something of a creative peak with Rose of Cimarron (1976); the title track, “Rose of Cimarron”, written by Rusty Young was covered by Emmylou Harris and was the de facto title track on her album Cimarron.  Though only Rusty Young remained among the founding members, their 1978 album Legend was the band’s most successful, reaching #14 on the Billboard album charts and including two Top 20 singles, “Crazy Love” and “Heart of the Night”.  

*       *       * 

If I remember right, I saw a display at the local Record Bar showing Poco emerging from Buffalo Springfield; and Cactus growing out of another classic 1960’s band, Vanilla Fudge. 

(April 2014)