Released November 18, 1967 Genre Psychedelic rock Label Atco | Recorded August–September, 1967 Length 6:13 Writer(s) Neil Young | |
"Broken Arrow" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young and recorded by Buffalo Springfield on their 1967 album Buffalo Springfield Again. It was recorded in August and September 1967 at Columbia Recording Studios and Sunset Sound Recorders. It incorporates musical ideas from "Down Down Down," a demo Young recorded with Buffalo Springfield (and now available on the box set).
"Broken Arrow" was confessional folk rock. It consists of three parts in three different time signatures interspersed with snippets of sounds, featuring organ, a jazz combo with piano, bass, drums, and a clarinet. The song begins with audience applause (taken not from a Buffalo Springfield show, as some expect, but rather from a concert by the Beatles) and the opening of "Mr. Soul" (which opens the album) recorded live in the studio. The second verse begins with the sound of an audience booing, while the Calliope plays a strange version of the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", before some weird sound effects bring on the verse. There is also the sound of a military snare drum, that plays drum rolls, first quietly, and getting louder and louder, until the fifth time, an unusual sound effect brings the song to the third verse. The Jazz combo plays an improvisation, first taken up by the clarinet, and followed by the piano, until it fades out, whereas, we only hear the beating of a heart, until that fades out, too.
Each of the three verses uses surreal imagery to deal with emotions (emptiness of fame, teenage angst, hopelessness), and contains self-references to Buffalo Springfield and Young. They all end with the same lines:
Did you see them, did you see them? Did you see them in the river? They were there to wave to you. Could you tell that the empty-quivered Brown-skinned Indian on the banks That were crowded and narrow, Held a broken arrow?An acoustic solo version of the song appears on the Neil Young live album Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 which was released on Reprise Records in 2008.
Of the members of the band, only Young was present at the recording. Background vocals from Richie Furay were added on later.