Chords for INTERVIEW: Jim Messina On Going From Buffalo Springfield to Poco

[G] Jim Messina remembers the switch from Buffalo Springfield to Poco.
I'm John
Bowden from Rock History Music.
[D] Jim Messina is no ordinary musician.
In fact
being a musician is just a small part of what he does.
He picked up the guitar at
five years old, worked hard on his craft, and by his teens he caught the bug to
[Em] produce, which led him into the last incarnation of Buffalo Springfield, along
with Stephen [A] Stills and Neil Young, who would later form Crosby, Stills, Nash and
Young, and Richie Furay, who along with Messina and Rusty Young, who by the way
guested on the last Buffalo Springfield album, formed [C] Poco.
They, along with a few
other innovators, were the first big [B] wave of West Coast [A] country [C] rock, and that by
the way was three years before the Eagles.
[Abm] Interestingly that first
incarnation of [Gb] Poco would also include [A] a founding member of the Eagles, [D] Randy
Meisner.
Jim Messina would perform and produce the first two albums by Poco and
their [G] first live project.
[A] Messina could easily write a [G] library of books on his
unexpected twists [D] and turns in music.
[Am] Having left Poco after three albums, he
longed to be back home and to produce.
In the long run in life sometimes we get
more than we bargained for.
His reputation led him to be the producer [G] of
the first Kenny Loggins album, which turned into a duo album, which would
form Loggins and Messina.
Here is part one of our conversation [D] with the great Jim Messina.
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_ _ _ _ _ We want to start promoting some of that material.
[C] We're starting to find that [G] songs
like that I've written [A] over the [Bm] [C] body of my [G] career are starting to have more
meaning.
In fact, they're selling for, you know, real estate used to be able to sell
like [D] if you had a commercial piece of property, you'd [E] look at the property and
you'd look at the income and they'd go a cap, you know, of 10 or 8, [G] 6, whatever it
might be.
[E] Well, publishing companies were about the same way, but [G] now they're going
for 10s, [A] 12s, 13, 15 times their [C] cap rates because the [A] body of [G] work is not, no one's
doing that anymore.
You know, it's just not there.
And many of those melodies and
things, the emotional aspect of those melodies and lyrics are within our DNA and
they resonate and they realize that they resonate more than a lot of what's been
produced.
So, from [B] that standpoint, yes, I've gone through, in fact, I was
absolutely [D] quite amazed at some of the work that Rusty and I did back when I look [Em] at
Deliverin, that album [D] we did there and an acoustic version of You Better Think Twice
was pretty damn good.
And [G] he and I, the interaction that he and I had between one
another was just absolutely phenomenal, which is interesting because it brings up
the question, Richie, I guess, is going to try to reproduce that Deliverin album live
come June.
And I [A] called Rusty and [C] I says, that's going to be an interesting album to
listen to.
It's going to be pretty [A] hard to beat what we did back in those [G] days.
[C] Meeting Rusty and your first impressions?
[Bm] _ _ Well, when I first met Rusty, it was [G] because I had just finished [E] producing [G] the _ tracks for
A Kind Woman [Em] in New York.
[D] I had asked Amad Erdogan to bring me to New York and bring
the band, the Springfield, to New York because I couldn't get everybody in one
[A] place.
It was like herding [C] cats to try to get them in one place.
That's a lot of [D] big personalities.
[C] Absolutely.
And so we attempted to get everybody to New York, which everybody came
[Em] except Neil, but we kind of expected that.
But then I couldn't get them in the studio.
You know, they would just they'd be all over the place.
So we we finally had to go in
and cut Richie's tunes _ there in New York.
Arif Mardin [Ab] actually found me a couple of
musicians and [Bm] of course Arif [E] and still is one of the greatest producers living.
[G] _ He's a [Ab] jazz guy.
And what do I know from [Bm] jazz?
I [Em] was 18 or 19 years old.
[E] So he brought
in a couple of guys, a keyboard [G] player and a bass player who later Richard Davis, I
think the guy was on [D] bass and he's a world-renowned bass player.
And [E] we're thinking,
who are these guys?
[C] Anyway, we cut [G] Kind Woman.
It was a little [D] jazzier than I really was hoping it was
going to be.
_ [A] You know, I was a Buck Owens and the Buckaroos kind of [G] guy.
[C] So we get [G] it
back to L.A. and I'm thinking, what am I going [D] to do with [A] this?
[Em] I don't really [C] have
the original guys playing on their own sessions.
And this is important for Richie.
How am I going to make this work?
[Bm] So I thought about bringing in, I think his name was
Tom [A] Brummel, who's the steel guitar [D] player, famous session guy.
And one of the guys
that we had [G] working for us, Miles Thomas, was our [A] roadie.
He says, you know, I know a
couple of guys.
I know one guy in particular lives in Colorado named Rusty Young.
He's
your age and [E] he's really a good player.
He said, would you [G] consider putting him on it?
And I said, well, why not bring him [A] out?
So [D] we brought him out.
And [A] my first impression
of [E] Rusty was interesting because he had his really cool [D] steel.
I mean, it was just phenomenal
steel.
They dropped it on the airplane and broke [Em] it.
So he opens it up and he's ready
to play and it's just not working.
And I [G] remember saying, oh, geez, [D] he's kind of like under
his breath.
What am I going to do?
It's broken.
_ [E] And I said, well, you know, and I don't know
anything about steel guitars.
And I said, well, you know, Stephen bought this steel
guitar [G] over here, this fender on the road.
You're welcome to use it.
[A] And so, you know,
deep down inside, this was Rusty Young's [C] big [A] chance, right?
Yeah.
I'm just looking for
a steel player.
But for him, it's his big chance.
So he got the steel out and get us
all tuned up.
And [C] he says, this is really kind of hard to play.
And I'm thinking, God,
poor craftsman who blames his [Ab] tools.
But [A] [D] little did I know, the pedals were all reversed.
And instead of having rods, they [Em] were wires.
You know, I'd be [D] trying to I [A] don't even
know how to define it, but it's a whole [G] different animal.
Anyway, he sat down and he played
her second take, [A] this most unbelievable solo.
[G] _ My first impression [A] was, Jesus, if he's playing
on a broke instrument, what's he going to sound like when he has his own [G] steel to play?
But it was it was it was wonderful.
It was joyful.
It was just a joyful moment.
Jim Messina is doing shows all throughout the year, right up until November.
Go to
jimmessina.com for more information.
We'll have more of our conversation with Messina
coming up next week.
I'm John Boden.
Make sure you comment on our video, subscribe to
our channel and share our videos.
This is Rock [D] History Music.
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