Bruce Palmer (from The Buffalo Springfield) dies, Bruce Palmer passed away (from the Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

Bruce Palmer (legendary member and bass player of The Buffalo Springfield) has passed away from a heart attack in late september, according to several messages posted on the Poconut.com forum (the official website dedicated to the band Poco) :
"I was just informed by John Einarson that Bruce Palmer has passed away from a heart attack," said a forum member named Mark.
John Einarson co-wrote with Richie Furay the book: "For What It's Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield" published in The States this year.

Stalker member added: "this has to be true... Richie knew about it last night when i had a chat with him before the show in Steelville." Stalker talked about the following concert (Richie is Richie Furay):
"Oct. 2nd, 2004 Wildwood Springs Lodge
Steeleville, MO
Richie Furay with Rusty Young & Paul Cotton
8:00 p.m."

Another comment posted in the The SSBS (Stephen Stills Buffalo Springfield) Forum said:
"Dear Stephen (Stills) - I was the last one to see Bruce Palmer before he disappeared. Please contact me!
Richard Bates
Toronto, Canada - Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 08:35:35 (PDT)"

The official website of The Buffalo Springfield didn't (initially) comment the death of Bruce Palmer and they have put a link on this article. Thanks!

Update (October 8 - in the comments of these posts):
"My name is Etherus Grace Palmer Palmer, I am Bruce's daughter, It is so amazing to read all of the beautiful comments about my father. We didnt get to spend much time with oneanother, but the time spent holds dear to my heart and my soul. I loved him very much and will miss him. Thank you for all the kind words"

Update (October 7):
"There's not a person who listened to the Buffalo Springfield that wasn't drawn to the way he played bass," said bandmate Richie Furay. "He made the music move -- Bruce was truly a musician's musician. I consider it a privilege to have played with him in such a creative time in my life."

More news are welcome in the comments there.

Rolling Stone has confirmed the information a few days later this post (October 8, 2004) with no more information.

All Music Guide delivers the following biography about Bruce Palmer:

"Born in 1946, in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada, the enigmatic Bruce Palmer is known mostly as the original bassist in Buffalo Springfield, one of the greatest rock groups of the 1960s. Although Buce Palmer did not sing or write any material during his time in the band, he was a vital member, both on-stage and (at least in the beginning) in the studio, for providing much of the "rock" muscle in the band's folk-rock with his powerful, creative basslines.

He was also its most mysterious member, playing with his back to the audience and often even posing in photographs with his face away or hidden from the camera. Some bad luck and personal problems interrupted his stint in Buffalo Springfield several times, however, and he was eventually replaced by Jim Messina shortly before the band split up.

While he would briefly play with ex-Buffalo Springfield members again in subsequent years, never again would he enjoy nearly as high a profile in the rock world as he had in his early twenties as the Springfield's bassist. He also managed to produce a rare solo album in the early '70s that counts as one of the strangest rock records ever released by a name musician, or by a major label.

Bruce Palmer, like fellow Buffalo Springfield member Neil Young, was Canadian, and started playing in Toronto R&B and rock & roll bands in his mid-teens. In the mid-'60s, he played for a time in Jack London & the Sparrows, a British Invasion-like group that had a couple Canadian hit singles (released after Palmer's departure from the band).

He then joined the Mynah Birds, with AWOL American sailor (and future funk and soul star) Rick James on lead vocals, in a trade whereby Nick St. Nicholas of the Mynah Birds (and later of Steppenwolf) replaced Palmer in Jack London & the Sparrows. In early 1966, Neil Young joined the Mynah Birds, who got a contract with Motown and recorded some material for the label that's never been released. Part of the reason it remained in the vaults is that James was arrested for being AWOL, which broke up the band only a couple of months after Young had joined.

Neil Young and Bruce Palmer then undertook a legendary drive to Los Angeles in Young's hearse, the goal being to find Stephen Stills (whom Young had previously met) and see about forming a band. Neil Young and Bruce Palmer had no address for Stills, and after several days of searching for him in L.A. they were on the verge of giving up, and decided to head north to San Francisco. But in one of rock & roll's greatest strokes of luck, they found him in Los Angeles when a vehicle in which Stills and Richie Furay were riding passed the hearse on Sunset Boulevard going in the opposite direction.

Almost immediately, the nucleus of Buffalo Springfield was formed, finalized by the addition of Dewey Martin as drummer. Although Bruce Palmer plays on everything on Buffalo Springfield's first album and most of the second, he's not on most of the band's third and last LP. Actually, he first left the group in January 1967, when he was busted for marijuana possession and deported back to Canada. The group used a couple different bassists (Ken Koblun and Jim Fielder) over the next few months, until Palmer managed to get back into the United States and rejoin in June.

Another bust for various offenses, including speeding without a driver's license and drug possession, led to his final departure from Buffalo Springfield in January 1968, Jim Messina taking his place. The group only lasted a few more months without Palmer, disbanding in May 1968. About a year later, Bruce Palmer was briefly considered for the bassist position in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but was cut loose after a bit of rehearsal and recording, David Crosby and Graham Nash objecting the most to making Bruce Palmer a permanent backup musician. (Two recordings on which Bruce Palmer plays, a version of "Helplessly Hoping" and a cover of Terry Reid's "Horses Through a Rainstorm," appear on the Crosby, Stills & Nash box set.)

Shortly after that, he took advantage of an offer from MGM to do a solo album, although he had never before written or sung any material. That borne in mind, it's less surprising that his early-'70s solo album, The Cycle Is Complete, turned out to be almost wholly instrumental, comprised of four jam-like tracks mixing psychedelic rock, improvised jazz, and more esoteric styles. Among the musicians backing him were four members of Kaleidoscope and his old bandmate Rick James, who played percussion and occasionally added some scat-like vocals.Unsurprisingly, the album sold little, and Bruce Palmer vanished from the music business. He did unexpectedly resurface to play live with his old friend Neil Young in the early '80s, also contributing to Young's "Trans" album. In the mid-'80s he formed the tribute band Buffalo Springfield Revisited, in which Dewey Martin was the sole other original Buffalo Springfield member."

Bruce Palmer will be missed.
R.I.P.

(Bruce Palmer picture by Henry Diltz)

Bruce Palmer solo album "The Cycle Is Complete" (originally released in 1971 on Verve). Here, it is the official reissue by Collector's Choice:

And the most known "Best Of" CD from The Buffalo Springfield:

Comments

[R. Steven Melendrez]

Sad to hear about Bruce Palmer. I was, and still am a big fan of the Springfield. Bruce's bass lines in "Mr. Soul" are some of the best ever recorded in a Rock song.

I remember thinking after listening to "The Cycle Is Complete" that Bruce took us on a Zen trip to another world with that recording.

Another unique, gentle, and creative spirit has passed on. As Graham Nash once sang, we've "Lost Another One".

Condolences to Bruce Palmer's family and loved ones...

RSM

[Denny Gerard]

Because Bruce played so well on the Buffalo Springfield records you don't even notice the bass lines. You just hear how great the songs and the singing are.

It is not until you specifically listen to the bass lines that you go "Oh my god" his playing is SO GOOD. So amazingly foundational and yet very tasty.

It is hard for us outsiders to know how Bruce's "personality or situations" affected him being replaced in the Springfield. Or what is going on behind the scenes that Bruce disappears from the public eye for years at a time. Only to turn up playing amazing bass in the "Buffalo Springfield Revisited" or seen being publicly chastised in Neil Young's Berlin DVD for not remembering a song he was supposed to know.

Not sure why there is so little official information on his passing. So little that I had to point the hostmaster of TheBuffaloSpringfield.com to this web blog to use as a link on Springfield's official site to use as the best information available on Bruce's death.

Soon I hope to see more information available and certainly some comment from Neil, Stephen and the rest of Buffalo Springfield.

My condolences to Bruce's family, friends and fans around the world.

Perhaps a special tribute concert is in order.

[Etherus Grace Palmer]

My name is E.G. Palmer, I am Bruce's daughter, It is so amazing to read all of the beautiful comments about my father. We didnt get to spend much time with oneanother, but the time spent holds dear to my heart and my soul. I loved him very much and will miss him. Thank you for all the kind words

[rudy vergauwen]

it's such a shame that the goodies always go first. as a fan of the west coast music
like CSN&Y and Grateful Dead you cannot exclude the Buffalo Springfield for they were ( alongside the Byrds ) the founders
of a great sound that was to inspire the
likes of The flying burrito brothers and
Poco. I feel a deep sadness inside and my sympathy goes out to his family and friends

so long Bruce !! we'll see you in Heaven
take care dude !! give my love to John and
George, Jimi, Janis and all the others in
God's own rock and roll band. I'll pray for you

rudy

[mike dally]

I am so very saddened to hear of Bruce's death. As a huge Buffalo Springfield fan, I can only join in the condolences to
Bruce's family and friends, in his memory. Just now, I am re-listening to his powerful bass lines in "Mr.Soul" (which I was ecstatic to hear recently in Neil Young's "Greendale" tour). I will always remember him and the joy that his music brought me.

[marlo oosterhuis]

Bruce and I were the best of friends.

He taught me many things. He showed me how important it was to be "REAL". He introduced me to many wonderful people, some of them down right important and he shared their friendships with me. He was liked by everyone we met together as he evoked a peace and friendly understanding with those we encountered. I shall never forget him or the many great times and good things we shared over the years.

For me, he was one of those people who helped change my life for the better. You see, he helped me realize that to change the world I would have to change myself.

He knew the key.

He also knew that in this world there is more hunger for love and appreciation than there is for bread.

There is much to be said for Bruce and his passing has taken me quite suddenly.

I am honored to have known him and to call him friend.

May peace be with you.

[alias akin]

as someone said
some time ago...
"all things must pass"
yes, this we know...
but still, it's hard
to let them go
as time rolls out
its ebb and flow...
God rest your soul Bruce,
you helped me grow
your music lives on,
now on with the show...
painted ponies aplenty
let's go Arapaho.

[Bruce Gary]

In 1968, I played drums in a band called Buckwheat. The other members were Bruce Palmer on Bass (fresh from The Buffalo Springfield), Jim Glover (Jim & Jean) was the lead singer. The group was based in Topanga Canyon. We did a few shows at The Topanga Corral & recorded some great songs in the studio. Playing with Bruce was an extreme pleasure. He had an amazing ability to create counter melodies with his Bass Guitar.
Just last year, I was given his phone number in Canada and called him. He sounded very energized. We spoke of getting together in the near future...unfortunately that hadn't happened. I will always remember Bruce and his very innocent ways. Another special one that died way too young.
Lovingly,
Bruce Gary

[Katherine McCarron]

I feel so fortunate to have known Bruce. I remember fondly his curious and quirky mind, his gentleness, and generosity. He was one of a kind and I realize that the pain I feel is for myself; that we will never laugh together again. Peace and blessings to all who loved him.

[Pia Elgaard]

I am so sorry to hear this news. Bruce was in my grade 9 class at Northern Secondary High (Toronto) back in '61. I remember him as a really quiet, shy person. He was repeating grade 9 & the teachers were constantly reminding him of it...."Mr.Palmer,you must know the answer since you've been here before."...& Bruce would just smile that smile. He dropped out the following year. The next & last time I saw him was in the mid 60's...he was playing at the Cafe El Patio in Yorkville with (I think) The Mynah Birds. My husband who also played Yorkville, last saw Bruce about 20 yrs ago when a friend dropped by & Bruce was with him. He said Bruce was really down & trying to get something going musically...he felt that Bruce never got over leaving Buffalo Springfield...
Who would?

Here's to that sweet, awkward 15 yr old that I met so many years ago...

Thank You for the music, Bruce.....

[Brian Ponsar]

Because Buffalo Springfield existed just 22 months or so, I feel honored to have witnessed them at the Anaheim Convention Center on Aug. 26 1967.(Along with the Association & The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band...much more bang for the buck back then!) Bruce Palmer played bass so well that I had to go buy a Fender Bass and try to duplicate what I had heard. To this day Mr. Palmer's playing on "Mr. Soul" is one of life's true delights. His place in musical history is secure.
Side trip... When I bought "Buffalo Springfield Again" it was a real surprise to see credit for bass going to Jim Fielder on the track "Everydays". Not only was Jim a guitar teacher to my brother Bruce and I (1965), he had a band with Tim Buckley and appears on some of Tim's albums. Besides playing with the Springfield, Jim Fielder spent time with Frank Zappa and is best known as the original bassist with Blood Sweat and Tears. To this day Jim plays bass for Neil Sedaka.

[Gaynor]

I met Bruce in the mid 60's. My best friend Dale was lined up overnight outside Massey Hall in Toronto to buy Beatles tickets. Next in line to her was Bruce! She and Bruce hit it off and a relationship began. Dale often invited me to sit in on "Jack London & the Sparrows" jams in a basement club on St. Charles street(???)in Toronto. Dennis and Jerry Edmonton, Conrad Feenie and Jack London (aka ??? Martin - I think!) were the other band members. Loved sitting there watching it all! They used to put on phony Liverpool accents as they tried to cash in on the British Invasion. Still have photos and 45's of the band... amazing! Lost touch with Dale and Bruce for awhile after he left the Sparrow. But caught up with them later when Dale called me from California, asking me to spend the summer with her and Buffalo Springfield. Didn't go... wish I had. There were SO MANY incredible stories from Dale about who they hung with and what they were doing down there! After Dale and Bruce broke up, Dale moved back to Toronto area with her and Bruce's daughters, Emmy and Erin and we stayed close for several years... then drifted away again. Haven't heard from any of them since. Dale: hope you didn't do that 40th birthday thing! Emmy and Erin: I'm so sorry about your dad. I didn't know him well, but I know he was a good guy and a great musician.

[Bev. Davies]

So sad to hear that Bruce is gone. My friends Tannis Neimann and Jeannine Hollingshead went on that trip in the hurst with Neil and Bruce and some others. I was to go also but kicked out for lack of money at the last hour. It was Bruce who gave me his last dollar, the night before they left. I hitched to NYC the next morning and Bruce and Neil headed out of town in the hurst and into history.
Bruce came back to Toronto and bought us all steak dinner at Webster's restraunt in the middle of the night. He said he had signed with a band and got an advance. That was the last time I saw him. God bless.

[DTK]

Read "For What It's Worth" (@RichieFuray.com), rent "Berlin" (oversized & Live with Neil), and revisit Trans. After you've read the book, maybe the red-haired girl will step forward and identify herself. I'm thinking she's mentioned by name above, but I'm guessing. Still, what an original group from 5 original guys! "Back in the old folkie days...", what a blessing these guys were to take us where we wanted to go so willingly. There's no discounting any of their contributions. We have a history here we will never see the likes of again. Music with poetry: shinning, guiding, lifting, and bringing us along. I never got over it. Thanks guys, one & all.

[Bernz Campos]

I have known buffalo springfield for many years now but i still managed to learn that bruce palmer was a mysterious member the way he played bass for the group,especially
for the first album was simply electrifying to the quality of music the band delivered.
Goodbye bruce.I may not know you personally but you will long be remembered.I am a filipino residing in the philippines.

[J.R. Ball]

In Memory of Bruce

Bruce Palmer dead at 58. Died of a heart attack in a town north of Toronto. My heart is in my mouth. He was once my friend.

I met him back in the 80's. Long, long after his pot bust while a member of the Buffalo Springfield had gotten him and his bass deported back to Canada and he found himself out of a musical group that at the time was blazing like a nova. It only took a couple of years for the Buffalo Springfield to break up, crash and burn, but from the magic of it's musical ashes would spring a whole lot of great music from such distinguished groups as Crosby, Stills and Nash, Manassas, Poco, Loggins and Messina, Neil Young and Crazy Horse and God knows who else.

By the time I met Bruce, the man had fallen from grace in the record industry. Once a lean and trim individual, the Bruce Palmer I knew sported a great paunch, had a fondness for soft cotton clothing and Buddhism, had a demeanor a bit like that great character actor Charles Laughton. Bruce often appeared to many as absolutely punch drunk and rambling in his conversations which almost always featured a great deal of whimsy. He could be both infinitely lovable and totally irascible.

As a young man growing up in Canada, Bruce Palmer was once in a rock group called the Mynah Birds with another fellow madman and lead singer, Rick James. One day Bruce met another young musician carrying an amp down a Toronto street. The guys name was Neil Young. Bruce invited Young to join the Mynah Birds. When Rick James got arrested for being AWOL from the US Army, the band folded. In March of 1966, Neil Young and Bruce Palmer struck out from Canada in Young's hearse and drove to LA to find Steven Stills and found the Buffalo Springfield. The rest is rock and roll history.

Bruce's growing fondness for alcohol and psychedelic drugs would often prove to be his undoing. For most of the time I knew Bruce, he remained on the wagon, restricting his intake to smoking a little grass and the drinking of green tea, but he would live a bumpy life. His initial musical influence seem to stem from funky blues. He was probably best known for his habit of turning his back toward his audience during a set and intently playing his signature bass stuff while facing the back wall. Totally into his music but private and shy as hell on stage--about it as far as I could tell.

I met Bruce in Topanga, CA. In those days I ran a used clothing store known as Topanga Threads and he was a favorite customer. His visits to the store often ran over an hour or more as we would endlessly bullshit about whatever. This alone says both a lot about my old store and Bruce's life style.

Later, when my world came crashing down around me, when the store went belly up and I suddenly had no where to go and had lost all hope and had sunk into depression, Bruce helped get me back on track. It just so happened he was preparing to go out on a tour of the Colorado Rockies with his group, Buffalo Springfield Revisited. He knew I had previously did roadie work for the Beach Boys.

"Come on out on the road with me," he said in his best mother hen.

At the time, Bruce was using a rented little wooden bungalow at the Topanga Beach Motel as a headquarters for his band, the Buffalo Springfield Revisited. It was a tiny little cottage with barely enough room for him, his old lady, a few meager possessions and his bass and amp and assorted Buddhist paraphernalia. From this tiny little headquarters we would launch out on two separate tours across country.

Both tours were strictly low-level rock and roll bombing runs. Somewhere along the line, Bruce had teamed up with sly, blonde-headed fellow. Another Canadian named Frank, who--on a good night--could sing Neil Young better than Neil Young. Actually, they were much more than a "homage band," The material they were working with, the Buffalo Springfield songbook, was all top notch stuff that has withstood the test of time. Besides that, Bruce and Frank and the rest of the guys in the band which on various occasions sometimes included original Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin, well, they could really cook and always put on a fine show.

On the first tour I served as a driver/roadie for band I was only out on the road with them for a few weeks. It would prove to be a short, somewhat profitable tour of the snow-capped Rockies during the late winter/early spring season of 1988. Using a four-door sedan automobile and an extended diesel van, the Buffalo Springfield Revisited (consisting of a 5-man combo, luggage and equipment, plus me) struck out from the Topanga Beach Motel and headed for the Colorado Rockies and the spring thaw. The Rocky Mountain shows were booked by a young and aggressive Colorado promoter who ran a pizza parlor in Telluride. I think it was called the Roma. The pizza parlor was formerly a bar. A historic bar. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had wandered into that bar years ago. The two men had bought a drink and gathered themselves just before they headed down the street to rob their very first bank.

It was a long drive from LA to the first show which turned out to be a redneck bar in Grand Junction called Cottonwood Creek. We drove right out of California, stopping in a casino in Searchlight Nevada only long enough to sample the four dollar buffet. I can still remember my first sight of the Colorado Rockies as we drove across a flat section of eastern Utah while ahead of us in the distance stood the Colorado Rocky Mountains looking like tall, distant islands jutting up into the sky.

Nearing Grand Junction we were treated to snow flurries that caused a complete white out at high speed along the highway and I lost total sight of the Corona beer truck hurling down the highway just in front of me. I remember lightly tapping at the breaks repeatedly through the white out, afraid that if I hit them too hard I would spin out on the icy road.

The road tour would deliver several images that remain forever in my head. The monument to the snow plow driver's who lost their lives keeping the road open in winter that stood at the top of some ghastly mountain pass we drove over in the Rockies. There was also the sight a several hundred deer viewed during a stretch of just several miles that were all casually grazing in farm pastures at just one particular elevation just below the snow line.

From Grand Junction we moved on to Telluride for several days, followed by a run out to Logan, Utah for another club date. Then north as far as Bozeman, Montana to play another redneck bar called The Cat's Paw. The next day found us in Jackson's Hole, Wyoming. Then it was on to the upscale indulgence of towns like Vail and Aspen. Palm Springs with snow. We would do shows in Evergreen and Durango. With shows often booked back to back like they were, the tour made money.

A few months later, I would strike out again with the Buffalo Springfield Revisited. This time the tour would be more ambitious. Cover more ground. Armed with a borrowed credit card from a friend to cover the cost of the gas to cross the country (Bruce mailed back the gas money when the group started getting paid for gigs on the East Coast) and a Calypso motor home that had seen far better days, we took off. There were five men in the band, plus me. It would be a tour that would take us up the eastern seaboard on a series of club dates. We would travel as far north as Vermont and eventually as far south as Texas in search of money and adventure and a place to put on a show.

It was a long run across the U.S. All the bunks in the motor home were taken up by the band, and when I wasn't driving I usually slept on a foam pad on the rear floor of the motor home. It would prove a far cry from the hotel and rental car life of touring with the Beach Boys, but it was a kind of tour that put your ear close to the ground. You could really hear and see America.

I never met the person who booked this East Coast tour, but in many ways this one turned out to be a real joke. No sooner did we manage to cross the country than word came that a weeks worth of the bookings in the southeast had been cancelled. There was a hole in the tour. Money would not be made for a week, meanwhile money would be spent which is what happens when you are out on the road. The trip was destined not to be much of a money maker.

I remember watching Bruce pace back and forth one night in the darkness outside a gas station somewhere on the East Coast. What to do? What to do? He was wearing a big, wool overcoat open at the paunch. Hair tussled, hands clasped behind his back, pacing about like an aging Napoleon Bonaparte trying still one more time to grasp victory from defeat and work his way back on top.

Once again, memories of the tour have remained with me over the years. I remember a late night drive half lost, winding our way through Steeltown in Pittsburgh during a freak electrical storm. All those rusting and decayed steel mills, locked up and closed and suddenly illuminated by the flashes of lighting across their ghostly facades. It was like walking into an old, black and white movie about Oliver Twist.

The club dates scheduled on the tour ran from the sublime to the ridiculous. There would be no auditorium shows. They played an old, dingy jazz club close by the old money part of Newport, R.I. I think it was called the Pelican Inn. A rock club in Providence, had an outlandish time performing on the deck of a tour boat in the middle of Boston Harbor playing on a bill with James' brother, Livingston Taylor.

By the time we arrived at a run down club somewhere in the backwoods of Connecticut, the Calypso RV was running on seven cylinders. It had a fried spark plug wire and a broken shock absorber. The club itself was nuts. I never realized there were so many dense rednecks in Connecticut of all places. The back room where the bands waited to go onstage featured various holes in the plaster walls where people had busted through with their fists and even their heads. Many of these fist and head holes were signed and dated.

Frank, the lead singer, was the only guy in the group with any mechanical ability. With a handful of small tools he brought with him, Frank tackled the broken shock mount. When it got to be a little too much for him, Frank enlisted help from one of the crazier locals who had some tools in his car. The guy said he would help us out but only before stationing me back at the rear of the motor home. The guy was quite drunk. He calmly told me that he was going to crawl under the motor home and help Frank, but he had previously been involved in a serious scene with another guy sometime earlier. He told me if they guy showed up carrying a gun while he was working under the car, I was to warn him immediately. "No problem," I told him.

The Buffalo Springfield Revisited continued it's tour up the eastern seaboard.
My favorite show took place in a working man's bar in Nantucket. The place was owned by a real character who called himself Captain Seaweed. We stayed in a room out back next to a studio that made those famous Nantucket woven baskets. The band couldn't bring their equipment over on the ferry because they hadn't made previous reservations and the group was forced to perform on crappie, borrowed local equipment. Still, it was a hell of a show.

Five minutes before showtime, Frank, the lead singer, finally managed to show up from his trip out to the waters just off the Coast Guard Station where he had been fishing with a borrowed pole. Frank stumbled into the kitchen holding an enormous Blue fish caught just before showtime. A proud smile across his face, Frank turned it over to the cook before heading for the stage. The bar was filled to capacity and they had to shut down the door because they were over their fire limit. Still, many of the locals continued to climb in through the bathroom windows to get inside. It was a great show.

Eventually, we reached the part of the tour where the hole had appeared. We were now moving southwest, away from the eastern seaboard. With dates cancelled in Missouri and other places, there was nothing to do for days. The next show was nearly a week away in far off Dallas, Texas. An informal meeting took place. What to do?

"Graceland, we gotta go to Graceland," the rhythm guitar player suggested. "It is the chance of a lifetime."

We would head for Memphis and pay a light-hearted homage to the tackiest of Americana--the worship of all things Presley. And that is just what we did.

I remember the thing that struck me most about Graceland was standing beside Elvis' grave and noticing the small grave site of his twin brother who is buried next to him. The one who died at birth. What? Elvis had a twin brother? By God, 'twas fate that killed his twin at birth. There could only be one King!

After Graceland we drove all the way from Tennessee to Texas so the group could play "For What It's Worth," "Bluebird," "Clancy" and the other songs to a half- filled club in Dallas. The "coup de grace" was delivered to us we were leaving Texas and heading back home, running along Hwy. 10 west of El Paso. It was very late in the night when we hit the border patrol station situated about 40 miles north of the Mexican border. I was at the wheel of the funky old motor home when pulled up alongside a small building. The only other person still awake was the rhythm guitar/ pedal steel player riding shotgun in the front passenger seat, while everyone else slept in the back of the motor home.

Winding down the window, I drove up alongside the building where a man in the dark was waiting on the other side of an open window. The man asked me some kind of question as to just who we were.

"We are a rock band from Los Angeles. Heading home," I told him.

"Whose in the back of the motor home?" he asked.

At that point, the back up guitarist (who had spent the entire tour displaying his sharp, biting and quick wit. A man who obviously reveled in his own brilliance) now leaned across from the passenger seat and addressed the border guard. "Don't worry, officer!, " he announced. "There are no Mexicans in here. Just Americans and a couple of Canadians."

"Pull over to the side, gentlemen. We are going to have to see some identification."

As I sat in the darkness I heard Bruce let out a groan from his bunk in the rear of the motor home. "A couple of Canadians, you say to the man...a couple of Canadians...Good grief!"

Frank was Canadian and his papers were in good order, but Bruce's visitor's status had long expired and we could only watched as he was taken from us, put in a squad car and taken off into town. We followed in the motor home and had to stick around a couple of hours until they finally released him giving him a specified amount of days to get out of the country and return to Canada to square up his legal status. His name was now in their computers and they had him good.

When we got back to LA, Bruce paid everybody off. The tour had lost money. As low man on the totem pole, I was paid a pittance. Outside of some grand memories of a life being lived, I would come away with little to show for my services on that trip. What money Bruce had made from the road tour would have to be spent on an airline flight back to Canada and the chance to square up his legal status in the U.S. once more, so he could return to LA and continue his efforts to keep the group alive.

I first began writing this missive because I was moved by the news of Bruce's death and I wanted to put something down to remember him by. Unfortunately, the two road trips I made with the guy happened 20 years ago. In truth, I no longer the remember the essence of any of our many conversations. I even have a hard time trying to hear his old speech patterns which I am presently too chickenshit to even try to reproduce. Instead, I have put down the flood of memories that well up inside of me when I think of those two quixotic tours on the road with him. They offered me a brief reprise from thoughts of where I have been and where I was going. I have Bruce to thank for those memories.

Thanks, Bruce....

J.R. Ball
LA, CA

[stephen b]

playing on the road with bruce was always an event... as a duo in the empire hotel in huntsville canada, we were playing the lounge and were short a bass amp when the band from the snakepit downstairs sent up an amp for bruce... he was loved and will be missed

[Thomas A]

Sure, I remember Bruce Palmer. He lived right next door to me from the time he was four years old until he left home.

I am trying desparately to think of a single positive thing to say about this guy after knowing him for more than a dozen years while we were growing up.

What comes to mind is far from flattering so I will just refrain from posting further.

[Bobby Lauser]

I had no idea that Bruce Palmer had passed on. I was looking at Buffalo Springfield's site and saw the news (Mar. 2005) for the first time.

I had my picture taken with Bruce Palmer after he appeared with Buffalo Springfield in Riverside, Calif (club: The Purple Haze)
I belive it was shortly before Jim Messina replaced Bruce.
I'd like to post this rare pic.....but where?

Bobby

[Larry Gladstone]

Has there ever been anything done on the history of Buffalo Springfield in the form of video, DVD etc. that accurately documents this fabulous band performing such as early days in 1966 at the Whiskey or other venues..I know they played here in Long Island at the malibu Beach club, no one remembers it but it was docuumented in the box set.. It is so hard to find anything with live performances except for a few TV shows that are poor quality..

My sincerest condolences for the Palmer family, Bruce was a fabulous bassist and their music together for that brief moment of time was amazing..and touched many lives...

RIP Bruce...

[Mike]

Sad to hear about Bruce Palmer. He was a Highly Underrated bass player. His style was very intricate. Just listen to the bass on "Mr. Soul" and "Rock and Roll Woman". Those basslines still give me goosebumps.

RIP Bruce

[Ty]

He's really not dead ... as long as we still hear the music. Godspeed Bruce!

[jody swift]

Bruce was my boyfriend when I was 15. That was in 1967 We'd drive around in an old Bentley discusing eastern philosphy. We'd hang out in Topanga on top a hill watching cars winding up. One was my angry father. Bruce was gallant.What a sweet man. The antithesis of the narcissitic rockers I later came to know.His bass came from some bigger universe.Still reverberating...Buddha bless you, Bruce!
Jody, from Chiangmai, Thailand

[nigel a]

Great man, great musician and founding member of a great band.

[Mike Cody]

God Bless Bruce. Although I never met Bruce in person, his music & image as Buffalo Springfield's bassist will always be in my mind as I'm a bluenoser like Bruce from Nova Scotia. I did meet Neil Young a few times in person & my late brother Chris idolized Neil & his music & left his NS vanity license plate with Neil.
God knows they are both rockin'in Heaven together!

Thanks for all your music,Bruce.