Broken Arrow (song)

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“Broken Arrow”
Song by Buffalo Springfield
Album Buffalo Springfield Again
Released November 18, 1967
Recorded August-September, 1967
Genre Rock
Length 6:13
Label Atco
Writer Neil Young
Producer Richie Furay
Jack Nitzsche
Stephen Stills
Neil Young
Buffalo Springfield Again track listing
"Rock & Roll Woman
(9)
Broken Arrow
(10)


"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 verses interspersed with snippets of sound from carnival music featuring organ, drum and clarinet. The song begins with applause and the opening of "Mr. Soul" (which opens the album) recorded live in the studio, and ends with the sound of a beating heart.

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 quiver,
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow,
Held a broken arrow?

The Blackfoot Indians would use a broken arrow to signal that they would cease fighting.

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