A report on Expecting to Fly (song), Buffalo Springfield Again, Jack Nitzsche and Neil Young

"Expecting to Fly" is a song written by Neil Young and performed by Buffalo Springfield.

He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector and went on to work with the Rolling Stones and Neil Young, among others.

The song appeared on their 1967 album, Buffalo Springfield Again.

Producer Jack Nitzsche provided the orchestral arrangement featuring a string section plus an oboe.

Several factors may have contributed to this, including that bassist Bruce Palmer had been deported in January and had re-entered the United States illegally to continue working with the band, and guitarist Neil Young had quit and rejoined the group on several occasions, notably absent for the band's appearance at the famed Monterey Pop Festival where David Crosby substituted in his place at the request of guitarist Stephen Stills.

During one of the times that Young had left the band, he had booked a studio to record "Expecting to Fly," with the outside musicians under the impression it was for a Neil Young solo project rather than for Buffalo Springfield.

Phil Spector Wrecking Crew associate Jack Nitzsche provided the musical arrangements for "Expecting to Fly"; it does not feature any members of the Springfield.

He collaborated with Neil Young, beginning with producing "Expecting to Fly" by Buffalo Springfield.

A second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, was released in late 1967, but two of Young's three contributions were solo tracks recorded apart from the rest of the group.

"Expecting to Fly" featured a string arrangement that Young's co-producer for the track, Jack Nitzsche, dubbed "symphonic pop".

"Expecting to Fly" (from the Buffalo Springfield album Buffalo Springfield Again, Atco, 1967)