AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #398 : THE BYRDS

A guest posting by Marc Goldstein

I’m too young to have experienced The Byrds in real time. I first heard them when I was 11 or 12, by which point they were already in the “oldies” category – but I loved the sound of those records; the harmonies and the 12-string Rickenbacker. And it soon became clear that lots of other people still loved them as well, including Tom Petty, REM, Robyn Hitchcock, Teenage Fanclub and a dozen other mainstays of my music library. The Byrds rival Fleetwood Mac or Deep Purple for the sheer number of line up changes they underwent – and I’m not even counting the ersatz post-1973 versions of the band that Steve McLean recently wrote about. And while the original line up is still my favorite, every edition of the group made some great music.

That original lineup included Jim (later known as Roger) McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke. The fact that they chose their drummer (Clarke) for his looks might cause you to roll your eyes, but the others were legit musicians and singers, who had played folk and bluegrass but fell in love with the Beatles and decided to turn to rock. Their first single (as The Beefeaters – ugh – before Hillman joined) didn’t do much, but when they changed their name and signed with Columbia, their first single as The Byrds hit number 1. That was of course Mr. Tambourine Man, the first of many Dylan songs they would cover. But Gene Clark contributed many fine songs as well,

mp3: The Byrds – I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better

mp3: The Byrds – She Don’t Care About Time

(The latter is sublime, and, OK, Clark had a little help from JS Bach on the latter.)

The story goes that when the other guys saw the Ferrari that Clark bought with his songwriting royalties, they were motivated to get serious about writing as well.

mp3: The Byrds – Eight Miles High

A McGuinn/Clark/Crosby co-write influenced by John Coltrane, was pretty cutting-edge for 1966. Some radio stations banned it, assuming it was about drugs, but while the group were no strangers to drugs, this song was about a flight to England and their experiences there. (I mean, was it ALSO about drugs? Maybe?) And after Clark left the band that year, due to his fear of flying, McGuinn and Hillman in particular stepped up with some classics. In fact, the group’s first post-Clark album, Younger Than Yesterday, is probably my favorite. Highlights include

mp3: The Byrds – So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n Roll Star

mp3: The Byrds – Have You Seen Her Face

(There’s one lowlight, however: Crosby’s Mind Gardens, which is pretty much unlistenable.)

Rock ‘n Roll Star was coincidentally featured in the Financial Times’ Life of a Song column as I was compiling this ICA. Hillman was quoted as saying the song was written about the Monkees, but his co-writer McGuinn said he didn’t have anyone in particular in mind. Anyway, this is by no means a “diss track” – it’s a bemused look at the absurdity of the star maker machinery, but hardly a rejection of it.

Crosby was the next to depart, after the others basically got tired of his BS. (Like haranguing the audience at live shows.) The next album, Notorious Byrd Brothers, was a transition between their folk-rock past and country-rock future, and while it may not be their best-remembered record it did feature something rather lovely

mp3 : The Byrds – Wasn’t Born to Follow

Gram Parsons only spent a few months in the Byrds, but he had a major influence on their next album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, recorded with some of Nashville’s finest sidemen. (And in fact a major influence on the rest of their career, as they kept making country-influenced albums until their last record, which reunited the original members.) Parsons wrote the only two originals on Sweetheart, including this

mp3: The Byrds – Hickory Wind

Although neither country fans nor rock fans were ready for the album in 1968, it’s now regarded as a classic, and a big influence on countless Americana artists.

Hillman followed Parsons out the door and into the Flying Burrito Brothers, but not before bringing Clarence White into the group as a full member. Like Hillman, White had played in bluegrass bands before joining the Byrds, and as much as I love the sound of McGuinn’s 12-string, White was arguably the best musician the group ever had. His playing is featured on the final three tracks I’ve picked out for this ICA:-

mp3: The Byrds – Nashville West (from the Untitled album)

mp3: The Byrds – Tulsa County (alt version that was a bonus track on the reissued The Ballad of Easy Rider)

mp3: The Byrds – Black Mountain Rag (live version)

Sadly, White was killed in a senseless accident – hit by a drunk driver while he was loading gear into a car after a concert with his brother in 1973. Parsons died two months later. McGuinn, Clark, Hillman and obviously Crosby all continued to make records, with varying degrees of commercial and critical success, though to my mind none of them equalled what they did in the Byrds.

Bonus Track

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Gene Clark

Marc