Ballad of Easy Rider - The Byrds

Ballad Of Easy Rider
The Byrds
Columbia  CS 9942
1969 

I was very sorry to see that Neil Armstrong died.  He was my hero when I was a kid.  I followed the space program very closely and considered astronomy or astro-physics as a possible career choice up through high school.  I don't have many memories of the 1960s but the moon landing is one of my most vivid ones.  So to honor this great man, I decided to blog about the album that has my favorite pop song about him, "Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins," well actually it it the only pop song about him I'm aware of.  I bought this album while I was in high school when it turned up in the used record store that my crappy suburban town briefly had.  It was the first Byrds album that I bought that wasn't folk-rock and I was really disappointed by it.  I like it much better now although I still consider it flawed for which I mostly blame Roger McGuinn.  He only contributed a single song to the album which left a big void to be filled by a band that no longer had songwriters the caliber of Gene Clark and Gram Parsons or even David Crosby.  Supposedly McGuinn was preoccupied with the stage musical he was working on and his lack of interest in the album is evident throughout.  McGuinn's sole composition was not a new one, but rather a new recording of "Ballad of of Easy Rider" from the film "Easy Rider."  The full band's recording supplemented by strings is superior to the movie version which was just McGuinn solo, but not as good as Fairport Convention's version.  It is followed by John York's "Fido" which sounds nothing like a Byrds song.  It is a mediocre song made worse by a dumb drum solo.  York isn't that good of a singer but he sure beats Clarence White who sings the lead for the traditional hymn "Oil In My Lamp."  It sounds a bit like George Harrison fronting Hot Tuna although I do like the guitar work on the song which enlivens the otherwise monotonous tune.  Fortunately McGuinn is back behind the mike for "Tulsa County Blue" (listed as "Tulsa County" on the album.)  It was composed by Pamela Polland and is one of the best songs on the album, very "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo."  There is some fine picking from Clarence White supported by Byron Berline's fiddle playing and a nice harmony vocal from York who was also responsible for the suggestion to cover the song.  The side concludes with McGuinn singing the traditional English folk song "Jack Tarr The Sailor."  The song recalls McGuinn's folk roots and reminds me a bit of the Byrds' great cover of "John Riley" on "Fifth Dimension" in the way its rock and roll energy infuses the song with tension and drive.  McGuinn's vocal is very powerful and I dig the fuzzed out heavy riff by White.  Side two begins with the band's energetic cover of Art Reynold's "Jesus Is Just Alright" which flopped when it was released as a single for some reason.  It is a really catchy and compelling song that takes full advantage of the band's instrumental prowess.  It would later be a hit for the Doobie Brothers with a punchier arrangement that sounds like it was influenced by Santana.  Up next is a cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue."  The Byrds had attempted it back in their folk-rock days but didn't release it (you can find it on the Byrds box set.)  This second attempt isn't any improvement, I greatly prefer the first try.  The band delivers a slow, mournful country-rock take on the song, that is pretty but dull.  Gene Parsons brought Vern Gosdin's "There Must Be Someone" to the album and sings lead.  Reportedly McGuinn wasn't even at the session that produced the take and I believe it, it sounds nothing like a Byrds song.  It is another dud.  Parsons atones for this by writing the next song "Gunga Din" which is my favorite song on the album.  The song has nothing to do with Kipling, it is an account of the Byrds' experiences in New York City.  I was always puzzled by the song's title but I read in Johnny Rogan's book on the Byrds that Parsons says he picked the name because it worked as a rhyme which still seems weird to me.  Nonetheless it a wonderful song with a soaring, uplifting chorus.  It reminds me a bit of Glen Campbell.  McGuinn reaches back into his folkie past for Woody Guthrie's "Deportee" which McGuinn had worked on for Judy Collins' "Judy Collins #3" album.  The song seems like uninspired filler to me.  The album concludes with "Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins" which came from Zeke Manners and Scott Seely.  Producer Terry Melcher and McGuinn edited the song down to a single verse preceded by a countdown and some sound effects.  The moon landing had occurred during the recording sessions for the album and since McGuinn shared my interest in space travel, he presumably wanted to acknowledge it.  It was the final track recorded for the album and McGuinn was alone at the session.  The song is practically a throwaway but I still find it kind of moving.  Despite all its flaws this album was the last good studio album the Byrds would ever record.  York was fired after the album and replaced with Skip Battin, a guy who was even worse at writing Byrds-style songs than York was.  In his liner notes Peter Fonda says "whoever the BYRDS are is just alright" but he probably hadn't met Battin yet.  Recommended to people who prefer "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" to the "The Notorious Byrd Brothers."  

Greatest Hits - The Byrds

Greatest Hits
The Byrds
Columbia  CS 9516
1967 

I bought this at Raspberry Records in Salt Lake City around 1975.  At the time I was only buying Beatles or ex-Beatles records, but I became infatuated with the Byrds after seeing a vintage clip of them on TV doing "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and when I saw this album cover I had to have it.  It was one of my favorite album covers for quite some time.  It is a premature compilation, it only covers their first four albums and it is pretty skimpy too with only 11 tracks clocking in at a little over 30 minutes.  Gene Clark gets short shrift, as does David Crosby (not that I'm complaining) and Bob Dylan is over-represented with 4 cuts, one of which wasn't even a single.  The liner notes by Dave Swaney are quite good for their time although somehow he finds a way to mention band publicist Derek Taylor while ignoring Gene Clark and Chris Hillman.  Most casual fans would probably prefer a more comprehensive overview of the band, but for folk-rock fans, this sums up that period of the Byrds' career pretty nicely.  As befits a greatest hits package, there is not a bad song on here and until I bought the first four albums, I played it a lot.  I rarely play it at all anymore, but it certainly had a big influence on me, I owe a lot of my interest in folk-rock to this record.  My favorite cut is "Eight Miles High", its Coltrane infused blend of folk-rock and psychedelia is irresistible to me.  My other favorites are "Mr. Tambourine Man," "So You Want to Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star" and "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" which I find endlessly listenable.  At the time I didn't like "5D" at all, I've come to like it somewhat but I'm sure the only reason it is on here is because it has a McGuinn copyright.  I think this album would have been more valuable if it included some non-album cuts like "She Don't Care About Time" (a better song than most of the ones on this record in my opinion), "Lady Friend" or the original version of "Why".  Basically if you are a Byrds fan, you own the first four albums, all of which are essential, so you don't need this record.  Recommended for folk-rock dilettantes.           

Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds

Turn! Turn! Turn!
The Byrds
Columbia CS 9254
1966 

I nicked this from my stepmother's record collection.  I don't feel too guilty about that, if anything I feel bad I didn't take her vintage copy of "Surrealistic Pillow" as well which is probably sitting in a landfill somewhere.  I can't recall her ever actually playing a record the whole time I knew her, but she had a small and mildly interesting collection, a lot better than the stuff my father had.  I was fascinated by the cover, particularly the fashion styles of the band.  They looked really cool to me, well except for David Crosby, he just looks like a dork.  I tried to get my hair to be like Michael Clarke's but I never quite managed it, Gene Clark's was easier to emulate.  This was the Byrds' second album and it follows the folk-rock formula of the first one.  The title song is a classic and the two Dylan covers are enjoyable, but my favorite cuts on this record are the Gene Clark songs, especially "The World Turns All Around Her" which I used to play over and over.  I rank it among the Byrds' best songs ever.  Clark's other contributions "If You're Gone" and "Set You Free This Time" are also first rate.  Amazingly considering how short this record is, Clark's "She Don't Care About Time" was omitted from the record, it would have been one of the best songs on there.   Maybe that's why it was left off, the group's jealousy of Clark is well-documented.  That is just typical of the shabby treatment that helped drive Clark from the group.  I consider Gene Clark the best songwriter the band ever had including Gram Parsons.  I would not trade Clark's songs with the Byrds for every song that David Crosby ever wrote.  The Crosby/McGuinn tune "Wait and See" is pretty decent and McGuinn's hook-laden "It Won't Be Wrong" is a lot more than decent.  On the other hand I find the band's adaption of "He Was A Friend Of Mine" to be dreary.  The lyrics of this traditional song were changed to make it about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The group's cover of Porter Wagoner's big hit "Satisfied Mind" is better thanks to the band's fine harmonizing.  It foreshadows the bands eventual move into country-rock later in the decade as does the closing cover of "Oh Susannah" which is more engaging than one might expect but still pretty useless.  Despite its flaws this album remains a significant folk-rock landmark that should be in every 1960s music fan's record collection.  Recommended for people who wish Dylan had gone electric earlier.