The Byrds: Classic Or Dud

Heaven knows I'm miserable now.

I am a convert, needless to say.

But I am reviving now to say: THE PREFLYTE SESSIONS: SEARCH! Or Destroy, whatever you want. I just want to hear some views on that collection. 'You Movin'' - wow!

I haven't listened to The Byrds for ages, apart from Untitled. I enjoyed the live stuff especially and I am forced to concede that I was possibly too harsh on Gene Parsons upthread. S.Battin is still a tool.

I'm amazed I didn't rise to the bait of the Doc ragging on Gene Parsons, because I'm a great admirer of his solo "The Kindling Album". His LP "Melodies" is less good, despite the promising title.

I think "Yesterday's Train" is beautiful, even.

I've never heard "Pre-Flyte", having always worked on the assumption that I don't really like The Byrds pre-Gram. I have a horrible feeling that this is a contrarian position I once took, sometime around 1987, and then the wind changed and I got stuck like that.

Perhaps I have some treats in store.

(Classic.)

The martial drumming on electric 'Tambourine Man' is interesting. It's like Larry Mullen Jr just out of Mount Temple, not Michael Clarke.

Gene Clark was a pretty good songwriter for a young age. But then, I'm not sure how young he was.

'Boston' and 'You Movin'' are the ones that have pushed out new motorboats for these ears. Cor.

There are a handy lot of good photos of the Byrds, and some of them are in the booklet for the collection.

Today I listened to 'Wild Mountain Thyme' for first time in a while - wow; I suppose the verdict is: later Byrds are even better than earlier Byrds. I love the strings and the 12-string solo on that track.

Funny coincidence since my grandfather was the publicist for the Monkees and how he recalls the Byrds being there all the time.

which other THE BYRDS songs will i like if i like 'IT WON'T BE WRONG'?

thanks in advance byrds-fan types!

Just get all their records, you won't be dissapointed.

was just knocked out by crosby's "it happens each day" a couple days ago while driving back from work -- one of those album tracks that doesn't get a lot of attention, but is positively stunning! Yeah, The Byrds probably don't have a bad album (at least up to Untitled -- don't think I've heard the rest in their entirety). the Clarence White era can be awesome as well. That live record that they put out a few years ago is great.

I sang lead in a Byrds cover band last night. Universal Mind Decoder was what we called ourselves. Six song set, started with "Feel a Whole Lot Better" and ended on "Rock and Roll Star," our strongest song after four practices. It was thrown together for my friend's 30th birthday. "Eight Miles High" wasn't as much of a trainwreck as I thought it would be.

The Byrds are my favorite band most days. My favorite overlooked Crosby tune in the Byrds catalog is "Ladyfriend." It's unbelievable.

in retrospect, the Byrds seem to have made a string of albums more consistent that anyone's except the Stones'. Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn!, 5D, Younger than Yesterday and Notorious and Sweetheart are all great, with maybe some of the experimental stuff on Younger a bit dated now. But what group ever did a better two-minute song than "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star"? the Box Tops? Too, such a typical group. None of the others made anything as good as the stuff as-group, except of course for Gene Clark's awesome With the Gosdin Brothers,one of the most underrated records of all time. And boy, if you haven't heard the Gosdin Brothers stuff--on Capitol and on Bakersfield International--you're in for a treat. Clarence White's death didn't come from drugs or anything; he got hit by a car. A shame.

yeah, I love "Lady Friend." And "Don't Make Waves," one of their most emblematic songs and one that Crosby didn't like, which proves the guy was sorta half-bright when it came to pop music. Know what I mean? He thought he was above it or something, and for me, the Byrds represent both the positive aspects of the '60s and some of the negative--after Gene Clark and Crosby left, they got away from what made them great, but at least they tried to do new things.

I found a bootleg 7" credited to the Beefeaters that must've been released before Ladyfriend showed up on the Younger Than Yesterday CD that featured the song but the quality was so bad and distorted that it was totally fuzzed out, sounded like the Sonics. It's actually pretty awesome. I agree though, it's one of my favorite songs. That and Why are two of my fave Byrds songs, which is funny because when Crosby was being more of a hippie he wrote some of my least favorite Byrds songs.

I will have to defend Clark's solo career though! With the Godsin Brothers/Echoes is just amazing Beatles meets proto-country rock and everything after that is pretty essential folk-rock/country-rock/singer-songwriter stuff. The guy never wrote a bad song.

"in retrospect, the Byrds seem to have made a string of albums more consistent that anyone's except the Stones'. Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn!, 5D, Younger than Yesterday...."

not sure of the chronology of their discography, but Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is another classic Byrds disc, fwiw

notoroius byrd brothers ain't nuthin' to fuck wit either!

I will have to defend Clark's solo career though!

Me too. I don't think he hit his stride until after Gosdin Bros/Echoes. The first Dillard & Clark LP is perfect, as is White Light and No Other. Clark was the soul of the Byrds -- even when he wasn't in the band.

Roadmaster, too.

gene clark & the gosdin bros. is amazing too!

even with it's Paul rip-offs. That record and Emmit Rhodes first are the great Paul Mcartney solo record that never was.

The Byrds are one of those bands whose records I found stunning on first listen, but didn't feel the urge to go back to a lot. It's kind of like you know you're never going to recapture the rush of first exposure. Also they're structurally often quite weak (e.g. Draft Morning offers so much more than it eventually delivers).

Cocteau Twins are in the same bracket for me. Classic but with obvious flaws.

the chronology I had is accurate. Notorious and Sweetheart are both '68. Then it's Ballad of Easy Rider, which is fairly weak but has some great White guitar. Dr. Byrds is after that, and then I think it's Untitled. Then, Byrdmaniax, which is fairly lousy. I don't agree that Gene Clark was the heart and soul of the Byrds, though. That would be McGuinn. Not to say that I don't love Gene Clark and think the band was worse off without him. So, maybe he was the soul of the band but not the heart...

he was saying HE wasn't sure of the chronology and where Dr. Byrds fit in.

x-post

your chronology isn't correct.

Dr. Byrds comes before Easy Rider

I don't agree that Gene Clark was the heart and soul of the Byrds, though.

We actually agree, because I never said Clark was the heart and soul of the band. I said he was the soul of the band. see my post above.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the liver of the band.

...nor the afro.

The debut was nice, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" less so, "Fifth Dimension" was better again, while the next three were all Classics!

^love this one!

Think I first heard it as part of some BBC sessions.

Which that is, I now see in the fine print.

Yeah, I've just got it on the original Heyday, which is like 10-12 performances from the Beeb; the 2002 reissue is 20 tracks, and the 4-disc box is still around, and yeah they had taste for sure. Don't think they did any more Byrds-related material, unless some of the same trad.
The Hillmen s/t doesn't have any Chris originals, but they do a couple of Dylan songs, like this one--whole reissue is here (note inclusion of the Gosdin Brothers, later with Gene, and with Clarence White on their own late 60s The Sound of Goodbye)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8VP7kIXKDY

I believe Joe Boyd would bring a lot of records over from the US for them to listen to. Also he was involved with the Move in some way and they covered the Byrds, Moby Grape and Love.

The Move covered all of those?!
Gosdin Brothers' Sounds (plural) of Goodbye has Byrds appeal, as well it might:

The GOSDIN BROTHERS - Sounds Of Goodbye . Us . 1968 .
(Folk Rock) (Country Rock)
Vern Gosdin - Vocals , Guitar , Songwriter
Rex Gosdin - Vocals , Guitar , Songwriter
&
Gib Guilbeau - Rhythm Guitar , Fiddle , Songwriter
Gene Parsons - Drums , Harmonica
Clarence White - Lead Guitar , Rhythm Guitar , Dobro , Songwriter
Wayne Moore - Bass , Rhythm Guitar , Songwriter
Gary S. Paxton - Producer , Songwriter
Kenny Johnson - Guitar
Dennis Payne - Guitar , Bass

I was led to it by young Kelsey Waldon's cover of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdDHi6gIdKw

The Move covered all of those?!

"So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" (and "Goin' Back" and "Eight Miles High"!), "Hey Grandma" and "Stephanie Knows Who".

Richard Thompson has mentioned this before (and it may be in his recent memoir), but when Fairport Convention covered their favorite contemporary songwriters, they purposely chose songs that weren't so well-known at the time. As a result, they produced just as many definitive or near-definitive versions of Dylan songs as the Byrds: "I'll Keep It With Mine," "Million Dollar Bash," "Percy's Song," "Dear Landlord," "Si Tu Dois Partir" (aka "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"), etc.

Whenever I listen to Another Side of Bob Dylan, I almost feel like I'm listening to a demo session for the Byrds - four of the best songs became great Byrds recordings. Only "Chimes of Freedom" was equaled by Dylan simply because it's a great, epic set of lyrics and so much of it was cut out by the Byrds.

Don't think they did any more Byrds-related material

this is beautiful, technically a mcguinn/dylan tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1qlcBWC0EI

also Iain Matthews did a few Gene Clark songs post-Fairport

Ah! Thanks!

Sandy Denny: vocal; Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol: guitars; Ashley Hutchings: bass; Dave Mattacks: drums.

This was Fairport Convention's encore at the time. Recorded at Sound Techniques in 1969 as part of the Liege and Lief sessions, it was later released on Richard Thompson's collection (Guitar, Vocal), on the Sandy Denny anthologies No More Sad Refrains and A Boxful of Treasures, and as bonus track of the 2003 reissue of Fairport Convention's album Unhalfbricking.

A live version without Sandy was released in 1977 on the Island Records 2LP set Richard Thompson Live! (more or less)

Then you’ll probably enjoy this:

https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-139-eight-miles-high-by-the-byrds/

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, May 30, 2023 4:58 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

i started this and it seemed great, so i actually ended up going back to the first episode. so now i'm all up in lionel hampton and big joe turner etc but i'm excited to hear this someday