 |
| ... and a beautiful cover, too. |
Gene Clark wrote Full Circle before the album sessions, so tincluding She's The Kind Of Girl and One In A Hundred, given the classic Byrds line-up that recorded them, is logical. I haven't added them as "bonus tracks", but subtly nuanced (okay, fucked with) the running order so they blend in.
This was always going to be a one-off project, so nobody should have expected the band to restart their career and be teenagers again. And if the back story of the recording process led to the critics to state that bitterness, resentment, and self-serving arrogance had inevitably resulted in poor product - well, they never had before. Business as usual for a Byrds album. Even the musicians got in on the chorus of disapproval and disappointment, retrospectively writing it off for reasons that are now accepted as gospel. Nuts to them, too. Musicians are fine people [they're assholes - Ed.] until they start having opinions about their own music [about anything - Ed.].
So what's in the groove? A great album. A beautiful piece of work that stands as a fitting end to a matchless recording career.
I've always thought this was a seriously underrated record. Critics wanted Mr. Tambourine Man part 2 from talented musicians who had developed and matured in the 8 or 9 years that had passed. Instead they got an album appropriate for its time. Hell, wasn't Garden Party released around the same time?
ReplyDeleteNever understood the covers, though. Didn't the four songwriting bandmembers have anything else in the can they could throw in?
Would really appreciate a link (nudge, nudge).
Covering other artists wasn't exactly unknown for them. Crosby defended (! as if he needed to) using Neil Young songs because he was the best songwriter of the 'seventies, as Dylan had been of the 'sixties. Not only was that pretty white of him, he had a point.
DeleteGive me a couple more run-throughs - I want to get the sequence right. It's sounding good.
Looking forward to the LINK. Some suggestions for bonus tracks: My New Woman from McGuinn's first solo album featuring all five members. And perhaps some selections from two live shows: 1978 Live at the Boarding House SF, featuring McGuinn, Clark, Hillman and (for a few songs) Crosby. There's a particularly great version of Chestnut Mare here.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there are a couple of Byrds concerts at Capistrano from January 1989. Featuring McGuinn, Crosby & Hillman performing a set of the Byrds' greatest hits (including a version of Everybody's Been Burned(!))...
I don't think live tracks have improved any Byrds album, and I'm not going to try for a "complete" to match the other assemblies posted here, but My New Woman should be on it, even with that *ulp*! saxophone. Thanks for the suggestion!
DeleteThank you Farq. I agree that live Byrds tracks haven't improved any of their albums. That said for some reason (my age, the times, and good acid) one of my faves is Untitled. Or I think it is, was. I tried to listen recently and it's like trying to isolate the hi hat notes on Buddy Miles drums on Band of Gypsies. I was 13 or 14.....probably honed in on Chestnut Mare even though to memory Lover of the Bayou was my stand out. It fit in with the Panhandle of Fla and nearby beach side haunts between there and N'Awnings. I'll regale with the tale of spending the night in Geronimo's (not) haunted cell at Ft. Pickens some time. Meanwhile thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteAh, the infamous reunion album.
ReplyDeleteWhile you're right, Farq, that egos and selfishness have always been the background to almost any album of their prime, there's a point to be made that Crosby's pettiness mightily handicapped this album. McGuinn felt his contributions got minimized on purpose on this record, and he's right. For a guy who was, with his voice and Rickenbacher, by all accounts "The Byrds" he's reduced to a junior partner, here, getting a mere two lead vocals (compared to Crosby's three and - winner of that stand-offish situation - Clark with four), disappearing almost completely from the record on its second side. And why was his lead guitar on "Changing Heart" mixed so low as to almost be inaudible?
You say coincidence, I say Crosby.
As for the songs, Hillman openly admits he kept his best songs for his planned solo album and felt everyone else - with the exception of Clark - did the same. So we get two songs that are essentially lightweight Manassas outtakes. I mean, I like the power-pop crunch of "Things Will Be Better" a whole lot, but clearly Hillman was happy with contributing pure filler.
I don't think Crosby's stuff is much better. I've always hated "long Live The King", Crosby isn't a good rock'n'roller, and the "Laughing" remake is pretty pointless while "For Free" was pretty pedestrian.
Mc Guinn's stuff is also really weak, so the only winner of this endeavour is Gene Clark who contributes two fabulous songs and has great lead vocals on the Neil Young numbers (it was seemingly his idea, not Crosby's, to cover Uncle Neil).
So, while the songs aren't great, we do find at least partly the classic Byrds sound, especially on that magnificent cover of "(See the Sky) About To Rain". I think that's why you got such a soft spot for this album, Farq, for the first time in a good while it really sounds like The Byrds (albeit with an overdose of Crosby).
By the way, I didn't realize this until buying the deluxe version of "Preflyte", but "She's The Kind Of Girl" actually predates the forming of the Byrds and was part of their audition tape for CBS! It sounds so vintage because it is!
Oh another fun bit of trivia. All five Byrds play on those two Clark tracks, but none of them were in the studio together.
Thanks for the back story, OBG. But - color me unconcerned. What I'm hearing is a beautiful album. I'm not counting off lead vocals (and Crosby's voice is fine by me), and I'm not worried (or even much interested) if they were holding back their best songs or whatever. I listen to the album, and a I hear a great and varied bunch of songs (again, I don't care that much who wrote them), beautifully played and sung. That's all that matters to me, what's in the groove. That tells me all I need to know. Like a bottle of wine - I don't need to know where the grapes come from, or when they were harvested, to enjoy it. The experience is right there in the glass.
DeleteAnd you know, that's a very fine attitude to have. Sometimes you know to much about things to really just enjoy them for what they are. Kind of like sausage.
DeleteI seem to recall that part of the deal was that all five members of the group were allowed to bring some songs to the table. The two Neil young covers were Michael Clarkes's choices.
DeleteThat was supposed to be a "too". Man, I really need to work on my typing skills here.
ReplyDeleteListening back to the album right this moment, I might've been a bit harsh on Crosby. "Long Live The King" is still a nothing of a song, but this version of "Laughing" is actually pretty good, much better than I remember.
Nearly every Byrds album has a song or two that makes you think they could have done better, right? Par for the course.
DeleteI bought it on release - hey! It's Da Boids! and I thought it was swell until I learned that it couldn't be.
'73 was a great year: Brothers & Sisters, Solid Air, Birds Of Fire, Dark Side Of The Moon, Holland, Dixie Chicken, Tres Hombres, The Captain And Me, For Everyman, In The Right Place, Headhunters, Desperado, Countdown To Ecstasy ... and Byrds.
That was the period when I spent more on albums than anything else. If I had to buy something else, I converted the cost to the "album unit"
"album unit"...nice.
DeleteMan, those were the days, I guess. The albums that came out when I was a certified "spend all my money on records days"...the less said about that, the better.
That's some seriously fabulous albums up there, especially "Holland" which no one ever talks about as one of the Beach Boys' masterpieces but very well should...
Holland is inextricably linked with *cough* "courting" my first wife, when we were young - she was eighteen - and in love and my hair was longer than hers. I'd take my shitty record player round to her house when her mother was away and we'd listen to Holland in her bedroom.
DeleteI've always rated Carl % The Passions, too. Nothing wrong with that.
We played "Only With You" at our wedding ceremony. One of the loveliest songs ever written.
Delete"Carl & The Passions" is not quite as good, but underrated as hell, as is the entire "Ricky & Blondie as extra Beach Boys" era. This was the last time the Boys made exciting, vital music.
As much as my inner fanboy baulks at your claim, I have to admit it's true. I even enjoy 15 Big Ones, is how far up the Beach Boys tree I am.
DeleteHere's my take on an alt Byrds album
ReplyDelete01 Full Circle
02 Things Will Be Better
03 One In A Hundred
04 Born To Rock'n'Roll
05 For Free
06 Cowgirl In The Sand
07 She Don't Care About Time
08 She's The Kind Of Girl
09 Borrowing Time
10 Laughing
11 Changing Heart
12 Sweet Mary
13 (See The Sky) About To Rain
Two sides of 20 minutes each, all members/lead vocs spread throughout.
Here's the "She Don't Care About Time" outtake from Gene Clark's Roadmaster album sessions with a co-lead vocal by Roger McGuinn, if anyone wants it.
It has some female back up singers where group vocals should be, but I think it fits fine enough with some of that magic of Clark's and McGuinn's vocals entwining.
https://workupload.com/file/XFJQDsN37wU
Thanks! I'm listening to this next.
DeleteFirst and foremost: thanks for this, Farq.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard this in a very long time, I bought it when it was released, wore the record out, but for some reason I never got around to getting the CD.
I'm listening to it, as I type this, and It's bringing back some swell memories. For instance: in March of '73 some friends and myself, did a road trip from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, up to Boston University to see Da Boids. A splendid time was had by all.
Eureka!!!! Finally I can comment! sadly not much to say other than a paltry, Thank you! FYI, been trying for an age, seems you cannot comment via FF browser, found dat out 2day, when I done tried the Googles..
ReplyDeleteThis comment is made via FF browser.
DeleteWeird, just tried FF again, as soon as I hit preview/publish it's gone, lost in the digital void. I am on Chrome & it's fine. I have checked all 3rd party stuff etc. on FF, no flipping idea...Oh well, dems da breaks
DeleteI'm on FF, too. I do the whole thing on FF. Also, all comments should automatically be forwarded to my email address, and I ain't seeing yours there, so something's screwed here, Rob. Try commenting anonymously but signing your comments "Rob", or just keep on using Chrome. Maybe "preview" is screwing it up.
DeleteYeah, just do like me: publish right away and then realize that there's typos everywhere!
DeleteHey, that's my twick!
Delete("Wascally wabbit...")
I use Chrome.
It even allows me a SPIEL CHUCK if I so choose to review the putrid prose I plan to publish.
For example, just now I TYPOED "putrid," and it suggests: "patricide" instead. How grate is that...?
An how 'bout that, all them wordages and not a PEEP about what Elvis once referred to as one of his favorite new groups, "THE BEARDS"............
@Rob - try "fooling around" with different settings in FF's Enhanced Tracking Protection using.
ReplyDeleteCheers guv'nor!
ReplyDeleteGor blimey, mate!
DeleteCrosby is apparently broke.
ReplyDeleteCocaine drain + minimal publishing = negative equity
Thank you! Not much else to add. I was just a little young to appreciate the teeny-bop Byrds, but fall of freshman year in college ('74) I scored "Younger Than Yesterday," and this reunion album. Not every track is perfect on this, but I really do appreciate what is good.
ReplyDelete