The Byrds: Classic Or Dud

Classic

holy shit @ the jesu joy of man's desire bridge in she don't care about time. i thought it was just half man half biscuit who pulled that stuff :D

gene is easily the best byrd but younger than yesterday is my favorite album of theirs

Roger McGuinn might be a totally doofus, but he's clearly the best Byrd.

Surprised there hasn't been a Best Byrd poll, tbh.

Roger McGuinn might be a totally doofus, but he's clearly the best Byrd.

Worst is probably Mike.

Dave is a distant second-worst.

Chris I like a lot, especially his bass lines, although I dock him a point or two for being a little sloppy now and then, as well as for his unspectacular multi-instrumentalism. But perhaps I am being too harsh.

Gene is probably the best songwriter

This is probably true or at the very least he is the most consistent (all the other major songwriters had some real stinkers to go along with their gems). That said I'd also say quality of songwriting matters a little less here since Byrds were always consistently brilliant interpreters of other people's songs.

Indeed

Well Gene Clark was a great songwriter full stop. |seems to have been a pretty flawed human being but it does seem to have fed into his songwriting.

I think that John Einarson biography of him Mr Tambourine Man was pretty good, but most of his bios have been anyway.

yeah that einarson book is excellent.

Lotta good stuff on this thread too: Byrds POX

I"m sure I said this before but the Byrds' two best albums are Younger Than Yesterday and Notorious, and those are the two albums were Chris Hillman stepped up... he is by far the most underrated Byrd.

OTM, then went on to be underrated in the Flying Burrito Brothers.

And, oddly enough, correctly rated in the SHF Band and Desert Rose Band.

avians

<3

I made a lot of mistakes in my life and one of them was firing the best harmony singer in the world @thedavidcrosby https://t.co/agVfV7Pz75

— Roger McGuinn (@RogerMcGuinn) November 2, 2017

awwwww

does seem like mcguinn, crosby and hillman could do a nice stripped down reunion thing at this point.

;_;

McGuinn and Crosby do show up on the new Hillman solo album---which is what it is, but/and producer Tom Petty evidently means to help it be all that it can be: some Heartbreakers also appear, and Hillman credits TP with talking him into incl. that good version of "Walk Right Back", one of the many under-covered Everlys worthies.

Also some live reunion sets of these three guys are posted here and there, worth checking out.

Croz seems to have completely fallen out though with Neil Young and especially Graham Nash in recent years

Not that surprising as the guy is a notorious legendary asshole of almost Mike Love proportions.

Reminds me: bonus tracks on a Notorious Byrd Brothers CD incl. a rehearsal clip. in which McG. is tactfully teaching Michael Clarke a cue, when suddenly there's Croz: WHY CAN'T YOU GET IT RIGHT MAN, WHAT THE FUCK'S THE MATTER WITH YOU.

No longer with The Byrds, he went on to tell the Woodstock audience SHUT UP MAN

I love “What’s Happening” with all my heart right now. Crosby is my favorite singer in the byrds (iirc this is also his first time as a min singer in the band) that chuckle around 0:42 in the second or third “I don’t know” never fails to charm me.

The song is so good... I think it’s my favorite Byrds song by a long shot... sounds like the missing link between 60’s psychedelia and the baggy movement.

as a great man once tweeted, 1000 times yes.

yep

i made some reference to them inventing MBV with that song recently. it's astonishing. mind you the rest of the album isn't bad either. secret best album of the 60s

Not heard 'What's Happening' yet but 'Draft Morning' from Notorious Byrd Brothers is my all time favourite. Got a soft spot for the Gram Parsons abetted 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo as well. But yeah these guys were special.

"what's happening" is an amazing track and yes definitely shades of Kevin Shields in there. I was obsessed with "I wasn't born to follow" for a good while there recently. Acid country n'western

picked up an LP this weekend for fun, "The Best of the Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II". it's pretty neat little compilation! has a few Rodeo-era tracks, has "Jesus is Just Alright", etc. side B gets a bit goofy w lot of tracks i hadn't heard yet. "Tiffany Queen" is like if Bob Dylan fronted a glam rock band. "I Wanna Grow Up to Be a Politician" is not really that sharp of satire but pretty catchy and fun. the closer "America's Great National Pastime" (written by Kim Fowley) has some super bonkers lyrics "America's great national pastime is chocolate fudge/carrying a grudge/and bribing the judge" put it all together and it feels a bit like a US Kinks.

i made some reference to them inventing MBV with that song recently

my dad saw the Byrds play in the 60's and never fails to bring up how loud they were (and this is in comparison to acts like The Who). that 12-string guitar man...

you know which song doesn't get enough attention?

"What's Happening?", on Fifth Dimension, which reminds me of isn't anything mbv

I remember reading something along those lines somewhere before, and here it is (different song, but still: Best Byrds Album '65-'68

Six posts up:

I love “What’s Happening” with all my heart right now. Crosby is my favorite singer in the byrds (iirc this is also his first time as a min singer in the band) that chuckle around 0:42 in the second or third “I don’t know” never fails to charm me.

The song is so good... I think it’s my favorite Byrds song by a long shot... sounds like the missing link between 60’s psychedelia and the baggy movement.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 28 November 2017 03:15 (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are there any decent "stories of" or collective biographies that peeps can recommend? Seems like there would be some interesting tales!

various volumes of work by Johnny rogan. Starting with Timeless Flight and going onto 2 volumes of Requiem For The Timeless. That later one is about the careers of ex-members after the band.

In the Wings: My Life with Roger McGuinn and The Byrds by Ianthe McGuinn which was reviewed in a copy of Ugly Things earlier this year and wasa memoir of Roger McGuinn's one time wife.

Not sure about any Oral Histories or day by day books, both of which might be interesting.

ah yes I should have remembered that Rogan was the main Byrds biographer, I read his Smiths work back in the day. Thanks!

Here is a silly Byrds tribute I recently came across
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1yXR5rw_Eo

Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of The Byrds’ Gene Clark by John Einarson is also terrific if horribly depressing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/it-was-the-byrds-album-everyone-hated-in-1968-now-sweetheart-of-the-rodeo-is-a-classic/2018/08/16/a2534a88-9a8f-11e8-b60b-1c897f17e185_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d74b28a5b8d1

Writer talks to folks about the album, plus M & Hillman current you plans

Tour

Great article, thanks for posting

I liked this bit from the Washington Post article:

while standing in line at a bank in Beverly Hills, Hillman ran into a sandy-haired kid from Georgia who said he could play piano. Hillman brought him to McGuinn. Parsons was just 21.

“I asked Gram if he could play some McCoy Tyner type of piano,” McGuinn says. “Because I was into John Coltrane and the “Eight Miles High” kind of place. And he played some Floyd Cramer-style piano. Floyd played on Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” That was a song that got me interested in music. I thought, ‘Wow, this guy’s got talent.’ But I didn’t know he would turn into George Jones in a sequin suit.”

Parsons didn’t hide his true love. At the end of their first rehearsal, Hillman remembers Parsons kicking into a Buck Owens song. The Byrds were trying to figure out their next step, with McGuinn talking up a sprawling, conceptual album with a futuristic suite. Parsons had his own idea.

There is some great stuff about Gram in Stanley Booth’s book about The Rolling Stones, which I may have mentioned once or twice before on this board.

Here’s an interview with Stanley that I haven’t read yet: http://www.furious.com/perfect/gramparsons/booth.html

this (or a vid v related) posted on the old school guitar shredding thread, good stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VwmyItsU-4

What's the musical term called, right before the tele starts it's lead, it's like a short little intro build up?

I guess it basically starts the song as well.