''Byrds'' is the twelfth and final
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by the American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
and was released in March 1973 on
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/As ...
.
It was recorded as the centerpiece of a reunion among the five original band members:
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As a ...
,
Gene Clark
Harold Eugene Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter and founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best ...
,
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
,
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of and one of the original members of the Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke.
With frequent ...
, and
Michael Clarke.
The last time that all five members had worked together as the Byrds was in 1966, prior to Clark's departure from the band.
During the reunion, the current, latter-day lineup of the band continued to make
live
Live may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film
* ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film
*'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD)
Music
*Live (band), American alternative rock band
* List of albums ...
appearances until February 1973, with McGuinn being the only member common to both versions of the group.
Upon its release, ''Byrds'' received generally poor reviews, with many critics bemoaning a lack of sonic unity and the absence of the Byrds' signature jangly guitar sound among the album's shortcomings.
Nonetheless, the album reached number 20 on the
''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tapes chart and was also moderately successful in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 31.
In the U.S., ''Byrds'' was the band's highest charting album of new material since 1965's ''
Turn! Turn! Turn!
"Turn! Turn! Turn!", or "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)", is a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s and first recorded in 1959. The lyrics – except for the title, which is repeated throughout the song, and the fin ...
'', which had also been the last Byrds' album to feature Clark as a full member.
Three of the album's songs, "
Full Circle", "Things Will Be Better", and "
Cowgirl in the Sand
"Cowgirl in the Sand" is a song written by Neil Young and first released on his 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''. Young has included live versions of the song on several albums and on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album '' 4 Wa ...
", were released as
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
during 1973, but none of these releases became
hits.
Background
By 1972, the Byrds'
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
and leader, Roger McGuinn, had grown dissatisfied with the current version of the group.
As the only member to have remained consistent since the band's inception in 1964, McGuinn had steered the Byrds through an array of lineup changes during the late 1960s. The band's membership had finally stabilized in 1970, but by early 1972 dissension was brewing due to disagreements over band members' pay.
As a result of this,
Gene Parsons
Gene Victor Parsons (born September 4, 1944, in Morongo Valley, California) is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and engineer, best known for his work with the Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released so ...
(the band's
drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...
since 1968) was fired by McGuinn in July 1972 and replaced by
session musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
John Guerin
John Payne Guerin (October 31, 1939 – January 5, 2004) was an American percussionist. He was a proponent of the jazz-rock style.
Biography
Guerin was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego. As a young drummer he began performing with Buddy De ...
. The Byrds continued to
tour
Tour or Tours may refer to:
Travel
* Tourism, travel for pleasure
* Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service
* Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus
* Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...
and
record sporadically throughout 1972, but no new single or album was forthcoming.
Concurrently, the four ex-members of the Byrds who, along with McGuinn, had comprised the original mid-1960s lineup of the band, were, to an extent, at loose ends: David Crosby had completed his recording and touring obligations for the ''
Graham Nash/David Crosby'' album;
Chris Hillman's work with the
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has com ...
-helmed band
Manassas was paused while the band were on hiatus; Gene Clark's critically lauded but financially unrewarding solo career was in need of a boost; and Michael Clarke had been without a band since the break up of
the Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band, best known for their influential 1969 debut album, ''The Gilded Palace of Sin''. Although the group is perhaps best known for its connection to band founders Gram Parsons and Chris ...
in 1971.
Furthermore, none of the five original band members' careers—with the exception of Crosby's—had been as financially rewarding as during The Byrds' mid-1960s heyday.
Tentative discussions between the five original members of the band, regarding a possible reunion, had taken place as early as July 1971, around the time that the then current lineup of the Byrds were recording their final album, ''
Farther Along''.
News of these discussions was leaked to the British
music press
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
, and in late January 1972, one week after the UK release of ''Farther Along'', the front page of ''
Disc and Music Echo
''Disc'' was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into ''Record Mirror''. It was also known for periods as ''Disc Weekly '' (1964–1966) and ''Disc and Music Echo '' (1966–1972).
...
'' featured the headline, "Original Byrds To Reform?"
The attendant article suggested that the reunion album would be a one-off project and that the current lineup of the Byrds would continue to tour and record, with no question of disbanding.
Meanwhile, with the successful
supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to:
* Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields
* Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry
* Supergroup ...
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...
on indefinite hiatus, while the individual members worked on other projects,
managers
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
David Geffen
David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American business magnate, producer and film studio executive. He co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 199 ...
and
Elliot Roberts had seen their attempts to bring a new
CSNY album to the marketplace thwarted. In the absence of any new Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young product, Geffen became acutely aware that a historic reunion of the original Byrds could prove to be highly lucrative for all concerned.
Thus, in mid-1972, Geffen weighed in with a substantial offer to the five original members to record a reunion album for his Asylum
label
A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...
.
The reunion actually took place in early October 1972, beginning with a rehearsal at McGuinn's house, where the band initially worked on one of the guitarist's new songs.
Significantly, the group played none of their old material during this first rehearsal, but instead concentrated on selecting suitable songs for a new project.
All five musicians were encouraged by the rehearsal and felt sure that they could recreate the magic of the Byrds' golden era.
Consequently, they agreed to commence the recording of their first album together in seven years, with the last time that all five had worked together as the Byrds being early 1966, prior to Gene Clark's departure from the band.
However, the reunited group were determined that the internal conflict that tore them apart during the 1960s would not be allowed to rear its head again.
It was therefore agreed that they would not be a band in the traditional sense, but rather a loose arrangement of solo artists, akin to the ''modus operandi'' of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
With considerable leverage from Geffen, McGuinn managed to secure permission from
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
—to which he was still
contracted—to record a one-off album for the Asylum label.
As part of the deal,
Clive Davis
Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer, in 2000.
From 1967 to 1 ...
, the president of Columbia Records, specified that McGuinn and Crosby would be required to record a joint album together for Columbia, which was to be released in 1973.
However, this planned Crosby/McGuinn album failed to materialize, due to Davis being fired from Columbia shortly after the exchange deal was struck.
While the original quintet prepared to record the reunion album, the existing Columbia lineup of the Byrds, featuring McGuinn,
Clarence White
Clarence White (born Clarence Joseph LeBlanc; June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973) was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, ...
,
Skip Battin
Clyde "Skip" Battin (February 18, 1934 – July 6, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter, bassist, performer, and recording artist. He was a member of the Byrds, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Εarly life
C ...
, and John Guerin, continued to make
concert
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...
appearances in the United States.
Recording
Recording sessions The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.
Studio cast recordings
In the case of Broadway musi ...
for the reunion album began on October 16, 1972 in room #4 of
Wally Heider
Wally Heider (''né'' Wallace Beck Heider; 20 May 1922 Sheridan, Oregon – 22 March 1989) was an American recording engineer and recording studio owner who refined and advanced the art of studio and remote recording and was instrumental in recordi ...
's Studio 3 recording facility in Los Angeles and continued until at least November 15, 1972.
During these sessions, the band recorded all eleven of the songs that would appear on the finished album and at least two
outtake
An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DV ...
s: the McGuinn and
Jacques Levy
Jacques Levy (July 29, 1935 – September 30, 2004) was an American songwriter, theatre director and clinical psychologist.
Early life and education
Levy was born in New York City in 1935 and graduated from the City College of New York in 1956. ...
penned "My New Woman" and the
traditional
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...
"
Fair and Tender Ladies
''Fair and Tender Ladies'' is a novel by Lee Smith published in 1988. It won the W.D. Weatherford Award that year.
''Fair and Tender Ladies'' is an epistolary novel consisting entirely of letters written by its protagonist, Ivy Rowe, to numero ...
".
In 2009, a cache of
multitrack tapes dating from the Byrds' reunion sessions and featuring a number of alternate versions and at least one outtake were discovered.
The tapes include work-in-progress versions and alternate
take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
s of the songs "Laughing", "(See the Sky) About to Rain", and "Long Live the King" (listed on the tape box under its working title of "The King is Dead").
In addition, the tapes also contained three different versions of the traditional song "Fair and Tender Ladies".
Reportedly, one of these versions of the song features Crosby singing lead vocals, while the other two feature Clark.
Also included among the recordings is a track with the title "The Circle Song",
but it is not known whether this refers to the Clark penned "Full Circle" or to another previously undocumented outtake—perhaps a
cover
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
of
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
's "
The Circle Game"? Although it was not included on the reunion album, the Byrds' recording of McGuinn and Levy's "My New Woman" was later released on the guitarist's 1973 solo album, ''
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As a ...
''.
Following completion of the album's recording sessions, Crosby reached an agreement with McGuinn to dissolve the latter-day lineup of the Byrds, who were at that time still working as a touring band. Crosby had long been vocal about his displeasure over McGuinn's decision to recruit new members following his dismissal from the band in 1967 and had publicly stated his opinion that, "there were only ever five Byrds."
In the new spirit of reconciliation fostered by the reunion, and as a result of his own growing dissatisfaction with the current incarnation of the band, McGuinn acquiesced and permanently disbanded the latter-day lineup of the Byrds in February 1973.
The tracks that would make up the finished album included two from each of the four
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
s in the band, as well as a Joni Mitchell cover and two songs written by
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
.
At the time of the album's release, much was made in the music press over the lack of any
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
songs, since the Byrds had covered Dylan's material frequently during the 1960s.
This criticism prompted Crosby to contend that Young was the great songwriter of the 1970s, just as Dylan had been for the 1960s, and therefore it was entirely appropriate that the Byrds should be covering Young, rather than Dylan.
Music
The opening track on the album, Clark's "
Full Circle", had initially given the album its
working title
A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...
, but Clark was concerned that the public might mistakenly assume that the song had been written specifically for the Byrds' reunion.
As the band's biographer
Johnny Rogan
John Rogan (14 February 1953 – 21 January 2021) was a British author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He wrote influential biographies of the Byrds, Neil Young, the Smiths, Van Morrison and Ray Davies. ...
has remarked, the song's wheel of fortune motif certainly seemed applicable, but the song actually predated the reunion, as Clark explained during a 1979 interview: "I'd already recorded that song a couple of years earlier and it wasn't really written about anything specific. It was just an idea I had."
Not only had the song been written by Clark prior to the Byrds' reunion, but by the time that ''Byrds'' was released, it had also recently been issued under the alternate title of "Full Circle Song" on Clark's ''
Roadmaster'' album.
A second Clark original included on ''Byrds'' was "Changing Heart", which served as a meditation on the pitfalls of stardom.
Clark was also featured singing
lead vocals
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...
on the album's pair of Neil Young covers.
The decision to cover Young's "
Cowgirl in the Sand
"Cowgirl in the Sand" is a song written by Neil Young and first released on his 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''. Young has included live versions of the song on several albums and on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album '' 4 Wa ...
" and "(See the Sky) About to Rain" was made by Clark, who had long admired the Canadian
singer–songwriter
A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted th ...
, and not by Young's CSNY bandmate David Crosby, as was assumed by the press at the time.
Rogan has described "Cowgirl in the Sand" as making striking use of the band's crystal clear
harmonies
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
, while Clark's
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
playing lends the song a distinctive
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
flavor, perfectly in keeping with the song's subject matter.
"(See the Sky) About to Rain", on the other hand, featured some attractive
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
playing from the band's
bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...
Chris Hillman and climaxed with a chiming finalé, featuring the Byrds' signature jangling
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...
guitars
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
.
The Byrds' version of "(See the Sky) About to Rain" was released over a year before it appeared on Young's 1974 album ''
On the Beach''.
"Sweet Mary", co-written by McGuinn and Jacques Levy, saw the Byrds'
lead guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
ist reverting to a
folkier style of songwriting than he had exhibited of late, with Hillman again contributing some prominent mandolin to the song.
McGuinn's other songwriting contribution to ''Byrds'' was "Born to Rock 'n' Roll", a semi-serious, autobiographical contemplation of the
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
's career as a professional musician.
The song had initially been recorded by the latter-day lineup of the Byrds in July 1972 for possible release as a single, but ultimately that version had been shelved and remained unreleased at the time. McGuinn decided to make another attempt at producing a definitive recording of the song during the reunion sessions, resulting in a rendition that the guitarist himself was dissatisfied with.
McGuinn would later record the song for a third time on his 1975 solo album ''
Roger McGuinn & Band'', but yet again he was unhappy with the end result, leading him pointedly to conclude in a later interview that "'Born to Rock 'n' Roll' was a dog."
Hillman contributed two songs to the album, both co-authored with ex-Manassas bandmates: "Things Will Be Better", co-written with drummer
Dallas Taylor, and "Borrowing Time", co-written with
percussionist
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
Joe Lala
Joseph Anthony Lala (November 3, 1947 – March 18, 2014) was an American musician and actor. In 1966, he co-founded the rock band Blues Image.
Life and career
Lala was born in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to parents from Contessa Entellina (an e ...
.
The former song deals with the unpredictable nature of fame and stardom, a theme that was echoed in Clark's "Full Circle" and "Changing Heart".
Crosby contributed the song "Long Live the King", a cynical commentary on the star-making mechanics of the music business, which Byrds expert Tim Connors has described as ironic, since it was precisely those same materialistic business practices that had enabled The Byrds' reunion to transpire in the first place.
Crosby also chose to revisit the song "Laughing", which had already been released on his first solo album, ''
If I Could Only Remember My Name
''If I Could Only Remember My Name'' is the debut solo album by American singer-songwriter David Crosby, released in February 1971 on Atlantic Records. Guests on the album include Jerry Garcia, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and other p ...
'', in 1971.
Crosby's rationale for re-recording the song was that he had originally written "Laughing" in 1967, during his last days as a member of the Byrds and as such, it had initially been intended for inclusion on a Byrds' album.
The version of "Laughing" featured on ''Byrds'' saw the return of McGuinn's
raga rock
Raga rock is Rock music, rock or pop music with a pronounced Music of India, Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar and tabla. In addition, rock music from the 1960s ...
style of guitar playing, which had last been utilized on the band's ''
Fifth Dimension'' and ''
Younger Than Yesterday
''Younger Than Yesterday'' is the fourth studio album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released on February 6, 1967 on Columbia Records. It saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelia and jazz into their music, a proce ...
'' albums.
Crosby also sang the lead vocal on the album's Joni Mitchell cover, "For Free".
Release and reception
''Byrds'' was released on March 7, 1973 in the United States (catalogue item SD 5058) and March 24, 1973 in the United Kingdom (catalogue item SYLA 8754).
Although the album was issued in
stereo
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
commercially, there are
mono
Mono may refer to:
Common meanings
* Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
* Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono
* Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
Music Performers
* Mono (Japanese b ...
promo
Promo or promos may refer to:
Promotions and advertising
*Promo (media), a form of commercial advertising used to promote television or radio programs
*Promo (professional wrestling), a televised interview in which a wrestler's on-screen personali ...
copies of the
LP known to exist. The album's
sleeve
A sleeve ( ang, slīef, a word allied to ''slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips.
The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, acro ...
was adorned with photographs taken by
Henry Diltz
Henry Stanford Diltz (born September 6, 1938, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American folk musician and photographer who has been active since the 1960s.
Career
Among the bands Diltz played with was the Modern Folk Quartet. While a member of ...
, which fittingly pictured the band in the L.A.
folk club
A folk club is a regular event, permanent venue, or section of a venue devoted to folk music and traditional music. Folk clubs were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain and Ireland, and vital to the second British folk r ...
The Troubadour, where McGuinn, Clark, and Crosby had first formed the nucleus of the Byrds in 1964.
The album peaked at number 20 on the
''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tapes chart, during a chart stay of seventeen weeks, making it the band's highest charting album of new material in the U.S. since 1965's ''
Turn! Turn! Turn!
"Turn! Turn! Turn!", or "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)", is a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s and first recorded in 1959. The lyrics – except for the title, which is repeated throughout the song, and the fin ...
'' album.
In the UK, the album reached number 31, but only remained on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
for one week.
A total of four singles were taken from the album, beginning with "Full Circle" b/w "Long Live the King", which was released on April 11, 1973 and which reached number 109 on the
''Billboard'' chart.
Two further singles taken from the album during 1973—"Things Will Be Better" b/w "For Free" (which was issued exclusively in the UK and Europe), and "Cowgirl in the Sand" b/w "Long Live the King"—failed to chart.
Finally, a fourth single, "Full Circle" b/w "Things Will Be Better", was released in the UK in August 1975, almost two-and-a-half years after the album had first appeared, but this too failed to reach the charts.
Upon its release, the album suffered from generally poor reviews, with
Jon Landau
Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen in all three capacities. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recei ...
, in an April 1973 edition of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine, criticizing it as "one of the dullest albums of the year."
Landau went on to note the disunity evident on the album: "It is a different band for each of the four lead singers and while they make complementary music, it is never a continuous piece, which is what the Byrds were once all about."
Reviewing the album in ''
Creem
''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential criti ...
'',
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
gave it a "C" and faulted Crosby for this "country-rock supersession", performed by "a bunch of stars fabricating a paper reconciliation" rather than a "a group, committed however fractiously to a coherent collective identity". In fact, the consensus of most reviewers was that there was a lack of unity throughout the album and that the band's trademark jingle-jangle guitar sound was largely absent from the
record.
However, there were some positive reviews of the album, with Danny Halloway enthusiastically praising it in the March 31, 1973 edition of the ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'': "The Byrds have overcome the novelty of reforming and really do cut it here. The band's direction is no-nonsense, straight-ahead music. There's not any cultural preaching or sloppy outtakes as intros ... I'm glad to report that The Byrds make it on the strength of the music alone."
Post-release
The largely unenthusiastic press reaction to the album caused the individual members of the band to lose faith in the concept of an ongoing, periodic series of band reunions and ultimately, all five members returned to their own careers following the album's release.
In the following years, the band themselves would echo many of the sentiments expressed by the music press, with the general consensus being that the recording of the album was rushed and ill-thought out.
Clark offered his thoughts on the album during a 1977 interview: "I am disappointed in that album. Some of the harsh criticism is unjust, because, if you listen to it carefully, the album isn't that bad, but it just hasn't got the punch that it could have had if we'd taken the time."
Hillman concurred with Clark, telling the Byrds' biographer Johnny Rogan, "In all honesty, we didn't have enough time on the album. They gave us one-and-a-half months to do that album, expecting guys to regroup after a five to six year absence."
Hillman also cited the band's eagerness to avoid conflict as a contributing factor to the album's artistic failure: "everybody was so afraid of stepping on the other person's feet because of the tension that had gone down six years prior to that, that it became a bland album. Everybody was being too nice to each other."
McGuinn blamed the reunion album's lack of success, at least partly, on the hedonism exhibited by members of the band during the recording process: "David had this incredibly strong
pot. Half a
joint
A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw ...
and you couldn't do anything. We were
stoned out of our minds the whole time. I don't remember much recording."
In addition, author John Einarson has suggested that none of the parties—save for perhaps Clark—seemed willing to contribute their best material to the album, instead holding back their finest songs for their own individual solo projects.
This has been confirmed by Hillman, who told Einarson, "I'll be honest, I contributed my worst material because I was getting ready to do a solo record, ''Slipping Away'', and I was saving all my good stuff and contributed this throwaway stuff that was awful. Crosby's stuff was sketchy and Roger had 'Born To Rock & Roll', which was terrible, yuck."
McGuinn also supported the suggestion that some band members had held back their best material, although he added, "I don't think I was guilty of that. I gave them my best stuff at the time."
The timing of the album, between Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunions, the fact that it was
produced by Crosby, and the presence of the individual band members' names on the album cover has led to the suggestion that the album was intended as something of a substitute for CSNY.
For his part, Crosby's motivation for taking over production duties on the album may have been an attempt finally to exert dominance over the rest of the band, as he had tried to do during his earlier tenure with the Byrds.
McGuinn certainly supported this viewpoint, as he revealed in a 1977 interview: "Crosby was calling the shots. It was his ''coup d'état''. He wanted to minimize my importance in the group, and maximize his, and other people's." Both McGuinn and Hillman were actively touring between recording sessions for the album, the former with the Columbia version of the Byrds and the latter with Manassas.
With only sporadic availability of two of the band's four creative parties, the brunt of assembling the album was left to the otherwise unengaged Crosby and Clark, which could account for the preponderance of Clark vocals and the CSNY-esque production on the album.
''Byrds'' has been reissued on
CD a number of times: first by
Elektra Records
Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...
in 1990; then again in 1998 by
WEA
The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami.
Today, the descendants of the ...
; then in 2004 as a remastered edition on
Wounded Bird Records
Wounded Bird Records is an American compact disc only re-issue record label that was founded in 1998 in Guilderland, New York.
They re-release lesser known albums from popular and lesser known artists, including Paul Butterfield, Cactus, Herbie ...
; and again by
Rhino Records
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
in 2005 and 2008. Most recently, the album has been reissued by
Raven Records
Raven Records was an Australian record label that specialised in retrospectives and reissues or recordings by American, British and Australian artists.
Raven Records was established in 1979 by Glenn A. Baker, Kevin Mueller and Peter Shillito ...
in 2014, with the addition of two previously released bonus tracks, both recorded by Clark in 1971 and featuring all five members of the Byrds.
Track listing
Singles
#"Full Circle" b/w "Long Live the King" (Asylum 11016) April 11, 1973 (US #109)
#"Things Will Be Better" b/w "For Free" (AYM 516) April 24, 1973
#"Cowgirl in the Sand" b/w "Long Live the King" (Asylum 11019) June 1973
#"Full Circle" b/w "Things Will Be Better" (AYM 545) August 8, 1975
Personnel
Adapted from the books ''So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day'', ''The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited'' and the album liner notes.
The Byrds
*
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As a ...
–
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
,
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
,
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*
Gene Clark
Harold Eugene Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991) was an American singer-songwriter and founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best ...
– guitar,
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
,
tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...
, vocals
*
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
– guitar, vocals
*
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of and one of the original members of the Byrds, which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke.
With frequent ...
–
electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck
The ...
, guitar,
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
, vocals
*
Michael Clarke –
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
,
conga
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...
s,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
Additional personnel
*
Wilton Felder
Wilton Lewis Felder (August 31, 1940 – September 27, 2015) was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later known as The Crusaders. Felder played bass on the Jackson 5's hits "I Wan ...
– electric bass on "
Cowgirl in the Sand
"Cowgirl in the Sand" is a song written by Neil Young and first released on his 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''. Young has included live versions of the song on several albums and on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album '' 4 Wa ...
"
*
Johnny Barbata
John Barbata (born April 1, 1945) is an American drummer who was active especially in pop and rock bands in the 1960s and 1970s, both as a band member and as a session drummer. Barbata has served as the drummer for The Turtles, Crosby, Stills ...
– drums on "
Cowgirl in the Sand
"Cowgirl in the Sand" is a song written by Neil Young and first released on his 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''. Young has included live versions of the song on several albums and on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album '' 4 Wa ...
"
*
Dallas Taylor – congas, tambourine
Charts
Release history
References
Bibliography
*Rogan, Johnny, ''The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited'', Rogan House, 1998,
*Hjort, Christopher, ''So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965–1973)'', Jawbone Press, 2008, .
*Einarson, John, ''Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of the Byrds' Gene Clark'', Backbeat Books, .
{{Authority control
1973 albums
The Byrds albums
Asylum Records albums
Warner Records albums
Elektra Records albums
Warner Music Group albums
Wounded Bird Records albums
Rhino Records albums