Favorite album(s) by....

[Analogman]

A friend of mine - who is about your age - always says he has a hard time with the latter stuff. To him, The Byrds, are Turn, Turn, Turn/Eight Miles High, not You Ain't Going Nowhere or whatever. I have never looked at it that way, but I suppose, if I had actually been of age then, I could see how the change(s) would have been hard to get use to. A bit like what some of us go through today I suppose - with bands we are into.

[mountain bed]

I think 5D was the 2nd LP I ever owned (the first was the Stones' "High Tide & Green Grass" comp). I LOVED that record - still do, in fact. YTY is great as well - Crosby's "Mind Gardens" has to be one of most far-out things they ever recorded.

[Analogman]

That was the first re-master I bought. I have always been rather fond of What's Happening?!?! The rhythm guitar in that song is pretty cool.

 

I have often wanted to jump into that scene in Easy Rider when Wasn't Born To Follow is playing.

[mountain bed]

Being a Crosby fan boy I'm partial to the stuff they did with him in the band, but the GP stuff is also undeniably awesome. As is the stuff with Clarence - I think I read somewhere that he was one of Garcia's favorite guitarists.

 

Untitled is a fave too. I got to meet Roger once and had him sign the cover. Priceless.

[Analogman]

I have to say that song Triad (it's on the Notorious Byrd Brothers re-issue) is a piece of junk - but I like the music. It could be that I am just to use to hearing the Jefferson Airplane version.

[LouieB]

A friend of mine - who is about your age - always says he has a hard time with the latter stuff. To him, The Byrds, are Turn, Turn, Turn/Eight Miles High, not You Ain't Going Nowhere or whatever. I have never looked at it that way, but I suppose, if I had actually been of age then, I could see how the change(s) would have been hard to get use to. A bit like what some of us go through today I suppose - with bands we are into.

I like most of it, although some of the later records (post Untitled) are uneven.

 

 

I have to say that song Triad (it's on the Notorious Byrd Brothers re-issue) is a piece of junk - but I like the music. It could be that I am just to use to hearing the Jefferson Airplane version.

The Airplane version is the best....

 

LouieB

[lost highway]

Crosby is such a saucy old bastard. When I see old interviews with him he just cracks me up.

 

I put my vote down for Notorious, I really think the way that album is put together is a huge piece of the Wilco puzzle. Especially Wilco's last three albums. McGuinn came to speak at my college when I was a music major, it was awesome: him and a guitar and maybe fifteen music majors in a room. He was totally humble and unassuming.

[imsjry]

All I've ever owned is the Legacy Box Set, Untitled on scratchy old vinyl, and Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I always that that was all I needed. Was I wrong?? I do love The Byrds.

[Analogman]

I'd get them all - and if you do, make sure you get the re-masters.

[Basil II]

It has to be Notorious Byrd Brothers. It set the precedent for alll that is adventuroud and good in 60s pop music. Anything else considered above this in Byrds folklore is both heresey and wrong. Seriously, think about it, Draft Morning, Change is Now, Draft Morning. Old John Robertson....thats four songs that are stone-wall classics.

 

 

You hit on the head as to why "NBB" is my top pick.....set the stage for Clarence White to join....

 

 

"Sweetheart" is really a freak of nature record,really.......Long haired hippies playing traditional country?? wTF??

 

(Untitled/Unissued)......really showcases the the duality of becoming a durable road tested band from a singles band of the (Crosby/Clark) earlier period.

 

No love for "Farther Along"??? .....one of my favorites.......

 

 

-Robert.

[LouieB]

No love for "Farther Along"??? .....one of my favorites.......

Not really....good band, weak material, same as Byrdmanix.

 

LouieB

[pmancini100]

sweetheart of the rodeo.

[LouieB]

I think I said this before, but hell I will say it again. I can never listen to the pre-flyte sessions too often. I wish they would box all of them up in a nice package as well...

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

This is the version I have.

 

Disc: 1

1. The Reason Why (II)

2. You Won

[nodep5]

Notorious Byrd Brothers

 

I also love Untitled, Dr. Byrds, and The Ballad of Easy Rider

[LouieB]

This is the version I have.

I have a copy of this on vinyl which is pretty sweet. This is really great stuff as far as I am concerned and trumps much of their later work. I also have a copy of the original release and one of the reissue and another LP called Never Before, which seems to be some demo stuff (and has Triad on it.) I can't quite get a handle on how much of these sessions actually exist, but this album is really worth having, to hear these guys working it out, at the pont that most of them were just kids. I really nice box set of all this material with other demos and stuff (like some of the stuff at the end of the remasters which I don't own) would be nice.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

I have a copy of this on vinyl which is pretty sweet. This is really great stuff as far as I am concerned and trumps much of their later work. I also have a copy of the original release and one of the reissue and another LP called Never Before, which seems to be some demo stuff (and has Triad on it.) I can't quite get a handle on how much of these sessions actually exist, but this album is really worth having, to hear these guys working it out, at the pont that most of them were just kids. I really nice box set of all this material with other demos and stuff (like some of the stuff at the end of the remasters which I don't own) would be nice.

 

LouieB

 

I don't think this site is updated anymore - but it is a great site:

Byrdwatcher

 

That boxset has also been re-done and re-released. I think a lot of the unreleased tracks ending up being bonus tracks on the re-masters. But - there seems to be no shortage of takes that they are willing to stick on various re-issues and call them bonus tracks. I don't know if I agree with the view of the Pre-Flyte sessions being all that great - I like the first disc better than the second one. I do like The Airport Song. It is interesting to see how they went through the deal of trying to sound like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - and then they got their own sound together.

 

If nothing else, it is certainly an interesting transformation to hear (and see) - a bunch of folk musicians, who had no experience with electric instruments becoming a band with their own personalized sound. There is a nice book in that collection, also.

 

I am still not going to bother with all of those versions of Sweetheart of The Rodeo - I have the 1997 re-master, and I figure that is good enough. The other day, when I listening to all of their albums in a row, I really noticed how that album sticks out like a sore thumb - in the overall scheme of things.

[LouieB]

Yea, I wasn't referring to the original box set, which I don't own; it just seems like alot of the pre-flyte sessions are issues and reissued alot, sometimes with different stuff included.

 

There is also a thing called Byrd Parts that I picked up a while back that has weird stuff on it from different pre-Byrds and other side project type stuff.

 

Sweetheart certainly was a different album. We can thank Gram for that I guess.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

It was interesting to read in the Preflyte booklet that Terry Melcher did not think much of Gene Clark. Without his songs, I don't think they would have made it.

[LouieB]

It was interesting to read in the Preflyte booklet that Terry Melcher did not think much of Gene Clark. Without his songs, I don't think they would have made it.

Yea, maybe. Gene was certainly encouraged to go solo rather early (too early). It would have been nice if he had stuck around awhile longer.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

I have always read that the reason he left the band was due to his fear of flying.

[mfwahl]

I have always read that the reason he left the band was due to his fear of flying.

[LouieB]

I have always read that the reason he left the band was due to his fear of flying.

Could be. I had read somewhere that someone felt he had more potential as a solo artist. Sadly no matter what the reason, he never got any more famous or more productive after he left the group.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

 

and Eight Miles High (which really was about being in a plane)

[LouieB]

and Eight Miles High (which really was about being in a plane)

Yea, but McGuinn wrote that I think....he was the "spaceman"....ioops wrong....it is by McGuinn, Crosby AND Clark (Gene).

 

This is a great place to talk about something McGuinn once said (I think...gawd my memory is getting hazy, what with all the useless info in my shrinking brain...), that most music from the first half of the 20th century was written on trains because musicians traveled on them and therefore most music sounds like trains and that during the second half when musicians traveled by plane more, the music has more of a whoosh or a roar like airlines. I have always found this pretty true, that blues, jazz, country, etc from before the second world war has a swing and sounds much like trains, but with the advent of rock music in the late 50s and 60s, there is less swing and more noise.

 

LouieB