The announcement of the reunion album featuring all five original Byrds raised expectations to the point where whatever emerged was almost bound to be an anticlimax. (Imagine the effect of the Beatles reforming around the same time, if you will.) Despite a general thumbs-down from the critics, fan loyalty and eager anticipation made the new long-player highly successful at the record store: in the States, the biggest-selling new-material Byrds album since Turn, Turn, Turn. Subsequent reviews expressed varying degrees of disappointment, but recent re-evaluation with almost forty years of hindsight portrays the project as fascinating historically and not without merit artistically. Interest in it has never waned and it’s been re-released on CD no fewer than four times. The Wikipedia article on it is almost a book.
The theory behind the reunion varies. According to one version, the famously unreticent David Crosby visited Roger McGuinn in mid-1972 and panned the well-loved White/Battin/Parsons Byrds lineup, saying, “you’ve done some OK stuff but you’ve also done stuff that is pretty bad. Please stop doing it under the Byrds name”. Crosby then suggested reforming the original band to record an album showing where the founder members “are at today”. Another version has the ever-opportunistic David Geffen seeing the lucrative potential of a reunion and planting the suggestion in McGuinn’s mind, noting that McGuinn himself had become dissatisfied with the long-standing lineup and replaced Gene Parsons with salaried sessioneer John Guerin. Either way, McGuinn acquiesced and the other members, all having found themselves between longterm engagements, followed.
The nature of the final work supports the first theory: the album is The Crosby Show in almost every respect. Although on the surface democracy seems to be served by each of the four principals furnishing two original compositions, two of the three accompanying covers are Neil Young songs and the third is by Joni Mitchell, both being longtime Crosby cronies (though Clark takes lead vocal on the Young ditties). It’s been suggested that the other three writers were saving their best material for their own solo projects, but though none of their offerings is a blockbuster they’re all engaging enough, especially Gene Clark’s delicate “Full Circle” and Dylanesque “Changing Heart” and McGuinn’s ersatz-traditional “Sweet Mary”. By contrast, Crosby’s “Long Live The King” is characteristically ebullient, while his “Laughing” is itself actually a cover of the original that appeared on his sublime 1971 collection If Only I Could Remember My Name. Crosby also has the sole production credit; the only tracks that show real spirit in the lead vocals are his; and in the cover photographs he’s the only one who really looks like he wants to be there. (Chris Hillman looks like he’d rather be anywhere else at all.)
The sound of the album is also heavily redolent with Crosby’s aural fingerprint. Acoustic guitars predominate, with the electrics and bass mostly mixed way back and only Hillman’s vibrant mandolin and Clark’s plaintive harmonica forefronted strongly as solo instruments. Apart from “Laughing”, all the songs have short, terse arrangements, never really catching fire. While Crosby’s lead vocals soar, Clark’s and Hillman’s are more subdued and McGuinn’s particularly sombre. The block harmonies are immaculate but display the sweetness of CS&N rather than the engaging rough edge of latterday Byrds. One is led to conclude that with this album Crosby finally achieved, albeit temporarily, belatedly and with questionable success, the domination of the Byrds that he’d craved during the classic years.
by Len Liechti
1. Full Circle (Gene Clark) - 2:43
2. Sweet Mary (Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy) - 2:55
3. Changing Heart (Gene Clark) - 2:42
4. For Free (Joni Mitchell) - 3:50
5. Born To Rock 'N' Roll (Roger McGuinn) - 3:12
6. Things Will Be Better (Chris Hillman, Dallas Taylor) - 2:13
7. Cowgirl In The Sand (Neil Young) - 3:24
8. Long Live The King (David Crosby) - 2:17
9. Borrowing Time (Chris Hillman, Joe Lala) - 2:00
10.Laughing (David Crosby) - 5:38
11.(See The Sky) About To Rain (Neil Young) - 3:49
The Byrds
*Roger McGuinn – Guitar, Banjo, Moog Synthesizer, Vocals
*Gene Clark - Guitar, Harmonica, Tambourine, Vocals
*David Crosby - Guitar, Vocals
*Chris Hillman – Electric Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
*Michael Clarke – Drums, Congas, Percussion
Additional Personnel
*Wilton Felder - Electric Bass
*Johnny Barbata - Drums
*Dallas Taylor - Congas, Tambourine
1964 The Byrds - Preflyte (2012 Edition)
1971 The Byrds - Live At Royal Albert Hall
1967 Gene Clark - Echoes
1968-69 Dillard And Clark - Fantastic Expedition / Through The Morning, Through The Night
1971 Gene Clark - White Light
1972 Gene Clark - Roadmaster (2011 Edition)
1973 Roger McGuinn - Roger McGuinn (2013 Edition)
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This album imho didn't deserve the drubbing it got from critics. A must have for any Gene Clark fan in particular. His reading of Neil Young's 'See the Sky ABout to Rain' better the original (imho), 'For Free' is also great. Thanks Marios!
ReplyDeleteI have never found any value in this - I always blamed the production/engineering but equally sad are the arrangements & performance. I still feel it was a money deal not creativity at any level- everybody had moved on
ReplyDeleteAs the reviewer says at the end, when the dust settles, what highlights this record is return of David Crosby. Those of us who remember the Byrds in the mid sixties until Crosby got fired from the band, and the "new" country focused direction the band took with the member replacing Crosby, would definetely be surprised to see Crosby's absolute CSN&Y-glory-days-image on the center of this album. It seems like a desperate effort of the band to regain "something" from their own glory days that ended when they fired David Crosby..
ReplyDeleteI still think there must be outtakes from this album lying in a vault somewhere
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