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For similarly-titled albums, see The Byrds (album).
Byrds is the twelfth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in March, 1973 (see 1973 in music) on Asylum Records, catalogue item SD 5058.[1] The album reached #20 on the Billboard 200 album chart[2][3] and was also moderately successful in the United Kingdom, reaching #31 but only staying on the UK Albums Chart for one week.[4] 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 reached #109 on the Billboard chart.[5] Two further singles were taken from the album during 1973, "Things Will Be Better" b/w "For Free", which was released exclusively in the UK and Europe, and "Cowgirl in the Sand" b/w "Long Live the King" but neither of these singles charted. 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 chart.[1][5] The album was the result of a reunion between the five original members of The Byrds; Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke.[6] The last time that all five members had worked together as part of The Byrds was in early 1966, prior to Gene Clark leaving the band.[7] In the U.S., Byrds became the band's highest charting album of new material since 1965's Turn! Turn! Turn!, which had also been the last Byrds' album to feature Gene Clark as a full member.[8] During the reunion of the five original Byrds, the current, latter-day line-up of the band continued to make live appearances, with Roger McGuinn being the only member common to both incarnations of the group.[9][10] Byrds is notable for being the last studio album to be recorded by the band to date.[11]
[edit] BackgroundRoger McGuinn, the only member of The Byrds to remain constant throughout every incarnation of the band, had grown dissatisfied with the current line-up by 1972.[8] As a result, Gene Parsons, the band's drummer since 1968, had been fired by McGuinn in July of that year and replaced by stand-in session musician, John Guerin.[12] Although the band had continued to tour throughout 1972, no new Byrds' single or album was forthcoming, despite the current line-up of the band recording a handful of new songs at intervals throughout the year.[9] During this same period, the other four members of the original line-up of The Byrds were, to an extent, at loose ends. Crosby had completed his recording and touring obligations for the Graham Nash/David Crosby album, Chris Hillman's work with the Stephen Stills' helmed band Manassas was winding down, 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 demise of The Flying Burrito Brothers.[1][8] Furthermore, none of the careers of the five original band members, with the exception of David Crosby, had been as financially rewarding as during the heyday of The Byrds.[8] 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 current line-up of The Byrds were recording their final album, Farther Along.[1] News of these discussions was leaked to the British music press and one week after the release of Farther Along, the front cover of Disc and Music Echo proclaimed from its front page "Original Byrds To Reform?"[1] The attendant article suggested that the reunion album would be a one-off project and that the current line-up of The Byrds would continue to tour and record, with no question of disbanding.[1] Meanwhile, with the successful supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young grounded while the individual members worked on other projects, entrepreneur David Geffen, along with the manager of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Elliot Roberts, had seen their attempts to bring a new CSNY album to the market thwarted. In the absence of any new CSNY product, Geffen became acutely aware that a historic reunion of the original Byrds could prove to be highly lucrative for all concerned.[1] The reunion of the five original members of the band actually took place in early October 1972, beginning with a rehearsal at Roger McGuinn's house, where the band initially worked on one of McGuinn'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.[1] All five musicians were encouraged by the rehearsal and felt sure that they could re-create the magic of The Byrds' golden era. Consequently, it was agreed that they would commence recording of their first album together in seven years.[1] The reunited Byrds were determined that the internal conflict that tore them apart during the 1960s wouldn't be allowed to rear its head again and so it was 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.[8] With considerable leverage from David Geffen, Roger McGuinn managed to secure permission from Columbia Records, to which he was still contracted, to record a one-off album for Geffen's Asylum Records.[1] As part of the deal, Clive Davis, the president of Columbia Records, specified that McGuinn and David Crosby would be required to record a joint album together for Columbia, to be released in 1973. However, this planned Crosby/McGuinn album failed to materialize, due to Clive Davis being fired from Columbia shortly after the exchange deal was struck.[1] Meanwhile, the existing Columbia line-up of The Byrds, featuring McGuinn, Clarence White, Skip Battin and John Guerin, continued to make concert appearances in the United States.[10] [edit] MusicRecording sessions for the reunion album began on October 16, 1972 in studio #4 of Wally Heider Recording Studios in Los Angeles and continued until at least November 15, 1972.[13] During these sessions, the band recorded the eleven songs that would appear on the finished album and at least two outtakes, the McGuinn and Jacques Levy penned "Draggin'" and "My New Woman", both of which would be included on McGuinn's 1973 solo album, Roger McGuinn.[1] The tracks recorded for the album featured two songs from each of the four songwriters in the band, as well as a Joni Mitchell cover and two songs by Neil Young. Upon its release, much was made in the music press of the lack of any Bob Dylan songs on the album, since The Byrds had covered Dylan's material frequently during the 1960s.[11][14] This criticism prompted David Crosby to contend that Neil 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. In fact, the decision to cover Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "(See the Sky) About to Rain" had been made by Gene Clark, who had long admired the Canadian singer–songwriter, and not by David Crosby, as was assumed by the press at the time.[1][15] The opening track on the album, Clark's "Full Circle", had initially given the album its working title but Clark was concerned that the public might mistakenly assume that the song had been written specifically for The Byrds' reunion.[1] The song's wheel of fortune motif certainly seemed applicable but as Clark explained in 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."[1] The song had not only been written and recorded by Clark some months prior to The Byrds' reunion but by the time Byrds was released, the song had also recently been issued under the alternate title of "Full Circle Song" on Clark's 1973 solo album, Roadmaster.[16] Byrds also included a second Clark original, "Changing Heart", and featured Gene singing lead vocal on the album's pair of Neil Young covers.[16] The addition of Clark's harmonica to "Cowgirl in the Sand" lent the song a distinctive country flavour, perfectly in keeping with the song's subject matter, while "(See the Sky) About to Rain" climaxed with a chiming finalé, featuring The Byrds' trademark Rickenbacker guitars.[1] The Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy penned "Sweet Mary" included a prominent mandolin part by the band's bassist, Chris Hillman, and saw McGuinn reverting to a folkier style of songwriting than he had exhibited of late.[1] McGuinn's other songwriting contribution was "Born to Rock 'n' Roll", a semi-serious, autobiographical contemplation of the guitarist's career as a professional musician. The song had initially been attempted by the latter-day line-up of The Byrds, during a July 1972 recording session, for possible release as a single but ultimately that version of the song was discarded.[17] During the reunion album recording sessions, McGuinn made a second attempt at producing a definitive recording of the song, resulting in a lackluster rendition that the guitarist himself was dissatisfied with. McGuinn would later record the song a third time for his 1975 solo album, Roger McGuinn & Band, but yet again he was unhappy with the end result, leading him to pointedly conclude in an interview that "'Born to Rock 'n' Roll' was a dog."[1] Chris Hillman's "Things Will Be Better", co-written with session drummer Dallas Taylor, and "Borrowing Time", co-written with Joe Lala, were also included on the album. The former song deals with the unpredictable nature of fame and stardom, a theme that was echoed in Gene Clark's "Full Circle".[1] Crosby contributed the song "Long Live the King", a cynical commentary on the star-making mechanics of the music business, which was ironic, since it was precisely those same materialistic business practices that had enabled The Byrds' reunion to transpire in the first place.[8] In addition to singing lead vocal on the Joni Mitchell cover "For Free", 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, in 1971.[8] Crosby's rational for re-recording the song for the reunion album was that he had originally written "Laughing" during his last days as a member of The Byrds and as such, it had initially been intended for inclusion on a Byrds' album.[1] The recording of "Laughing" featured on Byrds saw the return of Roger McGuinn's raga-rock style of guitar playing, which had last been utilized on the band's Fifth Dimension and Younger Than Yesterday albums.[8] Following the completion of the album's recording sessions, Crosby reached an agreement with McGuinn to dissolve the latter-day line-up of The Byrds, who at that time were still working as a touring band.[1] 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 "There were only ever five Byrds."[16] 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 line-up of The Byrds in February 1973.[9] [edit] ReleaseByrds was released on March 7, 1973 in the United States and March 24, 1973 in the United Kingdom.[1] Although the album was issued in stereo commercially, there are mono promo copies of the LP known to exist.[18] The album's sleeve was adorned with photographs taken by Henry Diltz that fittingly pictured the band in the L.A. folk club, The Troubadour, where McGuinn, Clark and Crosby had first formed the nucleus of The Byrds in 1964.[19][20] Upon release, the album suffered from generally poor reviews, with Jon Landau, in the April 1973 edition of Rolling Stone magazine, criticizing it as "one of the dullest albums of the year."[14] Landau further commented that the album sounded like "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."[14] 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.[1][6] In the final analysis, the recording of the album was rushed and ill-thought out,[8] with the band members themselves later echoing many of the sentiments expressed in the music press. Gene Clark commented in interview "I am disappointed in that album...it just hasn't got the punch that it could have had if we'd taken the time."[1] Chris Hillman concurred with Gene, stating "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."[1] 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, stating "David had this incredibly strong pot. Half a joint and you couldn't do anything. We were stoned out of our minds the whole time. I don't remember much recording."[16] In addition, none of the parties, save for perhaps Gene Clark, seemed willing to contribute their best material, instead holding back their finest songs for their own individual solo projects.[16] This has been confirmed by McGuinn, who noted "I didn't put my good songs on the album as I was saving them for my solo album. I felt that everybody was doing the same."[8] In later years Chris Hillman also admitted "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."[21] The scathing 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 projects following the album's release.[8] The timing of the album, between CSNY reunions, the fact that it was produced by David Crosby, and the presence of the individual band members' names on the album cover have resulted in the suggestion that the album was something of a substitute for CSNY.[8] For his part, Crosby's motivation for taking over production duties on the album may have been an attempt to finally exert dominance over the rest of the band, as he had tried to do during his earlier tenure with The Byrds.[8] Roger McGuinn certainly supported this viewpoint when he later commented that he felt Crosby "wanted to minimize my importance in the group, and maximize his, and other people's."[8] In Crosby's defense, it is worth noting that 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.[13][16] 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.[16] Byrds has been reissued on CD a number of times; first by Elektra Records in 1990, then in 1998 by WEA in Europe, and then again, in a remastered edition, in 2004 on Wounded Bird Records. Most recently the album has been reissued by Rhino Records in 2008. None of these CD issues have included bonus tracks and Roger McGuinn has gone on record as stating that any available outtakes from the recording sessions ended up on his first solo album.[22] [edit] Track listing[edit] Side 1
[edit] Side 2
[edit] Singles
[edit] PersonnelNOTE: Sources for this section are as follows: [1][13]
[edit] Release history
[edit] References
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