The Byrds
BYRDMANIAX (1971)
- I Trust (Everything is Gonna Work Out All Right)
- Just Like a Woman*
- Absolute Happiness
- Green Apple Quick Step
- I Wanna Grow Up to Be a Politician
- (Is This) My Destiny
- Lover of the Bayou* (studio) [[Untitled/Unissued]]
- Willin'* [[Untitled/Unissued]]
- Pale Blue
- It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)* [Easy Rider soundtrack]
- Jamaica Say You Will** (alt. mix)
-----------------------------------All tracks taken from the original LP except where *
The often maligned tenth album by The Byrds has always been a challenge to listen to. Though I have revised my hard stance against Skip Battin somewhat (a song per LP) in my updated Byrds alt-discog. Much like Farther Along that would follow it, the LP is not without its charms. However, only half-an-album's worth of decent tunes does not a good album make. I previously paired these two 1971 LPs together whilst throwing in some of McGuinn's eponymous solo LP from '73. With the awesome new alt-discog sites I've seen over the past few months (Something Creative; Strawberry Peppers, and more you should check out--Ed.), I've gotten the idea to further revise my timeline, heh. I will follow-up with revised takes on The Last Byrds Album and Pheonix in future posts.
So what I did with this album was remove all but one of Skip's songs (the one on here I do like) and "Glory, Glory"--ugh. Anyways, I could see the band going to use leftovers from Pheonix (the actual title for 1970's [Untitled] double LP) like "Lover of the Bayou" and a couple decent Dylan covers. Also, Gene Parsons doesn't have a vocal on the album--so "Willin'" would have a spot here. I also originally considered Clarence White's take on "Think I'm Gonna Feel Better" by Gene Clark...but a proper vocal take was probably never recorded; it remains an outtake for me. However, I am proud of the mix of "Jamaica Say You Will" I made combining elements from the quadraphonic LP version (containing additional woodwind and orchestral flourishes) with the album version. The problem with the latter is a slight pitch problem that flattens White's vocal take. McGuinn's harmony part is also off due to this. You can compare the performance of the two mixes and hear what I mean. The quadraphonic mix has the correct speed but the band's instruments are buried under Melcher's overdubs (even more than the album version). Putting them together makes sense. I also did the same with both versions of "One Hundred Years From Now" from the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album. Welp--that's all folks (for now). Special thanks to ernestmannerisms for the cover art!
P.S. Look up 'Byrdmaniax Repaired" on YouTube. That's another live/studio LP combination like '[Untitled]' (which was considered by the band at one point).
Not a fan of McGuinn's "new byrds ( he should have changed the name after Hillman left ). That aside, there's only a few decent tracks on each lp they did. I'd be hard pressed to make one decent lp out of the 3 Battin was on. The 2 with John York are somewhat better, but still very spotty.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, is there any way we can hear your alternate version of Jamaica Say You Will? It sounds intriguing. You should post it on YouTube!
ReplyDeleteive done you a new cover for this :-)
ReplyDeleteThank ya, thank ya! "Jamaica" can be found if ya peel yer eyes!
ReplyDelete