I believe it is on the LA Nuggets set. Edit: It is. Full title is Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-68.
The rumor that Gene is on "Goin' Back" is not unfounded. The most you could say is that it's disputed. IMO he is clearly audible. His is the low voice going "oooo" underneath the "la la la la la" break sung by Roger, Chris, and Curt Boettcher. It could hardly be anyone else singing that part -- does it sound like Roger or Chris or Curt Boettcher? Add in that members of the Rose Garden (IIRC) are on record having seen Gene contributing to the song in the studio. I see no reason to doubt their account when it is corroborated by the presence of a mystery low voice on the recording, and vice versa. I am more agnostic about Gene's alleged contribution to "Space Odyssey." He could be singing the lower part in unison with Roger, but he could just as easily not be. The part does appear to be doubled in any case.
Jimmi Seiter says he didn't but like you say Rose a Garden said he did - we will probably never know for sure.
Well, the fact that Seiter didn't see him recording doesn't prove he didn't do it, since Seiter may not have been present for every single session. Even if he was, it doesn't preclude him forgetting some details, or getting some details wrong. Also, Seiter sat in on dozens of Byrds sessions, whereas the Rose Garden only attended one, so I would imagine they were probably more attentive to details since it was something that was a special occasion for them, whereas for Seiter it was a routine occurrence. And in terms of the way memory works, it's generally more likely that a person would forget details than it is that they would completely manufacture a memory that didn't happen. Given all this, I'd tend to trust the Rose Garden's memories more than Seiter's here, and conclude that the greater likelihood is that Gene did record some vocals for the song. Whether or not they made it into the final mix is another story, but as Maggie pointed there's audible evidence that supports that premise.
My wife is friends with the wife of John Noreen, a member of The Rose Garden. I guess maybe I could get the Gene on Byrd Brothers question to him, but it wouldn't prove anything.
Anything Byrds? Okay. My second favorite Byrds track, my favorite girls, little kids with bongos, Chris looking irritated as usual, Gene thinking about lunch, Dave smirking that we don't know what he just did, Jim remembering his capo is in the car, and at 2:27, Michael looking at the monitor thinking, "whoa..."
Is there a chance Gene recorded vocals and by the time the song came out he had left so they took him off the final mix?
Just checked Seiters book and he says Curt and Gary did the vocals and their blend sounded nice. He says many think Gene was on the record but he was not. Either way Gene was officially back when those sessions happened so possible...
Well, many of us know what Gary Usher sounded like in the '60s (from the "Sacramento" single among other things) and the lower voice on "Goin' Back" doesn't sound like him at all, it sounds like Gene. I'm not disputing that Gary is on the track, though; there are many voices there, and Chris was never the most confident harmony singer (not with the Byrds anyway). I suspect there is more Chris Boettcher (and perhaps Gary Usher) on that album than most people suspect. Kind of like the prominent Terry Melcher part on "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" ('69 version). There are many assertions in the Seiter books that seem to run contrary to auditory evidence. He repeatedly records hitherto unknown overdub sessions that seem to leave no traces on the tracks.
I don't think it's likely they would have removed his vocals because he had left the band... they didn't remove any of Crosby's vocal or instrumental contributions after he was fired. It's possible Gene recorded a vocal that wasn't used in the final mix for other reasons, but if so then that would raise the question of who is singing the part that Maggie thinks sounds like Gene (I'm not eagle-eared enough to have an opinion myself about whose voice that is). Seiter certainly is not infallible. He claims it's Hal Blaine on "Change is Now" but nothing short of a film of the session would convince me it's not Michael Clarke.
Yeah I have to believe it's Michael cos it's one of my favourite tracks. I like to believe Gene is on Goin Back too for the record.
If it's not Clarke on that track, it's got to be the best Clarke impression ever. Which certainly would not be beyond Hal Blaine's abilities, but if they didn't like what Clarke had done why would they have Blaine copy it?
I joined these forums sometime in early 2016, and I recently bought The Notorious Byrd Brothers as a direct result. Before now, my only Byrds album has been Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which I bought more as a Gram Parsons record than as a Byrds record. And except for "Wasn't Born to Follow" -- which I knew from watching Easy Rider a bunch in college -- I knew none of the songs on NBB. All of this being said, my first experience of it kind of took me by surprise. In particular, I was struck by just how much the album seems to be contending with the Beatles and Brian Wilson. Up to this point, I am only hearing it as an artifact of the period, but I look forward to playing it more and seeing if the album strikes me in different ways later.
It is that opinion -- which I discovered here -- that prompted the purchase. Plus, I have always considered the Byrds a huge gap in my music collection. For what it is worth, my music listening these days is very connected with a new found commitment to exercise. That I have been injured since I got NBB means that it has not gotten the best listen I can give it. When fully recovered and back up to speed, I look forward to hearing it without the "background noise" of personal frustration with having injury-related foot pain.
When I saw Chris Hillman's talk at the Library of Congress he seemed to imply that NBB was one of the Byrd's best.
