I don’t mind his vocal delivery on the song too much—to me, it’s just Crosby singing exuberantly and being cocksure (for lack of a better term, haha). It’s not a lot different IMO than his rousing delivery on a song like “Jack Of Diamonds” from the Preflyte sessions (though “Triad” is much more subdued as a song).
McGuinn and Hillman have always maintained that their objections to the song were musical rather than lyrical. Hillman: "I don't think it was a moral decision. The song just didn't work that well. David was drifting and bored and wanted to do something else, and that song just added fuel to the fire."
Yes, as far as I know Kelly joined in January 1968 and played his first gig with them on January 13th. Supposedly they played December 22nd at the Anaheim Convention Center though with Michael Clarke. And yes they played Winterland with McGuinn and Clarke.
So the claim on the Byrds Flyght website mentioned above must be incorrect. Thinking about it further, it seems extremely implausible that they would have called on Gene Clark to sub for Roger at a gig so soon after the trainwreck that was Gene's second stint with the band. And in the unlikely event that they did ask him, it seems totally unbelievable to think he would have agreed to do it. And even if we disregard all the personality issues, the idea of Clark, Hillman, and Kelley playing as a three-piece with no lead guitar seems pretty unlikely.
Yes, plus the Byrds played with Clarke on Dec 15th at the Nevada Southern University Gym in Las Vegas and the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach Ca on the 16 and 17th of December. As an aside, seeing we are talking about all things Byrds, it amazes me that the band well into their career still played gigs at high schools. They played on Dec 3rd 1967 at a high school in my area and were still playing at high schools off and on at least through 1970.
High Schools aren't concert halls, but some of their auditoriums were and are argueably better (acoustically speaking and larger) than some of the other venues bands played in the 60's. One of their first gigs after Gene left was here in suburban Milwaukee March of '66 (The reviewer, who loved jazz and condescended to R+R, actually noted Gene's absence. So he had the ability to make orthinological distinctions)
Wasn't that pretty common in the 1960s? I was too young at the time, but my older brother told me of all sorts of band who played high school or even junior high auditoriums. Even the Rascals, who would have probably been considered an A list band at the time, given all their hit singles, played our junior high.
The sexism of rock and roll oozes from this one. How would David have felt about the whole thing if the third party was a dude? Would it still just be about that chick's square old mom doesn't get Dabid's hip new way of living?
The more years that go by, it surprises me how little I go for the early albums anymore. It seems that any time I need a Byrds fix, I hardly ever go earlier than 1968. My normal go-to Byrds albums these days are The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, and (Untitled).
Yeah, musically the song is an obvious spatchcocking of elements from "For What It's Worth" and "Everybody's Been Burned." It's well-trodden territory and it would have dragged down NBB. David's other songs on the album are far more interesting. As would "Lady Friend" have been.
To return to something we were discussing upthread, I had a chance to play through Chris Hillman's new album today. I liked it better the second time through. One thought I had on first play was that it's kind of unfair that McGuinn gets crap from fans for being born again -- an aspect of his personal life that has barely impacted his music-making at all. Meanwhile, Hillman gets a pass for putting a full-on paranoid reactionary kook-rant ("Such Is the World We Live In") on his new album, full of dog-whistles about living on the border and schools being controlled by the "godless." I knew he was a conservative guy, and that's his affair, but to me, this track is a low point for the whole Byrds saga. Luckily, the other stuff on the album that expresses his way of looking at the world is much more even-keeled and kind-toned. One or two of the gospel-infused numbers are really good -- I find "Restless" deeply touching. I share everybody's enthusiasm for "Here She Comes Again." A sweetly melancholy tune, energetically executed with unmistakable Byrdsish flair. No doubt a whole album of this stuff would be very welcome. We can dream, I guess, but it'll never happen. I only wish Roger had played the solo, and not some other interloper with a 12-string! The Byrds remakes are nice enough, but pretty pointless, aren't they? The arrangements are largely unchanged and they all expose Chris's limitations as a singer. The version of "Old John Robinson" is at least interesting as a de-McGuinnified view of the song... I was trying to figure out what the title track reminded me of, then it hit me -- "Wild Horses." Of course, there's a certain similarity to Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" as well ("words can't bring me down" vs. "wouldn't drag me away").
[QUOTE="I share everybody's enthusiasm for "Here She Comes Again." A sweetly melancholy tune, energetically executed with unmistakable Byrdsish flair. No doubt a whole album of this stuff would be very welcome. We can dream, I guess, but it'll never happen. I only wish Roger had played the solo, and not some other interloper with a 12-string![/QUOTE] I aslo wondered why Roger didn't play or sing on this one, as this song is a McGuinn/Hillman track.
I wish there was a few hours of film of The Byrds like that (with the original sound!). Thanks for posting, hadn't seen that in a long time.
Since Hillman is life-long Louvin Brothers fan and emulator, you were surprised at Chris's lyrics for "Such Is The World We Live In"?'
That stuff is timeless, but I still play the first five Byrds albums (and the first three Love albums) when I need a dose of that one-of-a-kind 60s Sunset Strip vibe. Buffalo Springfield works too.
I wonder if there will be Tom Petty Tribute concert and if that might be a good enough reason for McGuinn, Hillman, and Crosby to reform. Who would be better to do American Girl and The Waiting?
It's not Chris's Christianity I take issue with, it's the dog-whistling about living "on the border," the speaker's great-grandfather fighting for his "liberty" in the civil war (three guesses what side he was on), the notion of America being "on the run." That's not the Louvins, that's contemporary reactionary b.s. Hillman was smart enough at least to create the distancing pretense of the named speaker...
I believe Roger is playing the fingerpicked 12-string, just not the solo. It is disarmingly close to the classic Byrds sound, which is a bit of a surprise since Hillman has never really worked in that territory before.
I went and listened to the song on youtube. I will say Hillman at least deserves credit for being much subtler than Ray Stevens. I agree with your general interpretation of the song, but one thing I do not agree with: I do not think Hillman intended to imply that the narrator's grandfather fought on the side of the South in the Civil War. Hillman is doubtless a social/moral conservative, but he's never said or done anything to suggest he aligns himself with the redneck/proto-racist/confederate flag types. Absent evidence, I'm skeptical he'd embrace that viewpoint. He's right though... America is on the run. I think he and I would disagree about the causes of that, however.
According to this article, Roger is playing his 12-string Rick on the song, though it's unclear if he plays the solo. And he's apparently co-writer also. To my untrained ears, the solo on the new recording sounds fairly similar to the solo on this MCH live version from 1978. Neither one of them sounds particularly McGuinnish, but I couldn't say with confidence whether he plays either one.
I am now on Volume 3 of the Seiter books. Definitely a lot of meat here on the recording of NBB--as it's pretty much a day to day account with what actions were done in the studio on a given day, I wonder if Seiter found time in his busy schedule to keep a diary way back when; he must have. His books shed a lot of light on the Crosby departure, which I had just heard various unconnected anecdotes about before. The seeming fact that Crosby wanted out of his contract with CBS to start CSN was something I had not heard before. Too bad these books begin in 1966, and there is little to no information about the formative Byrds or the Gene Clark era. There has only been a short anecdote about Gene rushing onstage when the Byrds were playing a local show while drunk (this was after he had left the band), attempting to grab the mic and sing, and falling a$$ over teakettle over a guitar amp.
On Triad, yeah - Lyrically, it's a little too "the establishment is plastic, man" to hold up in 2017. And when he does it acoustic as on 4WS, it's wayyyy over the top preachy - The Byrds and CPR versions have enough going on musically to distract you from the lyrically content. Likewise, I noticed the Hillman social conservatism new album thing - and I disagree with those leanings, but he's not as preachy as some, and the music is again sufficiently good to enable me to look past it at a certain point
