Did Anyone Here See The Original Byrds Live ?

Like I said Mr. Boreen in my first post...Gene Clark was part of the Whiskey shows...whatever the reason he did not really impress me during those shows, not my fault , just my observation....I will take the arrow out of my back for your try to kill the messenger

 

Yes, exactly the point I've been making all along, with that specific example.

They were no doubt a tighter band and a more instrumentally formidable one. But my problems with the latter-day Byrds are several.

First, while I respect his talent and innovation, I simply don't care for Clarence White's guitar style...something about it grates on me. If it's late-period Byrds, you know you're gonna hear that particular style and the string-bender thing shoved into every song, whether it really fits or not. And I'm with you...it does NOT fit in "Eight Miles High." If the (untitled) jam had more McGuinn and less White, I might be able to tolerate it.

Secondly, at least in concert, this line-up's vocals sucked. I know that Clark-Crosby-McGuinn is a high standard to try to match, but still...I have a clip of them doing "It Won't Be Wrong" (a great song!) and "Mr. Tambourine Man" in this era, and it's bloody awful!

And finally...they just didn't have as many good songs to draw from. That's the bottom line.

 

I have no idea why you sent this post. My posts from today had absolutely nothing to do with you, your memories, or your opinions. I was merely adding to the discussion about the Byrds.

 

I know this thread is a few years old, but I just spent the evening reading everyone's recollections and research on the Byrds live performances...and I just want to say THANK YOU. I've been on another big Gene kick (it happens at least once a year) and it was really groovy to hear tales of the original Byrds in concert from those who were actually there. Great thread. I'd love to hear more stories if anyone's got them.

In the meantime he's the aforementioned Byrds appearance on Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gD84jbVV3c

 

The Byrds were my first concert. I saw them at the Anaheim Convention Center in early 1970. I went with a good friend who's date (who happened to be my sister) backed out at the last minute. They played between opener Hoyt Axton and headliner Three Dog Night. I was looking more forward to the Byrds than Three Dog Night. I was just getting into music and the Byrds were more my style than Three Dog Night.

Anyway I remember liking the Byrds. I didn't know a whole lot about them but I was familiar with some of their hits. They did a medley of Turn, Turn, Turn/Mr. Tambourine Man/Eight Miles High and I'm pretty sure they did Mr. Spaceman. I also remember a lot of country songs, like Old Blue and Nashville West. Can't quite remember if they played Lover of the Bayou. I would think they probably did.

Hoyt Axton did the Pusher and the Big Mac Song, which he had recently written for McDonald's. Looking back, an interesting combination.

 

i saw the Untitled version here in Nashville (Vanderbilt U.) in '71.of course i wished
that i were seeing the original group, but still thought the show was pretty good.i
enjoyed the McGuinn/White interaction-i would agree that Clarence tended to overplay
on some songs, but on the other hand his go-for-broke style added a lot of excitement.
we were prepared by the live half of Untitled & quite impressed with the Eight Miles
High jam.
i saw McGuinn solo in an Athens,Ga. club in the 80s.i thought it a bit odd that he played his electric 12-string-guess that didn't fit my idea of a solo set.the audience
was a noisy young college-age crowd & i felt a lot of them had come because of a
rumor that REM would play with Roger.at the end of his set Buck,Mills & Berry did
step up to play a few songs-all tunes that Roger had already played ! i thought the
crowd would talk less with the local heroes on, but no such luck.i guess people just
wanted to say they had been there.

 

I saw 'em once, June of '67, Magic Mountain Music Fest.

 

I saw the original 5 Byrds, 5 times if I remember correctly, in Phoenix (1965-66). What they did (that was typical for L.A. groups then) was come over and play Friday at a teen club, then announce a Saturday show; usually at a state fairgrounds building. They did this at least twice. My recollection is that they were great the first time (feeding off the electricity in the air) and became progressively jaded. McGuinn and Hillman, while being the 2 best musicians, always seemed nervous and tight to me. On the other hand, I thought that Clarke and Crosby were very comfortable, loose, and played with a lot of feel, even though they were not technical wizards. Clarke may not have been a great drummer but, early on anyway, I thought he played intelligently, within himself, and with a good touch. He enjoyed it too, which made things pleasant, even with that hair pushed down over his forehead. Nervous or not, McGuinn did have wonderful sound with that 12 string. I wonder if he tweaked his amplifier to get a sound similar to that of the studio recordings? The last time I saw them in Phoenix it was a bit different. They played the Memorial Coliseum, which holds something like 12,000-15,000. I think they were the first American group to play that large a venue in Arizona. I can only recall the DC5 and the Stones playing there prior to 1966. I saw the Byrds, in name anyway, one last time in Los Angeles at the Aquarius Theatre (it might have been called the Hullabaloo then) as a McGuinn, Hillman, Clarke trio on New Years 1967-68.

 

Ron Wood had a completely different take in his autobiography, claiming that Ron's amazing early unsigned R&B band The Birds (possibly the greatest British blues band in history this side of the Rolling Stones...according to Ron) had such a rabid nationwide UK following that they all but chased those pesky American name-stealers straight back on a plane to America.

......Yeah, I didn't buy that story either.

 

I spoke with guitarist Bill Rinehart last night (The Leaves, Gene Clark & the Group, Merry-Go-Round) and he says he saw the Byrds many times, including the legendary gig at Ciro's when Dylan joined them onstage.
He says he has a very clear memories of seeing The Byrds live and recalls that they had a big sound, and 'Mr. Tambourine Man' sounded exactly like the studio version.
Oddly enough, before all the others, he made special mention of Michael Clarke's performance, noting that while Michael wasn't renowned for his drumming skills, he was still able to provide a steady, driving beat that gave them considerable power in a live setting.

 

You know, he gets slagged, but I always liked most of the things that Michael played on, and I'm aware that he didn't play on everything.

Here's a guy that got picked for the group because he looked good (if the legend is true) and then we hear David bitching at him in the studio about his drumming a couple of years later.

He moves the songs along quite well IMO in most cases.

Then again I always got a kick out of watching and listening to Dennis Wilson playing drums live also. Definitely a primitive, but he played with such gusto it was fun to watch.

After all, this is/was rock and roll, these guys weren't playing with Dave Brubeck or similar.

 

I saw them in '65. They played two sets to a nearly empty ballroom, they played their album through twice. They sounded just like the record. On the TNT show they're good but it appears that Crosby is sabotaging them, singing out of sync and acting disinterested. They were better when I saw them.

 

Whoah! That's a great pic! Not to get too off-topic, but you didn't happen to see the famed Captain Beefheart performance there did you? Always wondered what that was like! Nice to see Hugh Maskella in that picture with the Byrds. Are there any other color pictures from this event?
--------- Chris

 

I too, saw the Carson show that someone mentioned a bunch of posts (years?) ago. Only time other than Monterey film that I've seen them playing. Crosby had that fur hat on for the Carson show , stepped up to the mic after a good 45 seconds or so of the band standing there tuning and leaned in with the "we tune because we care" line. As I remember, the other three guys glared at him, kept tuning, and it was sort of a muted laughter from the audience on that line as it was really boring to watch them not playing. This was zero chemistry at its finest.

 

Issue #1 of Guitar Player had some photos as well.

I did see Beefheart. I have a snapshot, but I don't see it on in my gallery. It sure seemed longer than two songs, but I can't say for sure. It was pretty amazing. Ry Cooder was incredible, playing slide. I didn't see Capt fall off stage, but the band did veer off into a wild jam. I remember Drumbo playing with his hands before he knocked over his kit.

I was there both days, but didn't see all the bands due to the shuttle we had to take up the mountain.

 

I saw them in either 1968 or 1969 in Dallas Tx at the Forest Avenue Theater. My 2 brothers and I went which was great. It was like a small movie theater. Probably a couple of 100 people. Our seats were about 15 or 20 ft away. Great concert. The lineup was McGuinn, both Clarks, Hillman and Gram Parsons. I'm pretty sure this was correct. I think they mostly sung from Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Notorious Bryd Brothers, and course their hits. I sure wished I had some pictures of that concert.

 

I'm fairly sure there never was a show with that line-up. Michael Clarke and Gene Clark were both gone before Parsons joined the band. If Parsons was with them it would have to have been 1968 you saw them... he was only in the band for the first six months of that year.

 

Wow! Thank you for the eye witness account! Issue #1 of Guitar Player? Whew! I'd bet that could set a person back a few bucks, but might be worth having. John "Drumbo" French's new book goes into detail about this performance, but great to read how it all looked from the audience perspective. Thanks again!!
---------- Chris