Is the Byrds "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" part of your collection?

The song Drug Store Truck Driving Man was written about that 1968 appearance.

 

Younger than Yesterday is my favorite.

 

I've had them all for a long time... Sweetheart stands on it's own and is an excellent album I return to fairly often. Loved all the alternate versions too as Gram's vocals were only removed from some because of some earlier LHI contract stuff they didn't want to risk violating. I love what Chris and Rog do with Blue Canadian Rockies. I grew up with all that kind of music and to have The Byrds honor it and appear at the Opry (with Gram doing his own song to boot) was a real once in a lifetime thing. I actually do have the t-shirt! I would never be without this, the LHI International Submarine Band album and the first Burritos album (and the third one). These plus Gene Clark, Rick Nelson and the Everlys of the same time are the new country/country-rock central. Plus in a way Rubber Soul.

But... YMMV as they say.

 

Even f I didn't like it, I'd still say I liked it!

 

I like the album, but can't say that I love it. There are certain tracks on it that I do love, like "Hickory Wind" and "Nothing Was Delivered", but then there is "The Christian Life", which I absolutely despise.

 

The Everly Brothers were simultaneously on the Pop and Country charts in the 50's. Wiki dropped Country Chart info for their 60's output, which may mean they stopped charting on the Country charts after they switched to Warner's.

 

Yeah, so were Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee, and probably a few others. But what I was saying is that in 1968 there was no artist (aside from Conway Twitty) who had managed to cross over to the country charts after only having had pop hits. If you were known exclusively as a pop star, country radio would not accept you. So it was naive (or unrealistically optimistic) of Gram Parsons to think there was any chance the Byrds might get played on country radio.

 

This album changed everything for me. I was only Into old rock and (mostly) college rock when I first got this in 1985. A used copy of the original LP. Opened my eyes to country and country rock. Now I think I own everything recorded that Gram ever sang on. It was and always will be one of my top ten albums.

 

I have it and understand its historical importance but it's not a particularly convincing album. I'd rather listen to the real deal in country, be it George Jones or Merle Haggard both of whom are covered here. I also hold Gram Parsons responsible for destroying America's greatest rock band. Up til this album, they couldn't do wrong in my eyes. After this, they rarely put their foot right. I own all their LPs but rarely listen to anything post-Notorious.

 

CBS embassy Lp is a good way to get it cheap.

 

Original UK release and extended CD deluxe release. CD played 6 times since May last year, and is due a listen. The artwork fascinated me as a kid.

 

Gram Parson doesn't stand up as a vocalist against those guys, but his value (and this album's value also, to a degree) is as a gateway drug to get people who hate country to reconsider. Like Johnny Cash's American albums, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is a country album for people who hate country.

There's no way McGuinn and Hillman had it in them to make another Notorious even if Parsons had not joined. It's not fair to blame him for the end of that band.

 

I first owned it on cassette and I didn't really get most of the straight country style that it was steeped in. I should probably point out that I was about 13 at the time and since my folks enjoyed some country music, I found it unhip and hokey. That is, until I searched a bit more and figured out whom was singing Hickory Wind and Life in Prison; enter Gram Parsons. It took me a year or two to begin to understand what the sudden shift in direction the Byrds did with Sweetheart and Gram's involvement in it. Then I heard the Flying Burrito Brothers and then I found a copy of Untitled with Clarence White and Gene Parsons in the band. I finally understood the passion, the interest and the need for why Roger thought it was a brave step to label this as a Byrds album. Granted the band had flirted with country almost clear back to their beginnings with Porter Wagner's A Satisfied Mind from Turn! Turn! Turn!, but Sweetheart was a complete departure from familiar Byrds territory.

I've owned '03's 2 disc edition since it came out and spin it at least once a year.

 

I said it had historical value - gateway for rock crowd - but as an album on its own merits it's lukewarm, never mind if you compare it to real country artists...

I also never claimed they had another Notorious in them... I said Parsons ruined a rock band... from that point on they pursued a much heavier country vibe that McGuinn was ill-suited for even with White as a partner... and for all of White's brillance when I want to listen to Byrds I want to hear 12-string Rick jangle, not Tele twang...

McGuinn took a backseat in his own band to diminishing returns... in closing, I'd rather have McGuinn's fabled follow-up to Notorious (he claimed he was envisioning an attempt to encapsulate all American genres up to that point) even if it was a disaster as opposed to Parsons tepid country... how in the world that guy was able to enter an already established band and hijack it from its original mission statement baffles me still 50 years later.

 

I love their album run till the notorious byrd brothers here they lost me

I do not like the country/Gram Parsons influences

@YardByrd : i couldn't have said it better myself

 

I was looking at the poll and specifically the : Yes, but I can't stand it votes.... i am curious maybe someone from those votes can react why they have it in their collection

was it a present ? or buying mistake ?

Also buying music for historical significance doesn't do it for me

IMO you only buy music you like to play simple as that

life is too short for boring music

 

I absolutely love it.
I have the Sundazed reissue which Chris Hillman signed for me!
Also Have the single CD reissue, need to get around to buying the double ‘deluxe edition’.

 

Why blame Gram for destroying the band? That seems a bit silly, as Roger let Gram run free on Sweetheart. And even after Sweetheart, The Byrds still mined that country vein up until the end. Perhaps you should blame Roger, too.

 

It's one of those incredibly thick CDs. It must have the girth of like two or three modern CDs smooshed together.

 

No home should be without it. A great record.

 

It's one of those CDs that might get stuck in your CD player.

 

Different strokes for different folks. I think Gram Parsons is one of the finest male country vocalists I've ever heard and I've heard a lot. I've loved country music since I was a kid and I like Sweetheart of the Rodeo although I recognize it's not perfect.

Agreed.

 

Exactly

 

I couldn't find anything by The Everly Brothers at our music store in Statesville, NC back in the 50s until I discovered they were in the country music racks, not rock'n'roll.