Poll: Byrds - Worst Career Move

I almost chose "Over-reliance on Dylan tunes" as an option, but as the Dylan period essentially coincides with the marginalization of Gene Clark, I thought that there would be an implicit overlap between the two choices and split the vote.

 

Lady Friend is an excellent track that would have fit better on Younger Than Yesterday where it appropriately appeared later as a bonus track. Triad would clash with anything.

 

Well, life would be boring if we all agreed on everything. I like folk rock, but I'm not a big fan of straight folk music, which you probably are (given your name). In particular, I've yet to hear a sea shanty performed by anyone that really did anything for me. I'm not familiar with folktronica, but I'm guessing it's a genre within which I would not find much to like. Ahead of its time or not, I've always found Space Odyssey to be musically tedious and plodding.

How does Lady Friend clash with the vibe of the album?

 

Yeah, not a fan of the Byrds' recording of Triad at all. Sleazy lyrics and overwrought, overdramatic singing. The Airplane's version is better.

 

The only example of what? A rock artist doing an entire album of country-style material? Both the Everly Brothers and Rick Nelson did it before Sweetheart.

Really? What don't you like about it? Like all the covers, it's not a patch on the original recording, but I think the Parsons-sung version is very well done.

 

Too much of a straight rocker, but then,so is "Artificial Energy" which is a great opening track. Maybe it's because I've been used to hearing the album just as it is since 1968.

 

I agree. "Triad" (perversity and all) fit in much better on Crown of Creation.

 

I even like the McGuinn version. He overdid the country vocal to the point of parody, but it acquired a nice ironic twist when McGuinn became a Christian 9 years later.

 

Getting rid of Crosby.

 

Good post. I missed this first time around.
"Half-assery"

 

It sounds less sleazy from a woman's perspective. And Grace doesn't oversing it like Crosby does.

 

I knew somebody was going to say this (and of course you know on here somebody was going to argue). "Tunnel Of Love" & especially "Citizen Kane" are just guilty pleasures to me, I get why people might hate those tunes & say they don't belong on a Byrds album though. I love Byrdmaniax, strong McGuinn tunes plus the great "Jamaica" cover, one of my favorite Byrds album listens.

Not sure I'd pick any of the options listed but it's still an interesting discussion. They were weird, unfocused, and you get the sense that the Byrds blew it somehow. But I'm glad we got what we got.

 

Kinda, but Manassas was basically three sides of rock (one with an Afro-Cuban flavor, one with slight electronic touches) and one side of country. Great album though.

 

I agree about the bad production on Lady Friend. I have always regretted that Gary Usher couldn't continue producing The Byrds after Sweetheart & been puzzled about the production let-down on Lady Friend. I believe that Hillman blamed it on Crosby's desire to keep overdubbing & his interference with the mix.

 

I think the frisky dueling guitars (pedal and Clarence) coupled with the harmonies turn it into camp that is miles removed from the Louvins' original and out of character with the tone of the rest of the album, regardless of who's singing. It just doesn't work for the Byrds' earnest idiom (or their quirky idiom, for that matter). Nor Parsons' sense of melodrama.

I'm not sure that I agree that "all the covers" on the album are "not a patch on the originals," by the way -- I think the Dylan tracks are definitive and would say that the McGuinn-sung "You Don't Miss Your Water" is very interesting and unusual, though not better than the William Bell or Otis Redding versions. I actually feel that the double-McGuinn version of that one holds together better than the sloppier Parsons take, where they're trying, not very credibly, to sing in an R&B-influenced style.

I've also never heard what I'd consider a more moving version of "I Am a Pilgrim."

 

"Tunnel of Love" and "Absolute Happiness" are the only Skip Battin-written Byrds songs I don't like. I really dig the live, Skip-sung versions of "You All Look Alike." I find "Well Come Back Home" very moving. I consider "Citizen Kane" to be only song on Byrdmaniax that both works as a piece of material and also benefits from the extra production. "America's Great National Pastime" sounds like it could have been on the Easy Rider soundtrack.

 

Yep. Here's what he said:
'Lady Friend' is a great song, but David unfortunately went back into the studio and put all the voices on and took ours off, and he made it this mishmash crazy sounding thing that had no personality. He ripped it of personality and loaded it up with tracks of vocals of his own and it was awful. But it was initially a great song. It's one of his better songs. The original was simple, it was great, we all sang it. And then, somehow he went back in there and he was hanging out with the Jefferson Airplane and the Springfield and all that. He put all the parts on there, and then it became this cacophony of noise. I think it was a b-side of a single, maybe it was a single.

 

I chose 'other'; for me The Byrds went on for too long.

 

I think Dr.Byrds & Mr. Hyde would probably be much better if Usher had produced it. Melcher's production on Ballad of Easy Rider is a big improvement over Bob Johnston's on Dr. B & Mr. H, but I still think all the later albums would have better with Usher. Surely he could have improved the reunion album as well.

 

Botching their 70s reunion album was a huge mistake. It's frustrating when you consider the wasted potential of that album.

 

I voted for the botched reunion choice, seeing that as much as I love Gene Clark's work, my favorite Byrds record is YTY, and I don't know how that record would have turned out had he still been in the band.

 

I wonder if the original exists.

 

Based on Hillman's description and the way the Byrds usually worked, there likely isn't an alternate take. They probably recorded the backing track, then the Byrds did their vocals, and then Crosby went in and started rerecording backing vocals himself and adding other stuff. I would bet a finished mix was never done of the original version, and it wouldn't surprise me if Crosby erased his bandmates' backing vox when he redid them. If he didn't they could try to create an mix of what it might have sounded like, but my guess is those original vocals don't survive.

 

I'm absolutely certain that I hear McGuinn's voice in there. I suspect that Hillman's memory may not be quite accurate.

 

My favorite 3 Byrds albums are the Reunion album, Untitled and Sweetheart of the Rodeo. But my favorite individual songs are the ones written by Gene Clark. I am a much bigger fan of Gene Clark's solo career than I will ever be of The Byrds. I find The Byrds output very hit and miss as it comes to their albums and hit and miss as far as songs on each album. I think they could easily condense their stuff down to a two disc collection and have a great album! Their two original Greatest Hits albums are not sufficient either. Some of their better stuff was never on a single.