Byrds Nyrds: Talk about anything Byrds related here (Part 04)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by stereoptic, Mar 17, 2015.

  1. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    This video, just posted to YouTube a matter of hours ago, purports to be Gary Usher’s last interview. Usher, who I suspect was ill at the time, looks and sounds terribly frail, but it’s still great to see him. Discusses his early surf records, the Beach Boys, and Byrds stuff. A very geeky Domenic Priore is also present, cheerfully holding up the albums in question as they’re being discussed, lol.

     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2021
  2. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Man he looks like George Harrison there.
     
  3. Tom Daniels

    Tom Daniels Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona
    I saw McGuinn, Clark and Hillman live at the Golden Bear, a little club in Southern California. They were fun live. Stuff off the first album without the production. Some solo stuff. A bunch of classic Byrds. Clark really shined, it led me to look into his solo work. Great show.

    The strange thing is the effort to de-Byrdsify them in the studio just at the time when Petty and new wave bands were reviving that jingle jangle song. They ended up making them less relevant and less commercial
     
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  4. milankey

    milankey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, Ohio, USA
    I really like Long Long Time when it first came out.
     
  5. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    I pre-judged their self titled one before giving it a shot and found myself finally giving it a listen and enjoying it thoroughly. It is not typically my type of music, but hearing Gene Clark's voice in particular is incredibly soothing and has a sense of "home" in it for me. If that makes sense.

    I really enjoy City (especially the Gene tracks). McGuinn-Hillman is all right, just nothing all that interesting beyond their voices.
     
  6. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Less relevant definitely, but I wouldn't necessarily agree it made them less commercial. That first MCH album was the best-selling non-Byrds release McGuinn or Clark ever put out, and was at the time Hillman’s biggest success too (later surpassed by DRB). And it spawned a top 40 pop single, the only one any of them had outside the Byrds. And when they embraced a more Byrdsy sound with the much-better second album, it tanked.

    Certainly it’s possible that if they’d made a better and more critically-acclaimed first album they might have been even more successful, but that’s not a given.
     

  7. Yeah, but.......IF Wiki is accurate, there’s this:



    SinglesEdit
    Year Single Chart positions Album
    US MSR
    US Country CAN Country
    1989 "You Ain't Going Nowhere"
    (w/ Chris Hillman) — 6 11 Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two
    (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album)
    1991 "King of the Hill" 2 — — Back from Rio
    "Someone to Love" 12 — —
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2021
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  8. Here is “King of the Hill”, live on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

    Great performance of a great song.

     
  9. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Those singles from Back From Rio were top 20 on the MSR chart, which was based on airplay on AOR stations, not sales. It shows that either program directors liked the album (or were being paid off), not that the album was selling or was popular (and I say that as someone who considers it his best album).

    I give Hillman all the credit for the success of the remake of You Ain’t Goin Nowhere, seeing as it happened at the height of his popularity with the DRB. And the song had no success on the pop chart anyway.
     

  10. Ha! No credit to McGuinn or The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band?

    I’m not a fan of charts, but for the record, here is the definition of that Billboard Chart:

    Mainstream Rock (chart) Mainstream Rock is a music chart in Billboard magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in March 1981, as Rock Albums & Top Tracks, after which the name changed first to Top Rock Tracks, then to Album Rock Tracks, and finally to its current Mainstream Rock in 1996

    ———. ————————-

    Back From Rio peeked at #44
    MCH. #39
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2021
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  11. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    We played the snot out of that record on my station and Roger performed LIVE in our studio when he played The Chance in Poughkeepsie. One of my greatest moments in radio. There’s a tape of it somewhere but sadly I’ve never had it and don’t know if it’s whereabouts
     
  12. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    Was he performing solo in your station or with a band?
     
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  13. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Fair point. The Dirt Band was big on the country charts at the time. However, they didn't sing on the track, and on the label of the 45 it's credited solely to "Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn" (note Hillman gets top billing).

    Hillman was very popular at the time with country listeners. If McGuinn had sung the track solo or with someone who wasn't a popular country singer, I don't think it would have been a hit, regardless of the quality. So that's what I mean when I credit Hillman for its success.

    My overall point was just to note that the middling performance of the first MCH album was (sadly) the most commercial success Roger or Gene ever had outside the Byrds. The album wasn't a huge hit, but it did better than anything else they ever released. And like I said, Don't You Write Her Off is the only non-Byrds single by McGuinn, Clark, or Hillman to hit the pop top 40.
     

  14. I get it. No biggie. Good point.

    Then it’s listed elsewhere on Wicki like this:

      • vocals
    1. "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (Bob Dylan) – 3:53
    I’ve seen it as : Nitty Gritty Dirt Band featuring Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn.

    See the single version credit, below, so I guess that counts the most.

    Even more fun to listen to!

     
  15. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    McGuinn borrowed John Jorgensen from Hillman and The Desert Rose Band.

    I saw McGuinn’s solo tour in the summer. It was a good show, with America as the opening act. No Jorgensen though.
     
  16. KinkySmallFace1991

    KinkySmallFace1991 Will you come back to me, Sweet Lady Genevieve?

    While we’re on the subject of “King Of The Hill”, here is an alternate take from Tom Petty’s posthumous box set An American Treasure from 2018:
     
  17. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Guy had an incredible mullet.
     
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  18. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Jorgenson played on the Byrds "reunion" tracks on the 1990 box set too.
     
  19. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    I didnt know that. Knowledge is power.
     
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  20. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yep, Jorgenson and Stan (Lady Friend) Lynch are the supplemental musicians on the so-called reunion tracks (so-called for their purposeful exclusion of Gene and Mike). According to McGuinn, he is the only Byrd on Love That Never Dies, in fact:

    "Sony Music said "Well, would you guys be willing to do some new tracks?" so we went to Nashville and Crosby and Hillman were there, and we did a couple of songs together, then it was time to do my song, that Stan Lynch and I had written together called "Love That Never Dies" right? So Crosby and Hillman bug out. They said "Well you guys can handle it." [laughter] So Stan Lynch, John Jorgenson and myself were the Byrds for that song. There are no other Byrds on that song."
     
  21. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Just him and an acoustic guitar. I know for a fact he did “Up To Me” as a spur of the moment response to us. I’ll ask my old partner what he can remember specifically and report back
     
  22. Kaptain Beyond

    Kaptain Beyond Forum Resident

    Location:
    Timbuktu
    I was so excited to find a used LP copy of Nashville West which was before the internet the holy grail of Clarence records. I immediately taped it for my pal dallas good of the sadies and in no time it was the pre-show music in the theatres when they opened a tour for Blue Rodeo. Kentucky Colonels is great bluegrass made more interesting cuz you get to hear a ridiculously nifty Clarence. He was like jazz the way he would play all around and behind the beat. Muleskinner has less Clarence than NW but still a nice album to have. I mean he didn’t make many.
     
  23. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Your pal Dallas Good is probably my favorite guitar player in the world right now, and his singing and songwriting are great too. What a band!
     
  24. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    I think we just became best friends.
     
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  25. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    I know this is entirely the wrong thread, and I won't make this a long discussion... I dont wanna start an entire thread though and I'm really only interested in the regular Nyrds regulars' opinions. It has come up before that there are a few Lovin Spoonful fans amongst the Byrds Nyrds thread, as I am as well. Where do yall rank John Sebastian's solo work?
     

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