Yes, but it is kind of a standard jug band/vaudeville type melody/rhythm to me. Also there seems to be a handful of Byrds/Lovin' Spoonful aficionados out there of which includes you and I.
I would characterize the two songs as having a very different genre character -- "America's Great National Pastime" is not really a jug band type of song or arrangement, but it is clearly evoking the Tom Lehrer style (itself an admixture of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and W. S. Gilbert), but delivered in an old-timey arrangement. The subsequent popularity of Mark Russell's coincidentally similar brand of gentle, old-timey Americana political humor songs tended to obscure the originality of what Skip was doing, and made it sound cornier in retrospect. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to suggest that Skip Battin was a secret genius or anything, or any kind of significant innovator. But if you read the contemporaneous reviews of the late Byrds albums and Skip's own -- while you'll see a fair number of complaints about Battin's singing and Fowley's lyrics -- the usual response to the style of Battin's songs ranged from bafflement to indifference to amusement, without any sense that they were seen as cliched. It is quite possible that, now that Mark Russell has retired and fewer and fewer people remember him (the "Trading Gap Shuffle" bit on The Simpsons notwithstanding), Skip's schtick might be due for a reassessment. In any case, the two songs ("America's Great National Pastime" and "Jug Band Music") really are quite strikingly similar on a melodic level. They're about as similar as "Cruella de Vil" and Monk's "Bolivar Blues."
Yeah, your music comprehension and knowledge is way beyond mine so I will fade into the hedges a la Homer Simpson... In my mind, I stick Skip's work in with Harry Nilsson/Paul McCartney's work in a similar vein of half-parody, half-homage to that type of music.
For what it’s worth - I used to find America’s GNP and Grateful Dead’s US Blues to be similar. Love all three songs.
I like the Spoonful too. Sundazed reissued their first three albums in their mono mix on CD a while back.
Looking at the cover of Wind on the Water today it came to me. It may be the first time Crosby looked better or less haggard than someone in a photo/album cover. Graham Nash looks horribly ill or something.
Really? He was a pretty good looking man not that long before. He looks incredibly gaunt to me and aged quite a bit in a few years.
He is 33 when it was released and he looks a lot older to me in the photo. He may even look healthier at 78.
Has anyone finished the Hillman book? What was your impression of how Gene Clark & Gram Parsons are presented?
well, this explains the listless solo albums on Columbia, and partly why the MCH albums were less than stellar.
Roger became born again and cleaned up his act prior to the first MCH album. And production and songwriting issues aside, I’d say his singing on that album is better than he’d sounded in a decade.
I think it's a great album. All three of them are in fine form vocally, instrumentally and songwriting-wise.
The slick production is the big problem, and the soulless backing band, and the complete lack of McGuinn's electric 12-string. The songwriting is a mixed bag. I really like both of McGuinn's songs. Clark seems like maybe he's dumbing down his lyrics a bit, trying deliberately to be commercial, but his songs would be okay with more sympathetic production. Hillman's songs I'm not wild about... a little too soft-rock/Firefallish for my tastes. He had a better song they didn't use (Here She Comes Again) for some reason. All three of them are in very good voice. It was a huge missed opportunity. As I commented earlier in the thread, there are shows from 1978 circulating where they do some of the songs that ended up on the album as just a foursome (with drummer George Grantham) and they sound really great. Having McGuinn playing his 12-string makes a world of difference.
I really listen to MCH for their voices more so than the production, band or songwriting. They all sound in fine form but it took me awhile to get into it.
55 years ago this month (December 12, to be exact) the Byrds played their back-to-back #1 singles on Ed Sullivan.
Different strokes and all that.... Strangely enough, as much as I like it, I didn't miss the twelve-string. It made a change, I thought, for them to try something different. Likewise, I enjoy the sound that was wrought by the Alberts. It moves nicely away from The Byrds to a fresh new style which worked, at least for me.. As for the songwriting, I thought all three were excellent. I agree about the Firefall vibe in Chris' writing and also the Rick Vito cover. I love Firefall so I was happy with that. Would I have enjoyed it more had it been more like the Grantham show? Possibly but as it stands, I rate the album highly.
And “Mr. Tambourine Man,” from same program. Includes introduction from none other than the host of the “really big shoe”:
Although I was born in 1984, it was seeing these clips (probably as Sunday filler on WUTV Buffalo) as a kid that made me a Byrds fan for life.
Byrds were also popular in the “Teen Mags” of the day - this was 1966. BOB DYLAN & THE BYRDS from 16 magazine 1966
Some new recordings made by Roger McGuinn have been quietly posted on YouTube on Dec. 1. They say "Provided to YouTube by CDBaby." The 13 songs are Children Go Where I Send Thee, What Child Is This, Angels We Have Heard On High, Away In A Manger, I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day, The First Noel, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The Cherry Tree Carol, The Virgin Mary, I Saw Three Ships, Mary Had A Baby, The Twelve Days Of Christmas, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Roger McGuinn - Topic - YouTube
