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

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

  1. NunoBento

    NunoBento Rock 'n' Roll Star

    Location:
    London
    I know nothing about The Byrds and have nothing to add to the discussion, but this is a damn cool thread title.
     
  2. carlwm

    carlwm Forum Resident

    Location:
    wales
    You're welcome! :righton:

    You're right about Herb & Bill.

    Herb, I think, might have been an early member but bailed as a full timer before the release of the first album. He played on it though along with its follow-up. Bill was guest bass player on What A Way To Make A Living, taking over from the departed Roger Bush.
     
  3. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    It'd be great to have a box set of the early 70s bluegrass super groups reissued. Country Gazette, Muleskinner, Old & In The Way.
     
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  4. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    If I remember correctly, he actually became friends with Ochs toward the end of his life (I believe Ochs died owing Christgau money). But yes, it's true that Christgau was never enthusiastic about the commercial folk scene that Ochs (and McGuinn) came out of. Even though I like that music, his reviews of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris and the like are hilariously mean.

    Christgau was definitely a fan of the Band, at least early on, and included the "Brown Album" in at least one iteration of his "basic record library."
     
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  5. carlwm

    carlwm Forum Resident

    Location:
    wales
    That would be fab. :righton:
     
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  6. janschfan

    janschfan Senior Member

    Location:
    Nashville, Tn. USA
    He broke his left foot in a motorcycle accident around August, 1969..
     
  7. NPS

    NPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I don't know if John and Gene have played together post-Byrds. I have seen and heard interviews where Gene calls John a good musician, when John's name comes up.

    Eight hours sounds about right! And part of that would be on windy roads through the woods. The Mendocino coast is scenic, but remote.
     
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  8. NPS

    NPS Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    The more I think about it ... maybe this is the way to create some kind of Byrds concert experience today. You'd need to be talented at arranging concerts, but ask each of the five (Gene Parsons, John York, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) to book a show in California during any given week that would work for all five. They don't have to play together. They don't have to do anything, except perform as they want, in a venue of their choice somewhere in California. Each could acknowledge the other shows from the stage, or ignore them. Whatever he wants.

    But the timing would make it possible for fans to travel from concert to concert over the course of the week ... to as many or as few as the fan chooses. All this arranging would be done in the open. No surprises, no secrets. Performers get their usual fees, perform the songs they want. The achievement is that fans get a chance to enjoy the music in a kind of collective experience. The novelty might also refresh general interest in the musicians as current performers, and in their individual and collective legacies. Imagine the useful stories that could be told around these progressive concerts.
     
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  9. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    I knew he wrote liner notes or a eulogy of sorts at some point for Ochs. So he came around to him for sure.

    As for The Band, maybe it was just his initial take on them. Again, his initial reviews aren't always separated from his more current ones. I am working from memory here :p.

    I also don't entirely blame him for his attitude towards commercial folk or singer-songwriters. There is a lot of mush to sludge through to discover the gems.
     
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  10. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    There is a particular Gene interview where he says John is a close friend and lives nearby and he sees him all the time. That is why I always wondered if they ever played together.

    Sounds like a nice drive regardless! :)
     
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  11. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Take the ball and run with it @NPS !

    You could also just trick Roger and set up a makeshift "Sea Shanty Extravaganza" you want him to perform at and set it up to go with the schedule. Crosby will take whatever money you give him. Chris could probably be coaxed if you get Herb Pederson on board.
     
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  12. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I don’t endorse all of Christgau’s opinions but I am a fan of his writing, often even when I disagree with him. He could be overly harsh sometimes, but I think people forget that a primary job of a critic is to entertain, and exaggeration is sometimes employed toward that end. He definitely had a knack for getting to the heart of the issue in a very concise manner. His summation of the first CSN album (“perfect, but that’s not necessarily a compliment”) is spot-on, and I say that as someone who likes that record when I’m in the right mood.
     
  13. Paul J

    Paul J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore
    I remember enjoying Christgau’s pieces in Esquire Magazine, late 60s, maybe early 70s.
     
  14. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Absolutely. I think Christgau is easily the most concise and entertaining pop culture critic America has ever produced. The only music critic I've ever found as entertaining to read is Philip Larkin, and Larkin was a lot less open-minded!

    I do find it funny that people seem to instinctively understand the role of a critic when it comes to movies -- Rotten Tomatoes scores are a big part of the contemporary movie conversation. But I guess people's relationships with music are more intimate than they are with movies, so there's rather more defensiveness about criticism. But you rarely see people calling Roger Ebert (for example) a pretentious hack, or taking his writing out of historical context. But I guess it's easier because Ebert is no longer with us.

    On a personal note: Christgau was a major influence on me when I was in my early 20s and starting to write about music. For a few years I devoured practically everything he had written, aware of the places our tastes were different (and even where Christgau's own tastes had evolved over time). Then I went to grad school and focused on other things for a few years. I got reacquainted with him in 2015 when he published his memoir, Going Into the City. And, I gotta say, that book -- perhaps coupled with the fact that it had been a few years since the last time I had paid him serious attention -- really broke the spell. It's long, incredibly tedious and unenlightening, and cutesy and self-congratulatory in a way that I had never found his writing before. I'm not sure if I've ever slogged through a less rewarding memoir. I found its self-indulgence shocking, in a way, as the book shows every sign of having been in the works for a long time. It really seems like he's not suited to the long form. I still cherish the best of his Consumer's Guides and essays from the '70s, '80s, and '90s though.
     
  15. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Would you call his book self important or indulgent? ;) Perhaps carried on too long like those obnoxious prog rockers of the 70s? :p

    Perhaps we do become what we hate and hate what we become. ;)
     
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  16. tonyballz

    tonyballz Roogalator

    Location:
    arizona
    As much as I love Gene Clark's voice and songwriting, my hands-down favorite Byrds track is David Crosby's Lady Friend, released in July 1967. It only scraped up to #82 and was left off the subsequent Notorious Byrd Brothers LP since Crosby had been fired by then. I listened to the Never Before version for years without knowing the drums were overdubbed by someone who wasn't Michael Clarke.

    I lucked out and found a pristine promo 45 on Discogs for less than $15.
     
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  17. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Is this a saying by someone or where did I get it from?
     
  18. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Thanks for the Claremont Dragon recommendation. Listened for the first time this afternoon and it is quite accomplished. Very talented and seems to have a wide variety of instruments to his credit. Much more ecclectic than Arigatou. John York sounds a lot like Roger McGuinn in style and vocals now. They really would have made a good collab in the early 2000s...
     
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  19. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada


    Family Tree. John York and Skip Battin performing a Bob Dylan number.
     
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  20. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    Richie Furay and Rusty Young look appropriate for this timeframe
    [​IMG]
     
  21. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    That’s another topic Crosby weighed in on with his enormous audience - The Byrds ended when the original five were no longer and/or when he was gone, and that the Roger McGuinn-led Byrds of the early seventies was not the “Byrds” and that clearly this was a bad thing.

    As a second generation fan learning all of this stuff from scratch back in the late eighties, my original estimation, without hearing a note, was the Byrds were crap after Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. The box set started to set me straight.
     
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  22. CHIP72

    CHIP72 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silver Spring, MD
    "Lady Friend" is a damn good song. Crosby was really starting to come into his own as a songwriter by the time he was fired from the band. "It Happens Each Day" from the same period is another Crosby gem IMO; I'm unsure why the Byrds didn't release it during the band's original lifetime.
     
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  23. Beatles_Apple

    Beatles_Apple Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I agree there was some great stuff after Sweetheart of the Rodeo! I do think once the Byrds line up contained just Roger of the original line up they should have changed their name. At that point they truly were not the Byrds any more and we’re a completely different band. I would agree with Crosby on that.
     
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  24. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    “This Wheel’s On Fire” was a revelation. For a group that was so maligned, they weren’t supposed to sound that good.

    I think McGuinn could have gotten away with changing the name, but I can see keeping it too. After Hillman left, there were more original Byrds in the Burritos. And just as many original Byrds in Crosby, Stills & Nash.
     
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  25. OmIsWhereTheHeartIs

    OmIsWhereTheHeartIs Forum Resident

    Location:
    BC, Canada


    Another one. Tell me John York doesn't sound like Roger here.
     
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