I think Turn! Turn! Turn! is better performed than Mr. Tambourine Man, showing that they were rapidly learning the musician's job. But song by song, in my opinion, this is a slightly weaker album. With regard to "She Don't Care About Time", they didn't even need to exclude another song, since they would have completed 12 tracks as in their debut album!
The album is a classic sophomore slump, but the sad thing is that it's not because of lack of good material (the usual culprit when a band had to quickly produce a follow up) but rather because of band politics and poor decisions. Dump the four worst tracks (everything on side two not written by Gene Clark) and replace them with The Day Walk, She Don't Care About Time, Stranger in a Strange Land, and You Showed Me, and you'd have an album comparable to the debut. But you'd also have an album with less lead vocals for McGuinn, which is probably why it didn't happen that way.
Its funny you mention this; I just watched The TAMI show and the Big TNT Show (which the Byrds perform this song in) back to back and its pretty amazing how different the teens looked and dressed in just one year.
Yes, in terms of quantity and quality of material, they were at the level of the Beatles in 1965; and even though several songs by the Byrds were covers, they converted most of them into their own songs.
The playing & sound quality go up a notch from the first to second album. To me TTT is a perfecting of what we got on the first album. It's very poised. The third album (5D) is a big leap into a wilder, rawer music. The fourth (Younger Than Yesterday) again consolidates things into a more refined package. 5D is my favorite of the four.
Speaking of the Big TNT Show — while it's nice to have this live (and not lip-synched) footage of The Byrds in their prime, I think the band made a tactical mistake by performing three songs in a row all in the key of D. They're great songs, of course, but all very similar in approach, and they would have been better served by mixing things up a bit. Two other problems: Gene Clark's mic is mixed too loud relative to McGuinn and Crosby, and every clip I've ever seen of this show seems to run slow. I really don't believe the original performance could have been taken at such a plodding tempo, so something went wrong in the production of the original film. This combined with the other issues really brings the overall impact of the performance down a couple of notches.
Of course it's a timeless classic…everything The Byrds did best is found here. And that definitely includes Michael Clarke's drumming, although from what I remember it was a hard-won victory, as the song took IIRC more than 60 takes to get down. I especially love the gorgeous three-part harmony that ends each verse. This is played an awful lot — it seems to still "turn" up frequently on in-store Muzak. But I never tire of it.
What a treasure trove December of 1965 was. Other songs that peaked on the charts that month: Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out As Tears Go By Uptight (Everything is Alright) Let's Hang On Just Like Me A Must To Avoid A Well Respected Man Make Me Your Baby Look Through Any Window Lies ...And on and on. The only major lump of coal in that Christmas stocking was The Dave Clark 5's "Over And Over." Anyhow, after one hears The Byrds' version of "Turn Turn Turn," every other version sounds like it's missing something. The ears crave to hear three-part harmony whenever the title occurs, and not just one voice like Judy Collins or Mary Hopkin.
I like Turn! Turn! Turn!. Someone mentioned the intersecting lines in the intro. I think McGuinn originally had an arrangement that he called "Chamber Folk". It sounds like he kept that arrangement for the intro. It always reminded me of a Classical Music Chamber piece in the intro. I like how the chorus goes to double time. It really moves the song forward. Roger's open string solo is great as well even though as the OP mentioned it is a variation of the melody. McGuinn changed some of the chords and melody as well. This song really sounded haunting to me when I first heard it. Great in every way. Still sounds amazing.
I think its in the right key so maybe they played it slow; the TNT Show overall doesn't compare favorably to the TAMI; I think there were a lot of no-shows so we get too much Joan Baez and Pet Clarke and the Spoonful came across a lot better than the Byrds. They should have done a more upbeat number instead of Bells of Rhymney.
That is one hell of a list, isn't it? Each great in its own way. And I don't think "Over and Over" is all that bad! Not in the same league, but not offensive either. Gotta love Bobby Graham's crisp drumming, if nothing else.
I like Over and Over too but I think it was a mistake for the DC5 to do such a retro song at a time everyone else was moving forward.
Instead of buying a fancy foreign car, Gene should have bought a used Volkswagen and put the rest of his royalty money in the bank.
I heard it was Miles Davis who got them signed to Columbia. He was visiting his lawyer in California who played a tape of a Byrds demo. The lawyer's daughter got all excited, thinking it was The Beatles, so Miles saw that and recommended them to Columbia. But The Byrds did record "Don't Doubt Yourself" as a thank you to Jackie for the support she gave them.
exactly. Too bad the Turtles (and Producer Chip Douglas) stumbled upon the slower arrangement that provided them the hit, instead of the Byrds. Somebody (Dixon, Melcher, the band itself...) wasn't paying enough attention to Gene's material (though Rog was a writer) I've wondered if some of the Byrds singles had charted higher (this, Feel a Whole Lot Better, My Back Pages) and 8 Miles High wasn't bumped for being a 'drug song', there'd be more recognition now with the general public. They seem to have become sort of a 'musicians band'
I think the slower arrangement was a happy accident: Chip Douglas played them the tune on an air pump harmonium and told th Turtles it’s supposed to be faster but they liked it the way he was playing it.
It Won't Be Wrong. A catchy song by McGuinn (also credited to his friend Harvey Gerst) and a relatively energetic track in the context of the album. It features yet another great guitar(s) intro that is repeated in the middle of the song. The lyrics are quite silly, but the song is highly lifted by the magnificent overall performance.
Great 1-2 punch to start the album. It’s a big improvement over the Beefeaters “b” side. It wasn’t really single material but I guess they panicked when Set You Free didn’t take off.
A wonderful song, and as noted, dramatically improved from the Beefeaters' "Don't Be Long" version. In particular, they worked out the notes the two guitars should be playing in the intro, and that made a world of difference. The original was discordant, the remake heavenly. This should have been a much bigger hit, but this time Columbia erred in the opposite direction by putting out "Set You Free This Time," an indisputably great song but not in any universe Top 40 radio material. And once again, it was too late for the B-side to become a hit. Although as noted elsewhere, I remember hearing "It Won't Be Wrong" quite a bit on the radio, which goes to show that there were still plenty of regional differences in Top 40 radio in 1966. It's relatively poor national showing is surprising in that light.
"It Won't Be Wrong" was undeniably the inspiration for this Byrds sound-alike which came out a few months later. It was by a local group on a small Los Angeles based label (only two other records were released on the label). Unfortunately, it did not attract the attention of any of the majors, otherwise it might have been successful someplace besides southern California:
An amazing arrangement. Great vocals. Guitar sound is massive.. And everytime I hear the ending I think of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” by the Dan. Try it out...listen to both endings. !!!
