I like the lyrics too; but well, we know who wrote them. And according to what I've read, the Master really liked this Byrds' version.
He Was A Friend Of Mine. This is a traditional song with lyrics adapted by McGuinn to talk about JFK. The instrumentation is gentle, with only a tambourine as percussion element; and I dig the guitar playing plus the accompanying organ. The tune is a bit monotonous and never really gets to fly; but the words may have some special meaning for American people.
A slight variation of the lyrics could serve to talk about JWL... He was a friend of mine, he was a friend of mine His killing had no purpose, no reason or rhyme Oh, he was a friend of mine He was in New York town, he was in New York town In Dakota archway a gunner shot him down Oh, he died in New York town He never knew my name, he never knew my name Though I never met him I knew him just the same Oh, he was a friend of mine Leader of the Beatles for such a precious time Oh, he was a friend of mine
According to Johnny Rogan, the faint organ that chimes in at 0:45, more than anything else, is what put David Crosby on the outs with Terry Melcher. Apparently Melcher overdubbed it on after the track was finished (or at least the group members thought it was finished) and the band had left the studio.
Funny, that doesn't bother me, but the tambourine doesn't really work. The vocals are sublime though.
The World Turns All Around Her. A little gem. It's a quite Beatlesque, fast number. Very good bridge. A highlight and one of the catchiest songs Clark ever wrote.
The Byrds, for all the great work they did, are still a huge “what if” band. This thread reminds me of what they did, and what they lost. The first two albums are great. Well, Tambourine Man is great and Turn Turn Turn is very good. Looking at all the unused songs, especially the unused Gene Clark songs, Turn Turn Turn could have been great as well. If they could have held together these five original guys and found a way to work together, it would have been amazing. Gene’s songs could easily have filled half an album. Crosby and Hillman were beginning to emerge as writers. They were great as a covers bad. They could add the occasional McGuinn tune (or give him cowrites to keep everyone happy). Roger’s guitar. The group vocals. What a band. Gene did some great stuff, but his solo career never got off the ground. They all would have been better off accepting his songwriting as a dominant force, and maybe even accepting him not being part of the live act. And him accepting the constraints of a band. Too many personalities that didn’t fit. It couldn’t have lasted forever. But 5 years and 8 or so albums from these guys would have been a real gift.
Someone here once said that the band was doomed to always be the equivalent of a huge weight trying to stay balanced at the top point of a pyramid. The personalities were just fated to clash, almost because of the fact that there was so much talent there bumping into each other. To me, that was one of the takeaways of Rogan's book--it was almost like, just be glad we got what we got.
The bridge of this was so catchy that somebody decided to also make it the bridge of this (at 1:12). I have no idea if this was done legally or not:
Love TWTAAH Not a big fan of the JFK lyrics of He Was A Friend Of Mine. Interestingly my understanding is that Dylan listed this song as Trad'l but nobody knows who did it before hi mn and some think he actually wrote it Have not researched this myself, so that may beuntrue, but that is what I heard from someone fairly knowledgable about Dylan
I agree: Mr. Tambourine Man is excellent (5/5) and Turn! Turn! Turn! is very good (4/5), but could have been as great as the debut. I think their talents were synergistic when they created music, but their personalities were antagonist when they had to coexist as a group. Their potentiality was as high as the combination of their talents, but the human factor weighed much more.
If you put the title song sort of in its own rarefied category, for my money "The World Turns All Around Her" is the clear highlight of the Turn! Turn! Turn! album — even besting "It Won't Be Wrong," which I dearly love. What a wonderful song it is in every way! It's one of those ones that places a lyric of sadness and regret within an upbeat, almost sunny sound. You might argue that this is one way to sort of transcend the sadness. Crosby is at his best on this track, both vocally and (as on "It Won't Be Wrong") playing a counterpoint to McGuinn's lead guitar figure. I grasp the greatness of so much of Gene Clark's solo work. But my deep love of his music really rests on what he wrote for the Preflyte sessions, the first two Byrds albums, and of course "She Don't Care About Time" plus "Eight Miles High." It's just an incredible body of work.
According to wiki, Dylan got the song from a 1961 album by Rolf Cahn and Ric Von Schmidt. The earliest recorded version dates back to 1939.
Okay, here's what I think of each track on Turn! Turn! Turn!: Side one "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)" (Book of Ecclesiastes/Pete Seeger) Genius, timeless classic. One of four or five greatest recordings in Western history. "It Won't Be Wrong" (Jim McGuinn, Harvey Gerst) I like it, but it's just average early Byrds. "Set You Free This Time" (Gene Clark) Genius, timeless Gene Clark tune. "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" (Bob Dylan) Quite good. Maybe it's a little heavy handed, but it's very good. "He Was a Friend of Mine" (traditional, new words and arrangement Jim McGuinn) Brilliant! I love this take on the wonderful trad. tune. Side two "The World Turns All Around Her" (Gene Clark) Wonderful, brilliant (though not as good as "She Don't Care About Time") "Satisfied Mind" (Red Hayes, Jack Rhodes) I absolutely love how they do this. (Foreshadows the country-rock period.) "If You're Gone" (Gene Clark) Another Clark classic. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (Bob Dylan) Ugh. They did not do justice to this. A rare 1965 mis-fire. "Wait and See" (Jim McGuinn, David Crosby) It's nice and catchy, but it comes off more as a Turtles or Herman's Hermits song than up to The Byrds' standards. Royalties for McGuinn and Cros, I guess. "Oh! Susannah" (Stephen Foster) Fantastic!
Satisfied Mind. A modest cover of a country song, giving early hints about the future of the band. The tune is built on monotony, though there's a nice harmonica at the end. I also like the anti-materialist message.
I love country music, but I'm not a fan of the Byrds' version of this song. The Byrds are a rock band doing a country song here, but this recording is neither country nor rock. Rather, it is a straight-up folk arrangement that sounds like it came from "The New Christy Minstrels Sing Grear Country Hits." I assume this made the cut over much better material to keep Chris Hillman happy.
This was the first version of this song I ever heard, and I think it's OK as far as it goes. Nice harmonies, if nothing else. But while I think their intentions were sincere, I agree that The Byrds were dabbling in a genre they knew little about at the time. When a few years later, I was introduced to the Porter Wagoner original, that became the only version I really want to hear. Whenever this song comes up, I feel compelled to share a personal story about it. Feel free to skip over it. When my dad died in 2001, there was a wake at the home of a family whose sons were close friends of my brothers. Their dad was an old-time country guy who I had jammed with occasionally in the past. The guitars came out at some point, and Junior and I played and sang "Satisfied Mind" together. My sister, who had never heard the song before, cried. And with good reason; there hardly could have been a more fitting song for my dad's epitaph, as he lived his life just as the protagonist of the song did. I've never forgotten that moment.