Feel A Whole Lot Better is probably my fav Byrds song. One of the songs on our debut CD I played on a Rick 12 and asked my producer to get a sound as close as possible to the guitar sound on Petty's cover of Feel A Whole Lot Better (which is pretty close to McGuinn's sound, just better recorded).
I alway kind of liked Cher's version. She, or her producer, did an R and B type spin on it. Not too shabby.
'Fifth Dimension' is my favorite rock album & "Eight Miles High" my favorite rock single. This hasn't changed since 1966.
"I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" is a great pop/rock song, or folk rock, I suppose, and Gene Clark was definitely one of the more underrated songwriters of the mid-sixties. This song in particular is timeless. Unlike "Mr. TAmbourine Man" or many of their Dylan covers, this song feels fresh even today, to me. I am quite sure it could have been a hit in the sixties and at various points since (the 80s, in particular.) The performance is also great. I love the Byrds and their guitar sound, both Crosby and McGuinn have their own styles. I think that Crosby is one of the great rhythm guitarists, he really does have a distinctive sound that sound really rock and roll to me. The Byrds came out of the gate with their own sound, I think. (Ignoring the whole tedious Beatles discussion.) I like nearly all the Byrds albums, even up to the seventies, though I do agree that they are not really the same band later on. By changing their line up they actually managed to stay fresh -- going from folk rock, to full on country-rock and then bluesy classic rock.
Forgive me for being pedantic here, but if you really love an artist and his/her/their music, you can tend to do this! What is under discussion is the direct influences on the "jangle" sound of The Byrds. As "Ticket to Ride" wasn't released until April of 1965, and "Mr. Tambourine Man" was recorded in January of 1965, we can certainly rule out this Beatles song as an influence. (And for the record, it was recorded several weeks after the Columbia "Mr. Tambourine Man," and quite a few more than that after the Preflyte version.) We're also having a discussion on what constitutes the "jangle" sound. I'm not sure that the mere presence of a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar automatically means there's a jangle sound too. Well, the whole of the film A Hard Day's Night and several of its songs, actually…not just that one passage of that one song. Yes it is. The question here really is where the dividing line falls between influence and originality. I continue to maintain that it's significant that McGuinn approached the playing of the Rickenbacker 12-string differently than Harrison did — both in technique and sound (McGuinn's 12-string was compressed and much more trebly than Harrison's). In addition, the entire sound of The Byrds became based around that instrument and McGuinn's approach to it. There isn't a single track on the Mr. Tambourine Man album that isn't informed by it. As we've seen, once George acquired his, The Beatles used the Rick 12 relatively sparingly when compared to their entire body of work. We don't know that — we can only speculate about what is likely. I would be very surprised to learn that any record shop in the United States carried rock albums that were pressed in the UK in late 1964 (i.e., imports). The entire concept of a record store devoted exclusively to rock was likely unknown at that time. So probably the only way The Byrds might have secured the Beatles for Sale album upon its release would be if someone from England hand-carried a copy to the States and presented it to them. This is all down to how one defines the genre of folk rock — something over which reasonable people might disagree. I agree 100 percent with this statement. What we're discussing here is the degree of that influence and prior precedent. In no way am I trying to minimize the innovation The Beatles brought to rock. How could I? Nor am I trying to boost the innovations of The Byrds. I'm just trying to look at both realistically.
So do I...but those first 4...groundbreaking I'd say. Love Sweetheart...Easy Rider...Untitled...but when I drop the needle on the first track on any of the first four I get a thrill that's just not there on the rest...
But remember, the title of the album is The Byrds Greatest Hits, not The Best of the Byrds. There is a difference. The album was released at a time when such collections did tend to focus primarily on the songs that had made the Billboard Top 40 (or at least were singles, even if they didn't chart quite that high) — though admittedly it does feature two album cuts ("Chimes of Freedom" and "The Bells of Rhymney"). But given the 11- or 12-track limit on LPs of the era, putting some of your suggested tracks (every one of which I love dearly) on this album would have pushed some of the singles out!
Well, our host has often mentioned a record store in Hollywood where he and his buddy bought their first Beatles UK press in 1967 (and were blown away by the true stereo cuts on it that had not been available on any US Capitol press), and I have a copy of the UK Rolling Stones' Out Of Our Heads that has "Decca" logo obscured with record store stickers -- indicating it was a 'clandestine' UK import that the record store had to be careful with so as not to get in trouble with the US Decca label -- so while it might be unlikely it certainly wouldn't be impossible to my mind. Especially considering how Beatles crazy people were in those days and that some US radio stations got their hands on Beatles For Sale in early Dec. 1964 and played it a lot: "Beatles '65" album. The in-depth story behind the Beatles' fourth Capitol album. Recording History. Origin of the Album. Capitol Records. "For Beatles fans who lived in Pittsburgh, New York and Atlanta in early December of 1964, anticipation was especially great. Major radio stations in those states obtained British copies of the "Beatles For Sale" album, which had already been released in that country on December 4th. This album of all new material was, according the Billboard magazine, "garnering plenty of yule season airtime." This meant that Capitol Records needed to act fast." (note: to get Beatles '65 out and on the shelves)
As I said, we can't know. "Unlikely but not impossible" seems fair. I would argue that there was a world of difference between late 1964 and 1967 when it comes to record retailing, however. I'm aware of this precedent. The Top 40 station I listened to got ahold of the UK Rubber Soul and played the four tracks it contains that weren't on the U.S. edition. Again, the question is whether this had any impact on how easily the average record buyer in the U.S. could obtain it. And Capitol may have "acted fast" with Beatles '65, but they still delayed three of Beatles for Sale's tracks several months until the release of Beatles VI. (But then ironically gave U.S. fans a treat by putting out "Bad Boy" several months before it became available in the UK!)
But I wonder -- would Jim McGuinn have been "an average record buyer in the U.S." ? While not any kind of superstar, he was already a recorded session musician, ostensibly with better connections than most teens would have had.
Maybe. But am I remembering correctly that Jim Dickson said he used to have to buy The Byrds hamburgers during their Preflyte days so they wouldn't starve? I'd have to look at the timeline, but I don't think McGuinn's fairly notable session résumé translated into similar success once he hit the West Coast.
Did not know that! Maybe not, but he was enough of a deal to be on TV in 1962. I am always amazed by this clip of him cranking on the banjo in 1962 (at about 2:20 in): But it's a fickle business and if Dickson had to buy them burgers in '64, an expensive UK import Beatles record was indeed probably out of the question, even if some store had it.
Yet Brian Wilson's famed obsession with Rubber Soul was with the Capitol, US version, not the UK version. And he had quite a bit more clout and heft in the industry than McGuinn. Of course, McGuinn may have been more of a Beatles fanatic. Everybody and their mother were using 12-string guitars in 1965; they all sounded a bit different. I see no problem with crediting the Beatles for starting that trend, though.
I think I read somewhere that Chris Hillman said The Byrds' entire motivation was "a love of pot and The Beatles"...
I take it to mean that the narrator is desperately attempting to convince himself that that things will improve when in his heart of hearts, he is really not sure they will. Such a simple song, so many possible meanings. Genius!
That's a very good point, that the constant line-up changes the band suffered allowed them to mutate and stay fresh. The bad effect was that when they became extremely inclined to country rock they lost a good portion of their original fan base; but that same approach gave them another medal as pioneers of a genre. Actually they managed to be quite innovative and diverse even within the early folk rock period. The first two albums were carbon copies; but Fifth Dimension added some psychedelic elements, while Younger Than Yesterday was probably the most diverse album they ever recorded.
Of course, I'm not complaining about the tracklist of the Greatest Hits album, it certainly gave what it offered, and all the songs are great or at least very good. Perhaps "Set You Free This Time" and "Have You Seen Her Face", which were actual singles, should have been included instead of those album tracks you mentioned (these songs were actually added as bonus tracks in a 1999 reissue, along with "It Won't Be Wrong"); but they were not important hits anyway. But my point was that the Byrds discrography, particularly during that period, was very rich to be reduced to a greatest hits collection. I'm not against compilations, and I'm not the kind of fan who needs everything released by a favorite artist; but I think that highly important acts like the Byrds deserve a wider overview even by casual fans, not only for historical reasons but also for the quality of the material.
I was wrong; "It Won't Be Wrong" (pun not intended) was a B-side and reached #63 in the US charts. Still, I believe that "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" would have been a successful A-side.
