The Byrds Album: “Byrds”

This album has caught a lot of bad press over the years because most critics have voiced the opinion that none of the participants were fully engaged in this project. This can safely be called THE David Crosby Byrds album. He's all over the music. Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn back up and audibly let David have his way. Gene Clark and David are in fine voice and the cover songs are great. "See The Sky About To Rain" is awesome and McGuinn's "Rock-n-Roll" is very ragged but very right. Crosby got a great sound on this record. The instruments and vocals are crystal clear. It is one of my all-time favorite Byrds Albums. It's better,in its way, than anything after "Notorious".

David Crosby visited Roger McGuinn one day. Crosby boldly and bluntly assessed the current line up of The Byrds by saying, "you've done some OK stuff but you've also done stuff that is pretty bad. Please stop doing it under the Byrds name". He offered a compromise of sorts. Gather up the original line up and record an album showing where they were today. Such was the genesis of "Byrds" the original quintet's swan song. of the original members only Crosby was experiencing success and that informed this record; he produced it and generally created his version of the band that McGuinn had led. Songwriter/singer Gene Clark was once the band's original front man and most prolific songwriter. This album doesn't capture the grandeur of that original line up. All four songwriters/singers in the original line up contributed two songs with the rest being remakes of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell tunes.

Gene Clark's material is the best on the album. "Full Circle" and "Changing Heart" are among the best original songs on the album. Only "Sweet Mary" by McGuinn and Jacques Levy measures up along with Crosby's "Laughing". While Hillman has admitted that the two songs he contributed were second rate material, they're melodic and well written. Clark sings the two Neil Young cover songs "Cowgirl in the Sand" doesn't add anything to the Byrds mythos but his rousing cover of "(See the Sky) About to Rain" with its unusually loud coda pulls it together at the end.

Wounded Bird Records has put out the original album exactly as it appeared in 1973 (albeit adapted for the CD format). I'm happy they licensed this overlooked gem but wish that Rhino (which owns the rights through Warner)had allowed them to dig through the vault for demos, unfinished alternate takes and other material that the group may have tried out in rehearsal for the album only to reject later.

While this isn't the finest album The Byrds ever made, it's a fine country-rock album and a snapshot of the individual members along with the music they were making solo. Although Crosby dominated the sessions (his picture is dead center and the largest on the cover)because of his success with Crosby, Stills and Nash, he doesn't completely dominate the album giving a fair shake to the other songwriter's material.

I'd give it 3 1/2 stars. The solo albums by McGuinn and Clark recorded after this are superior to this album ("Roger McGuinn" and the controversial "No Other" respectively). In fact, the band would reassemble one more time for a track on McGuinn's solo album (that track really belonged on this album)but for that this was the last hurrah for the original Byrds. After this their career as a group would be grounded by lawsuits and drugs.

I have always been fascinated by Gene Clark, and, having just finished reading his biography called "Mr. Tambourine Man," by John Einarsonfans of the Byrds should know a bit more about the circumstances around this album according to the other Byrds and Gene Clark's biographer. In short order, all the Byrds except for Gene Clark in fact pretty much mailed it in in terms of their material. They were saving their best material for their other music projects. Poor Gene. He was too afraid to tour because of airplanes and stage fright-- there are many who now considered him bi-polar-- and his career had pretty much stalled at this point in his career, not to mention that he was also drinking and drugging. Hence his song contributions and performances generally outshine everyone elses. And there have not been too many singers with the vocal gifts of Gene Clark in terms of emotional presence and depth, here aided greatly by Crosby's harmonies. Of course the well-crafted sound and the competent musicianship covered over much of what the other material itself lacked. I have listened only to the vinyl because, well, I am a big fan of vinyl. Overall the album is a bit melancholic and lacking in sincere energy. It is still worth buying. 2 and a half stars.

When this reunion album, by the original Byrds, was released, it failed to meet expectations in a number of ways. The Byrds trademark jangly guitar sound and three-part harmony vocals were largely absent; contributions by the Byrds "stars", Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, were considerably less than anticipated; and the overall sound seemed more laid-back and less adventerous than it might have been. Add that to the fact that devoted Clarence White fans couldn't have been too happy about the band just dumping one of the finest guitarists in the world, and the album was a public relations disaster. Byrds fans and critics might have been made more prepared for the Byrds new sound had the single "Full Circle" (preferably backed with "See the Sky About to Rain") been released prior to the album, but, unfortunately, the album was released first.

Expectations aside, Byrds is a very good album. Gene Clark's two original songs are absolutely terrific, as are his two Neil Young covers. "Full Circle" may be the best song on the album, "Changing Heart" the most personal, and "See the Sky About to Rain" the climax, while Clark's cover of Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand" (which may be the weakest of the four performances) is an entirely appropriate and thoroughly enjoyable country-rock interpretation. The album is worth having for these four songs alone.

Chris Hillman's two songs may be slight, but highly enjoyable. Not a bad contribution from a guy who was concurrently touring with the latter-day Byrds, and with Stephen Stills' Manassas, and recording an album with Manassas (released the following month). Roger McGuinn's "Born to Rock 'n' Roll" has an absolutely beautiful, semi-autobiographical verse, although the chorus seems to fall a little flat. Maybe the problem is that McGuinn was born to folk-rock, which isn't quite the same thing. McGuinn's "Sweet Mary" is basically a pleasant throw-away, seeming to indicate a preference for a solo career. Crosby's remake of "Laughing" and his Joni Mitchell cover "For Free" are very nice and fit the album flow nicely, but don't represent anything new. Crosby's "Long Live the King" may be the hardest rocking, and weakest, song on the album, but it's not bad at all - sort of his version of "Changing Heart".

The songs are all thematically linked relating to musical reunion, with Gene Clark clearly in favor of making beautiful Byrds music indefinitely, Hillman and Crosby treating the reunion as something intermittent, and McGuinn treating it as temporary.

Overall, a highly enjoyable album and the best batch of original songs recorded under the Byrds banner since 1967.

It's such a shame that this record still spilts Byrds fans after all these years.

I loved this album when it first came out and still think it's great. The Gene Clark songs are all homeruns, whether he's singing his or Neil Young's songs. Crosby did a great job getting the acoustic instruments to pop out and sing. Makes sense that the electric 12-string is de-emphasized here.

What a shame these guys couldn't get along.

I see another fan didn't like Crosby's version of For Free, but I think this version's a great interpretation that takes advantage of the best of what this version of the Byrds had to offer.