The Byrds Album: “There Is a Season [Box]”

When the Byrds first box set was released in 1990, it boasted an unbelievable collection of material from the band's career from 1965 through 1971. Over the years, that box set has earned a reputation as the definitive career overview for arguably the most important American rock 'n' roll band in history.

Fast-forward to 2006, we have seen all of the Byrds' eleven studio albums re-released in expanded editions with bonus tracks, and the original box set is long out of print. Recognizing that a lot more material has surfaced in the vaults since 1990, Columbia Records decided to compile a new box set, There Is a Season, instead of simply doing another print run of the 1990 box.

Most die-hard fans - the people who are most likely to be interested in There Is a Season - probably have all eleven of the expanded edition re-issues and the 1990 box set and will be questioning why they should drop more money for material they already have. For starters, there are five new live tracks that are previously unreleased in any form. There are also many tracks that are making their debut on CD. For those who own the eleven album re-issues and the 1990 box set, there are ten key reasons why you need the new box set.

1. Both sides of the Elektra Records single put out by Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Gene Clark as The Beefeaters, "Please Let Me Love You" b/w "Don't Be Long", are making their official debuts on CD. You can finally throw away that crackly vinyl rip that you got from a friend of a friend.

2. The original mono single version of "Why?" is making its CD debut here. The single version of "Why?" first appeared on the 1990 box, but in a modern-day stereo remix. And before you say "The mono version appeared on Original Singles 1965-1967!", know that the CD version of that album contains the mono album version from Younger Than Yesterday, not the single version which is a completely different take.

3. A live, previously unreleased, version of "He Was a Friend of Mine" recorded in 1967 is included. This recording features Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, David Crosby and Michael Clarke.

4. The original mono single version of "Lady Friend" is making its CD debut here. The single version of "Lady Friend" first appeared on the 1990 box, but in a modern-day stereo remix.

5. The version of "Child of the Universe" from Candy: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack makes its CD debut. This is a radically different mix from what appeared on Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, complete with orchestral overdubs courtesy of Dave Grusin.

6. A beautiful, previously unreleased, live version of "You All Look Alike" is included. What's really interesting about it is that this features Skip Battin on vocals, whereas the studio version on (Untitled) has Roger McGuinn handling vocals.

7. A live, previously unreleased, version of "I Trust" which provides all the proof one will ever need that the biggest problem with Byrdmaniax was the production and not the material. This is currently the only official live release of a song from Byrdmaniax.

8. A track that the Byrds recorded with Earl Scruggs for his early 1970s LP Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends called "Nothin' To It" is included. This is the track's CD debut.

9. The live versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Roll Over Beethoven" from Banjoman: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack make their CD debuts here. What makes these tracks interesting is that they were recorded in very early 1973 and are the only officially released recordings that feature the last touring lineup of The Byrds with John Guerin on drums, replacing Gene Parsons.

10. The bonus DVD, while purely icing on the cake, does contain interesting footage. None of the TV appearances feature live music and they're all mimed, with one exception. During a television appearance on Hullabaloo, Gene Clark sings "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" live over a studio backing track.

While you could probably do without some of this material, or just keep your old bootlegs, the sound quality for all this material is better than just about anything you'll find in trading circles, plus the book has great notes and photos. It's worth your cash for all this material, even if the rest of it is stuff you already have.

I bought "There Is A Season" even though I already owned all of the Byrds CDs and the 1990 box set. Why? Because the group has meant a lot to me, and this new box set was clearly inspired by a record label wanting to set the record straight on the Byrds -- probably without any expectations of making much money on the set.

Any box set is going to be a compromise between creating an ideal listening experience and commercial considerations. For a group with as complex a history as the Byrds and as many personnel changes, personal politics will likely enter in as well.

The 1990 box set did a great job of presenting the Byrds, rightly highlighting Roger McGuinn's central role, David Crosby's innovative contributions, and Gram Parsons' lost vocals. But, it downplayed the wonderful contributions of Gene Clark, gave too much weight to the McGuinn-led Byrds following the departure of Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons, ignored anything pre-Mr. Tambourine Man, ignored the 1973 reunion album, ignored the 1971-72 solo tracks that included all five original Byrds, and ignored the McGuinn-Clark-Hillman albums. In short, it took a narrow view of the Byrds -- in contrast to some other box sets, such as the ones on the Beach Boys and Eric Clapton, as examples, that took a more inclusive view.

The McGuinn-led Byrds produced some great songs after Parsons and Hillman departed, but were they really the Byrds any more than McGuinn-Clark-Hillman?

Any Byrds fan can nitpick with the selections on the new box set. There are a few better Preflyte selections than "You Movin'", such as "Tomorrow Is a Long Ways Away" and "For Me Again"; "Hey Joe" should have been included; "She's the Kind of Girl", "One In a Hundred," and "My New Woman" would all have been welcome additions, as well as some of the Byrdsier-sounding MCH tracks.

This box set is not going to sell a bundle, but it's a great introduction to the Byrds for any new fans; the sound is fantastic; the booklet and packaging are great; and it redresses some imbalances in the earlier box set. It's a nice culmination to all the work that dedicated folks at Columbia have done to burnish the Byrd's legacy. As a long-time fan, that's worth my $40.

A lot has happened to the Byrds' body of work since 1990's Byrds Boxset, a collection which has long been unavailable and which There Is A Season sets out to replace. Starting in 1996, as befits a band of such stature, the entire Byrds Columbia/CBS catalogue has been digitally remastered and each album re-issued complete and expanded with a feast of bonus tracks - singles, outtakes, alternate takes and mixes, live performances - and a new album, Live At The Fillmore - February 1969, was dusted off from the archives and released in 2000.

These extra tracks and the copious booklet notes gave a fresh extra insight into the history of the band, which had probably more changes of line-up and musical direction than any other major band, and gave the compilers of this 4CD spin-off vast scope to draw from in telling the musical story of the band. This it does from its pre-Columbia inception in 1964 to its disbandment nearly a decade later, and, as a coda, one of four pieces the band reformed to record for the 1990 box set. As a fulsome introduction to the band it would be hard to better in value for the clarity of the recordings and the illustrative overview it provides. If a particular year or album should particularly chime, rest assured there is plenty more left to discover to warrant a separate purchase covering that section of the band's life.

Disc 1 includes the earliest known recordings by the fledgling band in 1964, from when they were known as the Jet Set and the Beefeaters onwards, and 18 of their ground-breaking 1965 folk-rock tracks, their most prolific and arguably most successful year. Disc 2 covers their psychedelic explosion in 1966 and the subsequent come-down in 1967, the last contemporary recordings of the original classic line-up.

Disc 3 launches the re-invented band featuring Gram Parsons on the seminal Sweethearts Of The Rodeo album in 1968, including some with Gram's lead vocals that weren't used after he left the band; and the following period up to 1970 with master guitarist Clarence White. These include Dr Byrds And Mr Hyde, Ballad Of Easy Rider and (Untitled). Disc 4 continues the same period with a dozen live 1970 New York performances, then fragments with various recordings from the Byrdmaniax/Farther Along era (1971), all with the same line-up of McGuinn, White, Skip Battin and Gene Parsons. Two live recordings from January 1973 (with John Guerin on drums) for the film Banjomen; a reunion of the original line-up a month later featuring two Gene Clark songs; and finally, a 1990 reunion recording by McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman complete the 99-track smorgasbord.

If you should already own the expanded re-issues there is far less to tempt you to part with your money. The first disc does include a rare Jet Set recording, both sides of the Beefeaters' Elektra single and some of the readily available so-called Pre-Flyte sessions. The rest are from the 1996 re-issues (Turn! Turn! Turn! turns up in mono again, peculiarly, as it was on the expanded album). The second disc includes the authentic mono mixes of Why? (single version), Lady Friend and Old John Robertson, and a mono Swedish radio session version of He Was A Friend Of Mine.

On disc three Candy is the remixed soundtrack version, but Lay Lady Lay is again not the official version as released as a single. Contrary to the booklet information, Kathleen's Song is the standard Byrdmaniax version. Disc four fares better with 4 1970 live recordings previously unreleased and 2 only from the 1990 box set. It also has their instrumental contribution to a 1971 Earl Scruggs album; the two Banjomen soundtrack live recordings; and the 1990 box set recording. Fittingly, since their career kick-started with Mr Tambourine Man, this final track is Dylan's Paths Of Victory.

Perhaps the juiciest carrot is the fifth disc: a truly evocative DVD with 10 1960s TV appearances showing the band miming to their hit singles as go-go dancers in cages gyrate the way only sixties dancers could.

This new set is lovely and lavish, easily worth 5 stars, but a more accurate title might be "The Johnny Rogan Box." Rogan, in his fine Byrds biography "Timeless Flight Revisited" (2001), came down pretty hard on the first (1990) boxed set. Compilers McGuinn & Irwin, apparently chastised, seem to have assembled this new collection with his remarks as guide.

Rogan was especially upset that the first box offered a mere 6 Gene Clark songs, so this one near overdoses with 17. He suggested McGuinn had been stingy on Clark to make room for the later albums, so "Easy Rider," "Byrdmaniax" and "Farther Along" are trimmed to footnotes. He felt Crosby "would definitely" have preferred `What's Happening' over `Hey Joe,' so that switch is made here (tho Crosby opted for `Hey Joe' at Montery Pop '67). Rogan questioned the inclusion of all Dylan covers, so four are cut: the stellar `Spanish Harlem Incident,' plus "Nothing Was Delivered,' `Just Like A Woman,' and `Lay Down Your Weary Tune'. He preferred the single over album take of `All I Really Want To Do," and even that is here.

Rogan thought the 1990 black box too "somber", so this one is fire engine red. The imaginative artwork sequence of the 4 jewel case covers he declared "tacky," so this set has none (the CDs attach to the inside box covers). He complained the 1990 book had "a dearth of colour photos", so the new book is awash with them - at the expense of hard information like discography, personnel, and track comments.

But Rogan aside, there are other differences... "Seasons" casts a wider net than the 1990 box by including the "Preflyte" sessions, "Fillmore`69" (SF) album, 1973 "Byrds" reunion album, and others.

Among the new things: Disk 4's `Tambourine Man' and `Roll Over Beethoven' are from the 1973 soundtrack for "Banjoman". `He Was A Friend of Mine' is live on Swedish radio, 1967. `Nothin' To It' is from "Earl Scruggs: His Family & Friends". `Byrdgrass' is the hidden track on expanded "Byrdmaniax" minus (unfortunately) some classic studio talk (Eric White asks McGuinn to "stick your foot out" to indicate the harmonica part). `Baby What You Want Me To Do' and `I Trust' are live from Fillmore East (NY), 1970. `You All Look Alike' and `Nashville West' are live at Queens College (as are `Willin'/'Black Mountain Rag', taken from the first box). `Lazy Days' is a new (but inferior) alternate take. `Pretty Polly' is the great alternate take on 2-disk "Legacy Sweetheart". `Child of the Universe' is the overdub from the "Candy" soundtrack, a nice surprise with horns that make it sound like something from the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album.

ERRORS: 'Kathleen's Song' is actually the "Byrdmaniax" track, not the "Expanded (Untitled)" alternate take as stated in the book. But since "Byrdmaniax" is now apparently dropped from the Legacy catalogue, it is good to have the original 'Kathleen' here. Another curious (apparent) mistake is the slamming door after 'Wasn't Born To Follow'; the "Notorious" booklet says this is actually the start of that album's next track, 'Get To You' (where it represents rejection of the 1965 Byrds in England) .

Six tracks are monaural singles : All I really Want To Do; Turn!Turn!Turn!/ She Don't Care About Time; Why; Lady Friend/ Old John Robertson.

Disks 1 & 2 are a serious tour of the first 5 albums through "Notorious". Disks 3 & 4 spot check the remaining albums, with some generous (and welcome) stretches of the later Byrds in concert.

The DVD has ten TV appearances by the 1965-67 Byrds (Performing: Mr. Tambourine Man, Feel A Whole Lot Better, All I Really Want To Do, Turn! Turn! Turn!, It Won't Be Wrong, Set You Free This Time, -- and with 4 Byrds -- So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star, Mr. Tambourine Man, Eight Miles High, Mr. Spaceman.) Most or all are lip-synced (a common practice at the time), but good quality 16mm film images give us 30 minutes of the Byrds in their prime. The last set is in color and especially intriguing; it's the 4 Byrds all right, but Crosby is replaced by Gene Clark. Apparently this was right after Crosby left and Clark briefly returned.

While the booklet is fun to explore visually, its real gem is a stunning new essay by David Fricke -- a concise history of the Byrds from first to last, which also serves as a program guide to selections on the 4 CDs.

Bottom line: this new box is a feast for Byrds fans.

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Fans of this set should know that the 1990 box still has a few treasures. It's the only place you can find Bob Dylan joining the Byrds on stage for `Mr. Tambourine Man'; stereo versions of 1965's `Turn! Turn! Turn!' and `He Was A Friend of Mine'; a remixed `Hey Joe' with countdown and cold ending; `Roll Over Beethoven' live on Swedish radio, 1967; a very nice Queens College take of `Lover of the Bayou'; and new remixes from the original separated tracks of a number of album classics.

Many others have talked about the importance of the Byrds and the influence of their music. If you are interested at all, buy this set. I won't repeat all of that, but I did want to add my vote for this being a great set. It is much more than a history of the Byrds, a time piece about the 60's and 70's, or a tribute to the members. It is exceptional and quintessentially American music, most of which has aged very well. Ii have the original Byrds boxed set and I bought this anyway for the new tracks on it and the DVD. I am not disappointed! It is a great set and a bargain for new or old fans.