BCB 100 - The Byrds
Posted: 16 Jun 2006, 16:44
A good 'Vs.' thread might be The Byrds vs. Creedence Clearwater Revival for best American band of the 60s. I guess Velvet Underground should fall under that consideration, too.
Anyway, the Byrds did some pretty amazing things, didn't they. Listening to my two favorites, their Rubber Soul and Revolver, Younger Than Yesterday and Notorious Byrd Brothers last night and was particularly struck by the tension in the best of their music. It's a pretty obvious and major part of their sound, but I'd never really consciously paid much attention to how the way the languid vocals are offset by terse, snappy rhythms and guitar. Take 5, d can elucidate on the technical explanation for this, I'm sure, but damn if it doesn't sound cool. I'm thinking particularly of things like "Renaissance Fair" and "Everybody's Been Burned". Rather than the jangly hippy-happy sounds of "Mr. Tambourine Man" or "Turn Turn Turn", this is the kind of Byrds music I love. The middle of Younger, from "Renaissance Fair" to "Thoughts and Minds" is one of the most glorious patches of 60s music and ensures that this is my favorite album of theirs. I even like, with reservations, "Mind Gardens". Crosby's vocal is annoyingly affected, of course, not the least on the pretentious reading of the pretentious lift from Hamlet, but there's real beauty in the music and he almost makes up for much of the agregiousness of the song in the ululations he lets out on the line "But when the sun ca~a~me", shortly thereafter echoed by the backward guitar. No, the only really impossible track on this album is "CTA-102", which just grinds it to a halt. The bulk of the tune is pretty bland Byrds-by-the-numbers and dismissable but not offensive, but the alien voices and the 'transmission' replay is unacceptable. It's only something as strong as the opening of "Renaissance Fair" that can pick the record back up. "My Back Pages" sounds a little out of place on the record as it hearkens to an earlier Byrds sound, but given the theme of the song, I can accept this as irony. Imagine how bordering on perfection this would have been if "Lady Friend" had replaced "CTA-102" and "It Happens Each Day" replaced "The Girl With No Name" (fine but inconsequential).
"Lady Friend" is the peak of the Byrds for me. Those California harmonies floating through a garage-band verison of Spector's Wall of Sound, all dropping out briefly for that descending guitar line only to be quickly buoyed back up ("the last wave I drowned in"?) by those horns then Clarke's clipped and furious drumming.
Favorite Album - Younger Than Yesterday
Favorite Song- "Lady Friend"
Anyway, the Byrds did some pretty amazing things, didn't they. Listening to my two favorites, their Rubber Soul and Revolver, Younger Than Yesterday and Notorious Byrd Brothers last night and was particularly struck by the tension in the best of their music. It's a pretty obvious and major part of their sound, but I'd never really consciously paid much attention to how the way the languid vocals are offset by terse, snappy rhythms and guitar. Take 5, d can elucidate on the technical explanation for this, I'm sure, but damn if it doesn't sound cool. I'm thinking particularly of things like "Renaissance Fair" and "Everybody's Been Burned". Rather than the jangly hippy-happy sounds of "Mr. Tambourine Man" or "Turn Turn Turn", this is the kind of Byrds music I love. The middle of Younger, from "Renaissance Fair" to "Thoughts and Minds" is one of the most glorious patches of 60s music and ensures that this is my favorite album of theirs. I even like, with reservations, "Mind Gardens". Crosby's vocal is annoyingly affected, of course, not the least on the pretentious reading of the pretentious lift from Hamlet, but there's real beauty in the music and he almost makes up for much of the agregiousness of the song in the ululations he lets out on the line "But when the sun ca~a~me", shortly thereafter echoed by the backward guitar. No, the only really impossible track on this album is "CTA-102", which just grinds it to a halt. The bulk of the tune is pretty bland Byrds-by-the-numbers and dismissable but not offensive, but the alien voices and the 'transmission' replay is unacceptable. It's only something as strong as the opening of "Renaissance Fair" that can pick the record back up. "My Back Pages" sounds a little out of place on the record as it hearkens to an earlier Byrds sound, but given the theme of the song, I can accept this as irony. Imagine how bordering on perfection this would have been if "Lady Friend" had replaced "CTA-102" and "It Happens Each Day" replaced "The Girl With No Name" (fine but inconsequential).
"Lady Friend" is the peak of the Byrds for me. Those California harmonies floating through a garage-band verison of Spector's Wall of Sound, all dropping out briefly for that descending guitar line only to be quickly buoyed back up ("the last wave I drowned in"?) by those horns then Clarke's clipped and furious drumming.
Favorite Album - Younger Than Yesterday
Favorite Song- "Lady Friend"