David Crosby's tone-deaf comments upon the death of Eddie Van Halen reminded me of my long-standing annoyance with the solipsism of 60s/70s California hippie culture. I remember in particular the front porch hangs I used to have with Elijah Pritchett, and how our mutual animosities to that hippie culture came to be animated primarily by one band: The Byrds.
I also have to admit that my first interest in rock music was The Byrds, from a band biography and four song seven inch sampler I got from Scholastic Books when I was in grade school; obviously the book was deeply sanitized to the point of not at all being useful as a story of the band, but most of the band's music goes down pretty easy, so there wasn't much need for sanitizing that, save holding off on some of the band's more obviously druggy songs (though it really seems "Eight Miles High" was on there . . . but of course, that was a song about flying in an airplane lol). I don't remember exactly what was on the record, but one song did stand out: "Lover of the Bayou". That one was dirty.
Anyway, it got me to wondering if I was just done with The Byrds, so I did what it is I do: put together a giant Spotify playlist, based on fan's favorites from the band, and immerse myself in it until I figure it out. This was, in fact, probably the first band I did that with, many years ago, when I joined Spotify not too long after its birth. The playlist was just over three hours to start (three hours is kind of the magic playlist number for me, because that was my average DJ shift on WQAX back in the day). Unlike the Bob Dylan playlist that I have been working on this year, which started out at just over six hours then was lightly trimmed back to about five and a half, the Byrds playlist was cut down to under an hour and a half after I lived with it for a while. A lot of The Byrds's output leaves me cold and bored; some I consider downright repulsive (Crosby's "Triad" immediately comes to mind). The sheer length of the playlist was overwhelming to me as well: I could never handle that much Byrds. On the other hand, once I got it to the point that it would fit onto a 90 minute tape, it became a useful playlist, and one I listen to a fair amount. I emailed Elijah to let him know of my work, but he remained unconvinced.
To be fair, I did have to follow it up with a Minutemen playlist when I listened to it last Tuesday.
Anyway, here it be:
- Graham Parsons/Gene Clark
- David Crosby/Clarence White
- Sweetheart of the Rodeo/Younger Than Yesterday
I think of myself as a huge Byrds fan, but - full disclosure - I'm not even fully into their catalog, and there are lots of turds in there. "Triad" is probably a great example of a turd. I'm also surprised that no one talks about the appropriation in which the Byrds engaged. The wholesale ripoff of old gospel, country and folk songs and images - that sort of thing. There's an interesting YouTube clip of the Byrds jamming with Earl Scruggs, and the guy to took the footage said they were real assholes to Scruggs. Earl Scruggs, the guy who was instrumental in the bluegrass revival of the 60s, the revival which the Byrds were capitalizing upon. Yeah, that's just one guy's opinion, but I could believe it. Anyway, I could almost forgive the Byrds for all the goofy Laurel Canyon cowboy shenanigans. Rock was still a very young genre, and they were creating (or popularizing) an even younger subgenre. You can let them off the hook for those early missteps that to a modern music fan look silly. I guess somebody has to make this mistakes.
ReplyDelete"Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is one of my all time favorite records, so we'll have to disagree on that. That said, I'm even more of a fan of their poppier, jangly stuff. Huge fan of the sound of a Rickenbacker 12-string; also dig the harmonies. (I remember years ago having a chat with one of your buddies - it almost had to have been Elijah, but I don't remember for sure - wherein he vehemently denounced the jangly sound of Ricks, singling out Tom Petty and R.E.M. for his bile. Interestingly, it was while talking about his appreciation for Ricks; he just would make them not so jangly. If I remember the conversation right.) "Feel A Whole Lot Better", "Have You Seen Her Face?", "5D", "My Back Pages" and even (gross, i know) "Chestnut Mare" being some of my favorite examples.
"Triad" and dumb comments about Eddie Van Halen aside (I'll probably do an appreciation of him on my own blog at some point), I don't really have anything against David Crosby, but I couldn't agree more with your power ranking of the Crosby/White match up. Of all the clowns the Byrds hobnobbed with, Clarence White was one of the few that had actual C&W bonafides. Even though I hate his singing on the track "Truck Stop Girl", that song (which I've only recently discovered) is now one of my favorite Byrds tunes.
Anyways, hope these improvised, disjointed comments make some sort of sense.
One minor correction - in the comments above, change "Have You Seen Her Face" to "Lady Friend". Both are great jangly tunes, but "Lady Friend" is fantastic.
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