The Notorious Byrd Brothers

The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Studio album by The Byrds
Released	January 3, 1968
Recorded	June 21 – December 6, 1967, Columbia Studios, Hollywood, CA
Genre	Psychedelic rock
Length	28:28
Label	Columbia
Producer	Gary Usher
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Rolling Stone link
The Byrds chronology
The Byrds' Greatest Hits (1967) The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968) Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)
Singles from The Notorious Byrd Brothers
"Goin' Back" / "Change Is Now" Released: October 20, 1967

The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by Los Angeles rock band The Byrds and was released in January, 1968 (see 1968 in music) on Columbia Records, catalogue item CL 2775 in mono, CS 9575 in stereo.^[1] The album reached #47 on the Billboard 200 album chart^[2] during a chart stay of 19 weeks,^[3] and reached #12 in the United Kingdom.^[4] The lead single from the album was a cover of Goffin and King's song, "Goin' Back", and was released on October 20, 1967, climbing to #89 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[2] The recording of the album was fraught with tension and resulted in the loss of two members of the band.^[5] Additionally, original band member, Gene Clark, who had left the band in early 1966, rejoined for three weeks during the album's recording, before leaving again.^[6] In 2003, the album was ranked number 171 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[7]

Background

The recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers, during the summer and fall of 1967, was marked by severe internal dissolution and acrimony.^[1] The Byrds began the recording sessions as a four-piece band consisting of Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, the same line-up that had recorded their two previous albums. By the time of the album's release, however, only McGuinn and Hillman remained in the group.^[5] The first line-up change occurred when drummer Michael Clarke quit the group over disputes with Crosby^[6] as well as with the other band members over his apparent dissatisfaction with the material the three songwriting members of the band were providing.^[5] He was replaced temporarily by noted session drummers Jim Gordon and Hal Blaine.^[6][8] David Crosby was then fired by McGuinn and Hillman, as a result of friction arising from, amongst other things, Crosby's displeasure at the band's wish to record the Goffin-King composition "Goin' Back".^[9] Crosby felt that like the cover of Bob Dylan's My Back Pages on their previous album, it was a step backwards artistically, especially when the band contained three active songwriters.^[6]

Crosby also fought for the inclusion of his controversial "Triad", a risqué song about a ménage à trois that was in direct competition with "Goin' Back" for a place on the album.^[10] He eventually gave the tune to Jefferson Airplane, who included a version of the song on their 1968 album Crown of Creation. The Byrds did record "Triad" but refused to release it at the time. The track eventually surfaced officially on the band's 1987 archival compilation, Never Before,^[11] and was later added to the album as a bonus track on the 1997 Columbia/Legacy reissue.^[12]

Additionally, during The Byrds' performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Crosby gave lengthy in-between song speeches on subjects including the JFK assassination and the benefits of giving LSD to "every man, woman and child in the country", to the intense annoyance of the other band members.^[10] He further irritated his band mates at Monterey by performing with rival group Buffalo Springfield, filling in for ex-member Neil Young.^[6] His stock within the band deteriorated still further following the commercial failure of his first A-side single with The Byrds, "Lady Friend", released in July and reaching only #82 on the Billboard charts.^[2] Crosby's absence from many of the recording sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers represented the final straw for McGuinn and Hillman, and Crosby would soon find himself an ex-Byrd, with a handsome severance package and time to associate with his new partner, Stephen Stills.^[6] It has been suggested that the horse on the cover of the album was unkindly intended to represent Crosby (see link), although this has been denied by both McGuinn and Hillman.^[6]

To Crosby's chagrin, McGuinn and Hillman reworked three of his songs following his departure, namely "Tribal Gathering", "Dolphin's Smile" and a reworded version of "Draft Morning", and included them in the final running order for the album.^[5] In the end, Crosby ended up playing on about half the album, appearing on his own three songs, plus "Change is Now" and "Old John Robertson".^[5] On the latter tune, Crosby switched instruments with Chris Hillman, playing bass instead of his usual rhythm guitar.^[5] Crosby also appears on several of the bonus tracks included on the 1997 reissue, including "Triad", "Universal Mind Decoder" and an early version of "Goin' Back".^[9]

Gene Clark's return

Following Crosby's departure, Gene Clark was asked to rejoin the band. His debut album (produced by Gary Usher, with both Clarke and Hillman playing on it) had been a commercial failure, and Clark was currently inactive.^[13] Gene rejoined the Byrds in October 1967 for three weeks, during which Clark and the Byrds performed on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV show (lip-syncing "Goin' Back" and "Mr. Spaceman") and also played several live dates together.^[13] While on tour, Gene's fear of flying prevented him taking a flight from Minneapolis to New York and he left the band soon after.^[6]

It has been debated just how involved Gene was in the recording of the album.^[5] It is rumored that Clark did contribute backing vocals to two songs; "Goin' Back" and "Space Odyssey", and co-wrote "Get To You".^[5] McGuinn has actually stated in interviews that he wrote "Get To You" with Clark, and that the writing credits for the track are mistaken; they should have read McGuinn/Clark, rather than McGuinn/Hillman.^[6]

Michael Clarke returned to the band briefly, towards the end of the album sessions, before once again being told that he was an ex-Byrd by McGuinn and Hillman.^[6] Amid so many changes in band personnel, McGuinn and Hillman needed to rely upon outside musicians to complete the album. Among these hired musicians was Clarence White, who had also played on the group's previous album.^[1] His contributions to this and subsequent Byrds' albums eventually led to his being hired as a full-time member of The Byrds in the latter-day line-up of the band.^[6] Although much of the countrified guitar playing on the album is commonly assumed to have been played by White, the album's many pedal steel parts are actually played by Red Rhodes.^[5]

Music

Despite its troubled genesis, the album contains some of the band's most gentle and ethereal music, as well as some of its most progressive and experimental.^[5] Lyrically, it attempted to deal with many contemporary themes such as peace, ecology, freedom, drug use, alienation and mankind's place in the universe.^[6] The album, as a whole, represented the apex of the McGuinn/Crosby/Hillman songwriting partnership, and took the musical experimentation of the original Byrds to its farthest logical extreme; mixing folk-rock, country, psychedelia and jazz, often within a single song.^[1][5]

The album's opening track, "Artificial Energy", deals with the dark side of amphetamine use^[1] and it was Chris Hillman who initially suggested that the band should "write a song about speed."^[9] The song's title was suggested by drummer Michael Clarke and his input in the creation of the song was sufficient to afford him a rare writing credit.^[5] Although the song's lyrics initially seem to be extolling the virtues of amphetamines, the tale turns darker in the final verse when it becomes apparent that the drug taker has been imprisoned for murdering a homosexual man, as evidenced by the song's final line; "I'm in jail 'cause I killed a queen."^[6][14] Ironically, although The Byrds had been accused of writing songs about drugs in the past, specifically with the songs "Eight Miles High" and "5D (Fifth Dimension)", when the band did finally record a song unequivocally dealing with drugs, it was largely ignored by the press.^[6]

The Chris Hillman penned track, "Natural Harmony", like the preceding Goffin-King song, "Goin' Back", conveys a sense of longing for the innocence of youth, albeit filtered through the awareness raising properties of psychedelic drugs.^[6] The song's theme of idyllic bliss is reinforced by the lyrics in the song's refrain; "Dancing through the streets side by side/Head thrown back, arms open wide."^[5] It has been suggested that the song exhibits the strong influence of David Crosby's writing style, with its laid back, jazzy feel and dreamy, high tenor vocal part.^[1][5]

"Draft Morning" is a song about the horrors of the Vietnam War^[12] as well as a protest against the conscription of men into the military during the conflict.^[5] The song was initially written by David Crosby but he was fired from The Byrds shortly after he had introduced the song to the rest of the band, although work had already begun on the song's instrumental backing track by the time of Crosby's departure.^[5] Controversially, McGuinn and Hillman decided to include the song on The Notorious Byrd Brothers album, despite its songwriter no longer being a member of the band. Having only heard the song's lyrics in their original incarnation a few times, McGuinn and Hillman couldn't remember all of the words when they came to record the vocals and so decided to rewrite the song with their own lyrical additions, giving themselves a co-writing credit in the process.^[1] This angered Crosby considerably, since he felt, with some justification, that McGuinn and Hillman had stolen his song.^[6] Despite its troubled genesis, "Draft Morning" is often considered to be one of David Crosby's best songs from his tenure with The Byrds.^[1][6] Lyrically, "Draft Morning" follows a newly recruited soldier from the morning of his induction, through to his experiences of combat on the battlefield^[6] and as such, illustrates the dilemma faced by many young men who were called up during the 1960s.^[1] The song also makes extensive use of battlefield sound effects, provided for the band by the Los Angeles comedy troupe, The Firesign Theatre.^[9]

Another of Crosby's songwriting contributions to the album, "Tribal Gathering", was, for many years, assumed to have been inspired by the Human Be-In: A Gathering Of Tribes, a counter-culture happening held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on January 12, 1967.^[1][9] However, in recent years, Crosby has revealed that the song was actually inspired by another hippie gathering held at Elysian Park near Los Angeles in 1966.^[5]

"Old John Robertson", which had already been issued in America and Europe some six months earlier as the B-side of the "Lady Friend" single, was inspired by a retired film director who lived in the small town near San Diego where Chris Hillman grew up.^[9] John S. Robertson was something of an eccentric figure around the town, regularly wearing a Stetson hat and sporting a white handlebar moustache, which gave him the appearance of a character out of the old American West.^[9] In the song, Hillman recalls the children of the town and their cruel laughter at this colorful figure, as well as the combination of awe and fear that he elicited in the townsfolk.^[9] It should be noted that the version of "Old John Robertson" found on the B-side of the "Lady Friend" single is a substantially different mix to the version that appears on The Notorious Byrd Brothers album.^[1]

The final track on the album, "Space Odyssey", is a musical retelling of Arthur C. Clarke's short story The Sentinel, which was also the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.^[9] Since the song predates the release of the film and the novel, McGuinn and his co-writer, R.J. Hippard, wrote lyrics that refer to a pyramid found on the Moon, as was the case in The Sentinel.^[15] However, in the movie and the book, the pyramid became a rectangular monolith.^[16]

Release and legacy

The Notorious Byrd Brothers was released on January 3, 1968 in the United States and April 12, 1968 in the UK,^[10][6] surprising many fans of the band, who had been led to believe by contemporary press reports that the album was still in the planning stages.^[6] The album was almost universally well received by the music press, with Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy!, in particular, publishing lengthy articles in praise of the record.^[6] Although The Notorious Byrd Brothers is arguably the band's most progressive and experimental album, its running time of a little under 29 minutes also makes it their briefest.^[6]

Over the years, The Notorious Byrd Brothers has gained in reputation and is often considered the group's best work,^[6] while the contentious incidents surrounding its making have largely been forgotten. In a contemporary review, famed music critic Robert Christgau regarded the album as "simply the best album the Byrds have ever recorded", ranking it with other releases of the era by Love (Forever Changes) and The Beach Boys (Wild Honey), remarking "[i]t's hard to believe that so much good can come out of one place [i.e. Los Angeles]."^[17] He later declared The Notorious Byrd Brothers (as well as its follow-up, Sweetheart of the Rodeo) to be "[one] of the most convincing arguments for artistic freedom ever to come out of American rock".^[18]

The Notorious Byrd Brothers was remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series and reissued in an expanded form on March 25, 1997. The six bonus tracks include "Moog Raga", a sitar influenced Moog synthesizer experiment by McGuinn, and a hidden track featuring a radio advertisement by producer Gary Usher for the album as well as an in-studio altercation between the band members.^[5]

Ric Menck, best known for being a member of the band Velvet Crush, has written a book about the album for Continuum Publishing's 33⅓ series.^[19]

The song "Wasn't Born to Follow" was used in the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider.^[20] The song plays over a montage featuring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda riding their motorcycles through mountainous roads somewhere in the American west. In addition, the progressive bluegrass band The Dixie Bee-Liners recorded a cover of "Change Is Now" for Timeless Flyte: A Tribute to The Byrds on RRO Records.^[21]

Neal Casal, of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, lists The Notorious Byrd Brothers as one of his favourite albums of all time.^[22]

Track listing

Side 1

1. "Artificial Energy" (Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Michael Clarke) – 2:18
2. "Goin' Back" (Carole King, Gerry Goffin) – 3:26
3. "Natural Harmony" (Chris Hillman) – 2:11
4. "Draft Morning" (David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) – 2:42
5. "Wasn't Born to Follow" (Carole King, Gerry Goffin) – 2:04
6. "Get to You" (Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn) – 2:39
   • NOTE: The album erroneously credits "Get to You" to Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn.^[13]

Side 2

1. "Change Is Now" (Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) – 3:21
2. "Old John Robertson" (Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) – 1:49
3. "Tribal Gathering" (David Crosby, Chris Hillman) – 2:03
4. "Dolphin's Smile" (David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) – 2:00
5. "Space Odyssey" (Roger McGuinn, Robert J. Hippard) – 3:52

1997 CD reissue Bonus Tracks

12. "Moog Raga" [Instrumental] (Roger McGuinn) – 3:24
13. "Bound to Fall" [Instrumental] (Mike Brewer, Tom Mastin) – 2:08
14. "Triad" (David Crosby) – 3:29
15. "Goin’ Back" [Version One] (Carole King, Gerry Goffin) – 3:55
16. "Draft Morning" [Alternate End] (David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) – 2:55
17. "Universal Mind Decoder" [Instrumental] (Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn) - 13:45
    • NOTE: this song ends at 3:32; at 4:32 begins "The Notorious Byrd Brothers Radio Advertisment" which ends at 5:41; at 6:42 begins "Dolphin's Smile" [In-studio Argument] (David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn).

Singles

1. "Goin' Back" b/w "Change Is Now" (Columbia 44362) 20 October 1967

Personnel

NOTES:

• Due to his departure from the group, David Crosby appears only on tracks 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 (plus bonus tracks 13-17).
• Sources for this section are as follows: ^[5][8][9]

The Byrds

• Roger McGuinn - guitar, Moog synthesizer, vocals
• David Crosby - guitar, electric bass, vocals
• Chris Hillman - electric bass, vocals (mandolin on "Draft Morning")
• Michael Clarke - drums on tracks 1, 4, 8, 9, 10 (plus bonus tracks 16-17)

Additional Personnel

Release history

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} "The Notorious Byrd Brothers". ByrdWatcher: A Field Guide to the Byrds of Los Angeles. http://ebni.com/byrds/lpnbb.html. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "The Byrds chart data". Ultimate Music Database. http://www.umdmusic.com/default.asp?Lang=English&Search=Byrds&Where=Bands. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
3. ^ Whitburn, Joel. (2002). Top Pop Albums 1955-2001. Hal Leonard Corp. ISBN 0-63403-948-2. 
4. ^ Brown, Tony. (2000). The Complete Book of the British Charts. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-7670-8. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s} Menck, Ric. (2007). The Notorious Byrd Brothers (33 1/3 series). Continuum Books. ISBN 0-8264-1717-5. 
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w} Rogan, Johnny. (1998). The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited. Rogan House. ISBN 0-95295-401-X. 
7. ^ "The Notorious Byrd Brothers". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6599136/171_the_notorious_byrd_brothers. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Hjort, Christopher. (2008). So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965-1973). Jawbone Press. ISBN 1-90600-215-0. 
9. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Rogan, Johnny. (1997). The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1997 CD liner notes). 
10. ^ ^{a b c} Fricke, David. (1997). The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1997 CD liner notes). 
11. ^ "Never Before review". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hifuxqw5ld6e. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
12. ^ ^{a b} "The Notorious Byrd Brothers (Bonus Tracks) review". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jxfuxqerldke. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
13. ^ ^{a b c} Einarson, John. (2005). Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of the Byrds' Gene Clark. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-793-5. 
14. ^ "Artificial Energy lyrics". The Byrds Lyrics Page. http://die-augenweide.de/byrds/song1-a/artificial_energy.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-23. 
15. ^ "Space Odyssey lyrics". The Byrds Lyrics Page. http://die-augenweide.de/byrds/songs/space_odyssey.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
16. ^ "2001: A Space Odyssey". The Worlds of David Darling: Encyclopedia of Science. http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/2001.html. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
17. ^ "Robert Christgau: June 1968 Column". Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics. http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/column4.php. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
18. ^ "The Byrds: Consumer Guide Reviews". Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=The+Byrds. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
19. ^ "The Notorious Byrd Brothers by Ric Menck". Continuum Books. http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=123322&SearchType=Basic. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
20. ^ "Easy Rider Soundtrack". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/soundtrack. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 
21. ^ "Timeless Flyte: A Tribute to The Byrds". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fvftxzqjld6e. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
22. ^ "Interview: Neal Casal (Ryan Adams & the Cardinals)". stereokill.net. http://www.stereokill.net/2009/04/interview-neal-casal-the-cardinals. Retrieved 2009-08-22. 

Sources

• About the album cover