The Byrds - Byrdmaniax (1971) (Remaster Edit 2000)

The Byrds - Byrdmaniax (1971) (Remaster Edit 2000)

Byrdmaniax has been sidelined ever since its original 1971 release, when it arrived in the wake of the triumphant Untitled. At the time, the group's musical diversity was beginning to suggest uncertainty, but in hindsight--and with the inclusion here of three contemporaneous bonus tracks--there is much to savor. Highlights include Roger McGuinn's poignant "Kathleen's Song" and the band's striking cover of Jackson Browne's "Jamaica Say You Will." Skip Battin was never better than on "Citizen Kane," a collaboration with maverick Kim Fowley. Original tracks are enhanced by a sensitive alternate version of McGuinn's "Pale Blue" and, particularly, by Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman." Byrdmaniax may not be the pick of the Byrds' canon, but it sits well in Sony's imaginative repackaging of this much-loved band's catalog. --Patrick Humphries

Byrdmaniax has been sidelined ever since its original 1971 release, when it arrived in the wake of the triumphant Untitled. At the time, the group's musical diversity was beginning to suggest uncertainty, but in hindsight--and with the inclusion here of three contemporaneous bonus tracks--there is much to savor. Highlights include Roger McGuinn's poignant "Kathleen's Song" and the band's striking cover of Jackson Browne's "Jamaica Say You Will." Skip Battin was never better than on "Citizen Kane," a collaboration with maverick Kim Fowley. Original tracks are enhanced by a sensitive alternate version of McGuinn's "Pale Blue" and, particularly, by Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman." Byrdmaniax may not be the pick of the Byrds' canon, but it sits well in Sony's imaginative repackaging of this much-loved band's catalog. --Patrick Humphries

Byrdmaniax has been sidelined ever since its original 1971 release, when it arrived in the wake of the triumphant Untitled. At the time, the group's musical diversity was beginning to suggest uncertainty, but in hindsight--and with the inclusion here of three contemporaneous bonus tracks--there is much to savor. Highlights include Roger McGuinn's poignant "Kathleen's Song" and the band's striking cover of Jackson Browne's "Jamaica Say You Will." Skip Battin was never better than on "Citizen Kane," a collaboration with maverick Kim Fowley. Original tracks are enhanced by a sensitive alternate version of McGuinn's "Pale Blue" and, particularly, by Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman." Byrdmaniax may not be the pick of the Byrds' canon, but it sits well in Sony's imaginative repackaging of this much-loved band's catalog...P. Humphries

Ahhh! The much maligned BYRDMANIAX, recently likened by a UK journalist to what the Byrds would sound like if Richard Carpenter was producing. Background story: The Byrds' previous album (UNTITLED) is a (relative) critical/commercial success which provides the band with a much needed upswing in fortunes. By the time of the recording of this, the follow-up, they're having personal problems and are out on the road a lot. Producer Terry Melcher plasters results in orchestrations (Phil Spector LET IT BE-style) to help disguise sub-standard performances (he says), band know nothing until record released (they say). Results? Pretty good, on the whole. "Kathleen's Song" (held over from UNTITLED) is all the better for Melcher's overdubs - it's achingly beautiful - as is the not-dissimilar "Pale Blue". Other highlights include Skip Battin's "Absolute Happiness" and the Clarence White sung "Jamaica (Say you Will)". Other tracks ain't so wonderful, but the album's far from being the dog it's been rumoured to be for so long. The bonus tracks consist of another UNTITLED-era recording ("Just Like a Woman"), an alternate version ("Pale Blue") and an out-take - a version of Gene Clark's "Think I'm Gonna Feel Better"*. What we don't get is the rumoured alternate take of "Jamaica" which Clarence White always said to be vastly superior to the album version...B. Jules

320 @
104 MB

Tracklist:

01. Glory, Glory 4:05
02. Pale Blue 2:24
03. I Trust 3:21
04. Tunnel Of Love 5:00
05. Citizen Kane 2:39
06. I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician 2:05
07. Absolute Happiness 2:41
08. Green Apple Quick Step 1:52
09. My Destiny 3:40
10. Kathleen's Song 2:42
11. Jamaica Say You Will 3:31
12. Just Like A Woman 4:06
13. Pale Blue (Alternate Version) 2:36
14. Think I'm Gonna Feel Better 2:34

The Byrds - Ballad of Easy Rider (1969)(Remaster Edit 1997)

The Byrds - Ballad of Easy Rider (1969)(Remaster Edit 1997)

If Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde found Roger McGuinn having to re-create The Byrds Iafter massive personnel turnovers (and not having an easy time of it), Ballad of Easy Rider was the album where the new lineup really hit its stride. Gracefully moving back and forth between serene folk-rock (the title cut, still one of McGuinn's most beautiful melodies), sure-footed rock & roll ("Jesus Is Just All Right"), heartfelt country-rock ("Oil In My Lamp" and "Tulsa County"), and even a dash of R&B (the unexpectedly funky "Fido," which even features a percussion solo), Ballad of Easy Rider sounds confident and committed where Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde often seemed tentative. The band sounds tight, self-assured, and fully in touch with the music's emotional palette, and Clarence White's guitar work is truly a pleasure to hear (if Roger McGuinn's fabled 12-string work seems to take a back seat to White's superb string bends, it is doubtful that any but the most fanatical fans would think to object). While not generally regarded as one of the group's major works, in retrospect this release stands alongside Untitled as the finest work of the Byrds' final eriod...M.Deming

320 @
128 MB

Tracklist:

01. Ballad Of Easy Rider 2:06
02. Fido (Alternate Mix) 2:43
03. Oil In My Lamp 3:15
04. Tulsa County 2:52
05. Jack Tarr The Sailor 3:34
06. Jesus Is Just Alright 2:13
07. It'S All Over Now, Baby Blue (Alternate Mix) 4:54
08. There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To) 3:32
09. Gunga Din 3:07
10. Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) 3:52
11. Armstrong, Aldrin And Collins 1:40
12. Way Behind The Sun 3:06
13. Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood 2:47
14. Oil In My Lamp (Alternate Version) 2:05
15. Tulsa County (alternate version) 3:42
16. Fiddler A Dram (Moog Experiment) 3:13
17. Ballad Of Easy Rider (Long Version) 2:29
18. Build It Up (Instrumental) 5:36

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The Byrds - Live at the Fillmore West February 1969 (2000)

The Byrds - Live at the Fillmore West February 1969 (2000)

This previously unreleased, stand-alone live recording of the Byrds at the Fillmore West in 1969 is a testament to the band at the height of its musical prowess. The amalgam of Roger McGuinn, John York, Gene Parsons, and Clarence White -- with only McGuinn remaining from the original fivesome that launched the group in 1965 -- is so imbued with the dusty twang of Nashville that it isn't until McGuinn's Rickenbacker 12-string kicks in on the energetic power medley of "Turn! Turn! Turn!"/"Mr. Tambourine Man"/"Eight Miles High" that we realize, ah, hippies! Guitarist White's luminous and enterprising riffing infuse the band's flower-power California sound with bluegrass virtuosity on McGuinn's "King Apathy III," a Who-infused rocker that cuts to a country break, as well as on "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" and the Bob Dylan/Rick Danko composition "Wheels On Fire." The concert closes on a political note with a jangly version of Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" and McGuinn's pognant "He Was a Friend of Mine," which appropriately captures that self-reflective American moment that followed the '68 assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King...S. Paynes

320 @
118 MB

Tracklist:

01 Nashville West 1:57
02 You're Still on My Mind 1:57
03 Pretty Boy Floyd 3:12
04 Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man 2:27
05 Medley: Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)/Mr ... 9:46
06 Close up the Honkey Tonks 2:59
07 Buckaroo 2:01
08 The Christian Life 2:09
09 Time Between 2:08
10 King Apathy III 3:14
11 Bad Night at the Whiskey 3:50
12 This Wheel's on Fire 4:17
13 Sing Me Back Home 3:07
14 So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star 2:36
15 He Was a Friend of Mine 2:32
16 Chimes of Freedom 3:23

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The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965) (Remaster Edit 2006)

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965) (Remaster Edit 2006)

Rockers who invent an entire sound are scarce in any era -- think Chuck Berry's guitar intros or the Ramones' monomaniacal three-chord attack -- but the Byrds can be counted among those few. Their 1965 debut album, MR. TAMBOURINE MAN, is the one that launched a million 12-string guitarists, in the process influencing bands from the Beatles to R.E.M. The title track and debut single featured a studio rhythm section (at the insistence of nervous producer Terry Melcher), but once the song became a worldwide smash and engendered a folk-rock boom, the group insisted on playing and singing every note from then on. The resulting album is one of rock's most accomplished debuts, a fully realized collection of songs held together by Jim (who later renamed himself Roger) McGuinn's majestic Rickenbacker and the group's stunning choir-boy harmonies. High points: singer Gene Clark's proto-power-pop classic "Feel a Whole Lot Better," "Chimes of Freedom," perhaps their best ever Dylan cover, and "The Bells of Rhymney," a mesmeric adaptation of a traditional folk song about a Welsh mining disaster. More than just an album, this was a watershed event...S. Simels

320 @
103 MB

Tracklist:

01 Mr. Tambourine Man 2:21
02 I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better 2:34
03 Spanish Harlem Incident 2:00
04 You Won't Have to Cry 2:09
05 Here Without You 2:38
06 The Bells of Rhymney 3:33
07 All I Really Want to Do 2:05
08 I Knew I'd Want You 2:16
09 I'ts No Use 2:25
10 Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe 2:57
11 Chimes of Freedom 3:53
12 We'll Meet Again 2:10
13 She Has a Way previously unreleased / Bonus 2:27
14 I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better previously unreleased / Bonus/ Alternate Version 2:30
15 It's No Use previously unreleased / Bonus/ Alternate Version 2:26
16 You Won't Have to Cry previously unreleased / Bonus/ Alternate Version 2:10
17 All I Really Want to Do Bonus/ Single Version 2:05
18 You and Me previously unreleased / Bonus/ Instrumental 2:12

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