The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo
The Byrds (formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964) were an American rock band.
The Byrds were popular and influential through the 1960s and early 1970s. Critic Richie Unterberger declares The Byrds' most enduring contribution was "melding the innovations and energy of the British Invasion with the best lyrical and musical elements of contemporary folk music," but they also helped forge such subgenres as folk rock, space rock, raga rock, psychedelic rock, jangle pop, and –- on their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo –- country rock. After several line-up changes (with lead singer/guitarist Roger McGuinn as the only consistent member), they broke up in 1973.
Some of their trademark songs include pop covers of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Pete Seeger’s "Turn! Turn! Turn!", and the originals "I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better", and "Eight Miles High".
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and several band members have launched successful solo careers after leaving the group. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked them #45 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
The Byrds were founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1964 by singers and guitarists Jim McGuinn (born James McGuinn III; he changed his name to Roger McGuinn in 1967, after joining the spiritual movement Subud), Gene Clark, and David Crosby. Bassist Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke joined soon after.
McGuinn had been in a series of folk outfits including The Limeliters and the Chad Mitchell Trio before working in New York in 1962–1963 as a songwriter for Bobby Darin. He moved to L.A. in late 1963 and began gigging at clubs such as the Troubadour but, after hearing The Beatles for the first time, saw what he later called "a gap in the market", and resolved to take "Lennon and Dylan and mix them together."
Gene Clark
, who had been in the New Christy Minstrels, briefly joined McGuinn in a duo playing at The Folk Den before Crosby, who had performed with Les Baxter's Balladeers, persuaded them to let him join. The newly formed trio recorded a song, "The Only Girl I Adore", soon after naming themselves "The Jet Set" (McGuinn and Crosby were aviation buffs). As such they cut a couple of numbers, "You Movin'" and "The Only Girl". They then hired Michael Clarke (who had the right look for the part) to join on drums. Former bluegrass mandolin player Hillman, who had played with the Scotsville Squirrel Barkers, the Golden State Boys, and the Hillmen, completed the quintet. (Overall, it can be said the members were markedly influenced by the American folk music revival.)
They rehearsed and recorded extensively at the World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles under the guidance of manager Jim Dickson. This period culminated with Elektra Records releasing a single, "Please Let Me Love You" b/w "Don't Be Long", under the name "The Beefeaters". Years later, these World Pacific demos were released as the Preflyte album and even made the lower reaches of the album charts. There have since been two further archive albums culled from the World Pacific sessions, In The Beginning (1988) and The Preflyte Sessions (2001).
Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds, released on July 29, 1968 (see 1968 in music). Along with Bradley's Barn by The Beau Brummels, John Stewart's California Bloodlines, the Everly Brothers' Roots, Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding and Safe at Home by The International Submarine Band, Sweetheart of the Rodeo would serve as one of the seminal recordings of country-rock and remains influential to this day despite being the most commercially unsuccessful album recorded by the group at the time of its release.
In January 1968, after the release of The Notorious Byrd Brothers and the departures of both David Crosby and Michael Clarke, the remaining two members, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman decided to push forward. As de facto leader of the band, McGuinn wanted the group to expand upon the genre-bending approach of the previous album, recording an ambitious double-album overview of American musical forms that began with Bluegrass, wove through Jazz-oriented material, and culminated with a side of electronica featuring the Moog modular synthesizer that he had acquired during the Notorious sessions. To this end, McGuinn sought out a pianist with a jazz background to join the group.
On the other hand, Hillman (who came from a musical background firmly rooted in bluegrass) clearly sought the opportunity as a way to expand the country influence within the group. Several Hillman-composed songs on Younger Than Yesterday and The Notorious Byrd Brothers had a pronounced twangy feel to them and featured Clarence White (a guitar pioneer in bluegrass) on lead guitar rather than McGuinn.
By the end of the winter of 1968, McGuinn had hired Kevin Kelley (Hillman's cousin) as drummer and 21-year-old Gram Parsons to play rhythm guitar and piano. Parsons, a marginal figure in the L.A. music scene, and Hillman had been acquainted with one another since 1967, while his faux-jazz piano playing and genial personality had fooled McGuinn at audition. It soon became apparent that Parsons and Hillman wanted to record a blend of what the former had termed "cosmic American music", a compendium of various roots forms that primarily was oriented towards honky tonk country music but also included American folk, soul, 1950s R&B, early rock and roll and contemporary rock. Following the path of Bob Dylan on John Wesley Harding, Parsons desired to record the group's new album in the country music capital of Nashville.
While McGuinn felt that the new developments were conspicuous and had reservations, he decided that such a move could theoretically expand the already declining audience of the group after much prodding from other band members and longtime producer Gary Usher. Decamping to Music Row with Clarence White in tow, the band — accompanied by several prominent session musicians — recorded versions of fifteen songs, although some of these tracks were recorded or completed in L.A. after the Nashville sessions. These included two country-influenced Dylan covers from his then-unreleased Basement Tapes ("You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "Nothing Was Delivered"), some covers of classic country songs ("I Am A Pilgrim", "The Christian Life", "Blue Canadian Rockies"), other covers of contemporary country songs ("Life in Prison", "You're Still On My Mind"), a Stax hit ("You Don't Miss Your Water"), three Parsons originals ("Hickory Wind", "Lazy Days", "One Hundred Years From Now"), a Kelley original ("All I Have Are Memories"), Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd", the folk chestnut "Pretty Polly" (in honor of Parsons' newborn daughter), and folk singer-songwriter Tim Hardin's "You Got A Reputation".
During the recording of the album, the band (introduced by future "outlaw" country star Tompall Glaser) appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. Greeted initially with derision by the conservative audience, their version of Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home" was received warmly. Any hope of salvaging the opportunity was immediately annihilated when Parsons, rather than singing Haggard's "Life In Prison" as announced by Glaser, launched into a rendition of "Hickory Wind" dedicated to his grandmother. The deviation from protocol stunned Opry regulars like Roy Acuff, and an embarrassed Glaser reportedly attempted to assault several Byrds backstage.
Nearly as disastrous was the group's appearance on the WSM program of legendary Nashville DJ Ralph Emery, who continually mocked his guests throughout the interview and initially refused to play an acetate of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere." Eventually playing the record, he shockingly dismissed it over the air and in the presence of the band as being mediocre. Clearly upset by their treatment, upon returning to Los Angeles, Parsons and McGuinn would make Emery the intended subject of their oft-covered "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" ("He's a drug store truck drivin' man/He's the leader of the Ku Klux Klan", although it should be noted that Emery was not a Klansman).
Post-production of the album was tumultuous. Parsons' appearance was contested by Lee Hazlewood, who contended that the singer was still technically under contract to his record company. While the problem was resolved — Parsons sings lead on "Hickory Wind" and "You're Still on My Mind" — McGuinn ended up replacing three of the new member's lead vocals with his own singing, a move that still infuriated Parsons as late as 1973, when he told an interviewer that "he [McGuinn] erased it and did the vocals himself and fucked it up". According to Usher:
| “ | McGuinn was a little bit edgy that Parsons was getting a little bit too much out of this whole thing.... He didn't want the album to turn into a Gram Parsons album. We wanted to keep Gram's voice in there, but we also wanted the recognition to come from Hillman and McGuinn, obviously. You just don't take a hit group and interject a new singer for no reason.... There were legal problems but they were resolved and the album had just the exact amount of Gram Parsons that McGuinn, Hillman and I wanted. | ” |
The line-up for the album was very short lived. After playing a handful of concerts throughout the Los Angeles area, including a party at Ciro's (where the original line-up of The Byrds first gained acclaim) for legendary publicist Derek Taylor, the band embarked on a short European tour. Tapes reveal a very schizophrenic ensemble playing psychedelic-oriented material alongside the Nashville songs. A lipsynched performance on television found Parsons, who, in between concerts, had visited Stonehenge and befriended Keith Richards in what would become one of rock's most infamous associations, sarcastically miming McGuinn's "Eight Miles High" solo on dobro.
The Byrds were set to follow a reprise English appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in July with a tour of South Africa when Parsons announced he would not be going along in protest at the country's policies of apartheid (a policy that did not cease until 1994), even though McGuinn had been falsely assured by promoters that the audiences would be integrated. Some members of the band doubted the sincerity of Parsons' protest, and ultimately McGuinn and Hillman fired him from the band after their return to the United States (a roadie filled in on rhythm guitar during the tour). Eventually replacing him was none other than longtime Byrd-in-waiting Clarence White. Kevin Kelley soon left as well, leaving McGuinn and Hillman, once again, to decide the future of The Byrds.
Released at a time when The Byrds' surprising immersion into the world of country coincided with declining commercial appeal, Sweetheart of the Rodeo only reached seventy-seven on Billboard's Pop Albums chart, while the single "You Ain't Going Nowhere" reached seventy-four on the Pop Singles chart. After having a hit with The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Sweetheart of the Rodeo missed the UK charts completely.
Although an uncommercial proposition at time, Sweetheart of the Rodeo proved to be a major landmark album, and its effects are still felt to this day, serving as a blueprint of sorts for the approach of not only Parsons' and Hillman's Flying Burrito Brothers, but of the nascent 1970s Los Angeles country-rock movement, outlaw country, the New Traditionalists, and the so-called alternative country of the 1990s and 2000s. It is widely considered to be The Byrds' last truly influential album.
The album was re-released in 1997 with eight bonus tracks featuring previously unreleased songs, rehearsals and outtakes. In 2003, a further version was released featuring slightly different bonus tracks and an entire second disc of material, the first six tracks of which are actually songs by the International Submarine Band (Parsons' previous band). The rest of the second disc is made up of additional alternate versions and outtakes. Most of the alternate versions and outtakes feature Parsons' vocals on songs that were later released with vocals by Roger McGuinn.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 117 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Track listing
1. "You Ain't Going Nowhere" (Bob Dylan) – 2:38
2. "I Am a Pilgrim" (trad. arr. Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman) – 3:42
3. "The Christian Life" (Charles Louvin, Ira Louvin) – 2:33
4. "You Don't Miss Your Water" (William Bell) – 3:51
5. "You're Still on My Mind" (Luke McDaniel) – 2:26
6. "Pretty Boy Floyd" (Woody Guthrie) – 2:37
7. "Hickory Wind" (Gram Parsons, Bob Buchanan) – 3:34
8. "One Hundred Years from Now" (Parsons) – 2:43
9. "Blue Canadian Rockies" (Cindy Walker) – 2:05
10. "Life in Prison" (Merle Haggard, J. Sanders) – 2:47
11. "Nothing Was Delivered" (Bob Dylan) – 3:34
Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Columbia 9670) reached seventy-seven in the U.S. during a chart stay of ten weeks. It failed to chart in the UK. It was remastered and re-issued in 1997 with eight bonus tracks.
1997 CD reissue Bonus Tracks
1. "You Got a Reputation" (Tim Hardin) – 3:08
2. "Lazy Days" (Parsons) – 3:26
3. "Pretty Polly" (trad. arr. Hillman, McGuinn) – 2:53
4. "The Christian Life" [Rehearsal – Take #11] (C. Louvin, I. Louvin) – 2:55
5. "Life in Prison" [Rehearsal – Take #11] (Haggard, J. Sanders) – 2:58
6. "You’re Still on My Mind" [Rehearsal – Take #43] (McDaniel) – 2:29
7. "One Hundred Years from Now" [Rehearsal – Take #2] (Parsons) – 2:20
8. "All I Have Are Memories" [Instrumental] (E.D. Hewitt, R. J. Ledford) – 4:47
The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo
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