''The Byrds: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
1968
Columbia Records
1968
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Artificial Energy 2. Goin' Back 3. Natural Harmony 4. Draft Morning 5. Wasn't Born to Follow 6. Get to You 7. Change Is Now 8. Old John Robertson 9. Tribal Gathering 10. Dolphin's Smile 11. Space Odyssey
Sorry, I didn't post this yesterday...I was feeling a little shaky, due to too much Friday Night fun...I went to the local Safeway to pick up the usual Sam Adams seasonal pack, maybe a couple Cheladas, but while at the store, I also spotted these...
I hadn't seen them before, but the purple can looked so damn appetizing (even though it's clearly labeled "Steel Reserve.) I've had a long-time fascination with their standard 40 ounces...
I have had many dealings with Steel Reserve in the past and knew enough to drink as much of it as I could in the first gulp, while it's still cold and my body and brain hadn't yet learned to recoil at the taste...
Imagine my surprise when it actually tasted...gulp...good...At under 2 bucks a can and with an 8% alcohol content, the Steel Reserve BLK Berry seems like a cheap, affordable way to get drunk...Until the repugnant aftertaste suddenly sobers you up...Yeech!
But after a couple more swallers, I grew accustomed to it and I'm giving it a hearty three-sheets rating!
But I didn't invite you guys here to talk about Steel Reserve... Nope, today we're discussing the fifth Byrds album...1968's "The Notorious Byrd Brothers"...
As you can see from the album cover, this is the album where David Crosby finally did too many drugs and was transformed into a talking horse...I originally picked up a used copy of this for 2 bucks at FYE...I had never heard anything about it and at minimum, looking at the back cover and seeing song titles like "Tribal Gathering" and "Dolphin's Smile" I at least expected a few laughs....
The band was falling apart at the time, by the end of the album both David Crosby and drummer Michael Clarke were gone, and as a result the album does have a particularly disjointed feel, but it's appealingly disjointed... and weird as hell...
Everything is phased, flanged and fiddled with..Although stylistically wide-ranging, they mostly settle on a sound that falls somewhere between dark psychedelia and LSD-laced country...The C&W aspect was actually a bit surprising, because "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is usually heralded as their country debut, but there's certainly quite a bit of that sound here...Actually, songs like "Wasn't Born to Follow" are more successful than "Sweetheart" in my mind...More wide-eyed and blown-mind...
Although warped country makes up a large chunk of the record, just as much of it is composed of indescribable, mind-bending material like the droning "Tribal Gathering" and"Space Odyssey" which makes memorable use of a Moog synthesizer, resulting in other-worldly, deep-space psychedelia...As I listened to it my eyeball got real big and changed colors...
...blink...
...blink...
...blink...
Oddly enough, the most Byrds-like track on here is the lovely "Goin' Back" Then again, that might not be too odd, considering that this is a band who found their voice doing Dylan covers...I was kind of dreading the song after reading the songwriting credits and spotting the name Carole King, who I normally associate with mom-jeans music...
...but it turns out I had nothing to fear...It really is a great little song and one of the best (and most grounded) things here...Hooray, Carole King!
I have to say, this record is much better than it's normally given credit for..Then again, my Byrd's albums are all over the place...I only have a few of them, so forgive me if I don't quite have the proper context to discuss this...Maybe I missed out on all the killer albums before this one and "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" might sound inferior when played next to them, but if that's the case, I'm glad I listened to them out of order...
I'm genuinely surprised this album isn't more highly praised...Listening to this marks the turning point when I'd finally realized I had vastly underestimated the Byrds...Fans of far-freakin'-out psychedelia shouldn't miss this...
Let's check out "Wasn't Born to Follow" by the Byrds...Enjoy....
No comments:
Post a Comment