bob_32_116

Time to revive this thread:

I always liked the Byrds tracks I had heard, but never explored their albums in depth. Recently in an actual physical record store (yes!) I spied one of those 5-CD boxed sets containing five Byrds albums:

Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Dr Byrds & Mr Hyde
Ballad of Easy Rider
Byrdmaniax
Farther Along

I decided that for the price I could not go far wrong.

Well. How wrong I was. I have now listened to all five, and for my money there is barely a full album's worth of decent material in the whole lot.

"Ballad of Easy Rider" is easily the best of the bunch, almost worth it for the title track alone. Having said that, even that album had some songs that did little for me.

I probably should have done my homework first. The problem was that I did not realise just how dramatic the group's transition in style had been, beginning with "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". This is the album that is sometimes claimed to have started off country rock. For me it is just a country album, with everything I dislike about the genre. If you like country in the first place, then you would probably love this; I didn't. Blame Gram Parsons for that. Things get a little better on the other albums of the set, but not much.

Notably missing from the set is "Untitled", which chronologically falls somewhere in there. I've heard Untitled, and it's better than anything in this five-album set.

For anyone wanting to dip their toe into this band's canon, I'd suggest going with "The Notorious Byrd Brothers". Really though I think your money is better spent on Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - any of their first three albums. The guitars are there, the harmonies are there, but the songwriting is at a whole new level. Not for nothing was this band known as the first "super-group".