As I’ve said before, my weird relationship with The Byrds is: big fan, own almost none of their records. For decades, all I had was one 1967 greatest hits collection and “Fifth Dimension.” Yet, considered myself a fan. Even about 20 years back, when I was having a little moment with Gram Parsons, my natural anti-country reticence kept me from dipping into “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”
A couple of years back I pulled their entire collection digitally to give the catalog more of a listen, and of course the staples from “Sweetheart” are wonderful, there are some gems among the whole catalog – but any of the albums post-Sweetheart are touch and go, and mostly go.
This 1969 release was a gift earlier this year from a friend who was thinning her parents’ record collection, and I was happy to have a little more Byrds in my collection on vinyl. But other than McGuinn, this is an entirely new band, mixing up country and rock, and the best track was written with Gram Parsons who was no longer in the band. So . . . if I’m spinning Byrds, I’m spinning this last.
