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Byrds' album lacks luster
Review by Bart Becker
Byrds. Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, David
Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Michael Clarke.
Asylum (SD 5058.)
It's time for "let us now half-heartedly
praise famous men" again. These are the
original five Byrds back together for the first
time in several years and, I suppose, the
obvious thing to say is that they have
preserved some of the harmonies that give
their songs the "Byrds" sound.
Byrds leans more Toward hard rock than
most of what these guys have been doing on
records lately. The performance, of course,
is technically superior to most, although it's
often - 'er too.
Side One opens with Gene Clark's "Full
Circle" which says "Funny now the circle is
a wheelAnd it can steal someone who is a
friendFunny how the circle takes
flightAnd if it's right it brings it back
again." That's followed by "Sweet Mary"
which has kind of an English folksong sound
to it.
"Changing Heait" is okay, but no.
spectacular. They follow it with a nice
treatment of Jorii Mitchell's "For Free." I'm
glad they did the song on this album, but it's
unfortunate in a way. They can't possibly do
the song better than Jom Mitchell herself
and comparison is inevitable.
The side winds up with McGuinn's "Born
to Rock 'n' Roll", w Inch doesn't especially.
But it does hove this good line, which
everybody feels sometime or another:
"Sometime, you get to do the thing you're
meant to, and I know I was bom to rock 'n'
roll."
One of the really good things about Byrds
is that they sing a lot of "oolala"
background vocals and use their voices for
harmonizing breaks occasionally. But of
course in the final analysis it's the total
sound that makes the Byrds.
The second side opens with the hardest
rocker, called "Things Will Be Better," and
then moves on to a good cover of Neil
Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand." The latter is
essentially the same arrangement as Young's,
but the Byrd's fuller vocal arrangements
make it a unique song.
"Long Live the King" is David Cross's
human politics composition on the album.
"The first thing that they tell you is you'll
be king," it says, and "In empty space, is
that the place you want to be?"
"Bon owing Time" is a bright tune full of
calypso rhythms. It's a fine relief tune
because of its contrast with most of the
other songs. The mandolin and guitar work
tries, fairly successfully, to capture the
steel-band sound.
That's followed by Crosby's foreboding
"Laughing," and the album ends with "(See
The Sky) About To Rain." The latter has a
lot of good vocal work and a surprising
instrumental break in the middle, which is
jarring the first time around. The second
time around it sits real easy.
It may be just my peiception of things,
but it serrm as if a lot of top-flight musicians
die making essentially emotionless records
these days. On Byrds five good musicians go
intougn some good paces.
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