I have spent my life trying not to have to try to figure out The Byrds; it might have been different if I'd started way back, maybe not from the beginning, but maybe when this 1967 album came out, their fourth. I could have joined the cult, been indoctrinated, socialized, whatever. It's kind of like with any cult, if you're brainwashed from childhood, the belief is second nature, and of course even inescapable. But it you're not, none of it ever really makes sense. The Byrds have had so many members come and go over the years, they may as well be a group with a history like the Masons, and in fact, there could be arguments made that The Byrds and the Masons are one in the same. This brilliant, groundbreaking album comes off the tracks at the end of the “CTA - 102” when we hear the simultaneous forward and tape reversed voice of Satan (which sounds suspiciously like the garden gnome episode of “Night Gallery”)—and the album then starts traveling in reverse (the next song is “Renaissance Fair”).
I was finally coerced to approach this
record by my ex-employer, Anthony Franciosa (not the actor, but the
editor of The Moss Problem), and even though the compensation
is minimal, Tony convinced me over breakfast at his regular hangout,
Foxy's Restaurant, in Glendale (part of the greater Los Angeles). One
of his arguments was that the song “Thoughts and Words” sounds
exactly like a Bob Lind number (who I just wrote about) and then goes
into a chorus that sounds exactly like someone else (on the tip of my
tongue—I'll think of it and fill it in here later). Then it
uses the backwards guitars, which never sounded good to me, but
still, I like the idea. That technique is taken to an extreme with
“Mind Gardens,” which is one of those hippie numbers that drugs
(LSD?) allow the artist to dispense with harmony, melody, rhythm,
structure, rhyme, story, or any narrative sense at all. Long live
1967! The funny thing is that I always thought the song was called
“Mings Garden” and was about Moo Goo Gai Pan.
“My Back Pages” is another one of
those Bob Dylan songs that is much better than he played it. And I'm
not one of those Dylan haters, in fact I'm writing the first book
ever about him, and he's sitting across the table from me
right now, and I'm only interrupting our interview to write
this quick review. What many people don't realize is that The Byrds
were actually several groups at once, and one piece of
evidence for that is the cover of this record, with images of them in
the future, after having passed away, returning as ghosts. All dead
before their time, they did return, were accused of inventing
“country-rock”—but never convicted. Actually, I'm not sure if
the back of this record, with a badly done collage of old band photos
(or someone else's high school yearbook, perhaps), was actually like
this (I wish I could include a picture—wait, maybe I can, here
at The Moss Problem [This being a rock writing simulcast
with DJ Farraginous]) (it looks like drawn on goatees, red
lipstick, and bleeding tears) or if some punk kid altered it with
marker. Because it may have been the inspiration for The Rolling
Stones Some Girls—if the latter is not true.
The Byrds are and were Chris Hillman,
David Crosby, Michael Clark, Gene Clark, Gene Clarke, Mitchel Clark,
Gene Clarke, Michel Clarke, and identical twins Jim and Roger
McGuinn. An earlier incantation of the band was known as the
Yardbyrds, and here they've revived their hit, “Have You Seen Her
Face.” The song “So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star,” so
ingrained in the culture it won't come out even with Formula 409 at
least satisfies the “song with 'rock'n'roll' in the title”
requirement for consideration for inauguration into the Rock Hall o'
Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio. Another odd fact is that the band's name
upside down and backwards is “Spjh8.” Someone has released a
record called “Older Than Tomorrow”—but it violated the
conditions of its parole before it could drop. All other facets of
this record and band, including the songs I haven't touched on, the
concept, the attitude, and the execution, can only be described as
seminal. If not kaleidoscopic.
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