Alt Byrds, get on your bikes and sing the Ballad Of Easy Rider

Easy Rider, the movie, was a blessing for the Byrds. After the ups and downs of the preceding year and the low-key Byrds relaunch with Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde, the reconfigured group could use a boost of publicity, which Dennis Hopper's film gave them. While most viewers probably didn't figure out to what degree the original band influenced the conception of the characters and their dynamic - Billy, the mustachoid, paranoid longhair was a stand-in for David Crosby, while the more stoic, grounded Wyatt was based on McGuinn - their music was put into focus again. There was the title song, sung by McGuinn (and helped on harmonica by fellow Byrd Gene Parsons) as well as McGuinn's cover of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", and a key montage of both bikers riding was set to "Wasn't Born To Follow" off The Notorious Byrd Brothers, its title becoming a sort of unofficial slogan of the movie's characters and attitude. All of a sudden the Byrds were back in public view, and thanks to the Easy Rider link, back to being hip with the kids. There was just one problem.     

If limited creativity and songwriting had already been a problem on the preceding album, this issue rears its head again on Ballad of Easy Rider. Badly. Band leader Roger McGuinn was busy writing songs - just not for The Byrds. He was still working with Jacques Levy on their hippie re-imagining of the story of Peer Gynt, the dashingly hip retitled Gene Tryp. Thus, McGuinn arrived to the recording sessions for what would become Ballad Of Easy Rider with absolutely nothing in his pockets. The one song he brought was the film's title song, half-written by Dylan, six months old at that point and already issued as a solo track for the immensely influential Easy Rider soundtrack. 

So McGuinn had to rely on the rest of the group, and they came through. Gene Parsons contributed the road travelogue "Gunga Din", a minor Byrds classic that is woefully underrated and has, I think, never shown up on any of their multiple retrospectives. John York wrote the fun "Fido", a song that would indirectly and unwillingly bring him into trouble (more on that later). And Clarence White dusted off an old Baptist hymn for his first lead vocal as a Byrd. After Dr. Byrds And Mr. Hyde had established the new-look Byrds as McGuinn's by having him sing all lead vocals, one of the pleasant surprises of Ballad of Easy Rider was the discovery of the band's other voices. However, the Ballad of Easy Rider with its mix of covers and minor-key originals could never catch the attention of the counterculture youth in the way the movie had, even with the movie-tie in and liner notes by Peter Fonda. Other than a general sense of wanderlust, there isn't much that connects the Ballad to the movie and its themes and the Byrds arguably squandered their best shot at becoming and staying relevant again.  

I, like many Byrds fans, have an almost unreasonable love for the album. It's obvious how empty the cupboard was - no Byrds album has more outside songs, and it does have a cobbled-together feel, because, well, it was cobbled together. But it's fine playing and mellow vibe has always appealed to me. In many ways, it is the warmest and friendliest of Byrds albums, a relaxing experience after the odd mix of harder rock and country on Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde. If you like Clarence White's guitar playing and string bending, you'll be served here. The Byrds' odd, half-speed take on "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" for example is elevated almost entirely by White's beautiful guitar work. 

For this version of Ballad of Easy Rider, I got rid of the two weakest tracks of the album. "Jack Tarr The Sailor" is, in my opinion, in contention for worst Byrds track of all time. Not because it's unlistenable or anything but it doesn't sound much like a Byrds song, also due to McGuinn's odd attempt at a British accent. And "Armstrong, Aldrin And Collins" was literally just half a song, and not a very good one at that. In its place are some of the songs that could've been contenders. At least one should've made the cut: I don't understand why we needed "Jack Tarr" when a version of the lightweight but pleasant "Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood" by then unknown songwriter Jackson Browne was in the can.

 And while McGuinn was dreaming of combining the past and the future since before Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, the band finally got a track down that did that, setting a banjo-picked version of the old folk traditional "Fiddler A Dram" to a backing track played on McGuinn's beloved Moog. It's an odd little song, but has a certain charm to it that made me place it on the album. These guys were space cowboys before, let them be space folkies!

Other tracks came down to choices. For some reason, the Byrds selected a particularly nasal vocal delivery by White and kind of sludgy take on "Oil In My Lamp", when a quicker, much sprightlier and to my mind much better take of the song existed. It even has a hint of the old jingle-jangle sound in its opening moments! The other swap came down to personal preference: McGuinn's take on "Tulsa County" is fine, and Byron Berline's fiddle a real treat - but I prefer the original version sung by John York, who brought the track to the recording sessions.

 Alas, it fell victim to politicking: Terry Melcher wanted York to sign over the publishing rights to "Fido" to him, and when York politely declined, all of a sudden he was to be replaced on lead vocals by McGuinn because quote-unquote McGuinn "sounded more like a cowboy". Yeah, sure, Terry. Either way, I love York's drawn out "oh's ("I don't know-ho-ho-ho / just where I'll go-oh-oh-oh") on the original version so that one gets the nod. He sounds plenty like a cowboy to me, but then again I don't have a publishing rights tiff with him! Speaking of "Fido": I was never particularly fond of the drum solo in that, so it got led behind the shed and shot. Sorry 'bout that, folks. 

So, this is the Ballad Of Easy Rider according to the One Buck Guy. Go on a test ride down some sweet country roads along gently flowing rivers with these guys...wherever that river goes, that's where I want to be...(don't we all...?)...flow, river, flow...