The Byrds come full circle, now even more in style...

At long last, we come to the end of the Byrds' twilight years, and the end of my associated series of alternate albums, chronicling the band's adventures from the recruitment of Gram Parsons in late 1967 to the last album to wear the Byrds name. When Asylum announced that the classic five-piece line-up of the original Byrds would reunite and record an album, expectations were flying high. Way too high, as it turns out. When the record came out and was passable, rather than great, critics came down hard on the adventure. Of course, by 1973 things had changed so much that any direct continuation of where the band had stopped in 1966 would have been illusory. There was no return to innocence. Nor was such a thing ever planned. The reunited band was a band only in the absolute loosest sense of the term. With all of them (besides Michael Clarke, who was just happy to be there and collect a sizable check) having eyes and attention on other projects and David Crosby thanks to Crosby, Stills & Nash having risen to a status of immense power, the get together was modeled like the latter, a semi-recurring side adventure while everyone else was also doing their solo careers and projects. 

Since everyone was still tied into other things when David Geffen initiated the Byrds reunion (McGuinn was wrapping up with the CBS Byrds and Hillman with Manassas), there was little time spent rehearsing and playing with each other, not to mention collaborating or co-songwriting. When the not very inspiringly titled Byrds came out, the album sold well, returning the band to the Top 50 in the album charts after Farther Along's abysmal performance, but the critics savaged the record. It seemed a trifle, bereft of inspiration or conviction, a record made by a bunch of rock stars to make themselves richer, employing an affable but ultimately disppointing country rock sheen on a number of pedestrian songs. 

The album also bore all the hallmarks of a compromise due to egos and old war wounds involved. As this was more or less Crosby's project (as the official producer), he had not very subtly sidelined old foe Roger McGuinn. McGuinn gets a mere two lead vocals and is completely absent from the b-side of the album. The greatest beneficiary of the old McGuinn-Crosby grudge was Gene Clark who - as a sort of neutral person in the middle - got four lead vocals, including on the two Neil Young songs on the album. Hillman had deliberately brought his worst songs, basically two outtakes from Manassas' Down The Road sessions, and kept his better compositions for a future solo album, feeling the others were doing the same. 

Now, obviously I don't share all the gripes with the album, it is much better than it is generally given credit for. The playing and singing at times is marvelous and does remind you of the magic of the original Byrds. But the strains of ego-soothing and the lack of effort or good will from some members do show, as the album could and should have been better. There is some really good stuff on the album, but 'really good stuff' wasn't what people wanted, they wanted the genius and adventurous attitude they associated with The Band That Started It All. But the makings of a good album are there, and with some care and some little twisting and fixing we might just get there. So, let's take a look back towards the end of the recording of the album and how things might have turned out differently and better: 

The sessions had proceed as planned, with producer Crosby paying little mind to the classic Byrds sound and due to old grudges actively trying to minimize McGuinn’s contributions. The fate of the project changes during a playback meeting with David Geffen. Geffen is flabbergasted by what he hears, remarking “This doesn’t sound like the fuckin’ Byrds”. When Crosby wants to give him the old spiel about the band changing and evolving, Geffen wants to hear none of it. ”Where’s McGuinn?” he asks, after realizing that the voice most associated with the Byrds is missing in action for three quarters of the album. So Geffen wonders about how to get a product that is more to his liking and, more importantly, distinctly more Byrds-ian. Scheduling new sessions with the group members, who are all off to other obligations proves impractical, if not impossible. An off the cuff remark from McGuinn about how “back then, we sounded like the Byrds” referring to the sessions for an aborted Gene Clark single in 1970 sparks an idea in Geffen’s mind. 

He contacts Jim Dickson to find out more about possible Byrds and Byrds-ian tracks in A&M’s vaults, falling in love with the “She’s the Kind Of Girl/One In A Hundred” single that wasn’t. Dickson also points him to an outtake from Gene Clark’s Roadmaster album sessions, a recut version of “She Don’t Care About Time” that prominently features McGuinn, to the point where his co-lead with Gene is essentially a lead vocal. Seeing how that track never featured on a Byrds album, Geffen licenses it, together with the two tracks that the Byrds cut in 1970 (all recording separately, but still). To make space on the album, Crosby is asked to drop one of his compositions, which he refuses, to no avail. “Long Live The King” is dropped, Crosby’s complaints about the album now being unbalanced remain unheard, with Gene Clark – who brought the strongest material in the first place – profiting even more from the reconfiguration, getting 50 % of the lead vocals. Perhaps a quiet make-up gesture for the shabby way his material was pushed off the first albums (and the shabby way he was pushed out of the band). The new album features a much more prominent Byrds-ian sound and a better distribution of McGuinn’s presence throughout the album.

And so this is what Full Circle - once the working title for the album, but abandoned because Clark hadn't written it for the occasion and didn't want it to come off that way - is. A better version, and a more Byrds-ian album to end the band's run on a higher note. Having the tracks in place, off to the sequencing: Since Gene Clark gets half of the leads (obviously wouldn't have happened in real life, but quality trumps real life here), his tracks are put to alternate with every one else's and the re-instated title track would obviously lead things off. Since I wanted a punchy opening, next is Chris' "Things Will Be Better", which is actually a really nice power-pop number that doesn't deserve the auto-derision its author retrospectively put on it ("Awful stuff."). Then it's time to meet head Byrd Roger, even if "Born To Rock'n'Roll" stays a relative mediocre song. (Chris again: "Terrible. Yuck!")

Crosby's Joni Mitchell cover gets his first apparition out of the way, as the entire Byrds cast is wheeled out one after the other in between Clark's stellar work. Then we end side a with the aforementioned "She Don't Care About Time" which brings more McGuinn to the table. Side B then launches with the lovely "She's The Kind Of Girl" that really brings you back to 1965 (fittingly, since the song was written before the Byrds where even signed), then we hide Hillman's "Borrowin' Time" - admittedly a weaker track - before Crosby's well-done reworking of "Laughing". McGuinn gets to do the folkie-Byrds with "Sweet Marie" before the fearsome fivesome sign off with their greatly underrated take on Neil Young's "(See The Sky) About To Rain", whose glorious coda - mixed startingly louder than the rest of the song - is pure Byrds. 

Full Circle catches The Byrds - at least fleetingly - in their last moments of glory. Further and further removed from the unrealistic expectations heaped upon it in 1973, the album - especially in this version if I dare say so - holds up as a real good listen. See if you agree.   

P.S.: This might be the end of the alternate album Byrds here at One Buck Records, but not the end for its participants showing up here. There will be more Roger McGuinn to come, more Gene Clark of course, and I just finished working on reconfigured versions of the next closest thing to the Byrds: the semi-successful reunion as McGuinn, Clark & Hillman. So, Byrds-fans, as usual, stay tuned...