Pop Focus: The Byrds go Country, 1968
In 1968, when the rest of the pop music world was recovering from psychedelia, the Byrds went country.
The group's album, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo," embraced classic country sounds, with lots of pedal steel and twanging Telecaster guitars, along with a little banjo and mandolin thrown in for good measure.
New member Gram Parsons, recruited into the band after the departure of David Crosby, contributed lead vocals on several tracks and two original, destined to be classic, tunes: "Hickory Wind" and "100 Years from Now."
The Byrds, famed for their hit version of "Mr. Tambourine Man," routinely included a Dylan cover or two on their LPs and, for this one, recorded two songs from his "Basement Tapes," a collection of demo recordings Dylan made with the Band during his post-motorcycle crash hiatus from public performance: "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "Nothing Was Delivered."
Tunes by country legends such as Merle Haggard ("Life in Prison") and the Louvin Brothers ("The Christian Life") along with a banjo-driven version of Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd," helped round things out.
The album, released on Aug. 30, 1968, failed to do much business on the charts but succeeded in alienating both rock fans, many of whom weren't open to the album's country sounds, and the country music establishment, who viewed the band as dilettante interlopers.
Following the release of the album, the group played a disastrous set at the Grand Ole Opry where they were the subject of constant heckling and suffered a hostile interview with the legendary Nashville disc jockey Ralph Emery, who called the group "mediocre." McGuinn and Parsons had their revenge by writing a tune lampooning Emery, "Drug Store Trucking-Driving Man," that was included on the next Byrds LP, "Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde."
Parsons' stay with the Byrds didn't last beyond this album, but he continued to follow his country muse - stealing Hillman away to become a member of his Flying Burrito Brothers, and later recording a pair of excellent, seminal country rock albums, "GP" and "Grievous Angel," both featuring the unbeatable blend of his smooth country voice with the harmonies from Emmylou Harris.
"Sweethearts of the Rodeo" wasn't the first attempt at blending rock and country. After all, country was part of rock from the start. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and other first-generation rockers created the genre by melding country, blues and r&b. Dylan had a deep love of country that creeped into much of his work. Even the Beatles, in their BBC recordings and live performances played the occasional country tune. And, from the country side, Buck Owens and others in the Bakersfield scene blended rock'n'roll guitars into to their honky tonk sound. Parsons, too, worked to fuse country and rock before his stint in the Byrds, with the album "Safe at Home" with his short-lived International Submarine Band.
Still, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is rightly hailed as a pioneering country-rock and went on to inspire a raft of country and rock'n'roll artists, ranging from Poco and the Eagles to the Outlaw Country movement and Steve Earle to alt country bands such as Uncle Tupelo and the Jayhawks.
McGuinn and Hillman recently celebrated the album's 50th anniversary in performances backed by Marty Stuart and his band and plan a wider tour, playing the LP in full. Here's our own little celebration with images and videos of the time.
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Coming Up: The Action - Shadows & Reflections: Complete Recordings 1964-1968
Out Oct. 26. Pre-order from Amazon now.
Details:
Sixties Mod band The Action only released six singles in their lifetime - or seven, if you count a pre-Action single by The Boys - but their legend has grown exponentially since their demise in 1968. The Action was the first band signed by Beatles producer George Martin after he left EMI to set up his own company AIR Productions. In due course, he produced the band's five singles issued on Parlophone between 1965 and 1967 as well as tracks intended for a never-released album.
SHADOWS AND REFLECTIONS is far and away the most comprehensive tribute to The Action so far assembled, boasting all their known recordings in the studio and live on radio/TV. Many of the original Parlophone single mixes have never been reissued in their original form on compact disc - until now. The fresh discovery of multi-tracks and rehearsal tapes has led to a whole disc's worth of previously unheard mixes and performances. The box set includes numerous photos of The Action in their heyday, with 16,000 words of sleeve-notes by David Wells and a 36-page booklet within a handsome 4-CD 'digibook'. Includes all previous material issued from the band's BBC sessions and post-Parlophone period, suitably remastered by Alec Palao.
Coming up: Birth Work Death - Work, Money And Status In Country Music 1950-1970
Out Oct. 19. Pre-order from Amazon now.
Details:
32 timeless tales of clanging Hammers and pounding Shovels - from wry, dry working-stiff diatribes to bare-chested exclamations - Birth / Work / Death maps the human work experience from anger to joy, poverty to riches. From the muck-crusted mines to late-night jukeboxes - backwoods outsiders and Nashville icons alike waxed odes to the entwined necessities of Work and Money, Status and Competition, Survival and Servitude. Harrowing laments of dank deaths underground, fevered hymns to Mammon, snide ripostes to debt-bondage and exuberant celebrations of family and sustenance. Most originally waxed on private press labels and distributed in tiny amounts, these town criers and tavern-bound troubadours sing of golden highways, slothful byways, factory-floor drudgery and fallow, heartbreaking fields. Years in the making - 'Birth / Work / Death' presents calloused anthems and bloody ballads from dusty LPs and long forgotten 45s. All for your lunch-hour listening pleasure.
Tracks:
1. Bill Carter - By The Sweat Of My Brow
2. Bobby Barnett - Workin' Man
3. Tex Ritter - The Workingman's Prayer
4. Mr. Connie Dycus - Dark As A Dungeon
5. Dave Dudley - Workin' Hands
6. Eddie Noack - Cotton Mill
7. The Westport Kids - You Kain't Take It With You
8. Arlie Duff - Money Hungry
9. Tex Williams - Money
10. Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons '65
11. Charlie Gore - Black Diamond
12. Howard Vokes - The Miner
13. The Wray Brothers - Down In The Mine
14. George Davis - Little Lump Of Coal
15. Doc Williams - Don't Want To Work
16. David Hiser - On Strike
17. Buddy Durham - Sixteen Tons
18. Sunshine Boys Quartet - Checking Up On My Payments
19. Slim Willet - Come Sundown
20. Dewitt Lee - Poor Man
21. Rusty Dunn With Wayne Roberts & The Countrymen - Production Line
22. Billy Parker - It Takes A Lot Of Money
23. Phil Brown with Bill Wood's Band - You're A Luxury
24. Daily Carson - He Ain't Got Nothing But A Cadillac
25. Perry Tonightus And The Heart Burn - Living On The Welfare Check
26. Tommy Dee - Welfare Cadillac
27. Harold Montgomery & his Star Lighters - All Them Wives
28. Jay Lee Webb - Finance Company Waltz
29. Jack Shaw - Black Lung
30. Rev. Joe Freeman - There Will Be No Black Lung - Up In Heaven
31. Stan Farlow - 1040 Blues
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