1. So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star*
2. Have You Seen Her Face
3. C.T.A. - 102
4. Renaissance Fair*
5. Time Between
6. Everybody's Been Burned*
7. Thoughts and Words
8. Mind Gardens
9. My Back Pages
10. The Girl with No Name
11. Why
B+
The Byrds will never be one of my favourite bands, but I'm enjoying dropping in to see how they're going every now and then. A lot of this has to do with the distinctive Byrds sound. Their mix of jangly guitars, heavy bass, angelic harmonies and scribbly, distorted solos is intoxicating.
At a time when bands were constantly pushing to be more "progressive", the Byrds double down on their sound and attempt to refine it, resulting in a truly gorgeous record. The eclecticism of 5D (Fifth Dimension) is still present, but there's a unity of sound that helps to knit the various songs together. There aren't really any tracks that stand out as much as on earlier Byrds releases (nothing to match "Wild Mountain Thyme", "I Come and Stand by Every Door", or "Turn, Turn, Turn"), but this is compensated for by (with one notable exception) strong song writing throughout.
And what and exception! "Mind Gardens" is easily one of the worst songs I've had to listen to for this project - a tuneless waste of time that sounds like a stoned teenager's first attempt to write a Tim Buckley song. Which is surprising, given that David Crosby, the songwriter for "Mind Gardens", also contributed the beautiful "Renaissance Fair" and "Everybody's Been Burned". The first is a gorgeous evocation of the title subject, which manages to evoke beautifully one of the few aspects of hippiedom that I actually like (tapestries, incense, saying "thou" a lot - leave me alone, I grew up reading fantasy novels). The latter is a truly great song, a subdued, jazzy number about getting hurt but being willing to still take a chance on love. The lyric "I know all too well how to turn, how to run / How to hide behind a bitter wall of blue / But you die inside if you choose to hide / So I guess instead I'll love you" is, especially when delivered in Crosby's pure tones, incredibly affecting. It's also essentially the same message as "Mind Gardens", which makes me wonder why the rest of the Byrds let Crosby put that turd on the album.
Science fiction themes also re-emerge. "C.T.A. - 102" is a strange song about trying to contact extra-terrestrial intelligences, which plays the neat trick of switching halfway though from the band playing to song, to a couple of aliens listening to the song and commenting on it in a language that sounds suspiciously like the Jawas from Star Wars. It's pretty funny. Also pretty funny is "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", a satirical take on the music business and the way it manufactures bands and hits and chews up and spits out artists. Given that the Byrds went from being the biggest band in the world to obscure weirdos in about a year, it probably has a bit of an autobiographical slant.
The rest of the album is solid love songs, and one Dylan cover. The songs are all good, although there aren't really any standouts. Bassist Chris Hillman distinguishes himself by penning a number of lovely love songs, and there are a few ventures into country rock.
This is a lovely album, even if "Mind Gardens" is fucking terrible; full of wit and warmth and intelligence and anchored by the Byrds' wonderful guitar-bass-harmonies formula. It won't blow anyone's mind, but it's a great listen, and at this point in the List probably the place to start if you want to explore the band's work. I'd give it a higher rating but seriously - "Mind Gardens" is just that fucking bad.
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