![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It's partly their fault that Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1971 never quite reaches the heights McGuinn and White aim for, but it's also clear, instrumental aptitude or not, that the Byrds had moved beyond the logical end of its creative road. Listening to this set, it's easy to imagine the band deciding to tour forever, like the Dead did, existing for fleeting moments of ephemeral glory while memories of its better days faded away. But that was not to be, and in retrospect, with fine but hardly earth-shattering documents such as this one as proxy witness, pulling the plug was probably for the best.When the Byrds kicked off the second phase of their multistage career in March 1966 with the release of “Eight Miles High,” they also happened to launch a new chapter in rock history. ![]() The quintet pretty much spent the previous year mining the Bob Dylan songbook, fine-tuning its own collective songwriting talents and perfecting the folk-rock genre with chart-topping singles like “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” But as their busy 1965 – which included two albums and many live appearances – started to wind down, the Byrds were getting restless. That fall, the band participated in a tour spearheaded by American Bandstand host Dick Clark. #THE BYRDS LIVE WITH EIGHT MILES HIGH FREE#.#THE BYRDS LIVE WITH EIGHT MILES HIGH DRIVER#.The Byrds Live At The Fillmore February 1969 stands as an impressive memento of the band at an overlooked point in their story, and also a timely reminder of the brilliance of guitarist Clarence White, who was killed by a drunk driver on July 14th, 1973, at the age of twenty-nine – a musician of rare quality who surely had so much more left to give. Whilst the set features the band mining a predominantly Country Rock seam, there are also gems culled from all points in their career to that date, such as So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, He Was A Friend of Mine, and a magnificent Chimes of Freedom. Vocalist Roger McGuinn is in similar fine shape vocally and with his celestial electric 12-string guitar, whilst the York / Parsons rhythm section acquit themselves with understated brilliance. This superb, high-quality live recording from February 1969 has the band working as a quartet-their Dr Byrds and Mr Hyde album had been released a matter of days before they played these shows-and the line up featured Roger McGuinn (Vocals, guitar), Clarence White (guitar), John York (Bass), and Gene Parsons (drums).Īs this set proves, this configuration of the band were highly underrated-guitarist Clarence White is in magisterial form, effortlessly morphing styles from Country picking on items like the Buck Owens favourite, Buckaroo, through to showing impressive modal chops on the Turn! Turn! Turn! / Mr Tambourine Man / Eight Miles High medley. Folk-Rock, Psychedelia, Country Rock-The Byrds fearlessly pushed back musical barriers. VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Byrds were inarguably one of the most influential and innovative of musical combos to emerge from the US West Coast in the mid-sixties. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |