How much you like The Byrds might determine which of these Greatest Hit collections you’d prefer. Surprisingly, The Byrds Greatest Hits came out in 1967–early in their career. The Byrds Turn, Turn, Turn: The Ultimate Collection came out in 2015 and features many of the songs on the first Greatest Hits album…plus many more songs I’d never heard of before I listened to this 48 song 3-CD set.
I like most of the covers The Byrds did of Bob Dylan songs. The Byrds benefited from the Folk-Rock movement in the Sixties. But, once that faded out…so did they. The Byrds formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole consistent member. In 1973, The Byrds produced their last album, Byrds, and flew away. Are you a fan of The Byrds? Any favorite songs here? GRADE: B+ for both CDs
TRACKLIST:
| A1 | Mr. Tambourine Man Written By Bob Dylan | 2:17 | |
| A2 | I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better Written-By – G. Clark | 2:31 | |
| A3 | The Bells Of Rhymney Written-By – I. Davies*, P. Seeger | 3:31 | |
| A4 | Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) Adapted By [Words From The Book Of Ecclesiastes] | 3:35 | |
| A5 | All I Really Want To Do Written By Bob Dylan | 2:02 | |
| A6 | Chimes Of Freedom Written By Bob Dylan | 3:52 | |
| B1 | Eight Miles HighWritten-By – D. Crosby*, G. Clark | 3:36 | |
| B2 | Mr. Spaceman Written by J. McGuinn | 2:09 | |
| B3 | 5 D (Fifth Dimension) Written by J. McGuinn | 2:33 | |
| B4 | So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll StarWritten-By – C. Hillman | 2:03 | |
| B5 | My Back Pages Written by Bob Dylan | 3:05 |
TRACKLIST:
| 1-1 | All I Really Want To Do | |
| 1-2 | I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better | |
| 1-3 | I Knew I’d Want You | |
| 1-4 | Mr. Tambourine Man | |
| 1-5 | Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) | |
| 1-6 | She Don’t Care About Time | |
| 1-7 | The World Turns All Around Her | |
| 1-8 | Here Without You | |
| 1-9 | She Has A Way | |
| 1-10 | Spanish Harlem Incident | |
| 1-11 | It Won’t Be Wrong | |
| 1-12 | Why | |
| 1-13 | Mr. Spaceman | |
| 1-14 | What’s Happening? | |
| 1-15 | Captain Soul | |
| 1-16 | 5d (Fifth Dimension) | |
| 2-1 | Eight Miles High | |
| 2-2 | Set You Free This Time | |
| 2-3 | Wild Mountain Thyme | |
| 2-4 | So You Want To Be A Rock’n’Roll Star | |
| 2-5 | Everybody’s Been Burned | |
| 2-6 | My Back Pages | |
| 2-7 | Have You Seen Her Face | |
| 2-8 | Don’t Make Waves | |
| 2-9 | Lady Friend | |
| 2-10 | Old John Robertson | |
| 2-11 | Chimes Of Freedom | |
| 2-12 | Goin’ Back | |
| 2-13 | Change Is Now | |
| 2-14 | Artificial Energy | |
| 2-15 | Pretty Boy Floyd | |
| 2-16 | I Am A Pilgrim | |
| 3-1 | You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere | |
| 3-2 | The Christian Life | |
| 3-3 | Hickory Wind | |
| 3-4 | You’re Still On My Mind | |
| 3-5 | One Hundred Years From Now | |
| 3-6 | Bad Night At The Whiskey | |
| 3-7 | Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man | |
| 3-8 | Old Blue | |
| 3-9 | Wasn’t Born To Follow | |
| 3-10 | Child Of The Universe | |
| 3-11 | Ballad Of Easy Rider | |
| 3-12 | Oil In My Lamp | |
| 3-13 | Jesus Is Just Alright | |
| 3-14 | Lay Lady Lay | |
| 3-15 | It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue | |
| 3-16 | Chestnut Mare |
I always liked the Byrds; I didn’t buy all their albums, but I played what I had often. I guess I played the Greatest Hits lp and the mixed live/studio (Untitled) the most. I bought their first cd box set, just called The Byrds, when it came out in 1990, and played those four cds a lot. And just last week I loaded their later 4-cd set, There Is a Time, into Apple Music and lived with that for a few days. I’m not familiar with this 3-disc set, but most everything on it is on both of the two 4-disc ones.
That first Greatest Hits lp covered only their first four albums — but those four albums contained a lot of hit singles. My favorite is probably Eight Miles High, but there are a lot of great songs on there. The Turn Turn Turn collection includes seven of the eleven tracks from Sweetheart of the Rodeo, a seminal country-rock album. Among the later songs, Jesus Is Just Alright is probably my favorite.
Lots of great stuff here.
Jeff, I somehow missed THERE IS TIME, that 4-CD set you mentioned. I agree with you, there’s lots of great stuff on these CDs!
I loved The Byrds and can still listen to them with great pleasure, but like many of the bands of that era they were more adept at making music than they were at getting along. They seem to be known mostly for their Dylan covers, but they also produced some great stuff of their own like “Eight Miles High”, my own favorite. Everyone but the most rabid Byrds fans can get the first collection and skip the other one.
Michael, as Jeff points out, THE BYRDS GREATEST HITS album included songs from their first four albums where most of their best-selling songs appeared.
We have the same 4-CD set that Jeff S has—but when we play it, we tend to just hit the songs on the Greatest Hits album, so what Michael says is valid. My favorites are “8 Miles High” and “So You Want to Be A Rock ’n’ Roll Star” (of which Tom Petty did a great cover).
Deb, I’m with you on Tom Petty’s cover of “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.” Great!
Patti Smith also did a good cover of If You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star. Last time I saw her play live she was still part of her set.
I have the 4 CD box set. It contains a couple of very early songs that sound a bit like the Beatles.
Steve, all sorts of bands tried to sound like the Beatles in the Sixties. But those crafty Beatles kept changing their sound.
But the Beatles were also trying to sound like the Byrds, most obviously with songs such as “Rain”…the Byrds were at least as protean, and it was mostly CBS that wanted to push the Dylan songs, even if Pete Seeger wrote/adapted one of their early hits. Gene Clark wrote one great and good song after another for the band, but just couldn’t stand flying…tough for a Byrd.
Todd, a number of singers had problems with flying. I had to chuckle at your “tough for a Byrd” line!!
There’s a very interesting documentary called DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME about one of the original Byrds who was kicked out of the band and later became a member of an even bigger band, CSN, which lasted a lot longer than the Byrds. In an interview Crosby says “The Byrds didn’t kick me out of the band because they didn’t want to record my songs. They kicked me out because I was an asshole. “
Michael, I’ll have to check out DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME. Over time, I’ve heard various band mates of Crosby refer to him as an asshole.
Yes, check it out, George. We watched the Crosby documentary too, and he was an @sshole. I was impressed when I first learned that he was Hollywood Royalty, second generation, as the son of cinematographer Floyd Crosby, who won an Academy Award in 1931 for TABU, and also filmed HIGH NOON, among others. David fucked away much of his talent and most of his friends with horrible behavior over the years.
I was never more than a moderate Byrds fan. I always liked their cover of Dylan’s “My Back Pages.”
“Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
We’ve seen Roger McGuinn a few times as the one professional musician playing with Dave Barry, Stephen King and the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders.
Jeff, I would presume Crosby’s heavy drug use had something to do with his evolution into an asshole.
No, apparently he was spoiled brat while sober, too.
Well, I’m the naysayer here.
Not a fan of the Byrds, the Doors, or the Animals.
I’ll pass on this one.
Beth, but you like Rod Stewart and David Bowie!
I can see where you’re coming from with the Doors…but that’s an interesting grouping. I love harmony, jazz and folk influences, and bluegrass, so a whole Lot of Byrds music is my jam. Morrison lyrics don’t compare well.
Jim Morrison was a little TOO zoned out for my taste. After reading the Grace Slick memoir, I can see why he died young.
Beth, drugs are a sure way of shortening your Life.
THE BYRDS, the 1973 Arista album, was a not-bad reunion of the first quintet. I prefer, on balance, Clark to Dylan as a songwriter, so you know I’d prefer the second anthology to the first.
Todd, since I have both THE BYRDS GREATEST HITS and BYRDS TURN, TURN, TURN: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION I can listen to one or the other depending on my mood.
Rather like the Beatles also, covers of Byrds compositions became hits for other bands as well, one example being “You Showed Me” for both the Turtles and Salt-N-Pepa…and their influence was massive.
Todd, The Byrds had a unique sound and their songs hit the top of the BILLBOARD charts with regularity.
“Eight Miles High” was blacklisted by an AM-radio programmers professional newsletter as being CLEARLY A DRUG SONG, as opposed to an innovative but somewhat straightforwardly poetic account USian culture shock in England. A bit of a dent in their sales followed, even though the next album and its singles did OK…
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2015/06/eight-miles-high-saturday-music-club-on.html
Todd, I remember the politicians railing against “drug music” over the years. And the FBI seemed convinced “Louie Louie” was a drug song but they couldn’t decipher the lyrics!
I think they were more worried, and almost sensibly (but not really), that it was a sex song (after all, the early ’60s, and films such as THE EXPLOSIVE GENERATION were still popping up in theaters). You know, Youth aren’t Led Down the Primrose Path without Bad Influences! Hormones must be channeled into Eagle Scouting!
The Kingsmen and most of their immediate contemporaries, were advocates of the hard stuff–multiple sixpacks of whatever you could afford, and maybe mix in some Everclear.