Day four of our Tour de Byrds Flip-Sides in chronological order.
Everybody's Been Burned
After a four month hiatus, The Byrds returned to producing records in January of 1967 for Columbia Records with the stellar So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star. That number was written by McGuinn and bassist Chris Hillman, who gets his first song writing credit on the A-Side. The Flip-Side was, for the second straight release, a David Crosby composition. Everybody's Been Burned is another languorous number with Crosby singing lead and not a single trademarked Byrds harmony to be heard. It's really exquisite and very Un-Byrds like.
Renaissance Fair
For the 9th single, released in March of 1967, The Byrds returned to the proven formula of putting a Bob Dylan cover on the A-Side, My Back Pages, and an original composition on the Flip-Side. David Crosby again does the heavy vocal lifting in this song he wrote with Roger McGuinn. McGuinn and Hillman lay the new sounding Byrds harmonies on thick. The goofy lyrics and hippy-dippy ethos of Renaissance Fair should make me run for the ye olde hills. But I love it, largely for the musical arrangement. Chris Hillman's bass work in particular is really something special here.
The bass work in Everybody's Been Burned is something to behold too.
ReplyDeleteLove both these tunes!
Chris Hillman was a fabulous bassist, and by this point in the band, about to turn into a very good singer and great songwriter.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. His basswork on these two tracks is real free form. I doubt he played them the same way twice. No one else was doing this that I can think of, except Entwistle.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you flip Everybody's Been Burned over you can hear his very, very impressive work on his co-composition, So You Want To Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star.
DeleteJack Cassidy of Jefferson Airplane was doing stuff not too dissimilar, no?
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