Jeff’s Playlist: Byrds

I’ve always liked this album. I’m not a Byrds fan, but this one has a lot of good music on it. It’s a Byrds reunion album pro­duced by band mem­ber David Crosby and released in 1973. I recent­ly read Chris Hillman’s auto­bi­og­ra­phy Time Between. I knew of Chris from this album, along with his work with Stephen Stills’ group Manassas, as well as The Flying Burrito Brothers. I learned that Hillman was quite the coun­try music musi­cian, a genre that I find hard to follow.

The song “Laughing” fea­tured here was in my ear­li­er arti­cle (If I Could Only Remember My Name) in a dif­fer­ent style. I nev­er under­stood why the Byrds did so many cov­er tunes because they had so much tal­ent in their ranks. “For Free” was writ­ten by Joni Mitchell, and “Cowgirl in the Sand” by Neil Young. The Byrds have also cov­ered many Bob Dylan tunes.

Album Information

Track Title Writer Singer

1.         “Full Circle”                                      Gene Clark                            Clark               2:43
2.         “Sweet Mary”                                    McGuinn, Jacques Levy     McGuinn        2:55
3.         “Changing Heart”                             Gene Clark                            Clark               2:42
4.         “For Free”                                         Joni Mitchell                          Crosby           3:50
5.         “Born to Rock ‘n’ Roll”                     Roger McGuinn                   McGuinn       3:12
6.         “Things Will Be Better”                    Hillman, Dallas Taylor         Hillman          2:13
7.         “Cowgirl in the Sand”                      Neil Young                            Clark               3:24
8.         “Long Live the King”                                  David Crosby                        Crosby           2:17
9.         “Borrowing Time”                            Chris Hillman, Joe Lala       Hillman          2:00
10.       “Laughing”                                       David Crosby                        Crosby           5:38
11.       “(See the Sky) About to Rain”       Neil Young                            Clark               3:49

Roger McGuinn – gui­tar, ban­jo, Moog syn­the­siz­er, vocals
Gene Clark – gui­tar, har­mon­i­ca, tam­bourine, vocals
David Crosby – gui­tar, vocals
Chris Hillman – elec­tric bass, gui­tar, man­dolin, vocals
Michael Clarke – drums, con­gas, per­cus­sion
Wilton Felder – elec­tric bass on “Cowgirl in the Sand“
Johnny Barbata – drums on “Cowgirl in the Sand“
Dallas Taylor – con­gas, tambourine

Released    March 7, 1973
Recorded   October 16 – November 15, 1972
Studio         Wally Heider’s Studio 3, Hollywood
Length        34:54
Label          Asylum
Producer    David Crosby