Ballad of Easy Rider (Exp) [Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

The Byrds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 25, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002AGH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,121 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The overlooked 1970 classic, with bonus tracks Way Behind the Sun; Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood; Oil in My Lamp ; unreleased alternate versions of Tulsa County (Blue) and The Ballad of Easy Rider , and two unreleased instrumentals, Fiddler a Dram (Moog Experiment) and Build It Up (Clarence White rips)! --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Last Great Byrds Album, January 25, 2000

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ballad of Easy Rider (Exp) (Audio CD)

Originally released the same month as the Beatles' Abbey Road, both albums amounted to swan sangs for the respective bands. The Byrds would release spotty albums with occasionally excellent material, but Ballad of Easy Rider would be their last album of uniformly top notch songs.

The album opens with the stunning "Ballad of Easy Rider" and in two short minutes McGuinn captures the youth culture's optimistic search for freedom: "The river flows, it flows to the sea/wherever that river goes, that's where I want to be."

The album was very much a band effort. Of the four originals on the album, McGuinn contributed only the title track. John York wrote "Fido," (featuring the only drum solo on a Byrds' album). Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram) and Clarence White are given songwriting credit for "Oil in My Lamp," one of the few lead vocals for White who is better known for his guitar work. The other original is the gentle "Gunga Din" by Gene Parsons, who also provides the vocal.

The country take on "Tulsa County" features some terrific guitar playing by White. "Jack Tarr the Sailor" is the type of sea chantey McGuinn would return to on his solo album Cardiff Rose. Their rendition of "Jesus is Just Alright" was released as a single and though it was little different than the version put out four years later by the Doobie Brothers, the Byrds version spent only one week at No. 97 before falling off the charts. It would also be the last time a Byrds single would dent Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart.

As they had done throughout their career, the Byrds once again went to the Bob Dylan songbook. This time recording a moving version of "It's All over Now, Baby Blue." But the band's most stirring cover is their majestic take on Woody Guthrie's "Deporte (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)," a sympathetic look at the plight of Mexican immigrants.

The bonus tracks are abundant--seven in all. Of the two tracks otherwise only available on The Byrds Boxed Set, "Way Beyond the Sun" is a traditional folk tune and "Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood" is a Jackson Browne song. "Fiddler A Dram" is an experimental song using the then-new Moog synthesizer, which is a curious but non-essential track. "Build It Up" is an instrumental allowing Clarence White to show off his guitar prowess. The other three tracks are alternate takes of the original album's songs, including the long version of "Ballad of Easy Rider." [Only in the sixties would a 2-minute and 26-second song be able to stake a claim as the "long" version!)

The album peaked at No. 36--their highest charting album since Greatest Hits went to No. 6 in 1967. Sales no doubt were helped along by the popularity of the movie "Easy Rider," which featured the album's title song in the soundtrack.

All told, this was the last great Byrds album and it belongs in any serious Byrds fan's collection. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Latter-Day Byrds Album and, Possibly, Best Ever., November 19, 2004

By 

Matt - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ballad of Easy Rider (Exp) (Audio CD)

When Columbia Records released "The Ballad of Easy Rider" in 1969, they advertised that "the movie gave you the facts, the 'Ballad' interprets them." How dead-on they were: while "Easy Rider" depicted a democratic America, "The Ballad of Easy Rider" IS everyman's America captured in music. Full of warm, harmonious vocals which rival (and surpass I'd say) the mellifluous sounds of CSN, simple themes, brilliant muscianship, and pure and genuine production thanks to Terry Melcher (a far cry from the orchestrated twang of "Byrdmaniax"), this album is the very best that the Byrds ever made. The aforementioned harmonies of McGuinn, White, Parsons, York, and even Melcher- I think- blow the original line up out of the water...just check out "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." Creatively, likewise, each track differs from the previous yet the album coherently flows and, by the end, simply cries "Help me, I'm lonely!" Five stars for an absolutely brilliant album, one that changed my life.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of American country/folk/rock, April 24, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (pacific grove, ca.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ballad of Easy Rider (Exp) (Audio CD)

Think for a minute of your favorite albums, and try to remember how you felt when you first heard them. Some you loved immediately, and had to play them overand over because you just couldn't get enough. You went around telling your friends how great they were, and wanted them to like 'em as much as you did (they didn't). Others you liked well enough, but not enough to ignite that immediate passion. But over the months and years you came to appreciate them more and more, until you realized that you played and enjoyed them a lot more now than the ones that set you on fire years ago. Why? because they are timeless. The music and words on them are truth, and a truth that you grow to appreciate as you grow older because you have experienced what you only had thought about when you were younger. The Ballad of Easy Rider is one of the finest collections of songs the Byrds ever put together. The themes of movement, world-weariness, and hope reverberate throughout the album, making it a wonderful companion piece to Sweetheart of the Rodeo. What makes this recording especially noteworthy is the fact that it was made with a Byrds lineup that was vastly different from the Sweetheart crew. This makes you wonder about how much Roger McGuinn influenced others. Grab this cd and listen to it for the rest of your life.