20 Essential Tracks From the Boxed Set 1965-1990

The Byrds | Format: Audio Cassette

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (January 14, 1992)
• Original Release Date: 1992
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000027RX
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,037,607 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mr. Tambourine Man

2. I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better

3. All I Really Want to Do [LP Version]

4. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)

5. 5D (Fifth Dimension)

6. Eight Miles High

7. Mr. Spaceman

8. So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star

9. Have You Seen Her Face

10. Lady Friend

11. My Back Pages

12. Goin' Back [LP Version]

13. The Ballad of Easy Rider

14. Jesus Is Just Alright

15. Chestnut Mare

16. I Wanna Grow up to Be a Politician

17. He Was a Friend of Mine

18. Paths of Victory

19. From a Distance

20. Love That Never Dies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BOXED SET VERSIONS OF CLASSIC CUTS, July 31, 2004

By 

Mark "a longtime record buyer" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Byrds - 20 Essential Tracks From The Boxed Set: 1965-1990 (Audio CD)

This is an excellent compilation but notice the title. These are not 20 essential tracks from the full Byrds catalogue but from the first (1990) Boxed Set, as remastered -- and sometimes remixed from the original separated tracks -- for the Boxed Set. It also includes the four new tracks especially recorded in 1990 by McGuinn/Crosby/Hillman for the Boxed Set and previously available only there.

Since these tracks were unique to the Boxed Set -- and one is even unique to this disk -- I'm first going to focus on how they differ from the standard versions on other Byrds albums.

I. REMIXES FROM THE ORIGINAL SEPARATED TRACKS:

(1) 'Mr. Tambourine Man' violates the premise of a Boxed Set "sampler" with the opening cut -- this is NOT from the Boxed Set. The enclosed booklet calls it a "new stereo remix from the original eight-track master." It's an unexpected surprise available only here (as far as I know), and I've come to prefer it over other versions of this defining classic. It's a little cleaner and simpler than the standard album mix, with McGuinn's great understated vocal brought well forward to good effect.

The Boxed Set uses a "remixed true stereo version" of the single (which runs 2:16 compared to the 2:29 album version) taken from the now-rare album "Never Before". That version is also unique (see my Boxed Set review). I think these are all the same take but with different mixes, equalizations, and running times.

(2) 'Turn! Turn! Turn': This song is available only in monaural on all other Byrds albums. (Stereo was still relatively new and producer Terry Melcher disliked it.) It appeared in true stereo for the first time on the Boxed Set, and that version is used here.

The Boxed Set booklet says: "Remastered from the original two-track tape, this cut was never mixed for true stereo release. With the multi-tracks nowhere to be found for our use, this is the next best thing, with the vocals panned slightly to the left, instruments to the right. This version offers definition never before heard, and we allowed the track to run a bit longer than all other released versions."

Those accustomed to the monaural track will find this a little distracting at first on headphones, but it really shines on speakers, especially if not too widely separated.

(3) 'Lady Friend': Boxed Set booklet: "Remixed from the original eight-track master, this is `Lady Friend's' first appearance in wide true stereo with no additional overdubs".

This track from the Boxed Set runs 2:35 and opens with David Crosby clearing his throat, complaining, "Can't even talk, how can I sing?" I think this same mix is on Expanded "Yesterday" and "Essential Byrds", where it runs 2:30 without Crosby's remark and has slightly different equalization.

(4) The remaining eight-track remixes from the Boxed Set are '5D' (notice how sharply the drums crack), 'Mr. Spaceman', and 'Have You Seen Her Face' (with longer ending). These are to my ear fairly faithful to the original mixes.

II. REMASTERS:

Regardless of how many tracks are used in recording a song, they must ultimately be mixed down to a two-track mixdown tape for use on two-speaker players and headphones. The remaining selections on this album use the original two-track mixdown tapes from the albums on which they first appeared.

However, as remastered for the Boxed Set, the equalization of songs from the first four albums especially tend to bring the vocals forward a little more than on those albums.

III. THE FOUR 1990 RECORDINGS

The 1965 version of 'He Was A Friend of Mine' is also on the Boxed Set (the only place you can find it in stereo, similar to the description of 'Turn!' above), so it's unclear why the Byrds chose to reprise it as one of only four songs for this reunion set. Still, this haunting arrangement in full stereo won me over so I won't complain.

'Paths of Victory' is a rousing rendition of a little known Dylan song, and I like it a lot. (This track is also on "The Byrds Play Dylan," and Dylan's original piano demo is on his Bootleg Series Vol I.)

Chris Hillman's uptown country interpretation of 'From A Distance' is a little too mainstream for my taste, and it's not quite a Byrds song. (Though my admiration for Hillman is undiminished.)

Roger McGuinn's 'Love That Never Dies' really is a Byrds song: a wistfully retrospective original with a throbbing beat that I personally rank among his best performances.

IV. BOTTOM LINE

If you want a good Byrds retrospective, the original "Byrds Greatest Hits - Expanded Edition" is an unbeatable one disk look at their glory years. "The Essential Byrds" (2 CDs) is much preferred to "20 Essential Tracks" as a retrospective of this great band's entire run; it serves up at least two tracks from every Columbia album in chronological order, and lacks only the Asylum footnote.

But for something a little different, "20 Essential Tracks" has a lot to offer. The sound quality is stellar, and alone almost reason enough to own this. The song selections and program make for a very good listening CD that features this band's most important hits along with some classic cuts. And it closes with the 4 "new" (1990) songs previously available only on the Boxed Set.

I give this 5 stars for serious Byrds fans who can best appreciate its treasures, but 4 for new fans who will not go wrong but might make a better start with one of the above two alternatives.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compact collection of the Byrds' back pages, December 19, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Byrds - 20 Essential Tracks From The Boxed Set: 1965-1990 (Audio CD)

Known as that folk-rock group that electrified Dylan's songs with that Rickenbacker guitar, and who were further influenced the Beatles and vice-versa, the Byrds took "Mr. Tambourine Man" to the UK and US #1 post. Apart from that Rickenbacker, McGuinn's lead vocal, and harmony vocals by Dave Crosby and Gene Clark make this song memorable. There are three other Dylan songs here. "All I Really Want To Do," their second single, which was also covered by Cher, whose version did better than theirs. And then there's "My Back Pages," which was originally written as Dylan's repudiating his militant past, but here, as the Byrds' repudiation of the music hitmaking machine. It also turned out to be one of their last top twenty hits. Other highlights:

"I'll feel A Whole Lot Better" has definite Beatles influences, while their cover of Pete Seeger's Ecclesiastes-adapted prayer "Turn! Turn! Turn!" is probably their best song ever, taken from the album of the same name. This was anthemic of the ongoing civil rights movement: "a time to rend, a time to sow, a time for love, a time for hate, a time for peace, I swear it's not too late."

The waltz-time "5D", recorded after Gene Clark's departure, signalled their entry into psychedelia. And "Eight Miles High", a clear influence on the raga and jazz, as well as acid rock, was wrongfully lambasted and banned as being a drugs song, whereas it was about aeroplane jitters during the group's 1965 tour. The catchy "Mr. Spaceman" should've made more of an impression, and I wonder if Neil Innes' "Urban Spaceman" was partly influenced by this song.

"So You Wanna Be A Rock And Roll Star?" is a satiric rip on the process that had put them as a hitmaker. It features South African jazzman Hugh Masakela, as well as live audience cheers. Tom Petty later covered this on his Pack The Plantation album.

They do a nice rendition of "Goin' Back" the nostalgic song of yearning written by Carole King and Gerry Coffin, and their version is more uptempo than Dusty Springfield's melodic ballad. It features a pedal steel guitar by Red Rhodes.

The melancholy but rhythmic "The Ballad of Easy Rider" rivals "Turn! Turn! Turn!" as one of their best songs, maybe because of tis juxtaposition at the movie's denouement: "all he wanted is to be free/and that's the way it turned out to be/flow river flow."

"Chestnut Mare" was one of the first Byrds song whose video I saw on MTV's closet classics, featuring a monologue about catching the title animal and wanting it to be a friend.

The country-folkish politically barbed send-up "I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician" is a cynical reflection the Nixon years.be the USA's man "I'll always be tough but I'll never be scary, I want to shoot guns." "And take over this beautiful land?" Yeah right!

The last four songs were songs done by Hillman, McGuinn, and Crosby which were included on the box set that this CD is a very trimmed down version of. "He Was A Friend Of Mine" is a remake of a song they did after JFK's assassination, while "Paths Of Glory" is another Dylan song from The Times They Are A Changin'. And they cover Julie Gold's "From A Distance." The songs by this core trio make apparent those members who are now gone, such as Gene Clark and Michael Clarke, who died in the 90's, and Clarence White and Graham Parsons who died tragically in the 1970's. Be it in their many incarnations or as a reunited trio with backing band, the Byrds made their mark in the era of Dylan and the Beatles, and this collection proves just that.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Insufficient, January 29, 2002

By 

P. Nicholas Keppler "rorscach12" (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Byrds - 20 Essential Tracks From The Boxed Set: 1965-1990 (Audio CD)

The Byrds represented all that was good about the sixties. In this single band one can find vibrant examples of the free spirit of the folkies, the irresistible melodies of the poprock bands and the wavy psychodelia of the hard rockers. The Byrds' music has been repackaged countless times but there has yet to be a definitive best-of collection for this monumental band. The Byrds should have a solid greatest hits package to act as a good starting point for new fans and, because they were predominantly a singles band like the Beach Boys, the Kinks or the early Beatles, an uninterrupted collection of their finest classics to be placed under a list of essentials for any record collection.

20 Essential Tracks is much too spotty and ill-compiled to serve either of these purposes. The collection does a somewhat acceptable job of collecting the Byrds' early hits, including their fantastic, groundbreaking covers of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Pete Seger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!," their hair-raising psychedelic classic "Five Miles High" and "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," a tune that stands as one of the best break-up songs in pop music history. Still, the absences of "Chimes of Freedom" and "It Won't Be Wrong" are inexcusable. Moving on to the middle years, 20 Essential tracks includes such fine songs as the windy "Goin' Back" and the gorgeous Mother Earth anthem "The Ballad of Easy Rider" but absolutely ignores their entire 1968 country-rock masterpiece, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Aside from the relatively weak "I Wanna Grow Up to be a Politician," the latter years are completely overlooked (No "Tiffany Queen?" No "Citizen Kane?"). The disc ends with four good, but certainly not "essential," tracks from a reunited 1990 version of the Byrds. It stops at 57:53, leaving more than twenty unused minutes that could have been used to fill 20 Essential Tracks' numerous gaps. The woefully measly Super Hits fares even worse than 20 Essential Tracks and their two-volume Greatest Hits albums is a outright rip-off, considering it includes enough music to be placed on one disc for the price of two. In the wake of the impressive success of the Beatles' 1, music stores and television commercial breaks are being raided by new, remastered, 70+ minute compilations of such noteworthy bands as the Doors, Pink Floyd and the Doobie Brothers. Let's hope the Byrds are next.