Customer Reviews

20 Essential Tracks From the Boxed Set 1965-1990

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4 star:		(8)
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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.

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.

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.

The four new tracks aren't bad at all (though "From A Distance" makes me cringe a bit; it's the cover of a big 80's pop hit that has since faded in the public's memory). However, they aren't the Byrds' best work, and it's frustrating that they would include those tracks and leave out such essential work as "Chimes of Freedom," "Bells of Rhymney," "She Don't Care About Time," "100 Years From Now," and many others in what could have been a definitive overview of their entire career. Furthermore, the CD clocks in well under an hour, which means they could've fit at least half a dozen more songs on it.

While it's not a bad introduction to the band, hitting most of the highlights, as a career summation, it doesn't do them justice. "Notorious Byrd Brothers" and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" are both two of the finest albums every cut in rock history, some say the band's best, but the former is represented by one tracks and the latter by none!

The new, expanded edition of Greatest Hits may have 14 songs compared to the 20 here (though like I said, the four new tracks aren't their best work, so only 16 can be considered Byrds classics), but it's a better compilation. For one thing, it focuses on the first few years of their career, so those early albums get better representation. Furthermore, the sound on that disc is remastered in 20-bit sound from the original tapes. There's nothing bad about the sound on "20 Essential Tracks," but audiophiles will be drawn by the better definition and depth of the "Greatest Hits" CD.

"Greatest Hits" is especially a better choice if you're going to pick up a CD or two of their later albums. However, if you really had to pick just one CD covering their entire career and you're not too big on the best possible sound, then by all means pick "20 Essential Tracks."

The Byrds had a sound in the early '60s (before David Crosby left) that drew many, many immitators. For my own part, "All I Really Wanna Do" and "My Back Pages" are simply wonderful vocal extravaganzas, and what could have been a gimic -- the 12-string sound -- is a perfect compliment to a band that could really SING! This wasn't the Rolling Stones or The WHO, but a bunch of fellows who saw vocalizing as the point of the song. Wow. I love it (including the 1990 remake by three reunited ex-Byrds of "He Was a Friend of Mine," another haunting melody -- even if you don't much care for John Kennedy). A few of these tracks are unworthy of a listen, IMO, but that's why cd players are programmable. There's enough variety of styles here to please most rock/pop/'60s fans. Good stuff.

The Byrds, along with The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones, were one of the pioneer rock bands of the mid-1960's. They are sometimes assigned credit for originating psychedelic rock with the 1965 release of 'Mr. Tambourine Man', though many would not regard that song as true acid-rock... it's just too folky. But if you do, it places the band on a par with John Lennon's first psychedelic recording, 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and The Pretty Things 'LSD'. If you don't then you will certainly register "Eight Miles High" as the first mainstream venture by any band into psychedelia. It was released in 1966 and eventually landed at number 14 on the US charts. The song is a clear departure from much of the bands chart toppers, which generally feature a squeaky clean pop appeal. 'Eight Miles High', with it's trembling opening bass line, sanely schizophrenic lead guitar from Roger McGuinn (with a sound no lead solo has ever duplicated), and high flying lyrics, represents the epitome of psychedelic rock still today, standing up nicely to Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' and Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit', among others.

In the 1960's I owned 'The Byrds Greatest Hits' on vinyl. That compilation included two songs I wish had been offered here, 'Chimes of Freedom' and 'Bells of Rhymney'. Nine or ten of the other songs are the same however, and all are remastered. On '20 Essential Tracks' the producers opted to sample each phase of The Byrd's long tenure, adding tunes from later and less accomplished incarnations of the band, such as 'I Wanna Grow Up To Be a Politician'. It's hard to argue with the early selections, however, nor with the four tracks from the 1990 Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Chris Hillman reunion. While these four songs lack the cultural setting to gain recognition today, they are strong compostions neatly performed, and I'm pleased to have them, especially the more I listen to them. They truly rival some of their classic hits. Other songs not included on the previous 'Greatest Hits' LP, such as the mantra-driven 'Jesus Is Just Alright', 'Goin Back', and 'Chestnut Mare', also keep pleasant company.

The Byrds, of course, had a special knack for transforming folk into rock, and Roger McGuinn's distinctive singing and 12-string guitar are the trademarks of the band. Nearly all Byrds songs feature a 'big', enveloping sound, crisp harmonies, and a slick guitar riff. Crosby, Hillman, and Gene Clark make writing and vocal contributions, but compared to McGuinn their influence here is negligible. Despite not even being in the band, Bob Dylan may have had a greater influence on the public persona of The Byrds than Crosby, Hillman or Clark. Four of the songs on the collection were penned by Dylan, and the liner notes detail his essential contribution to 'Ballad of Easy Rider' as well. And McGuinn sounds more like Dylan (without trying) than any other performer, completing the connection.

One valid criticism of investing in any Byrds compilation is that many of these songs have long been, and even continue to be, played to death, first on Top 40 playlists, and today by golden oldies radio. It could be argued that we all reached the saturation point of hearing 'Turn Turn Turn' or 'Mr. Tambourine Man' somewhere around 1967, yet these songs, if studied, release a texture and resonance that confirms why they still demand overplay four decades after their release. Their sound embodied so much of what made the 1960's the 1960's that they have achieved immortality in the shelf life of rock music.

If you're not looking for a definitive collection, a small investment here can afford a whole lot of musical enjoyment. While the complete box set may be necessary to satiate the completist, the essentials are available for those of us desiring an overview at a more modest cost. My 'like new' copy only put me out $1.99, leaving plenty of bread for other essentials.

I have not been able to find a stereo version of 'Turn Turn Turn' by the Byrds for a long time. But I realised for the first time the stereo version here in this CD. It was a big surprise. It' really a valuable CD.

Hiroshi Suzuki, Tokyo Japan

A somewhat uneven compilation that was originally meant to serve as a sampler for their first boxed set (The Byrds), but which ultimately works pretty well as a Greatest Hits collection, despite the inclusion of some 1990 reunion recordings. Most of the hits are here, but for me the heart and soul of The Byrds is on album cuts such as "Deportee", "Time Between", "This Wheel's On Fire" or "Renaissance Fair", none of which are included here. But if you need a brief collection from which to start listening to this extraordinary band, you could do a lot worse than this neat CD.

The Byrds were great. With the exception of rock historists, power pop enthusiasts and guitar fans, they are a largely forgotten band.

In their time, they were the best that America had to offer in retaliation to the Brittish Wave. They were at best interpreting Bob Dylan songs. The chiming Roger McGuin 12 string guitar, David Crosby's wonderful harmonizing and their embracing on classic folk made them a terrific band.

Their only criticizm is that the band took a 90 degree turn when they went very "country". Their later stuff was a far cry from "Mr. Tamborine man".

So if you don't know, there's this collection, the "Best ofs" volume 1 & 2, the 2-disc "Essential Byrds", and the box set of course. Why do I like this one? It's a 20 track single disc, the volumes 1 & 2 are too little, and the others are too much. Plus this is a career-spanning best of the best, roughly. Obviously with a band like the "Byrds" this is missing alot, mostly for me "Wasn't Born To Follow" from the "Easy Rider" soundtrack, but other than the box set, you can't have it all. Included are the big hits "Tamborine Man", "Turn Turn Turn", and "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better", later covered by "Tom Petty". Then it has "My Back Pages", "Chestnut Mare", and "Jesus Is Just Alright", later covered by the "Doobie Brothers". Plus 4 new (1990) tracks, "Love That Never Dies" being the best of those. True there's no "Gram Parsons" material, but you should have his solo, or "Flying Burrito Brothers" stuff anyway. So I guess you just need to decide which collection works for you. For me, a casual fan, this one makes me feel "Eight Miles High".