Customer Reviews

Fifth Dimension

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If you don't look back and put this album in perspective it might be difficult to recognize how important and ground breaking the Byrds were. In 1966 The Rolling Stones were just breaking away from R&B covers, the Who- were not in this country, Jimi Hendrix was backing up the Isley Brothers, the Beach Boys had just released Pet Sounds and the Beatles- well they were in a league of their own but the Byrds with the Fifth Dimensions it was obvious that they weren't just folk music played loud.
The cover only shows four Byrds: McQuinn, Crosby, Hillman and Clarke but Gene Clark's 8 Miles High was the track that created controversy - we know now that it is isn't the drug sung that some people thought it was and other people wished it was. It's about flying to London.
David Crosby delivers three great songs: I See You ,What's Happening and Why. Roger McQuinn takes charge with the Fifth Dimension, Mr. Spaceman, Hey Joe, 2-4-2 Fox Trot (the Lear Jet Song).
The Byrds playing is sharp, crisp and innovative. Their trademark tightly knit harmonies surround electric guitars that were just starting to really distort. It's almost the Summer of Love a year early but it's clearly an important American band hitting its creative stride.

I had always heard about those canned radio interviews that groups used to do back in the '60s (you know the ones in which a disk jockey would read scripted questions and play back the pre-recorded answers by group members--and just IMAGINE the things that could go wrong!). I don't believe I'd ever heard one before though. These promos were usually done in support of a tour, I'm told, making it appear that the band no sooner had gotten into town than they headed straight for the radio station to have a parlay with their best ever friend, the local DJ.

So it's fascinating--if a bit peculiar--to have such an aural hisory document included as a bonus track on this re-release of this 1966 classic. The answers to the scripted questions actually are, for the most part, thoughtful, perceptive and pretty much reflective of the relatively mature and serious-minded band they'd always been presented as. They weren't, as Crosby reminds of twice in the supposed interview, "candy floss." No, they were never that. They were, however, a band in transition, and the common wisdom about this album, is that it reflects that state of flux. But then, in 1966, who wasn't??

I was 13 when I first heard "Eight Miles High," and to say it was totally unlike anything else on the radio at that time (or anything the band had done up to that point) would be an understatement. I remember just kind of sitting there dumbfounded as it came over the car radio as my mother was driving me home from school. As if by magic, it ended just as we drove in the driveway and she cut the engine (AND the radio). I just sat there dazed for a few seconds--almost as though a little bit of the cosmos had cracked open and revealed itself.

I bought the single and became equally enamoured of the b-side (the original "Why"), and although I was still too young and un-moneyed to buy actual albums put all of the three Byrds albums--AND NOTHING ELSE--on my Christmas list for 1966. (TURN, TURN, TURN would have to wait, as it turned out. I received the two "black" albums, TAMBOURINE MAN and FIFTH DIMENSION), which effectively served as a thorough a history lesson and documentation of the band's growth and development thus far as any fan could have hoped for. Who could have predicted that the sharp, clean folk-rock of 1965 would transmogrify into something quite different, something proto-psychedelic and kind of dangerous, a year and half later?

I wore the grooves out of those records--especially FIFTH DIMENSION.

If anyone had told me back then, that this album, which I considered the very definition of "groundbreaking," would come to be viewed a rather erratic effort by a major band, I don't think I would have begun to comprehend what they were talking about. ANY record with "Eight Miles High" included on it would have to be a major artistic statement and a huge step forward. And even to my unsophisticated 13 year old ears, the emerging sense of autonomy and ambition was evident. It meant something that there wasn't a single Bobby Dylan song in the lot: clearly, they were burning bridges. (Yes, I know they would resume doing Dylan songs again as early as the very next record, but by then, they had proven themselves to be substantially more than Dylan interpreters and popularizers).

Forty five years on, however, I guess I can sort of see what the critics were talking about. "Eight Miles High" is indeed the most innovative track on the record, with only "I See You" and "What's Happening??" being the only other tracks to come close to that that cut's exotic whoosh and roar. The bonus tracks on the 2008 release include the original and an alternate take of "Why," an earlier version of "Eight Miles High," making for a trippier experience overall than the original album actually proved to be.

But the point is, this WAS 1966 after all, and in the pre-PEPPER era, FIFTH DIMENSION was about as bold a statement as you were going to get. We were just getting to the point where serious attention was being focused on full length albums at all. The early Byrds recorded three very good ones, and, yes, I will say "classics," regardless of whatever inconsistencies and weak points they might seen as having today.

There's nothing wrong with a work of art reflecting a state of transition if it accurately reflects what the artists (and the surrounding society) were actually going through. I tend to agree now with those critics who say that the inclusion of such updated folkie numbers as "Wild Mountain Thyme" and "John Riley" were, on some level, an artistically conservative move ("Let's not get too freaky.") and even the thematically daring (and daringly SOMBER) "I Come And Stand At Every Door" was set to the tune of the folk standard "The Silkie." But prior to '67, every band hedged their bets to some degree. Can anyone name a San Francisco band whose earliest recordings reflected full blown psychedelia? Nope, the weirdness was ALWAYS interspersed with a little blues, a little balladeering, some jug band stuff and really a lot of FOLK-ROCK. Doesn't make them any less significant.

To say FIFTH DIMENSION was the embodiment of its era isn't such a stretch. I can forgive the sound effects of "2-4-2 Foxtrot" and the less than inspired instrumental, "Captain Soul" (surprisingly dull given the instrumental fireworks of "Eight Miles High," "Why," and "I See You"), and I've always thought that Crosby got a bum rap with "Hey Joe." It's one of the few Byrds solo vocals up to that point, and I think Crosby carries it off fine. While I understand why many prefer other versions, I can't help think this track gets a bum rap for NOT being all slow and sultry like Hendrix's later version. I've always enjoyed the instrumental backing on this cut (particularly McGuinn's distinctive, but not show-offy 12-string). When the record is played in sequence, it actually is an effective follow-up track to "Eight Miles High"--a bit of earth bound grit after all that psychedelic fire.

Back in the day, I actually had more of a problem with the song that gave the album its title. "5D," with Van Dyke Parks' churchy organ and lack of a hooky chorus always struck me as an odd choice for a single. Its much vaunted trippiness had more to do with the lyrical content (pretty advanced for the time--and ambibuous enough to make it the second Byrds single in a row to get banned) than with the actual arrangements. But in the intervening years, I've had one of two little epiphanies to that song's soundtrack, at those rare moments when I really did find myself "relaxed and paying attention."

After two albums of gorgeous folk rock, FIFTH DIMENSION was indeed transitional. Of course, the Byrds never really did stop transitioning then or afterwards. If on this album they were puzzling over "What's Happening," two records later they were expressing their increasing comfort with the notion that "Change Is Now."

I trust everything worked out all right.

All the original material plus nice bonus cuts. Very clear sound. Great price.

The Byrds were never a band to rest on their laurels. Gene Clark, who had left the group in March of 1966, had been an integral part of the folk-rock sound of their first two albums, Mr. Tambourine Man (June, 1965) and Turn, Turn, Turn (December, 1965). When the remaining quartet of Jim (later Roger) McGuinn (lead guitar), David Crosby (rhythm guitar), Chris Hillman (bass guitar), Michael Clarke (drums), and producer, Allen Stanton, entered Columbia's recording studios in April, 1966, they would continue the trend they and Clark began with the recording of "Eight Miles High," in January of exploring new musical styles.

The resulting album, "Fifth Dimension," was a diverse collection, confusing to both critics and fans alike who expected more of the same folk-rock genre of the previous albums. "Fifth Dimension" was released in July, 1966 and peaked at #24 on the US charts. With Clark gone, Crosby emerged as a creative force in the band, contributing songs and musical styles which stretched the boundaries of the top 40 radio-friendly Byrds; jazz rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, and country rock. Due to its lack of cohesiveness and consistency, Fifth Dimension is often considered to be the weakest of the group's first five albums. With the exception of "Eight Miles High," Side Two is definitely overpowered by the much stronger Side One. But it was precisely because of their turn from folk-rock to experimentation with new forms on Fifth Dimension that led to the Byrds' finest works, Younger Than Yesterday and The Notorious Byrd Brothers.

Side One:

1. 5D (Fifth Dimension)- One of my favorite McGuinn Byrds tunes with a couple of wonderful chorus harmonies that build to a nice twelve-string and organ (Van Dyke Parks) interplay at the end. Released as a single.

2. Wild Mountain Thyme - A traditional folk tune that could have easily appeared on the first two albums. Stanton provides some very nice string arrangements which nicely complement McGuinn's Rickenbacker.

3. Mr. Spaceman - A novelty song performed in a vaguely country style. McGuinn would go on to write several additional songs for the Byrds which addressed alien life and space travel. Released as a single.

4. I See You - A driving McGuinn/Crosby rock tune with some of the same ragged Rickenbacker used on "Eight Miles High."

5. What's Happening - Crosby steps out with this wonderfully innovative song with McGuinn doing a nice imitation of the sitar on his twelve-string. The first Byrds song written solely by Crosby.

6. I Come And Stand At Every Door - An anti-war poem put to a traditional folk melody.

Side Two:

1. Eight Miles High - Released as a single prior to the recording of the rest of the album. Gene Clark's swan song, co-authored by McGuinn and Crosby. Credited as being the first psychedelic rock song. McGuinn does some trailblazing guitar work patterned after John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar. Banned from many radio stations for its suspected references to hallucinogens, "Eight Miles High" is generally considered to be one of the greatest singles of the 60s.

2. Hey Joe - Crosby explored the blues prior to the Byrds with "Jack of Diamonds" and "Brotherhood of the Blues." "Hey Joe" is played far too frantically and pales next to Jimi Hendrix's well-known, much slower version. Crosby would later achieve success with a blues-style ballad with "Long Time Gone" on the album, Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

3. Captain Soul - The Byrds recorded this soul-inspired instrumental to placate drummer Clarke. Considered a throwaway by most fans. That's former-Byrd, Gene Clark, adding the harmonica.

4. John Riley - Another traditional folk song that could have fit on Mr. Tambourine Man or Turn, Turn, Turn. Stanton added strings just as on "Wild Mountain Thyme." An unremarkable recording.

5. 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) - A novelty song with sounds of a Lear jet crew preparing for takeoff mixed with a simple melody. Very cool at the time but it doesn't hold up at all forty-five years later.

This Sony Legacy reissue includes six tracts not released on the original album.

1. Why - Released as the B-side of "Eight Miles High" with another version of the song included on the following album, Younger Than Yesterday. McGuinn gives a nice sitar-mimicking solo.

2. I Know My Rider - An unremarkable arrangment of a traditional blues song.

3. Psychodrama City - Crosby can't resist a dig at the departed Clark.

4. Eight Miles High - The raw-sounding, December 1965, RCA Studios version. Thankfully, Columbia refused to release this less-polished attempt and insisted the Byrds re-record it.

5. Why - An unpolished version of the song recorded with "Eight Miles High" at RCA in 12/65.

6. John Riley - A jazzed-up instrumental of the John Riley melody.

Still good music. Enjoyed hearing the hits again, the filler is interesting to see where the group was going artistically. Good addition to the "oldie" collection.

Though this album doesn't come across as a coherent work of art like Sgt. Peppers, it has several really good songs that take you back to the beginnings of that same era. "Eight Miles High," which they say was inspired by John Coltrane, was fairly revolutionary for a pop song back then. Wild Mountain Thyme, by contrast, is a traditional folk song. But they do a very nice rendition which includes ethereal harmonies. There's also an interesting, song with searching "trippy" lyrics written by David Crosby: "What's Happening." Finally, there's a haunting anti-war song: "I Come and Stand at Every Door" that was adapted from a Japanese poem about Hiroshima. The Byrds were apparently still trying to figure out their identity back then: folk, psychedelic, rock, or protest. What's evident is that they could be pretty good at all these things.

A bit better than Turn, this stil finds the band fumbling around a bit. GREAT title tune, not really that much else to get excited about. Need to find the melodic push that they had on the first lp and found again with Younger Than Yesterday.