Customer Reviews

Original Singles 1965-1967

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love the Byrds, but this cd is an embarassment. The lineup is great, especially "She Don't Care About Time", but the sound is atrocious, even for Columbia Records, who were notably careless with their early cd releases. The songs are in mono, which is fine for a singles collection, but the sound is reminiscent of a worn-out cassette. Also... the liner notes ramble on about how much better the single version of "Why" is, but the version here is the album one, from Younger Than Yesterday. Sony really needs to clean this mess up, or get it off the market.

Just to add to what others have said: if there are problems with this CD it is because of the digital transfer---it is not because of the original mono analogue tapes. I have the vinyl of this album and it is brilliant. The bass intro on Eight Miles High is full and deep, almost as deep as the original single---which I also have. Moreover that song does not have the treble on McGuinn's guitar dialled up to the max so that it completely dominates, as so many other recent issues of this song do. (I find this an annoying rewriting of history, making McGuinn disproportionately important in that song---as though Gene Clark and David Crosby were just there for the ride!)

And on the subject of Crosby: Everybody's Been Burned has to be one of his finest moments. Just a beautiful song!

What we really need is for CBS to do another transfer of this album and keep the whole thing as it was originally conceived---in glorious mono---but this time with the bass intact.

This CD features the a-sides and b-sides of The Byrds first eight singles. This is great stuff. Even the b-sides are good. The songs are in the original mono, but the sound quality is not the best, since this was released in the early days of CD technology. But it is listenable, so if you aren't that hung up on sound quality, it is a good buy. Oh, by the way, don't bother looking for "Volume 2", because they never released it.

First off, this cd may have been released in several versions, or also in a remastered edition. My version is Columbia CK 37335. The sound is simply dreadful. The music has been subjected to massive treble cuts in order to hide faulty source material on nearly all the tracks. The highs waver in and out on many of these tracks! The sound is unimaginably lifeless!! Too bad they didn't use better tape sources, or even the original vinyl on this one.

This is a fun, serious collection. The sound is good. The music has that classic 60's sound. You recognize songs that you perhaps have forgotten or that they were recorded by the Byrds. "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)" are two of the pillars of the 60's music and culture. They have the same relevance (if not more) and freshness as they did thirty-five years ago. "Eight Miles High" is surely another pillar but not of the same stature as the previous two. "All I Really Want To Do" is a better version than Dylan's, the Bryds' harmony elevate their songs into something more. "Everybody's Been Burn" deserves a special mention. It's a good song and a harsh shot of reality. The rest of the songs make for an hour of good listening. Highly recommended.

First off, my copy of this CD is one of the "old" ones (I think it may have been reiussed again since I bought it; I'm not sure), from before the group's albums were reissued on CD with bonus tracks and liner notes. Those CDs are great. This one...well... There are a lot of really good songs on the CD, and a great one or two (especially "Turn! Turn! Turn!"), and even the songs that aren't so good aren't really "bad." However, the sound quality leaves a LOT to be desired. I'm not just talking about the fact that all of the tracks are mono. Yes, I do prefer stereo (usually), but I respect the fact that the company wanted to be true to the original singles by including the songs in mono. And, a few of the mono versions here do sound better to me than the stereo ones, especially "Eight Miles High." But, most of the tracks sound like they were taken from really low-quality sources (they SOUND like they were, whether they actually were or not); they don't really sound like master tapes (in fact, I'm not sure they are) or even vinyl records (which I'm pretty sure they're not). They CERTAINLY don't sound remastered, whether they were or not. They just sound messy. The high notes are particularly irritating. I would think that even something copied from a vinyl record would sound better --- heck, I HAVE heard things copied from vinyl records that sound better!! If all this is because of the digital transfer and not the actual tapes, then it seems to me that something went VERY wrong during the transfer. I've heard other "legitimately" released CDs that have sub-par sound quality, but the sound on most of this CD is so bad it isn't even funny. A CD should sound GOOD (if not great) all the way through, and to me, this CD doesn't even come close. I know that it's an early CD, but even as an early CD, it doesn't cut it; I haven't heard ANY other "legit" CDs, old or recent, that had such bad sound quality as most of this one does. Another disappointing thing about this CD is that, for some reason, the album version of "Why" was included instead of the single version, although the notes talk about the superiority of the single version and claim that it is the version included. Overall, this CD is a mess. It's more like a bad bootleg than something put out by a major, reputable company. VERY disappointing.

Original Singles, Volume 1 (1965-1967) by The Byrds is forty-one minutes and twenty-four seconds long the album was released in 1980 and the cassette was released in October 17, 1990. The album did not chart. The way the cassette is set up is the first song is the A side from the single and B side single. So Mr. Tambourine Man is on the A Side and I Knew I'd Want You was on the B Side. Below is a list of songs on the cassette and how high that song charted. This is an excellent cassette to own so one can listen to the Byrds best music. Original Singles, Volume 1 (1965-1967) by The Byrds gets an AAAAA+++++.

Side 1

Mr. Tambourine Man
#1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#1 Cash Box Magazine Top Singles
I Knew I'd Want You
B Side of Mr. Tambourine Man
All I Really Want To Do
#40 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Feel A Whole Lot Better
#103 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)
#1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles (three weeks at #1)
#1 Cash Box Magazine Top Singles
She Don't Care About Time
B Side of Turn! Turn! Turn!
Set You Free This Time
#79 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
It Won't Be Wrong
#63 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles

Side 2
Eight Miles High
#14 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Why
B Side of Eight Miles High
5D (Fifth Dimension)
#44 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Captain Soul
B Side of 5D (Fifth Dimension)
Mr. Spaceman
#36 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
What's Happening?!?!
B Side of Mr. Spaceman
So You Want To Be A Rock `N' Roll Star
#29 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Everybody's Been Burn
B Side of So You Want To Be A Rock `N' Roll Star

It doesn't sound as good as the 1997 Cd's becasue it used the orignal mono single masters. If you want to hear those mixes then get it.

Pretty much the same as Greatest Hits, with more songs (some of them never before on CD). If you dig the mono sound, I'd make this the one to get.

This album is incredible. The Sixties, in my opinion, is the greatest decade of rock music. Everything after needs to pay it's respects to these ten years and the artists that played during them. The Byrds' songs are beautiful. The Dylan covers aren't just covers, but re-arrangements and an attempt to fit the song to their image. It works. "Eight Miles High" is a classic. Even now the band's harmonizing vocals on that song sound fresh and exhilirating, making one feel that all the groups today garnering praise are all pretenders to the throne. This collection features great songs that would otherwise not be included on a greatest hits compilation or similar release. Well worth the money.