Byrds is the twelfth and final studio album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in March 1973 on Asylum Records. It was recorded as the centerpiece of a reunion among the five original band members: Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke. The last time that all five members had worked together as the Byrds was in 1966, prior to Clark's departure from the band. During the reunion, the current, latter-day lineup of the band continued to make live appearances until February 1973, with McGuinn being the only member common to both versions of the group.
Upon its release, Byrds received generally poor reviews, with many critics bemoaning a lack of sonic unity and the absence of the Byrds' signature jangly guitar sound among the album's shortcomings. Nonetheless, the album reached number 20 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and was also moderately successful in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 31. In the U.S., Byrds was the band's highest charting album of new material since 1965's Turn! Turn! Turn!, which had also been the last Byrds' album to feature Clark as a full member. Three of the album's songs, "Full Circle", "Things Will Be Better", and "Cowgirl in the Sand", were released as singles during 1973, but none of these releases became hits.
Background By 1972, the Byrds' guitarist and leader, Roger McGuinn, had grown dissatisfied with the current version of the group. As the only member to have remained consistent since the band's inception in 1964, McGuinn had steered the Byrds through an array of lineup changes during the late 1960s. The band's membership had finally stabilized in 1970, but by early 1972 dissension was brewing due to disagreements over band members' pay. As a result of this, Gene Parsons (the band's drummer since 1968) was fired by McGuinn in July 1972 and replaced by session musician John Guerin. The Byrds continued to tour and record sporadically throughout 1972, but no new single or album was forthcoming.
Concurrently, the four ex-members of the Byrds who, along with McGuinn, had comprised the original mid-1960s lineup of the band, were, to an extent, at loose ends: David Crosby had completed his recording and touring obligations for the Graham Nash/David Crosby album; Chris Hillman's work with the Stephen Stills-helmed band Manassas was paused while the band were on hiatus; Gene Clark's critically lauded but financially unrewarding solo career was in need of a boost; and Michael Clarke had been without a band since the break up of the Flying Burrito Brothers in 1971. Furthermore, none of the five original band members' careers—with the exception of Crosby's—had been as financially rewarding as during The Byrds' mid-1960s heyday.
Tentative discussions between the five original members of the band, regarding a possible reunion, had taken place as early as July 1971, around the time that the then current lineup of the Byrds were recording their final album, Farther Along. News of these discussions was leaked to the British music press, and in late January 1972, one week after the UK release of Farther Along, the front page of Disc and Music Echo featured the headline, "Original Byrds To Reform?" The attendant article suggested that the reunion album would be a one-off project and that the current lineup of the Byrds would continue to tour and record, with no question of disbanding.
Meanwhile, with the successful supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on indefinite hiatus, while the individual members worked on other projects, managers David Geffen and Elliot Roberts had seen their attempts to bring a new CSNY album to the marketplace thwarted. In the absence of any new Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young product, Geffen became acutely aware that a historic reunion of the original Byrds could prove to be highly lucrative for all concerned. Thus, in mid-1972, Geffen weighed in with a substantial offer to the five original members to record a reunion album for his Asylum label.
The reunion actually took place in early October 1972, beginning with a rehearsal at McGuinn's house, where the band initially worked on one of the guitarist's new songs. Significantly, the group played none of their old material during this first rehearsal, but instead concentrated on selecting suitable songs for a new project. All five musicians were encouraged by the rehearsal and felt sure that they could recreate the magic of the Byrds' golden era. Consequently, they agreed to commence the recording of their first album together in seven years, with the last time that all five had worked together as the Byrds being early 1966, prior to Gene Clark's departure from the band.
However, the reunited group were determined that the internal conflict that tore them apart during the 1960s would not be allowed to rear its head again. It was therefore agreed that they would not be a band in the traditional sense, but rather a loose arrangement of solo artists, akin to the modus operandi of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. With considerable leverage from Geffen, McGuinn managed to secure permission from Columbia Records—to which he was still contracted—to record a one-off album for the Asylum label. As part of the deal, Clive Davis, the president of Columbia Records, specified that McGuinn and Crosby would be required to record a joint album together for Columbia, which was to be released in 1973. However, this planned Crosby/McGuinn album failed to materialize, due to Davis being fired from Columbia shortly after the exchange deal was struck. While the original quintet prepared to record the reunion album, the existing Columbia lineup of the Byrds, featuring McGuinn, Clarence White, Skip Battin, and John Guerin, continued to make concert appearances in the United States.
Recording Recording sessions for the reunion album began on October 16, 1972 in room #4 of Wally Heider's Studio 3 recording facility in Los Angeles and continued until at least November 15, 1972. During these sessions, the band recorded all eleven of the songs that would appear on the finished album and at least two outtakes: the McGuinn and Jacques Levy penned "My New Woman" and the traditional folk song "Fair and Tender Ladies".
In 2009, a cache of multitrack tapes dating from the Byrds' reunion sessions and featuring a number of alternate versions and at least one outtake were discovered. The tapes include work-in-progress versions and alternate takes of the songs "Laughing", "(See the Sky) About to Rain", and "Long Live the King" (listed on the tape box under its working title of "The King Is Dead"). In addition, the tapes also contained three different versions of the traditional song "Fair and Tender Ladies". Reportedly, one of these versions of the song features Crosby singing lead vocals, while the other two feature Clark. Also included among the recordings is a track with the title "The Circle Song", but it is not known whether this refers to the Clark penned "Full Circle" or to another previously undocumented outtake—perhaps a cover of Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game"? Although it was not included on the reunion album, the Byrds' recording of McGuinn and Levy's "My New Woman" was later released on the guitarist's 1973 solo album, Roger McGuinn.
Following completion of the album's recording sessions, Crosby reached an agreement with McGuinn to dissolve the latter-day lineup of the Byrds, who were at that time still working as a touring band. Crosby had long been vocal about his displeasure over McGuinn's decision to recruit new members following his dismissal from the band in 1967 and had publicly stated his opinion that, "there were only ever five Byrds." In the new spirit of reconciliation fostered by the reunion, and as a result of his own growing dissatisfaction with the current incarnation of the band, McGuinn acquiesced and permanently disbanded the latter-day lineup of the Byrds in February 1973.
The tracks that would make up the finished album included two from each of the four songwriters in the band, as well as a Joni Mitchell cover and two songs written by Neil Young. At the time of the album's release, much was made in the music press over the lack of any Bob Dylan songs, since the Byrds had covered Dylan's material frequently during the 1960s. This criticism prompted Crosby to contend that Young was the great songwriter of the 1970s, just as Dylan had been for the 1960s, and therefore it was entirely appropriate that the Byrds should be covering Young, rather than Dylan.
Music
The opening track on the album, Clark's "Full Circle", had initially given the album its working title, but Clark was concerned that the public might mistakenly assume that the song had been written specifically for the Byrds' reunion. As the band's biographer Johnny Rogan has remarked, the song's wheel of fortune motif certainly seemed applicable, but the song actually predated the reunion, as Clark explained during a 1979 interview: "I'd already recorded that song a couple of years earlier and it wasn't really written about anything specific. It was just an idea I had." Not only had the song been written by Clark prior to the Byrds' reunion, but by the time that Byrds was released, it had also recently been issued under the alternate title of "Full Circle Song" on Clark's Roadmaster album.
A second Clark original included on Byrds was "Changing Heart", a meditation on the pitfalls of stardom. Clark was also featured singing lead vocals on the album's pair of Neil Young covers. The decision to cover Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "(See the Sky) About to Rain" was made by Clark, who had long admired the Canadian singer–songwriter, and not by Young's CSNY bandmate David Crosby, as was assumed by the press. Rogan has described "Cowgirl in the Sand" as making striking use of the band's crystal clear harmonies, while Clark's harmonica playing lends the song a distinctive country flavor, in keeping with the song's subject matter. "(See the Sky) About to Rain", on the other hand, featured mandolin playing from the band's bassist Chris Hillman and climaxed with a chiming finalé, featuring the Byrds' signature jangling Rickenbacker guitars. The Byrds' version of "(See the Sky) About to Rain" was released over a year before it appeared on Young's 1974 album On the Beach.
"Sweet Mary", co-written by McGuinn and Jacques Levy, saw the Byrds' lead guitarist reverting to a folkier style of songwriting than he had exhibited of late, with Hillman again contributing some prominent mandolin to the song. McGuinn's other songwriting contribution to Byrds was "Born to Rock 'n' Roll", a semi-serious, autobiographical contemplation of the guitarist's career as a professional musician. The song had initially been recorded by the latter-day lineup of the Byrds in July 1972 for possible release as a single, but ultimately that version had been shelved and remained unreleased at the time. McGuinn decided to make another attempt at producing a definitive recording of the song during the reunion sessions, resulting in a rendition that the guitarist himself was dissatisfied with. McGuinn would later record the song for a third time on his 1975 solo album Roger McGuinn & Band, but yet again he was unhappy with the end result, leading him pointedly to conclude in a later interview that "'Born to Rock 'n' Roll' was a dog."
Hillman contributed two songs to the album, both co-authored with ex-Manassas bandmates: "Things Will Be Better", co-written with drummer Dallas Taylor, and "Borrowing Time", co-written with percussionist Joe Lala. The former song deals with the unpredictable nature of fame and stardom, a theme that was echoed in Clark's "Full Circle" and "Changing Heart".