Obviously, I know the hits, and it seems The Byrds wrote the template for jangly guitar and harmonies in US country/folk rock. Paying a pound in a charity shop for this budget label compilation, I decided I should find out if there's more than the hits.
Lady Friend, a David Crosby song, opens brightly, followed by the tedious Chestnut Mare, but things look up with The Bells Of Rhymney, the Pete Seeger adaptation of the Idris Davies poem. Everybody's Been Burned skulks between this and the fantastic Eight Miles High (there's a Husker Du cover to look forward to!), but it's quite dull fare from there until (three tracks later) So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star cheers up proceedings. Then it's a procession of similar sounding jangly songs, few of which inspire and it's not until the Dylan covers, My Back Pages and Mr Tambourine Man that my ears prick up. Perhaps that was The Byrds' talent - to make Dylan songs listenable? Turn Turn Turn, another Pete Seeger adaptation (this time from the book of Ecclesiastes) still sounds good, but nothing else does it for me.
3* - Just. What's good is very good, but fr too much is dull or ordinary.
Comments