The Byrds - Another Dimension

 

2005 Sundazed 

01 Eight Miles High

02 Why

03 Ryder (I Know My Rider)

04 John Riley 1

05 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song)

06 Psychodrama City

07 John Riley II

08 Wild Mountain Thyme

09 Hey You (Where You Gonna Go)

10 I See You

11 What's Happening!!

12 Captain Soul (30 Minute Break)

A rare official archival release from The Byrds. Originally released as a double 10" album in 2005 on Sundazed, this set contains sessions from the making of 'Fifth Dimension'.

It would be nice to see similar sets for 'Younger Than Yesterday' and 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers'.

The Byrds - Tomorrow's The Day

 

Self made compilation 2021 (Recorded 1968)

A1 You Ain't Going Nowhere

A2 I Am a Pilgrim

A3 Lazy Days

A4 Hickory Wind

A5 Pretty Polly

A6 All I Have Are Memories

B1 One Hundred Years from Now

B2 You Don't Miss Your Water

B3 Reputation

B4 You're Still on My Mind

B5 Pretty Boy Floyd

B6 Nothing Was Delivered

The alternate Byrds history continues. This time, its my re-imagining of the Gram Parsons era and the late 1968 recordings.

I've maintained a lot of the original album, but favour some of the outtakes. These tracks have a little more of the 'original' Byrds sound. That being said, I am a huge fan of the original 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo'.

I made a cover using the same Jo Mora illustration the Sweetheart image was taken from.

If you're interested, here are my other Byrds albums, recompiled:

1966 - Byrds '66

1967 - Ideas As Maps

1968 - Universal Mind Decoder

1968 - Tomorrow's The Day

1969 - Byrds '69

1969 - The Ballads Of Easy Rider

The Byrds - Byrds '69

 

Alternate album 1969

01 This Wheel's On Fire

02 Child of the Universe

03 Candy

04 Bad Night at the Whiskey

05 King Apathy III

06 Your Gentle Way of Loving Me

07 Old Blue

08 Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man

09 Lay Lady Lay

10 Stanley's Song

11 Nashville West

Another Byrds album and period re-imagined. This time it's 1969's 'Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde'. 

Opinions are split over this album and it was also one of the worst selling. Bob Johnson's poor production didn't help, but the 90's Columbia re-issues cleaned it up a bit.

I thought the main problem was the flow; on this alternate version I've placed all the psychedelic and fuzz toned songs on side 1 and the country material on side 2 (beginning with 'Your Gentle Way of Loving Me').

In addition to this I removed the medley of 'My Back Pages/B.J. Blues/Baby What You Want Me to Do' and included an alternate version of the non album single 'Lay Lady Lay' and the album outtake 'Stanley's Song'.

Other alternate Byrds albums:

Byrds '66 

Ideas As Maps (1967)

Universal Mind Decoder (1968)

The Ballads Of Easy Rider (1969)

The Byrds - Ideas As Maps

 

Self Made 2017 (Recorded 1967)

01 So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star
02 Have You Seen Her Face?
03 C.T.A. - 102
04 Renaissance Fair
05 Time Between
06 Everybody's Been Burned
07 Thoughts and Words
08 It Happens Each Day
09 The Girl With No Name
10 Mind Gardens
11 My Back Pages

The Byrds re-imagined alternate history continues. This time, it's 1967 and the album 'Younger Than Yesterday'. 
To be fair, the original album is one of the band's finest and it hasn't been altered too much. 
The track 'Why?' has been removed, an earlier (in my opinion better) version was recorded the previous year and I used that on my own 1966 version 'Byrds '66'. The outtake 'It Happens Each Day' has been added, it's a complete mystery why this Crosby original was left unreleased. 'Mind Gardens' has been substituted for an earlier take and finally, the original single version of 'My Back Pages' has been used with it's lovely Leslie Speaker lead guitar for extra psych.

The Byrds - Byrds '66

Self made compilation 

01 5D (Fifth Dimension)

02 I See You

03 Wild Mountain Thyme

04 Mr. Spaceman 

05 I Know My Rider (I Know You Rider)

06 Captain Soul

07 Eight Miles High

08 John Riley

09 The Day Walk (Never Before)

10 What's Happening?!?!

11 Why

The re-imagining of The Byrds albums continues.

In late 1965, The Byrds had released their second album 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' and ended the year recording a new single that was pretty far out; 'Eight Miles High' b/w 'Why'.

These new songs saw The Byrds at their height; experimentation, jazz and drone influences and sound now uniquely their own. 

The new single (although not the original recordings) was released and Gene Clark promptly left.

The resulting album, 'Fifth Dimension', was a frustrating mix of a band burning on new ideas and struggling without their chief songwriter. At this point McGuinn's guitar and compositional ideas, Crosby's vocal and unique rhythms, Hillman's stunningly inventive bass playing and even Clarke's drumming were all starting to fire. Without Gene Clark however, some of these ideas fell flat, or didn't have the required structure to hang on.

That said there are flourishes of absolute genius in the recordings of 1966.

5D (Fifth Dimension), I See You, Wild Mountain Thyme, Mr. Spaceman, What's Happening?!?! and John Riley are included in their original forms from 'Fifth Dimension'. Eight Miles High and Captain Soul are of also retained, but the inclusion of  'The Day Walk (Never Before)' ups the Gene Clark quota. 

'The Day Walk (Never Before)' was recorded during the sessions for 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' and was marked as 'keep' for the next Byrds album.

The version of 'Why' included here is from the b-side of 'Eight Miles High'. Spiky and more energetic than the version released on the following album 'Younger Than Yesterday', yet more developed from the RCA recording from '65.

'I Know My Rider (I Know You Rider)' was recorded as a potential single. It went unreleased as the band felt it shared too much with The Beatles 'Paperback Writer'.

Nonsense, it would of been a brilliant single and is one of the best Byrds unreleased songs.

There you go; what The Byrds may have done in 1966.

The Byrds - The Ballads of Easy Rider

Self made fan album 1969

01 Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins

02 Tulsa County

03 Jesus Is Just Alright

04 There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To)

05 Close Up The Honky Tonks

06 It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

07 Fiddler a Dram

08 Gunga Din

09 Jack Tarr the Sailor

10 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

11 Ballad Of Easy Rider

Another fan album from The Byrds, this time, a re-imagining of 1969's 'The Ballad of Easy Rider' (hence the added 's' in the title).

The album as released saw The Byrds critical stock rise slightly after the much maligned 'Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde'. It's a laid back country album, probably better than the sum of it's parts. I've always thought the abandonment of psychedelia from the later Byrds output was a shame, this self made album variation (partially) addresses this.

I start the album with 'Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins', the original experimental closer and McGuinn's latest space obsession song. 'Tulsa County', 'Jesus Is Just Alright' and 'There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To)' are also from the original album. I end my side 1 with a live version of 'Close Up The Honky Tonks' from 'The Byrds Live at Filmore East' and then 'It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)' from the 'Easy Rider' soundtrack.

Again wanting to open a side with an experimental piece, I chose the outtake 'Fiddler a Dram'. Its weird synth blurb suggesting The Byrds could of remained an experimental psych band if they had wished. Fan favorite 'Gunga Din' follows with original album songs 'Jack Tarr the Sailor' and 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' after that.

I end the album with the soundtrack version of the title song, preferring it over the album version.

Hope any Byrds fans out there will enjoy.

The Byrds - Universal Mind Decoder

Bootleg 1968

01. Artificial Energy

02. Goin' Back

03. Triad

04. Natural Harmony

05. Draft Morning

06. Wasn't Born To Follow

07. Lady Friend

08. Old John Robertson

09. Get To You

10. Tribal Gathering

11. Change Is Now

12. Dolphin's Smile

Dig the Byrds? Like DIY albums? Then this is for you.

I've made re-imagined versions of most of the Byrds albums, this is essentially a reworking of "The Notorious Byrd Brothers", my favorite L.P. of theirs.

There isn't too much change to be fair; 'Space Odyssey' has been removed to make way for two tracks left off the final running order.

'Triad' was voted down by Hillman and McGuinn in favour of 'Goin' Back', a move that angered Crosby as he thought original compositions should precedence over cover versions.

'Lady Friend' was left off because of it's poor sales as a single prior to the album. Unbelievable really; the song is one of their greatest and most ambitious.