Album Review # 27 The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday

 

With The Byrds you can pretty much go from 5D to Younger Than Yesterday to Notorious Byrds Brothers to Sweetheart of the Rodeo and you'd barely miss a beat. You might also add their two singles anthologies of A and B sides and other selections from before, during and afterwards to get the full picture. Theirs was an incredible trajectory. No other bands that I can think of apart from The Beatles, Stones, Velvets and The Doors went through such incredible changes in such a short space of time in terms of lifestyle, music and attitude . There are wrong notes and bum tracks of course but generally they retain the most remarkable momentum, vision and sheer quality from '65 to '68.

 

 

Younger than Yesterday is a beautiful, poignant album. Possibly not the best record of 1967 but amongst the best perhaps in trying to describe what it was like to live through that year in terms of the changes that took place in creative culture. It came out in February which is an indication of how far The Byrds were ahead of the game. It's by a band already past their commercial peak following the two enormous hits of Mr Tambourine Man and Turn,Turn,Turn but experiencing and heading onward to their creative moment. By now they had had four talented, ambitious songwriters in their ranks and five assertive, combative personalities. One had just left. Something else was bound to give.

 

 

It starts with So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star which is a well documented satirical comment on The Monkees phenomenon that was happening at that point in time but also surely a  reflection of the contradictions they were going through themselves. It storms past, helped on its way by a guest appearance from Hugh Masekela which takes it somewhere The Byrds would never have got it to on their own.

 

The Byrds were always very concerned with time and space and never more so than on this record. At a clear, creative peak but also coming apart. Gene Clark perhaps the main creative force with McGuinn in the early days had left the band by this point but they had sufficient talent remaining to survive the loss. David Crosby's full on ego was more of an issue, understandably grating with the rest. It pulled them apart shortly after this.

 

 

Those tensions barely come across in the music with one notable exception on here. The Byrds after all were pretty much the most laid back group there's ever been. Chris Hillman really comes into his own. He writes and has a hand in five of the songs on the record. They show the country leanings that would figure strongly on the band's next two albums and eventually lead to the founding of The Flying Burrito Brothers. The Byrds were true pioneers in this respect

 

The album is a breeze to listen to. It's all loping basslines chiming guitars and dreamy harmonies. The Byrds are always striving to capture the illusive beauty of being alive. They regularly do so.

 

 

There are some real career highlight. On the first side So You Want To Be a Rock & Roll Star, Have You Seen Her Face, Renaissance Fair and especially Everybody's Been Burned, a rare dark moment which gives an early indication that the hippie dream might already be about to curdle. It's genius and one of the best songs Crosby ever wrote surely.

 

 

He follows it fairly shortly afterwards with one of his worst. After the breezy Thoughts & Words which kicks off the second side comes Mind Gardens which is just an abomination and in itself stops the album getting absolute classic status terms. It's incredibly narcissistic and gives you the impression that sometimes he must have been almost unbearable to be with. I'll post it here but you may choose not to listen to it.

 

 

Fortunately it's the record's only real low moment. The customary Dylan cover comes next. This time My Back Pages and as almost always The Byrds nail it. Such a basic sentiment about how the older you get the more you understand that you know less and less. Then The Girl With No Name another beautiful, understated Hillman song.

 

 

Then onto Why which is absolutely classic Byrds. Just a breeze. And the album is gone. Barely half an hour in all but that's just as it should be. They've said what they want to say and they're gone. Up to the California hills in their sports cars . Some songs about boys and girls, a song about the music business, some about social conscience, songs influenced by and possibly about drug trips. And one unforgivable hippy dippy monstrosity. Apart from this one ebb they make it sound quite effortless. That's the achievement of the early Byrds.

 

This used to be the album of theirs for me. Now I'd probably say The Notorious Byrds is a better record. Then there is Sweetheart of the Rodeo where Gram Parsons almost hijacked the band for his own purposes to great effect. In any case all three are pretty much essential. Younger Than Yesterday was one of a batch of my favourite records that went astray from storage a few years back and I've just replaced it. Having the cd was somehow not enough. Very highly recommended!