Line #9 YMMV/TheByrds


1	* AmericansHateTingle: "Eight Miles High" chronicles the band's frosty reception in UsefulNotes/{{London}}.
2	** Things shifted around later on, though. ''The Notorious Byrd Brothers'' and ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' got better chart placings in Britain than America (with the former making it all the way to #12 in the British charts but languishing at #47 back home in the States). In 1970, "Chestnut Mare" was a Top 20 hit in the UK but didn't even chart in the US.
3	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail:
4	** The band's manager, Jim Dickson, was against their decision to release "Turn! Turn! Turn!" as a single, instead pushing for them to put out a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'." Not only was "Turn! Turn! Turn!" a huge success for the Byrds, but it has also become something of a SignatureSong for them in retrospect--it's currently their most streamed track on Spotify--as well as serving as an emblem for the counterculture movement and TheSixties in general. By contrast, the group's version of "The Times They Are a-Changin'", released on the ''Turn! Turn! Turn!'' album, is generally considered by fans to be one of their least satisfying Dylan covers (although a more energetic alternate take included on the album's [=CD=] reissue has been better-received).
5	** Similarly, Dickson apparently really didn't care for David Crosby's song "Everybody's Been Burned" and claimed that he would have tried to reject it if he'd still been significantly involved with the band on an artistic level when they were working on ''Younger Than Yesterday''. Most fans view "Everybody's Been Burned" as a highlight of that album, and of the Crosby era more generally.
6	** Crosby pushed back hard against the group's decision to release versions of Dylan's "My Back Pages" and Goffin/King's "Goin' Back", and in fact refused to participate in recording sessions for the latter. Always on the pulse of what was considered hip and fully in thrall to Music/TheBeatles, he believed that putting out covers was hopelessly retrograde and un-cool in 1967. Croz was overruled by [=McGuinn=] and Hillman, and both songs were moderately successful singles, and are regarded as gems in the catalog in the present day.
7	* ArchivePanic: Their twelve studio albums, and associated bonus tracks on the '90s reissues, seem pretty manageable at first--but when you factor in the archival live releases, the ''Preflyte'' compilations, and the various boxed sets featuring alternate mixes and, in some cases, newly recorded songs, things start to get more complicated. Not to mention the various former Byrds' other musical projects (CSNY or Music/TheFlyingBurritoBrothers, anyone?) and solo careers...Needless to say, a true Byrds completist has their work cut out for them.
8	* AudienceAlienatingEra: Some see everything the band did after ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' (or, in a more extreme variant, everything after ''Notorious'') as this. Downplayed in that many Byrds devotees do appreciate the later era, particularly due to the undeniable quality of Clarence White's guitar playing. There's also the fact that the latter-day Byrds were a ''far'' better live band than the classic lineup, who were well-known for sounding sloppy and under-rehearsed onstage.
9	* BaseBreakingCharacter: David Crosby. Byrds fans either love the guy to death or hate his guts. Or both, as was the case for manager Jim Dickson. But it's fair to say that when it comes to Croz, nobody is indifferent.
10	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The bridges of a couple songs on ''The Notorious Byrd Brothers'': "Wasn't Born To Follow" (music is suddenly phased and discordant) and "Old John Robertson" (a string quartet comes out of nowhere and takes over the song before fading away just as abruptly as the band comes back in).
11	* BrokenBase
12	** Gene Clark's departure from the band continues to be a source of contention in the fandom.
13	*** While most accept that Gene ultimately quit of his own volition, some fans accuse [=McGuinn=] and Crosby of creating an atmosphere in which he didn't feel that his contributions were valued or welcome.
14	*** Should Gene have been kept around by the band as an in-house songwriter who didn't participate in tours, akin to Music/BrianWilson's relationship with the rest of Music/TheBeachBoys? Those who miss Gene's presence on ''Fifth Dimension'', ''Younger Than Yesterday'' and ''The Notorious Byrd Brothers'' say yes. Others, however, think that Gene was more suited to being a solo artist than he was to band life anyway, and wonder whether his ability to consistently crank out great songs would have resulted in a lack of impetus for the other band members, particularly David Crosby and Chris Hillman, to start writing unique material of their own.
15	** Similarly, David Crosby's firing. Some fans--particularly those who view Croz as a massive {{Jerkass}}--think it was the right call; others view it as a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that [=McGuinn=] and Hillman hadn't put a great deal of effort into resolving, and that the band never really recovered from the loss.
16	** "Mind Gardens" is probably the most controversial song in the Byrds' canon. Some fans think it's an interesting and inventive musical experiment, some think it had potential but was undermined by Crosby's rather Shakespearian vocal performance (these listeners tend to prefer the alternate take that features Croz singing in a less dramatic manner), and still others just think it's an unlistenable track that nearly ruins the ''Younger than Yesterday'' album, and that it should have been bumped in favor of "It Happens Each Day," recorded during the ''YTY'' sessions but left on the cutting room floor.
17	** Despite the fact that ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' is now seen as a groundbreaking work in the country-rock genre, a number of fans wish that the band had stuck with Roger [=McGuinn=]'s original idea for a full survey of American music from the eighteenth century to 1968. Some also wish that the album included more originals and fewer covers of country standards.
18	** Skip Battin's songs on the later Byrds albums have drawn a mixed reception from listeners. Some really like them; others ''really'' don't. His penchant for writing novelty songs doesn't exactly help matters.
19	** The reverb-heavy drum overdub on the ''Never Before'' mix of "Lady Friend" is almost universally regarded to be terrible, but fans are more split on the merits of some of the other latter-day edits made to the tracks in the vault.
20	* CommonKnowledge: Michael Clarke was hired purely because of his resemblance to Music/BrianJones of Music/TheRollingStones due to his blond bowlcut hairstyle and surfer-boy good looks, and had no idea how to play the drums when he joined the band. Well...not quite. Clarke's appearance did play a major role in his becoming a Byrd, but he had played drums before, and his abilities quickly improved to the point where he drummed on the vast majority of the songs that the band recorded prior to his departure at the end of 1967. Chris Hillman commented that Clarke [[BrilliantButLazy had the potential to become a legitimately great drummer had he been slightly more disciplined]].
21	* CoveredUp:
22	** They've covered Music/BobDylan several times, and a fair number of these covers, e.g. "My Back Pages" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", have come to be regarded as the definitive versions.
23	** "Turn! Turn! Turn!" was written (the music, that is) by Pete Seeger and was first recorded by The Limeliters in 1962.
24	** They Covered Up "Jesus is Just Alright", first recorded by the Art Reynolds Singers, only to have Music/TheDoobieBrothers' version Cover them Up.
25	** They recorded Crosby's OneTrueThreesome ode "Triad" for ''The Notorious Byrd Brothers'', but the others hated it and after Crosby got fired they saw no problem in leaving it off the album. Crosby gave it to Music/JeffersonAirplane instead, and the Byrds version sat on the shelf for 20 years.
26	* DiagnosedByTheAudience:
27	** Gene Clark pretty clearly had some kind of anxiety disorder that wound up seriously impacting both his creative endeavors and his personal life.
28	** Some younger fans feel that 1960s music journalists' descriptions of Roger [=McGuinn=] read like they're talking about a person with mild autism (in particular, his emotionally undemonstrative nature and his obsessive interests in aviation, extraterrestrial life and other esoteric topics).
29	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
30	** Gene Clark and Gram Parsons both have reputations that transcend their brief stints as Byrds. While their solo work and [[PosthumousPopularityPotential untimely deaths]] have a lot to do with it, they both played important roles in the band's history. Clark was their best in-house songwriter on the early albums, and Parsons was responsible for their shift to country rock.
31	*** As for their post-Byrds careers, both have solo works that are now canonised as masterpieces, especially Clark's ''No Other'' and Parsons' ''GP'' and ''Grievous Angel''. Parsons was also a founding member of Music/TheFlyingBurritoBrothers, whose two albums ''The Gilded Palace of Sin'' and ''Burrito Deluxe'' are likewise regarded as major works in country-rock, and Clark's work with banjo and fiddler player Doug Dillard, especially ''The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark'', is now retroactively regarded as presaging even much of Parsons' and the Byrds' explorations of country music. While PosthumousPopularityPotential may have something to do with it in both cases, they are both regarded as misunderstood geniuses who never got their due during their lifetime. Indeed, ''No Other'' was a disastrous flop during Clark's lifetime - adjusted for inflation, it cost some $500,000 to make, and it was a commercial failure that went out of print within two years; moreover, Asylum Records head David Geffen infamously hated it. It wasn't until the 2003 reissue that it underwent a critical reappraisal; today, of course, critics routinely call it "a lost masterpiece" and "one of the greatest albums ever made".
32	** Chris Hillman for his strong supporting musicianship, and the way he emerged as a songwriter seemingly out of nowhere, writing ''four'' originals for the ''Younger Than Yesterday'' album ("Have You Seen Her Face", "Time Between", "Thoughts and Words" and "The Girl With No Name") and co-writing a fifth ("So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star") with [=McGuinn=].
33	** Clarence White's guitar virtuosity was a major ingredient in their later years and has also won him some admiration. And he died young too.
34	* EstrogenBrigade: In the band's heyday, Michael Clarke was the most popular member amongst younger female fans, despite the fact that he didn't write or sing.
35	* FandomEnragingMisconception: That the band didn't play their instruments on the ''Mr. Tambourine Man'' album. Claim this around a Byrds fan and you'll be treated to a lecture on how it was only the "Mr. Tambourine Man" ''single'' (not the album) and its B-side, "I Knew I'd Want You," that featured session musicians. Not to mention that [=McGuinn=] was featured instrumentally on both songs.
36	* FandomHeresy: Gene Clark has become something of a SacredCow for a contingent of Byrds fans, who ''absolutely'' will come for you if you downplay his importance to the band in any way.
37	* FanonDiscontinuity: It's common for Byrds fans to pretend that ''Byrdmaniax'', and to a lesser extent ''Farther Along'', never happened.
38	* GeniusBonus: "Space Odyssey" is often described as sounding like a hallucinogen influenced sci-fi sea shanty. This isn't far off the mark, since the song's melody is taken from a nautically-themed English folk song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Z4wqaTjPI "The Handsome Cabin Boy."]] Roger [=McGuinn=], who was well-versed in English, Scottish, Irish and American traditional music, would no-doubt have been aware of the tune.
39	* GenreTurningPoint:
40	** The band was a key voice in the formation of the folk rock genre. Notable was their cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", which they performed for him in studio. The next day, as David Crosby put it, he ran out and hired an electric band - and the rest is history.
41	** ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'', while not the first attempt to fuse {{Rock}} and CountryMusic (besides a few country-tinged earlier Byrds tracks, there was also Gram Parsons' former group The International Submarine Band, some other similar UsefulNotes/LosAngeles bands, Music/MichaelNesmith's songs for Music/TheMonkees, some material by Music/TheLovinSpoonful, and even Music/BuckOwens adding some {{Rock}} elements to his country style), marked the first time that an A-list band delved into the style extensively, and it almost singlehandedly launched the country-rock genre (among other things, the album was a clear Music/{{Eagles}} influence), and could even also be credited with laying some of the groundwork for OutlawCountryMusic.
42	* GrowingTheBeard: The band's first three albums are well-regarded by fans, but ''Younger Than Yesterday'' is often considered to be a major leap forward, due to factors such as Chris Hillman's emergence as a songwriter and the fact that for the first time they were working with a producer (Gary Usher) who genuinely shared their interest in studio experimentation.
43	* HarsherInHindsight: "Bugler" from ''Farther Along'', about a dog who gets run over and dies, took on a new meaning when Clarence White (who sang the song) was killed by being run over by a drunk driver in 1973.
44	* HypeBacklash:
45	** This was part of the reason for the band's initial negative reception in the United Kingdom.
46	** After being initially rejected by the record-buying public and subsequently held up as a seminal country-rock masterpiece, ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' has come all the way around to experiencing this. Some feel that it's overrated, that [=McGuinn=]'s affected southern accent on certain tracks demonstrates a lack of respect for the country genre, and that it's an inferior predecessor to Music/TheFlyingBurritoBrothers' ''The Gilded Palace Of Sin''.
47	* IAmTheBand: Downplayed, since the contributions of Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons in particular are considered to be essential to the group's music. However, Roger [=McGuinn=] was the main architect of their signature sound and was the featured vocalist on most of their early hits, and the general consensus is that without his involvement, it's not the Byrds.
48	* NeverLiveItDown:
49	** Their first [=UK=] tour. From the getgo, the Byrds were overhyped to near impossible expectations, being billed as America's challenge to the Beatles[[note]]although the members of the two bands became friends[[/note]] and the British Invasion more generally, which made particularly territorial British pop fans resent them even before they'd arrived. The tour itself was dogged by sound problems due to bad equipment, which wasn't made any better by the fact that Hillman, [=McGuinn=] and Clarke all wound up falling ill one after another. Not to mention that British audiences, used to musicians seeing themselves as entertainers first and foremost, didn't care for the band's cool onstage demeanor.
50	** Crosby's onstage behavior at the Monterey Pop Festival--most notably, his rant about John F. Kennedy's assassination and his public proclamations in favor of LSD--seems to be this for him in the context of his time with the Byrds. It's commonly cited as being the reason why [=McGuinn=] and Hillman decided that he was more trouble than he was worth as a bandmate. (This is a bit of CommonKnowledge, however: while Crosby's antics at Monterey didn't exactly ''endear'' him to his bandmates, he would remain in the band for another three months, and the decision to fire him was more a culmination of problems than it was a response to any one incident.)
51	* SoOkayItsAverage: The 1973 reunion album is often viewed in this light by fans. While the record is certainly listenable, its rather middle-of-the-road '70s country-rock stylings are considered to be a significant disappointment given the talent involved. What certainly didn't help in this regard was the fact that, according to basically everyone, Gene Clark and David Crosby were the only ones who were really invested in the project.
52	* SophomoreSlump: Despite featuring some of Gene Clark's most memorable originals, ''Turn Turn Turn'' is usually regarded as being weaker than ''Mr. Tambourine Man.''
53	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
54	** Song, in this case. Internal competition ensured that several excellent Gene Clark compositions were kept off the band's first two albums, sometimes being used as single B-sides and at other times being left unreleased altogether until the CD reissues came out in TheNineties. Byrds biographer Johnny Rogan has commented that the ''Turn! Turn! Turn!'' album in particular would have been substantially improved by the inclusion of these songs.
55	** In another example, the band recorded a version of the traditional blues song "I Know You Rider", intended for release as a single in late 1966. However, it was eventually pulled, with "Mr. Spaceman" from ''Fifth Dimension'' being issued in its place. Many fans find this decision incomprehensible, as they feel that "I Know You Rider" is one of their strongest covers (it eventually came out on the ''Never Before'' compilation, and later the ''Fifth Dimension'' reissue).
56	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
57	** While their early jangly folk rock sound has aged surprisingly well--it was a major influence on alternative rock--the backwards guitars on ''Younger Than Yesterday'' and the Moog blorps and swirls on ''The Notorious Byrd Brothers'' clearly date these records to the [[TheSixties Psychedelic 60s]], when such sounds were in fashion. That hasn't stopped these two albums from being fairly widely considered to be the band's best.
58	** "Draft Morning" obviously dates to a time when the Vietnam war draft was a pressing concern on the minds of most young American men.
59	** "Space Odyssey" begins with the line "In 1996, we ventured to the moon." The first moon landing would occur only around eighteen months after the song's release, and the idea of the year 1996 conjuring up futuristic imagery seems awfully quaint in the 2020s.
60	* ValuesDissonance:
61	** Depending on how you hear it, the final couplet of "Artificial Energy" could refer to either a homophobic hate crime or domestic violence--''I'm coming down off amphetamine/And I'm in jail 'cause I killed '''a'''[=/=]'''the''' queen'' (the latter hearing makes more sense in context, as a CallBack to the earlier line "I'm king for a night"). Edgy enough in 1967-68 (although, surprisingly, the song wasn't met with much controversy upon its release), still shocking these days, though since the song has a DrugsAreBad message, it makes sense as a DownerEnding.
62	** The controversial "Triad" may well have been boundary-pushing when David Crosby wrote it back in 1967, but it's aged rather poorly--nowadays, the whole thing comes across more like a cringe-inducing boast about the singer's sexual prowess than anything else, or even trying to use sexual liberation as a way to avoid confronting his CommitmentIssues.
63	* VindicatedByHistory: ''Sweetheart Of The Rodeo'' was recognized in later years as the TropeCodifier, even the TropeMaker, of country rock, but when it was released, it was their lowest selling album up to that point. The band's rock audience ignored it, and the country music establishment rejected it viciously, with the band being heckled at the Grand Ole Opry and famed Nashville DJ Ralph Emery dismissing their version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" in front of the band themselves [[note]] Emery initially refused to play the song and mocked the band throughout the interview repeatedly before finally agreeing to play the song[[/note]].
64	* WinBackTheCrowd: Upon its release in 1969, ''Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde'' was considered a welcome return to form for the band after their commercially unsuccessful experiment with the country genre on ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo.'' Averted now that ''Sweetheart'' has been thoroughly VindicatedByHistory while ''Dr. Byrds'' is more likely to be seen as the beginning of the band's AudienceAlienatingEra.
65	* TheWoobie: Gene Clark. Although blessed with the good looks and preternatural songwriting talent that should have made him a major star, he struggled with severe anxiety issues throughout his all-too-brief lifespan, during an era when poor mental health was stigmatized far more than it is now. Furthermore his solo work--while earning him positive critical attention as well as an extremely devoted fanbase--failed to connect with general audiences.

Context YMMV / TheByrds