This review was slightly delayed
because just as I was about to complete it my friend Casey called reminding me
we were going to a concert that night! I had totally forgotten but after a
quick change of clothes and a hurried walk/run downtown we saw Tami Neilson
play at Distrikt nightclub.
I’ll write a review of the show
shortly but for now let’s get back to the review I rudely interrupted with my own forgetfulness. I mean, who forgets they're going to a concert?
Disc 1021 is…Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Artist: The Byrds
Year of Release: 1968
What’s up with the Cover? If hippie cowgirls made Tarot
cards, they’d look like this. Or maybe these are supposed to be rodeo trading
cards. Bronco Billy! Lureen Newsome! Collect them all!
How I Came To Know It: I think the aforementioned Casey once
told me this record was a big deal in the history of music. Then it seemed for
months after he did, every other music article I read seemed to mention it.
When they released a special edition with a bunch of extra Gram Parsons content
on it, I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about. Gram’s no
longer with us, so I don’t pass up a chance to get more of his work.
How It Stacks Up: This is the only Byrds album I have, so it
can’t really stack up.
Ratings: 4 stars
For an
album that was a commercial disappointment, “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” has cast
an awfully long shadow. This is widely cited as the album that married country music with rock and roll and the
rest, as they say, is history. Nowadays you can hear country artists covering
Elvis and rock artists taking on John Prine around every corner. The boundaries
between the styles have been fuzzy for years, and a lot of the credit goes to
“Sweetheart of the Rodeo.”
So
that’s the history of it all (well, a very short version of it anyway) but is
the record any good? The short answer is – yes. I don’t love it to death just
because of its importance, though. If anything, I had heard so much country/rock
crossover music by the time I worked my way back to the beginning that I have
to remind myself that in 1968 the concept was relatively unknown.
What’s
important is the record is full of beautiful harmonies, carefully constructed
songs and some top-notch guitar playing from Roger McGuinn and pedal steel
master Lloyd Green. Green in particular, gives the album just the right mix of
rock resonance and country twang and I don’t think it would be the same without
him.
McGuinn
and Gram Parsons famously fought over this record, and we are all the poorer
for it, because the resulting legal threats kept several songs from having Gram
Parson’s vocals on them (they went with McGuinn singing instead). Roger McGuinn
has a lot of talent, but he’s not much of a vocalist. His voice always sounds
thin and nasally, a bit like Bob Dylan but without the mix of sass and weighty
import that Dylan manages. He is solid on the old-timey crime ballad “Pretty Boy Floyd” because it’s a song
that sounds like it should be played on some old tavern record player that
winds with a crank, but otherwise I wanted Gram on almost every song.
You get
Gram on “Hickory Wind” and he
absolutely kills it, his hurtful mourn providing the perfect partner to Green’s
pedal steel wail. I prefer later remakes by Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch even
more but Gram did it first, and he did it beautifully.
Also, my
copy of “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” is a bonus two-disc edition that includes the
original Gram Parsons’ vocals for “The
Christian Life,” “You Don’t Miss Your
Water” and “One Hundred Years From
Now” turning every song from just plain good to something special.
If
anything, it is the addition of Gram Parsons that makes this album the special
creation it is. Gram had the rock/country cross in his head coming into the
band and the direction his presence provides the Byrds is immediately
noticeable. With all those fresh ideas and heartfelt vocals, it is no wonder
his ego clashed with McGuinn’s.
The
bonus disc has a lot of outtakes that include the band doing a series of false
starts and questions about the various mic levels. The takes are competent, but
all that professional musician banter is annoying. “What take is this?” “Is the
bass coming through for you?” Seriously guys, that’s not interesting to
your listening audience.
What was
cool were two instrumental versions of “All
I Have Are Memories”. I wouldn’t listen to these every day, but it really
underscored how talented they were as musicians, and a nice addition.
Also
welcome were six tracks of the International Submarine Band (ISB), which was
Gram Parsons’ band before he joined the Byrds. You can hear the germination of
Parsons’ sound on these tracks and it underscores what a difference his
creative genius and vision were for the Byrds. One of the tracks, “Luxury Liner” would eventually be the
title track to one of Emmylou Harris’ better records (reviewed back at Disc 697).
As a
member of the ISB, Parsons does a killer version of the old Terry Fell song “Truck Drivin’ Man.” “Blue Eyes” is a honky tonk love song as
good as anything that “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” had to offer.
Taken as
a whole, two discs and 39 songs are a bit much, particularly when you are
getting multiple rough cuts of the same songs, but I wouldn’t trade this in for
the non-extended version because I don’t want to part with the Gram Parsons
versions of some of the songs, as well as the International Submarine Band section.
As for the
original record, this is one of those seminal albums that you really must have
in your collection if you care about the development of Americana music. While “Sweetheart
of the Rodeo” may not have been fully appreciated when it was released almost
50 years ago, this album has made a hell of an impression on generations of
musicians that followed in its wake.
Best tracks: Pretty Boy Floyd, Hickory Wind,
One Hundred Years From Now, The Christian Life (Gram Parsons vocals), One
Hundred Years From Now (Gram Parsons vocal),
Best International
Submarine Band Tracks: Truck Drivin’ Man, Blue Eyes, Luxury Liner, Strong Boy
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