The Byrds - Favorite Songs?

Since it sems we're discussing favorite artists, are there any fans of the Byrds here? I'm a huge fan, myself, particular from the 1968-1973 era and there are so many songs from that particular era that are my favorite because of the great Clarence White on electric guitar (being that I'm a guitarist and Clarence White had a huge impact on my playing style, most of these songs include Clarence on electric guitar. Country music star, Marty Stuart, now owns Clarence's 1954 Fender Telecaster electric guitar. I got to play that holy grail of a guitar about three years ago when the band I was in at the time opened two shows for him - and, man, is that thing HEAVY! It's a combination of pedal-steel guitar parts (for the bender itself) and the back of the guitar has another half of an electric guitar on there to house the bender and there's masonite covering that part. I don't know how Marty plays it every night! Anyway, here are some of my favorite Byrds songs:

"Hickory Wind"

"One Hundred Years From Now" (once again, some killer guitar playing by Clarence!)

"Deportee" (beautiful/tasteful B-bender guitar solo from Clarence here!)

"Positively 4th Street"

"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (Gram Parsons on original lead vocals)

"Way Behind The Sun" (some great laid-back electric guitar playing from Clarence on this one!)

"Jesus Is Just Alright"

"Willin'" (This was actually an acoustic performance sung by the late Skip Battin who died from Alzheimer's several years ago).

"Old Blue"

Those are just a few....

(I'm fixin' to go out for the evening so I didn't have time to search for any YouTube links to the songs...sorry....




EDIT: I've added some songs that I'd entirely forgotten until I was sitting here listening to the original 1990 box set.

Last edited by Tony Trout on Fri May 27, 2011 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nice story about the guitar, Tony.

So many wonderful moments to choose from, here's three:

Here are some of my favorite Byrds songs:

"Hickory Wind"

"One Hundred Years From Now" (once again, some killer guitar playing by Clarence!)

"Deportee" (beautiful/tasteful B-bender guitar solo from Clarence here!)

"Positively 4th Street"

"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (Gram Parsons on original lead vocals)

"Way Behind The Sun" (some great laid-back electric guitar playing from Clarence on this one!)

"Jesus Is Just Alright"

"Old Blue"

Those are just a few....

(I'm fixin' to go out for the evening so I didn't have time to search for any YouTube links to the songs...sorry....

Beautiful choices Tony!

I love all of the ones in your list as well as

Time Between

Goin' Back

The Christian Life

Your Gentle Way of Lovin' Me

Tulsa County

Gunga Din

Farther Along


I also love Clarence. The Byrds live at the Fillmore is a fine showcase of his talents with the string bender.

And another great showcase CD which is rarely out of my player, is this gem:

Clarence front.jpg

Clarence back.jpg

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Here are some of my favorite Byrds songs:

"Hickory Wind"

"One Hundred Years From Now" (once again, some killer guitar playing by Clarence!)

"Deportee" (beautiful/tasteful B-bender guitar solo from Clarence here!)

"The Christian Life"

"Nashville West"

"Positively 4th Street"

"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (Gram Parsons on original lead vocals)

"Way Behind The Sun" (some great laid-back electric guitar playing from Clarence on this one!)

"Tulsa County"

"Jesus Is Just Alright"

"Paths Of Victory" (from the original 1990 4CD box set" recorded by Chris Hillman, David Crosby and Roger McGuinn)

"Old Blue"

"Truck Stop Girl" (Clarence On Vocals)

"Bugler"



Those are just a few....

(I'm fixin' to go out for the evening so I didn't have time to search for any YouTube links to the songs...sorry....

Beautiful choices Tony!

I love all of the ones in your list as well as

Time Between

Goin' Back

The Christian Life

Your Gentle Way of Lovin' Me

Tulsa County

Gunga Din

Farther Along


I also love Clarence. The Byrds live at the Fillmore is a fine showcase of his talents with the string bender.

And another great showcase CD which is rarely out of my player, is this gem:

Clarence front.jpg

Clarence back.jpg

I forgot about "Live At The Fillmore" CD! That truly is a great testament to the greatness of Clarence's use/work of the StringBender. It blew me away when I first heard it.

It's such a shame that Clarence's life ended the way it did....and he was only 29....and the drunk driver/lady who killed him got off VERY lightly with the sentence the judge gave her!

(BTW, the "Tuff & Stringy" CD is one CD of Clarence's that I don't have...."Nashville West" is another one that I don't have in my collection - but I do have his "33 Guitar instrumentals" CD from Sierra records. I'd heard or read that most of their stuff (if not all) has been reissued....unfortunately, I don't see a way, right now, for me to afford getting them).

I also got this in my email this morning:

The Byrds - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (13 CDs)
http://www.sys-con.com/node/1850453

(MSRP - $99.98 // D2C - $79.99)

I got this in my email this morning:

The Byrds - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (13 CDs)
http://www.sys-con.com/node/1850453

(MSRP - $99.98 // D2C - $79.99)

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very interesting new Tony, thanks!

Hell, get Tough & Stringy when you can. It's a gem of a CD! Great liner notes with James Burton comments!

I got this in my email this morning:

The Byrds - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (13 CDs)
http://www.sys-con.com/node/1850453

(MSRP - $99.98 // D2C - $79.99)

very interesting news, Tony, thanks!

Hell, get Tough & Stringy when you can. It's a gem of a CD! Great liner notes with James Burton comments!

SLGM,

Thanks! I may be dreaming but I think I read somewhere in one of James' fan club newsletters (don't know if they still are printed anymore) that Clarence actually took some lessons from James on electric guitar since Clarence was basically a bluegrass guitarist/flatpicker. I believe that James actually thought that the idea of Clarence's "StringBender" was "too mechanical and ridiculous" - and I disagree. Clarence was really an innovator as far as that StringBender. Gene Parsons is still actually doing installations after all these years.

StringBender

The only thing I dislike about Gene are the prices - nearly $1,200.00 for a B/G StringBender (it bends both the B and G strings either separately or simultaneously.

I'm definitely gonna get "Tuff & Stringy" when I can....as well as that new box set that I just posted a link to. That's a great set to add to anyone's collection - at least someone like me who doesn't have all their albums/CDs.

Hate to be so predictable but "Turn, Turn, Turn", "My Back Pages" and "Eight Miles High".

"EMH" is not only one of the best Byrds songs, it's one of the best of the 60s, period.

I read somewhere in one of James' fan club newsletters (don't know if they still are printed anymore) that Clarence actually took some lessons from James on electric guitar since Clarence was basically a bluegrass guitarist/flatpicker. I believe that James actually thought that the idea of Clarence's "StringBender" was "too mechanical and ridiculous" - and I disagree. Clarence was really an innovator as far as that StringBender.

James and Clarence appear to have worked together on sessions quite a bit, and when James was unavailable, Clerenece would be asked to step in. What happened was, he became so popular with musicians and singers that they started to actually request him over James and James was put out by this development resulting in them going separate ways. He sure was an innovative and unique guitarist. His young death was a tragedy!

Aparently, Gram Parsons at Clarences funeral, as they lowered his casket to the strains of Farther Along and lots of tears, said to Phil Kaufman "I don't want any of this crap when I die. I just want burning under the Joshua Tree". Alas, Kaufman took him literally and a few months later, carried out his wishes....

As with The Beatles, there are far too many to narrow it down to one. Still, the live version of Eight Miles High from Untitled is a frequent favorite of mine.