The Byrds - Untitled (1970){Original US)
The Byrds - Untitled
Vinyl rip in 24/96 & 16/44.1 | 2 LP | Artwork
Columbia ~ CG 30127
(Untitled) is the ninth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in September 1970 on Columbia Records.
(Untitled) is a double album, with the first LP featuring live concert recordings from two early 1970 performances in New York City and with the second LP consisting of new studio recordings.The album represented the first official release of any live recordings by the band as well as the first appearance on a Byrds' record of new recruit Skip Battin, who had replaced the band's previous bass player, John York, in late 1969.
The studio album mostly consisted of newly written, self-penned material, including a number of songs that had been composed by band leader Roger McGuinn and Broadway theatre director Jacques Levy for a planned country rock musical that the pair were developing.The production was to have been based on Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt and staged under the title of Gene Tryp (an anagram of Ibsen's play), with the narrative taking place in the south-west of America during the mid-19th century. However, plans for the musical fell through and five of the songs that had been intended for Gene Tryp were instead recorded by The Byrds for (Untitled), although only four appeared in the album's final running order.
Upon release, (Untitled) was met with positive reviews and strong sales, with many critics and fans regarding the album as a return to form for the band. Likewise, the album is today generally regarded as being the best that the latter-day line-up of The Byrds produced.
REVIEW
Among the later Byrds albums, Untitled was always the one to own, even if you weren't a huge fan. Issued back in 1970 as a two-priced-as-one LP, Untitled was one of the few modest commercial successes for the latter-day group. "Eight Miles High" is the high point, a 15-minute jam that showcases this band's prowess. The studio sides aren't to be overlooked, however -- the group by this time was modifying its established sound into more of a '70s mode, and the influence of new members Gene Parsons and Skip Battin was showing up, pushing aside the familiar timbre of Roger McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker in favor of a leaner country-rock orientation. On some of this material (especially the Parsons-Battin "Yesterday's Train" and Battin's "Well Come Back Home"), they sound more like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The only song on the album to get heard by people other than serious Byrds fanatics was McGuinn's "Chestnut Mare," but "Truck Stop Girl," "All the Things," the group's version of Leadbelly's "Take a Whiff on Me," and, especialy, "Just a Season" (maybe the prettiest song McGuinn has ever written) also hold up very well. Other numbers, like the environmental ode
"Hungry Planet," are more of an acquired taste. ~ Allmusic
TRACKS
Side 1 (live)
01. Lover of the Bayou(Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy)
02. Positively 4th Street (Bob Dylan)
03. Nashville West (Gene Parsons, Clarence White)
04. So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman)
05. Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)
06. Mr. Spaceman (Roger McGuinn)
Side 2 (live)
07. Eight Miles High (Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby)
Side 3 (studio)
08. Chestnut Mare (Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy)
09. Truck Stop Girl (Lowell George, Bill Payne)
10. All the Things (Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy)
11. Yesterday's Train (Gene Parsons, Skip Battin)
12. Hungry Planet (Skip Battin, Kim Fowley, Roger McGuinn)
Side 4 (studio)
13. Just a Season (Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy)
14. Take a Whiff on Me (Huddie Ledbetter, John Lomax, Alan Lomax)
15. You All Look Alike (Skip Battin, Kim Fowley)
16. Well Come Back Home (Skip Battin)
PERSONNEL
The Byrds
Roger McGuinn - guitar, Moog synthesizer, vocals
Clarence White - guitar, mandolin, vocals
Skip Battin - electric bass, vocals
Gene Parsons - drums, guitar, harmonica, vocals
Additional personnel
Gram Parsons - backing vocal on "All the Things"
Terry Melcher - piano on "All the Things" and "Truck Stop Girl"
Byron Berline - fiddle on "You All Look Alike"
Sneaky Pete Kleinow - pedal steel guitar on "Yesterday's Train"
EQUIPMENT
-VPI HW-16.5 RCM
-Clearaudio Concept w/ Verify magnetic-bearing tonearm
-Clearaudio Concept MC Cartidge
-Musical Suroundings The Phonomena II preamp
-Zoom H4n
-Audioquest interconnects