Byrdsong
Further rare or unrleased Byrds tracks 1964-1967
01.Brotherhood Of The Blues
A solo acoustic guitar/vocal demo dating from the time Crosby spent at World Pacific studios supervised by manager Jim Dickson before they hooked up with McGuinn and Clark.Not one of the best Cros songs by a long shot.
02.Why Can't I Have Her Back Again
A solo Gene demo this time from the 'Preflyte' sessions with Mr.Clark in full 'Searchers' mode.No tapes survive of a group arrangement of this song,if there ever was such a thing.
03.You Movin'
04.Boston
From the limited edition mono single.Two familiar World Pacific tracks but represented by unfamiliar takes.The version of Boston has an edit during the intro to remove a dodgy chord on the single version.The untouched version is included as a bonus (track 18)
05.You Movin'
06.I Knew I'd Want You
07.She Has A Way
Three unreleased takes from the World Pacific sessions taken from the Bootleg 'Jet Set Sigh'.It seems 'I Knew I'd Want You' comes from the same session as the Beefeater's session with hired session men providing the backing indicating that the song was considered for inclusion on that first single.
08.She Don't Care About Time
09.It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Recent trawls through the CBS vaults unearthed these early takes from mid'65.Baby Blue has a different arrangement which is closer in style to the backing tracks heard on Journals.
10.I Know My Rider
A recent mono mix of the 5D era outake which includes Crosby 'La-La'-ing during the solo (both times)
11.Milestones
Very short and obscured by narration this is the soundtrack to a 1966 television documentary which caught the Byrds in the recording studio during the recording of this not-so-spontanious jam.McGuinn recently revealed that he had the only copy of the actual studio take but when he checked the contents of the tape box marked 'Milestones' the track wasn't on the tape.So this is all there is left of that.
12.If I Hang Around
A lovely solo acoustic/vocal demo that appeared on a tape that Gene recorded for Chip Douglas during the formation of Gene's first post-Byrds foray,The Gene Clark Group in 1966.Chip added bass and harmony vocal to the tape circa 1995.
13.Lady Friend
This is a bit of a mystery.Here we have Crosby peforming a fantastic version of one of his best Byrd songs on his own.It was initially claimed that this was Crosby's demo when it first appeared.But when a slightly longer version appeared with Crosby's end comment intact it seems as if this recording dates from after the Byrds version was recorded (Crosby says "I already made a record of it")but maybe before the group version was released.There are some who believe the performance is from the 80's but to me Crosby's comments place it in the 1967 time frame.
14.I Know My Rider
This song was attempted in the studio on 4 separate occasions in 1966 and was also performed live in 1967.This is from the rare audience tape of the Byrds set at the Monterey Pop Festival.Pretty poor quality unfortunately.It's also performed very,very fast!
15.Renaissance Fair
16.Lady Friend
17.Have You Seen Her Face
Awful quality off-line off-air tape of the Byrds 3 song performance on Tonight with Johnny Carson,13 July 1967.
18.Boston
19.Boston
As a bonus here's two versions of Boston that differ (but only slightly) from the previously released versons.Track 18 is the unedited version of the take used on the mono 45 (but here in a stereo mix) with a snippet of studio chat and two count-ins and also retaining that problematic chord that was edited out for release.Track 19 is the same take as 'Preflyte' and 'In The Beginning' but is a different mix and has a longer fade out than what you are used to hearing.