Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Byrds - "Blackbyrd Pye"


Gram Parsons' time in The Byrds was short, and it's difficult to discern how much of an impact he really had on the band. He did convince the rest of the band, specifically Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, to record a country album rather than McGuinn's idea of one that took on multiple music genres (see our earlier post: https://albumsbackfromthedead.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-byrds-20-c.html).

The result was Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and while that album is highly rated today, it was a commercial disappointment at the time. Byrds fans didn't want a country album, and country music fans didn't care for The Byrds. After Parsons refused to take part in the Byrds' tour of South Africa, McGuinn and Hillman fired him.

Strangely, a few months later Hillman quit The Byrds to join Parsons in a new band called The Flying Burrito Brothers. That band's debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, came out in February 1969. By the time a new Byrds album, Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, was released a month later, McGuinn was not only the last original member of the band, but the only one remaining from the lineup that recorded the previous album.

For this outing, I wanted to put together an album that might have come out had McGuinn, Hillman and Parsons remained together for another Byrds album.

SIDE A
1. Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man
2. Sin City
3. My Uncle
4. Child of the Universe
5. Bad Night at the Whiskey
6. Christine's Tune 

SIDE B
1. Wheels
2. King Apathy III
3. Old Blue
4. Juanita
5. Hippie Boy
6. Stanley’s Song

For material, I took songs from both The Gilded Palace of Sin and Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde. I didn't include any tunes that were written by other members of the respective bands. I also didn't include any of the cover tunes, other than "Old Blue," a traditional song McGuinn arranged.

The album opens with "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man," a Byrds song McGuinn and Parsons co-wrote before Parsons was shown the door. This is followed by two Parsons-Hillman songs from the Burritos' album: "Sin City" and "My Uncle." Two songs McGuinn co-wrote with friends come next ("Child of the Universe" and "Bad Night at the Whiskey"), and the first side closes with another Parsons-Hillman song, "Christine's Tune."

The second side opens with "Wheels," just as it does on The Gilded Palace of Sin. McGuinn's "King Apathy III" and the previously mentioned "Old Blue" follow. Two more Hillman-Parsons penned songs, "Juanita" and "Hippie Boy," come next before the album closes with "Stanley's Song," an outtake from Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.

Since neither The Gilded Palace of Sin and Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde sold very well, it's doubtful that this album would have made a bigger dent in the charts. However, it might have been welcomed by critics at the time, and might be well-regarded today.

All tracks are from either The Gilded Palace of Sin or the expanded version of  Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.

For a title to this album, I did a lot of pondering. I don't like the name Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde and I assume The Gilded Palace of Sin is related to the song "Sin City" and Vegas, but it doesn't really do anything for me. I started thinking about country music and that led me to think about comfort food, and for some reason I thought of the line "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" from the the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." So I titled this album Blackbyrd Pye.

While searching Google images I came across the one above for a San Clemente pie shop and used that with new titles, including using y's for i's as the Byrds often liked to do.


7 comments:

  1. a really good idea,personally i've never liked sweetheart or GP's solo albums but this is a good collection and for me it's the best of both worlds eg bolstering two fairly week albums and i'd say produing a good maybe very good replacement

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    1. Thanks. It was an experiment, like my other albums here, but I think it works as a good continuation of what they had been doing.

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  2. Is there any actual music with these posts or are we supposed to just use our imagination? I don't get it.

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    1. I haven't uploaded the music files. Too many lawsuit-happy record companies and artist estates out there. Instead I list the sources for people to find the tracks themselves. All the songs are easy enough to find just as I have done. I just compile them as albums in iTunes.

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  3. Is there any actual music with these posts or are we supposed to just use our imagination? I don't get it.

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  4. Gram's vocals on Sweetheart were removed prior to release and McGuinn replaced them with his own. The Gram versions are available on the Byrd's box set.

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    1. You are correct. And I'm using the Gram vocals for my version.

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