The Byrds - "Younger Than Yesterday" redone

I was recently inspired by the Albums That Never Were blog post, in which The Byrds’ album The Notorious Byrd Brothers was redone as if David Crosby had not been fired. I looked at the band’s previous album, Younger Than Yesterday, the first without any input from Gene Clark, and created a new version. This one includes three songs by Clark that were on his first solo album released nearly simultaneously with Younger Than Yesterday.

SIDE A

1. So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star

2. Have You Seen Her Face

3. Needing Someone

4. CTA – 102

5. Renaissance Fair

6. Time Between

7. Everybody’s Been Burned 

SIDE B

1. So You Say You Lost Your Baby 

2. Mind Gardens 

3. The Girl with No Name 

4. Tried So Hard

5. It Happens Each Day

6. My Back Pages

Without contributions from Clark, Chris Hillman stepped up with four songs, plus a co-write with Roger McGuinn. This is interesting because prior to this, no other Hillman-written songs had been recorded by the band other than one track that was a group effort.

Rather than simply inserting Clark's songs, I looked at the album overall to see if I could improve it (at least in my mind). The album as released is very short – the first side clocks in less than 14 minutes. Besides adding three Clark tunes, I also decided to jettison two other tracks to make room for them. I removed Hillman’s “Thoughts and Words” as I didn’t think it contributed much, especially as the opening track of Side B. Plus, Hillman already has four other writing credits on the album. I also removed “Why,” a song co-written by McGuinn and Crosby. This was an odd choice in the first place because the band had released a slower version of the same song as a B side to the “Eight Miles High” single the previous year.

Clark’s solo album, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, includes both Hillman and Michael Clarke throughout, so it actually has three “Byrds” playing on it. I included the tracks “Needing Someone,” “So You Say You Lost Your Baby” and “Tried So Hard.” The first two I added because I simply liked them the most. I included “Tried So Hard” because I saw a video on YouTube of Clark performing it in maybe the late 1970s so I figured it must have been important to him. Also, Hillman recorded it in the early 1970s with his later group The Flying Burrito Brothers, so obviously he liked the track too.

Finally, I also added one outtake from the album, Crosby’s “It Happens Each Day.” Other than the insertions and deletions, the album's tracklist remains pretty much the same, although I moved the cover of Dylan’s “My Back Pages” to the end to close out the album. Because the album title is inspired by the song, and since it was released as a single, I thought ending the album with it made sense.

The result is an album with more variety, more tracks and a longer running time (each side is just under 16 minutes). It wasn’t until after I’d figured out a tracklist I liked that I realized the songs opening both sides have the same two first words in their titles. Weird.

And now for a special treat (ha!), I went the extra mile and created a second version of the album as a double, adding in more Clark songs and outtakes (see below). Sides A-C are about 15:10 give or take a second, while the fourth side is about 20 seconds shorter. You decide what you like more: a single or double album.

For cover art, I needed a photo that included Gene Clark, making the one I chose a bit dated. But doesn't having a photo of them a year or two earlier fit in with the album's title? Hmmmm. Otherwise, I think it looks good for a simple design. I removed some background imagery and added titles.

SIDE A 

1. So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star

2. I Know My Rider (I Know You Rider) 

3. Think I'm Gonna Feel Better 

4. Time Between

5. The Same One 

6. Mind Gardens 

SIDE B 

1. So You Say You Lost Your Baby 

2. The Girl with No Name 

3. CTA-102

4. Is Yours Is Mine 

5. Everybody's Been Burned 

6. Echoes 

SIDE C 

1. Have You Seen Her Face 

2. It Happens Each Day 

3. Needing Someone

4. Don’t Make Waves 

5. I Found You 

6. Psychodrama City 

SIDE D 

1. Renaissance Fair 

2. Couldn't Believe Her

3. Why

4. Tried So Hard 

5. Thoughts and Words 

6. My Back Pages 

Here's a YouTube playlist of the double album version.

Sources: 

* Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers

* The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday 1996 version with bonus tracks

* The Byrds box set

The Byrds - "Rise and Fall"

The original five members of The Byrds reunited in 1973 and released a new album titled simply Byrds. There was a lot of publicity about the reunion, but the album was not especially well received by critics or the band members. As a result, plans for a tour were scrapped and the members basically went their separate ways again.

I wanted to see what a Byrds album might have been had the band given it another shot.

SIDE A
1. Rise and Fall
2. John, John
3. The Lee Shore
4. Heavenly Fire
5. Train Leaves Here This Morning

SIDE B
1. My New Woman
2. No Other
3. Jamaica Say You Will
4. Safe at Home
5. Critical Mass /
6. Homeward through the Haze

In compiling the songs for this album, I wanted to raid the members' 1973-74 albums as little as possible so that in theory those albums could have existed as well. That wasn't always easy as you'll see.

I opened the album with "Rise and Fall," which Chris Hillman recorded for the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band's self-titled debut album, and used that name for this album's title. That's followed by the traditional song "John, John," an outtake from Roger McGuinn's self-titled solo album that came out a few months after Byrds. The first of David Crosby's contributions is "The Lee Shore." This song was originally an outtake from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Deja Vu, but was also considered for that group's uncompleted 1974 album Human Highway, and Crosby and Nash performed it live around this time as well.

The next track on this album is "Heavenly Fire," which like the previous Southern-Hillman-Furay band song was co-written by Hillman and Len Fagen. Side one ends with an outtake from Gene Clark's No Other solo album. "Train Leaves Here This Morning" was co-written with Bernie Leadon who recorded it for the Eagles' debut album.

The second side opens with "My New Woman" from Roger McGuinn's solo album. It's the only track here that features all five Byrds members, and I suppose it was an outtake from the Byrds sessions. The use of a saxophone on this song seems out of place, but I don't know of any other version of the track. This is followed by "No Other," the title song from Clark's solo album. The Jackson Browne-penned "Jamaica Say You Will" is another outtake from Roger McGuinn. Hillman's "Safe at Home" (another Souther-Hillman-Furay track) comes next and adds a burst of rock needed here to pick up the tempo.

The album concludes with two tracks from the Crosby & Nash album Wind on the Water. Here I've featured "Critical Mass" as an intro to "Homeward through the Haze" rather than Graham Nash's "Wind on the Water."

Proving once again that the arrangement of tracks can be critical, my first attempt of this came out terrible. But after some rearranging I think this collection is a stronger one than that of the Byrds album. Some members said that they had held back some of their better tunes for their own solo albums rather than using them for the Byrds reunion. And in a way, this rectifies that.

For a cover, I took a photo I found online by Eric Wagner for an Earth Island Journal article titled "The Rise and Fall of the East Sand Empire," cropped it and added titles.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young -- "SYNC"

Following the success of Deja Vu, released in 1970, each member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young went to work on solo albums. However, all four ended up working with the other three on those albums.

I wanted to see what a CSN&Y album might have looked like if they'd worked on one instead of producing solo efforts. In all, there are 14 songs from the four solo albums that include at least two of the members, and five have three members. But none have all four together. As a result, all of the 14 songs I used for this album have at least two of the members performing.

SIDE A

1. Love the One You're With

2. Music is Love

3. Better Days

4. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

5. Tamalpais High (At About 3)

6. Laughing

7. Go Back Home

SIDE B

1. What Are Their Names

2. Sit Yourself Down

3. Man in the Mirror

4. Traction in the Rain

5. Song with No Words

6. I Used to Be a King

7. We Are Not Helpless

The album kicks off with Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With," with backup vocals by Graham Nash and David Crosby, followed by Crosby's "Music is Love," with Neil Young and Nash on both guitar and vocals (Young also contributes bass, vibraphone and congas to the track). Nash's "Better Days" is next with Young on guitar.

The fourth track is Young's only composer contribution "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," which features Stills on backup vocals. This is followed by two Crosby songs, "Tamalpais High (At About 3)" and "Laughing," both with Nash on backup vocals. Stills' "Go Back Home," with Crosby on backup vocals, closes out the first side.

The second side opens with Crosby's "What Are Their Names," featuring Nash on backup vocals. Stills' "Sit Yourself Down" follows, with the voices of both Nash and Crosby.

Nash's "Man in the Mirror" includes Young on guitar. This is followed by two Crosby songs, "Traction in the Rain" and "Song with No Words," both with Nash on vocals. Nash's "I Used to be King," with Young and Crosby on vocals, is next. The album closes with Stills' "We are Not Helpless," which includes backup vocals by Nash and Crosby.

(Something to ponder: Since three of these songs feature Crosby, Stills and Nash, then aren't they in essence Crosby, Stills and Nash songs?)

The songs can be found on Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, Nash's Songs for Beginners, Stills' Stephen Stills and Young's After the Gold Rush. I chose the title of this album, SYNC, from the first letter of each of their surnames.

As a play on the title, I created a cover with a photo of an old sink. This sort of goes along with the covers for the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, the Mamas and Papas' If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight, and Foreigner's Head Games. And now that I review this list, what's with rock bands and bathrooms?