Flying Burrito Brothers "lost" 1970 album -- "Feather Bed"

 

SIDE A

1. Break My Mind

2. Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down

3. Together Again

4. Green, Green Grass of Home

5. Six Days on the Road

6. Your Angel Steps Out of Heaven

SIDE B

1. Country Honk

2. Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)

3. Crazy Arms

4. Close Up the Honky Tonks

5. Sing Me Back Home

6. To Love Somebody

The band's unreleased covers album from 1970. Here's a YouTube playlist.

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).

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

I took songs from both The Gilded Palace of Sin and Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde for material. I didn't include any tunes written by other members of the respective bands, and I didn't include any 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 nor 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 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, Calif., pie shop and used that with new titles, including using y's for i's as the Byrds often liked to do.

Here's a YouTube playlist of the album.

The Byrds - "20 c."

For the follow-up to The Byrds' The Notorious Byrd Brothers album, Roger McGuinn came up with a concept for a double album that would be a history of American music in the 20th century: bluegrass and Appalachian music, country and western, jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock. The album would conclude with futuristic electronic music, featuring a Moog synthesizer.

But before The Byrds could record, they needed new members. Gene Clark had left before The Notorious Byrd Brothers was completed, and both David Crosby and Michael Clarke had been fired. That left only McGuinn and Chris Hillman. They first hired Kevin Kelley as the band's new drummer. To assist with his album concept, McGuinn also wanted to hire a keyboardist with jazz experience. Gram Parsons was offered the job, but he was more keen on country music and convinced Hillman (who already came from a country and folk music background) that it was a better move than McGuinn's concept. With urging from Parsons, Hillman and producer Gary Usher, McGuinn eventually acquiesced. The band then recorded Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

The funny thing is, since Sweetheart of the Rodeo includes country, folk and traditional music, much of McGuinn's concept is actually on the album. For this re-imagined album, I look at what an album might have been if McGuinn had stuck with his original vision. Both Hillman and Parsons were gone soon after Sweetheart of the Rodeo was completed, so what if it hadn't been released and McGuinn kept working on the album, eventually incorporating songs that would end up on the next Byrds album Dr. Byrd and Mr. Hyde with new band members? Here's what I came up with:

SIDE A
1. Pretty Polly
2. I am a Pilgrim
3. Old Blue
4. The Christian Life
5. You Don't Miss Your Water
6. Hickory Wind

SIDE B
1. Nothing was Delivered
2. Your Gentle Way of Loving Me
3. Pretty Boy Floyd
4. Life in Prison
5. You're Still on My Mind
6. Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man

SIDE C
1. Nashville West
2. You Got a Reputation
3. Lazy Days
4. One Hundred Years from Now
5. Stanley's Song
6. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

SIDE D
1. Candy
2. Child of the Universe
3. Bad Night at the Whiskey
4. King Apathy III
5. This Wheel's on Fire
6. Moog Raga

Using the chronological concept, I rearranged most of the songs from the two albums into a double album.

Side A starts off with a McGuinn/Hillman original that's very much a traditional style folk tune and then continues with mostly old traditional songs. Side B moves along in time, with Dust Bowl ballads, a song about Prohibition gangster Pretty Boy Floyd by Woody Guthrie, and the Bakersfield sound (including a Merle Haggard song, "Life in Prison"). Side C shows a bit more modern country and folk, and a rocker in "Lazy Days." The final side includes songs of psychedelic rock ("Bad Night at the Whiskey") and hard rock ("This Wheel's on Fire"). Finally, the album ends with the electronic piece that McGuinn had actually recorded during the sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers.

The result is that it still lacks jazz and blues. But other music forms are well represented: bluegrass, traditional Appalachian music, country and western, folk, country rock, hard rock/psychedelic rock, and finally an electronic piece recorded on a Moog. Honestly, I'm not sure The Byrds could have properly pulled off jazz and blues, but who knows?

For an album cover, I once again went with a design from http://idesignalbumcovers.tumblr.com/