Since I’ve already reviewed
\nYounger Than Yesterday<\/i> and
\nTurn! Turn! Turn!<\/i>, two of the Byrds’ first four albums, it
\nseems logical to go ahead and complete the circle, and give the
\nlowdown on the other two. Thus, today I’ll look at
\nFifth Dimension<\/i>, the Byrds’ third LP, and a review of their
\nfreshman effort,
\nMr. Tambourine Man<\/i>, is forthcoming.<\/p>\n
There is an interesting dichotomy on these early Byrds records.
\nThere are long stretches of perfectly inspired, groundbreaking, and
\nlovely material, interrupted cruelly by seemingly half-thought-out
\npieces that prevent the albums from working together as a cohesive
\nwhole. (Unfortunately, the first Byrds records that remained
\nconsistent all the way through would be the two that followed the
\ndisintegration of the “classic” lineup –
\nThe Notorious Byrd Brothers<\/i> and
\nSweetheart Of The Rodeo<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
\nFifth Dimension<\/i> stands comfortably beside the Beatles’
\nRevolver<\/i> as good examples of psychedelic pop. The title cut,
\na Roger McGuinn original that either describes either the pleasures
\nof an acid trip or Einstein’s theory of relativity (!), leads off
\nthe record nicely, setting up an ear-pleasing sonic palette of
\nsoaring harmonies, raga- and Coltrane-influenced 12-string guitar ,
\nand a spacey, dreamy ambience. “Wild Mountain Thyme” is an old
\nScottish ballad that gets the Byrds treatment, and this lovely tune
\nis augmented by beautiful string washes.<\/p>\n
After two rather wistful, slow-paced tunes, the bouncy,
\ncountry-influenced “Mr. Spaceman” and the pounding, jazzy “I See
\nYou” come crashing in. “Mr. Spaceman” is a bit of fun, with a happy
\nMcGuinn melody and characteristically optimistic lyrics, here
\nregarding the possibility of other-worldly intelligence. A bit
\nlight, perhaps, but a fun song nonetheless. The latter is heavily
\njazz-inspired, beginning the trend of unique angular soloing by
\nMcGuinn on the 12-string, in a style he has not often returned to
\nsince. Equally notable here are David Crosby’s stirling harmony
\nvocals (as always), and Michael Clarke’s surprisingly aggressive
\ndrumming. Crosby’s “What’s Happening?!?!” follows, another good
\noriginal, very much in the vein of later compositions like
\n“Everybody’s Been Burned”. A good song, but nowhere near the
\nquality of the first four tracks.<\/p>\n
“I Come And Stand At Every Door” is a truly haunting dirge – the
\nstory of a young child killed at Hiroshima. It’s a bit grotesque
\nand heavy on the pathos, but McGuinn’s delivery saves it. The
\nsecond side just ups the ante, with the power and majesty of “Eight
\nMiles High”, perhaps the group’s best song ever. From the pounding,
\ninsistent rhythm section to McGuinn’s truly astounding Coltrane
\nimpression on the 12-string, this is a quintessential Byrds
\ninstrumental track. Then add the Clark-Crosby-McGuinn harmonies
\n(“Eight Miles High” was recorded before Clark left the group) and
\nyou have an exceptional song, one of the most important and
\ninfluential of the entire decade.<\/p>\n
The Byrds’ up-tempo version of “Hey Joe” follows (yes, the track
\nmade famous by Jimi Hendrix), with Crosby belting out the lyrics
\nover some angular soloing by McGuinn and a rather “funky” Hillman
\nbassline. While not as good as Hendrix’s version (but few songs
\nare), it’s a lot of fun to sing along with and is actually pretty
\nsolid.<\/p>\n
The rest of the album takes a bit of a step down. A long and
\nmostly boring R&B instrumental called “Captain Soul” occupies
\nthe next slot, and the album comes to a close with the oddity
\n“2-4-2 Waltz (The Lear Jet Song)”, with Byrds harmonies sharing
\nspace with the sounds of the aircraft mentioned in the title.
\nSandwiched between these two shaky tracks, however, is the truly
\namazing “John Riley”, another great folk tune augmented with
\npowerful strings and signature Byrds harmonies. A forgotten
\nclassic, often overlooked, that stands comfortably among the
\ngroup’s best tunes.<\/p>\n
As with all the recent reissues, we’re treated to a handful of
\nbonus tracks, including another, rawer version of “Eight Miles
\nHigh”, and two versions of an excellent fast-paced raga-rock number
\ncalled “Why” that was the “Eight Miles High” B-side. In addition,
\nthere’s a fun rocking “I Know My Rider” and Crosby’s trippy
\n“Psychodrama City”. The fact that any of these bonus tracks could
\nbe added to the album with no loss in quality is astounding – and
\nat least three of them (“Rider”, “Psychodrama” and “Why”) are
\nactually superior to some of the cuts on the record (specifically,
\n“Captain Soul”, “2-4-2 Waltz” and “What’s Happening”).<\/p>\n
This is a classic of American pop, and I think most music fans
\nwho check it out will enjoy it, especially if you’re a fan of
\nharmony vocals and more “out-there” rock instrumental styles worked
\ninto the pop song format. Make sure you get the reissue with the
\nbonus tracks, however, as it is far superior in terms of quality
\nand sound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5885],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36367","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-byrds","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36367"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36367"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}