Ballad Of Easy Rider - The Byrds

Ballad Of Easy Rider - The Byrds

2:04

Ballad Of Easy Rider, 1969

Written by Roger McGuinn

This song has a surprisingly twisty origin story.  First, it was originally released on a McGuinn solo album, the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider.  The song also came about because they couldn't get the rights to "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."  Instead, Peter Fonda got McGuinn to write this one, which he did, inspired by a few quick lines from Dylan.  However, Dylan demanded that Fonda and McGuinn take his name off as co-author — whether because he didn't like the movie's bleak ending, or he just didn't want his name tied to another counter-culture anthem, who knows.  Anyhoo, the song is a fine example of the mellow folk-rock of the era.  McGuinn's airy tenor, sounding like an American-born Donovan, that gentle 12-string shimmer, and a calm, ambling melody make it a gentle listen, even if the whole is slightly marred by the addition of a misplaced string section.

One Hundred Years From Now - The Byrds

One Hundred Years From Now - The Byrds 
2:34
Sweetheart Of the Rodeo, 1968
Written by Gram Parsons

This song captures Parsons' vision of country rock (if by rock you mean softer 1970s rock) at its purest crossroads, where twang meets jangle, and Bakersfield meets Laurel Canyon. Lloyd Green's pedal steel provides the track's keening hook, while Clarence White adds clean, understated guitar lines that dance around the melody without ever intruding. The result feels like the missing link between The Everly Brothers and Hank Williams, music that belongs equally to country and rock, proof those genres twine their roots in the same soil.  Equally, its sound could just as easily be heard drifting from a crackling, century-old shellac 78 as from modern headphones..  The song's message is enough to give one pause: nearly sixty years later, we're nowhere near to any answers to the questions it poses.  "Nobody knows what kind of trouble we're in / Nobody seems to think it all might happen again."  It keeps on happening.

Blue Canadian Rockies - The Byrds

Blue Canadian Rockies - The Byrds

2:01

Sweetheart Of the Rodeo, 1968

Written by Cindy Walker, 1950

The Byrds go full country on this cover, which has a tried and true subject: the man misses both a revered geographical place and the girl who still resides there, and now he's coming home.  "Now, oh, how my lonely heart is aching tonight / For that girl I left behind / And oh, what I'd give if I could be there tonight / With the sweetheart who's waiting for me."  It's a wonderfully crafted, delicate song that perfectly evokes nostalgia and yearning, and the Byrds handle it with skill.

You Won't Have To Cry - The Byrds

You Won't Have To Cry - The Byrds
2:07
Mr. Tambourine Man, 1965

Written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn

At first I thought this was a Beatles cover; it's definitely got a Lennon/McCartney vibe, from the stabs of guitar at the beginning to the lyric, which addresses a girl in the second person. "Oh you know it makes me sad to see you feel so bad / But it's happened to you many times before."  That could easily have been a Fab Four lyric.  Overall, it's a middling Byrds track, but the perfect harmonies and '60s pop jangle are pleasant enough.

Pretty Boy Floyd - the Byrds

Pretty Boy Floyd - the Byrds

2:34

Sweetheart Of the Rodeo, 1968

Written by Woody Guthrie, 1939

I know this song from the Guthrie and Dylan version. This one has a brisk tempo and some mighty fine bluegrass banjo picking by John Hartford.  McGuinn's nasal vocals have an easy, semi-spoken pace, so you can make out the words easily.  It's not an earth-shaking cover, but pleasant to listen to.  I put it in the same category as the early Stones covers, where an artist does a slightly rockier version by an old master as an homage and a way to gain genre cred.