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Rating: There isn't much to highlight about this record, which marks the end of the Byrds' era with Columbia Records and, all in all, without any particular claims, it does a pretty decent job among the ear drums, settling on a well-arranged traditional (the title track), a country boogie rock (the cover of "So Fine"), the festive but not too much "Get Down Your Line," the sunny "Precious Kate," and the very clever ending of "Lazy Waters..."
Just a couple of things: Kim Fowley's authorship, always in collaboration with the Byrds' bassist at the time, Skip Battin, seems to want to return to his own standards after the country rock binge, which could be defined, paraphrasing the title of one of his most representative albums, outrageous. And so "America's Great National Pastime" looks more like a cabaret country, a vaudeville, rather than a saloon. Thus, Fowley seems gradually, perhaps even unconsciously, to start making his way back to his own style. It's obvious that, with David Crosby and Gram Parsons gone, someone like Roger McGuinn would never even entertain the thought of proposing Fowley's actual inclusion in the Byrds: where would a brainy fuse like Kim's ever take him?
And then another thing: "Bugler" is a cover of an old song, here reinterpreted by Clarence White, the excellent guitarist, one of the most renowned session men in the country-root circle. White, whose surname was LeBlanc, fell victim to his time. A musician like him simply didn't break out under his own name or with bands he was a former member of due to the abundance of big names during that period. Thus, rather than working in his own name and on his own behalf, he ended up preferring work in the service of a band whose strong shots he had already fired or working as a session man for Ry Cooder or James Taylor, and even ending up unemployed, as happened after the breakup of these Byrds. There are loads of people like him, second and third lines who could have given and taken more, going back to that period, starting, out of the laziness of the writer, right from Kim Fowley's friend, the bassist Skip Battin, who before being a bird had a duo, Skip & Flip. But again, there are loads of names, and they cannot emerge if from that period and movement most people only end up remembering Dylan, barely Baez, and Young.
The last thing: Bugler is the name of a dog with whom the singer, as a boy, ran free and happy, in search of wilderness and adventure. Bugler then died, hit by a motorist; so says the song. Bugler is not just a dog, but it is the wilderness itself, it is the adventure of feeling free, it is the essence of being young. Bugler is the sentiment of the country man, especially of the country artist, and it is also his destiny: Clarence LeBlanc died in 1973, at twenty-nine, also hit by a car driven by a drunk woman. He died in front of his brother's eyes while loading instruments and equipment into the car together at the end of a concert, a reunion of his first old country band, the Kentucky Colonels. In "Bugler," Clarence White sings about his death and dedicates the song to himself, unknowingly. A bit like Gram Parsons did, who dedicated his last song, "In My Hour Of Darkness," to Clarence, even playing it at his funeral, not knowing it would be the song of his own sad end, in a tragic successive downfall of domino pieces.
Death and Rock.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Tiffany Queen (02:39)
Written by Roger McGuinn
Happiness hit me on the first day that we met
She was sitting in my kitchen with a face I can't forget
She was looking my direction and calling with her eyes
I was trying to do an interview and telling them all lies
Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
They were asking what I thought about the 50's rock n roll
Then they got into their limousine and fell into a hole
I moved into the kitchen and I quickly fell in love
The warden came along and asked me what I was thinking of
Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
Well I grabbed her by the hand and with a few things I could
The warden said "You're leaving, well, you better leave for good!"
I made it to Tasmania to buy a devil dog
We were met by a young handsome prince, who turned into a frog
Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
Now we're living out in Malibu the ocean by our side
Laying in the sunshine drifting with the tide
But happiness had hit me on the first day that we met
She was sitting in my kitchen with a face I can't forget
Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
Over her head
03 Farther Along (02:56)
Tempted and tried we're oft' made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long
While there are others living about us
Never molested, though in the wrong
Farther along we'll know more about it
Farther along we'll understand why
Cheer up my brother live in the sunshine
We'll understand it all by and by
When death has come and taken our loved ones
Leaving our home so lonely and drear
Then do we wonder how others prosper
Living so wicked year after year
Farther along we'll know more about it
Farther along we'll understand why
Cheer up my brother live in the sunshine
We'll understand it all by and by
05 Bugler (03:03)
Written by Larry Murray
Back when Cattle Creek used to sing
it's waters were sweet and its banks were green
and sunny days, went on forever
Me and old Bugler, we'd run wild
bluetick hound and the redneck child
we thought we were, birds of a feather
Ah the fish would bite, my how they'd bite
we'd catch them possoms in the pail moonlight
for ma, just to please her
Bugler's voice like Gabriel's horn
up in the cypress, all down through the corn
golden sounds, yes to treasure
CHORUS
Bugler, Bugler, bless your hide
Jesus gonna take you for a chariot ride
Say Goodbye, Say Goodbye
One day Ma she brought the news
She said, honey young Bugler's done paid his dues
he's been hit down, yes on that highway
Dry your eyes and stand up straight
Bugler's got a place at the pearly gates
Say goodbye sugar, Oh say goodbye
REPEAT CHORUS
06 America's Great National Pastime (02:56)
Written by Skip Battin and Kim Fowley
One of America's great national pastimes
Is drinking a Coke
Taking a smoke
Telling a joke
One of America's great national pastimes
Is playing ball
Taking it all
And thinking so small
But the great taste of Coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired
The weary and the sore
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired
The weary and the sore
One of America's great national pastimes
Is chocolate fudge
Carrying a grudge
Bribing a judge
One of America's great national pastimes
Is poisoning rain
Acting insane
Inflicting pain
But the great taste of Coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired
The weary and the sore
The great taste of Coke has refreshed players The hot and tired
The weary and the..
One of America's great national pastimes
Is the worship of speed
Planting her seeds
Taking more than she needs
One of America's great national pastime
Is cutting the grass
Grabbing some ass
Living too fast
But the great taste of coke has refreshed players The hot and tired
The weary and the sore
The great taste of Coke has refreshed players
The hot and tired
The weary and the sore
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