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Rating: Unfortunately, due to latent internet connection problems, I couldn't verify if the review of this album was already present on the DeBaser server, so I apologize in advance if I end up repeating something already said before.
Let's start with the assumption that for more recent fans, the name Byrds might mean little to nothing. However, in mid-'60s America, which was suffering terribly in comparison to the emerging English music scene (Stones and Beatles, of course, but also the budding Doors and Cream), the members of the aforementioned band all had great individual fame, and indeed, to varying degrees, they all went on to have respectable solo careers. Consider Roger McGuinn, the Byrds' standard-bearer even after the band's breakup, guitarist David Crosby, a member of the incredible and seminal trio Crosby, Stills & Nash, as well as bassist Chris Hillman with his country-leaning Flying Burrito Brothers.
The great invention (and merit) of the Byrds was finding a compromise genre, which was by no means a hybrid lacking personality, between the folk of Dylanian origin and the British rock of the Beatles, and in turn they influenced the artists from whom they drew inspiration. On one hand, they claimed paternity over the Beatles' psychedelic period (which peaked with Sgt Pepper's), and on the other, they completely shocked Dylan, who abandoned just the acoustic guitar of folk and replaced it with a full-fledged rock band, which cost him quite a few criticisms. The summit, the pinnacle of it all, was obviously the very famous (and beautiful) Mr. Tambourine Man, coincidentally a cover of Dylan, which as a single swept away all rivals (and what rivals!!!) and revolutionized all the parameters of folk-rock. However, it would be reductive to focus only on this song (Bob Dylan commented: "Wow, you can even dance to it!"): other Dylan covers masterfully executed (Chimes Of Freedom), renditions of old American folk songs in The Bells Of Rhymney (a move replicated by the Boss 40 years later), and significant original episodes in You Won't Have To Cry.
Ultimately, I don’t award a full 5 stars even to this album, although it certainly comes close, because it is undoubtedly revolutionary and seminal like few others after it, and undeniably has great artistic peaks. However, it doesn't reach the perfection of albums released in its decade such as "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Let It Bleed", and others of this kind. Nevertheless, it remains an album that, if only for historical significance, is an absolute must-have.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Mr. Tambourine Man (02:23)
Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you
Take me for a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship
All my senses have been stripped
And my hands can't feel to grip
And my toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin'
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Unto my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it
Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you
02 I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better (02:34)
The reasons why
Oh I can say
I have to let you go, babe
And right away
After what you did
I can't stay on
And I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone
Baby for a long time
You had me believe
That your love was all mine
And that's the way it would be
But I didn't know
That you were putting me on
And I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone
Up when you're gone
Now I've got to say
That it's not like before
And I'm not going to play
Your games anymore
After what you did
I can't stay on
And I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone
Up when you're gone
Up when you're gone
Up when you're gone
03 Spanish Harlem Incident (02:00)
Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem
Cannot hold you to its heat
Your temperature's too hot for taming
Your flaming feet are burning up the street
I am homeless, come and take me
Into the reach of your rattling drums
I got to know babe, all about my fortune
Down along my restless palms
Gypsy gal, you got me swallowed
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes so fast and slashing
And your flashing diamond teeth
The night is pitch black, come and make my
Pale face fit in to place, ah, please!
I gotta know babe, I'm nearly drowning
If it's you, my lifelines trace
I been wondering all about me
Ever since I seen you there
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I'm riding
I know I'm 'round you but I don't know where
You have slayed me, you have made me
I got to laugh halfways off my heels
I got to know babe, will you surround me?
So I can tell if I'm really real
04 You Won't Have to Cry (02:09)
Oh, you know it makes me sad
To see you feel so bad
But it's happened to you many times before
But if you will come with me
Then girl you will see
That you won't have to cry anymore
There's no reason to feel blue
Because of what he says to you
And I wouldn't want to see you hurt no more
I could never do you wrong
'Cause my love for you is too strong
And you won't have to cry anymore
Oh, I saw you there with tears in your eyes
Because he told you so many, many lies
Oh, you know it isn't right
To put yourself uptight
By thinking about the things he's done before
Just trust your love in me
And girl you will see
That you won't have to cry
No, you won't have to cry
No, you won't have to cry anymore
05 Here Without You (02:38)
Daytime just makes me feel lonely
At night I can only dream about you
Girl, you're on my mind
Nearly all of the time
It's so hard being here without you
Words in my head keep repeating
Things that you said when I was with you
And I wonder, is it true?
Do you feel the same way too?
It's so hard being here without you
Being here without you
Oh I know this won't last
I'll see you someday
It seems as though that day will come never
But there's one thing I'll swear
Though you're far away
I'll be thinking about you forever
Streets that I walk on depress me
Ones that were happy when I was with you
Still with all the friends I know
And with all the things I do
It's so hard being here without you
Being here without you.
06 The Bells of Rhymney (03:33)
Oh what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney
Is there hope for the future?
Say the brown bells of Merthyr
Who made the mine owner?
Say the black bells of Rhondda
And who killed the miner?
Say the grim bells of Blaina
Throw the vandals in court
Say the bells of Newport
All will be well if, if, if, if, if
Say the green bells of Cardiff
Why so worried sisters? Why?
Sang the silver bells of Wye
And what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney
Oh what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney
Is there hope for the future?
Say the brown bells of Merthyr
Who made the mine owner?
Say the black bells of Rhondda
And who killed the miner?
Say the grim bells of Blaina
07 All I Really Want to Do (02:05)
I ain't lookin' to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, pacify you
Deny, defy, or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is baby be friends with you
No, I ain't lookin' to fight with you
Frighten you or uptighten you
Drag you down or bring you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is baby be friends with you
I don't want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
I don't want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is baby be friends with you
Baby be friends with you
Baby be friends with you
08 I Knew I'd Want You (02:15)
I'd like to love you
With all of my heart
You've had me on your trip
Right from the start
And when you looked at me
With love in your eyes
I knew I'd want you, oh yeah
I'd like to hold you
If you want me to
I've found something new, girl
Just by looking at you
And it's in your smile
And it's in the way
I knew I'd want you, oh yeah
I meet so many people
I feel I don't know
But I felt so close to you
When you said hello
I'd like to love you
And together we'd find
The place we've been looking for
Where we'll have peace of mind
And there we'll be happy
And there I'll know why
I knew I'd want you, oh yeah, oh yeah
11 Chimes of Freedom (03:53)
Far between sundown's finish and midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts, struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors, whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far off corner flashed
And the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless seeking trail
For the lonesome hearted lovers, with too personal a tale
And for each unharmful gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed and laughing, as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
And we listened one last time, and we watched with one last look
Spellbound and swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, srung-out ones and worse
And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
12 We'll Meet Again (02:07)
We'll meet again
Don't know where, don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling true
Just like you always do
'Til the blue skies make the dark clouds fade away
Some sunny day, hey hey hey
Some sunny day, hey hey hey
Some sunny day, hey hey hey
We'll meet again
Don't know where, don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
Keep smiling true
Just like you always do
'Til the blue skies make the dark clouds fade away
Some sunny day, hey hey hey
Some sunny day, hey hey hey
Some sunny day, hey hey hey
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Other reviews
By Lewis Tollani
The entire work is permeated by that veil of magic that only the Byrds could render so sweetly and melancholically.
Folk(rock) would rise to the rank of a worthy and recognized musical genre, and rock as a whole would receive a significant contribution to its maturation.
