The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
Of Earthly Delights and gentler pieces Love Song For The Dead Che and Cloud Song. Thirty years on, Moskowitz, who moved on to Country Joe’s All Star Band before becoming a music teacher, commented on the web: ‘I have no regrets about the electronic excess under which my voice was buried. It was part of the aesthetic and I was the one who insisted on singing through a ring modulator.’
Byrd later worked with Phil Ochs and a relatively unimpressive band called The Field Hippies (1969) and also produced Ry Cooder’s Jazz (1978).
The Byrds
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Recorded amid group turmoil, this unexpectedly emerged as their most gentle and reflective work.
Record label: Columbia
Produced: Gary Usher
Recorded: CBS, Hollywood, June 21–December 6, 1967
Released: January 3, 1968 (UK) April 12, 1968 (US)
Chart peaks: 12 (UK) 47 (US)
Personnel: Roger McGuinn (g, v, syn); David Crosby (g, v); Michael Clarke (d); Chris Hillman (b); Jim Gordon (d); Clarence White (g); Red Rhodes (pedal steel); Paul Beaver (moog); Roy Halee (e); Don Thompson (ae)
Track listing: Artificial Energy; Goin’ Back; Natural Harmony; Draft Morning; Wasn’t Born To Follow; Get To You; Change Is Now; Old John Robertson; Tribal Gathering; Dolphin’s Smile; Space Odyssey
Running time: 28.30
Current CD: Sony Legacy 4867512 adds: Moog Raga; Bound To Fall; Triad; Goin’ Back; Draft Morning; Universal Mind Decoder
Further listening: Younger Than Yesterday (1967)
Further reading: The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited (Johnny Rogan, 1997)
Download: Not currently legally available
The Byrds were at the peak of their artistic powers in 1967 and following the celebrated Younger Than Yesterday looked likely to climb new heights as a creative force. Unfortunately, they were also being eaten away from within. The rivalry between McGuinn and Crosby over leadership and direction continued to fester, most notably at the crucial Monterey festival where David Crosby played the counter-culture king, advocating LSD use and telling the world that the Kennedy assassination was a hushed-up conspiracy. To top it all, he appeared onstage with the Buffalo Springfield. ‘They were very upset when he played with them,’ manager Jim Dickson recalled. ‘There was a big dilemma. David seemed as if he was intent on destroying the group. I’m sure he didn’t see it that way. It was compulsive behaviour.’
In August, The Byrds commenced work on their new album, but friction in the studio threatened to overwhelm them. Apart from the bickering between McGuinn and Crosby, there was an ongoing battle with drummer Michael Clarke who responded to David Crosby’s condescension with the priceless, ‘What do you know, man? You’re not a musician.’ More problems ensued when McGuinn and Hillman rejected Crosby’s ménage à trois ballad Triad as tasteless. He rebelled by declining to play on the Goffin & King number Goin’ Back. With emotions running high, McGuinn and Hillman drove over to Crosby’s house and told him he was fired. Gene Clark was recalled, but only lasted three weeks and contributed nothing to the album. By the end of the sessions, Michael Clarke had joined the ranks of ex-Byrds.
The final product should have been a disjointed mess but instead was breathtaking – evocative songs made otherworldly by Gary Usher’s innovative use of phasing, reversed tapes, string sections and synthesizers. The Byrds survived destabilising line-up changes during this period and would go on to record six more albums, but they would never again find the magic or mystery unveiled during this time of unprecedented internecine strife.
The Zombies
Odessey And Oracle
Gorgeous album, overlooked in the UK, since acknowledged as a key example of British psychedelia.
Record label: CBS
Produced: Rod Argent and Chris White
Recorded: Abbey Road and Olympic Studios, London; June–November 1967
Released: April 19, 1968 (UK) June 1968 (US)
Chart peaks: None (UK) 95 (US)
Personnel: Rod Argent (p, o, Mellotron, bv); Chris White (b, bv); Colin Blunstone (v); Paul Atkinson (bv, g); Hugh Grundy (bv, d)
Track listing: Care Of Cell 44; A Rose For Emily; Maybe After He’s Gone; Beechwood Park; Brief Candles; Hung Up On A Dream; Changes; I Want Her She Wants Me; This Will Be Our Year; Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914); Friends Of Mine; Time Of The Season
Running time: 33.04
Current CD: Big Beat CDWIKD181 30th anniversary edition adds: stereo and mono mixes of each track from the album plus: A Rose For Emily (Alternate Version 2); Time Of The Season (Alternate Mix); Prison Song (backing track)
Further listening: The all-killer/no-filler 4-CD box set Zombie Heaven (1997)
Further reading: The Zombies: Hung Up On A Dream (Claes Johnansen, 2001); Alec Palao’s fine liner notes to Zombie Heaven; also check out the Zombies Fan Page, http://web.telia.com/~u18203287/music/zombies.htm; www.rodargent.com; www.colinblundstone.co.uk (official)
Download: Not currently legally available
The Zombies were hardly the stuff of teenage fantasy, carrying no aroma of danger or wild innovation. But beneath the tidy suits, nice jumpers and thick spectacles beat the hearts of five terrific musicians, more-than-merely-gifted writers who – in She’s Not There and Time Of The Season – created two of the decade’s most evocative and enduring hits.
They were almost classic one-hit wonders, the beautiful and timeless She’s Not There proving impossible to follow. It hit around the world and provided them with plenty of experience on the road, but further singles performed poorly and their debut album was a disappointing, but typical, rag-bag of blues covers and low-wattage originals. But chief writers Rod Argent and Chris White had a few ideas about ditching their old formula and making a proper album, and they took their plan to CBS Records. CBS liked it.
On June 1, 1967, the attention of the entire rock world was fixed upon the release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or so they say. The entire rock world except, that is, for five former beatsters holed up at Abbey Road, commencing the recording of their psychedelic masterpiece. At The Beatles’ behest, the studio technicians had jerryrigged various 4-track recording machines so the group would have more tracks to work with; when The Zombies walked in to start recording, engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil MacDonald were busily disconnecting those same machines. Paul Atkinson later recalled, ‘We said, “What are you doing? Plug those back in again.” And they said, “No, no, please. We’ve had six months of this. It’s been driving us crazy. We want to unplug all this stuff and get back to recording normally.”’
Odessey And Oracle (the title was misspelt by the sleeve designer) was a tightly arranged album that utilised their engineers’ skills to the full. Despite cutting corners by using a mellotron instead of orchestra and flute, The Zombies still wound up having to spend £200 of their own money to pay for a stereo mixdown.
The record came out to almost universal indifference. A disheartened Paul Atkinson quit the band and Rod Argent took it as the final sign: ‘We may as well split then.’
Within weeks, the angelic-voiced Blunstone was working at an insurance company. Meanwhile, CBS recording