mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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younger than yesterday sweetheart of the rodeo
Younger Than Yesterday The Monkees was put together by record companies to catch up on the British flood of artists conquering America in the mid 60’s. Thanks to their own TV-show and a couple of hit singles they were promoted as the America’s answer to the Beatles. Obviously they were not anywhere near to live up to that. If one had to point out an American band that could match the Beatles feel for catchy pop melodies and eager to explore new sounds and possibilities, the choise would quite naturally be the Byrds. The similarities are many, especially with the mid 60’s Beatles, thanks to the 12-stringed guitar, vocal harmonies and the talent for pop melodies. Of course the spelling of the name draws some attention to it as well, among with the bands lust to find new ways in the studio. Younger Than Yesterday is arguably their strongest effort and whilst the liner notes of the re-issue tries hard to compare it to Sgt Pepper, it lands somewhere between Rubber Soul and Revolver. Even if the Byrds have had better songs than all of the ones presented here, non of their albums have quite matched the consistency and high quality through out the album. With the 12-string electric Rickenbacker jangling on all over the place and the bands impeccable vocal harmonies songs such as “Everybody’s Been Burned” and “Renaissance Fair” are great to listen to. If the songs don’t bring a tear to your eye, they’re most likely to set a smile on your face instead. The only obvious misstep is “Mind Gardens”. It holds a lot of ideas and plays with sounds and backwards effects, similar to “Tomorrow Never Knows”, but far from as capturing and melodic. However, I think the boys simply lost themselves because of the excitement, joy and sheer curiosity for the possibilities of the studio, which is very easy to forgive.
Sweetheart of The Rodeo It is quite interesting to watch the Byrds develop. To go from being a leading pop band to a terrible outdated and cliche filled country band. There are good country music out the there, I’ve learned to appreciate it and even love some of it. However, Sweetheart of The Rodeo recycle old standard melodies and arrangements it’s boardering to parody. This is exactly the kind of country I’ve always have despised and always will despise. You can’t pretend that the album sounds like this because it’s thirty years old, country music is a lot older than that. It have had the time to grow and move into different directions. Even in 1968 it had been around and had grown into something artistically admirable. However, the Byrds must have kept their heads and attention someplace else. Probably getting stoned out of their minds and had all logic fried by Jimi Hendrix-delivered LSD. It’s so narrow minded, naive, and generic that it makes me upset. So upset that it doesn’t matter that there are some less embarrassing moments here, such as “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”, “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and the very beautiful “Hickory Wind”. Of course, they throw in songs such as “The Christian Life” here and there, and those are so poor and patronizing, that I can’t do anything but hope it’s all just one big joke. Sadly, I don’t think it is. In the hands of lesser craftsmen, this album probably would have been even more painful to listen to. Maybe it never would have reached the record stores, which, come to think about it, would probably have been the best destiny for this album.
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