9 January 2013 - Original Album Collections Results in a Feast of Byrds

It was “M”’s turn to return to work today.  So I returned Monday’s favour, let her sleep in and took Lady for her morning walk.  I elect not to take the iPod preferring the sound of the rosellas in the park.  Martial conversation replaced music in the drive to our workplaces.

To accompany me at work, I chose to take the last unheard “Original Albums Collection” from my pending crate.  These collection boxes are the latest initiative from the record industry.  It involves three or five usually consecutively released albums by the same artist each one housed in a cardboard slipcover within a narrow cardbaord box that ultimately takes up the same amount of space as one and a half jewel boxes.   Each box is sold at an extremely reasonable price; 20 Australian dollars.  The lack of jewel boxes and booklets keeps prices down; each slipcover is effectively a mini reproduction of the original LP cover or CD inserts.

I’m not quite sure about the industry’s rationale for these box sets.  Are these an attempt to sell unsold stock from warehouses around the world?  (Possibly.  It could be the industries’ version of a liquidation sale.) Is it another ploy to attack the evil menace that threatens their very existence, downloading, by offering product extremely cheaply?  (Not sure. If this is the rationale, surely this should have occurred long ago, but then again, we are taking about the recorded music industry here.)   Or, is it an attempt to get fans, like me, to shell out more as Collectors Editions, archived live performances, etc are subsequently released.  (Now I’m just being paranoid.)  Ultimately, I suspect this is a clever ploy to stimulate catalogue sales or to preserve an artist’s catalogue in the rapidly dwindling amount of space that is now being allocated to CDs in music shops, department stores and Tesco/Wal-Mart style mega markets.

Whatever the reason, this has been a boon for me.  I’ve been able to expand my collection by obtaining albums for artists whose catalogues I had been intending to explore.  In some cases this neatly fits alongside albums that had already provided a more than adequate overview such as Little Feat.  I bought the box containing their first five albums, all with Lowell George, to sit alongside my beloved copy of their magnificent Waiting For Columbus live album and the Hoy Hoy! compilation.  In other cases I bought a box because of interest in a single album hoping to find something else in the remainder.  This was the case of a set containing Spirit’s first five albums.  I purchased this as a cheap way of getting hold of their Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus album but also ended up falling in love with their debut which, in all probability, I would not have otherwise heard.

The box set I decided to finally play is one that contains the final 5 studio albums of one of the finest American bands of all time, The Byrds.  There are two Byrd’s sets, the other containing their first five albums and which I had already purchased.  I had bought both boxes because for years my Byrds needs had been well served by The Byrds Box Set, a 4 disc set whose compilers, as I discover, had done a magnificent job in distilling their career.  But I wanted to hear the albums as originally released and the two “Original Album Collections” set was a cheap way to do it.  As an extra added attraction, the label, to their credit, included the albums in their extended versions. Unfortunately the bonus tracks are not specified on the box listing and are not listed at all on the reproduction slipcovers.

And so to the albums;

Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (+ 8 bonus tracks and hidden advertisement for the album)

This is the landmark album recorded with the legendary Gram Parsons that many historians think invented country rock.  The hidden advertisement betrays the obvious uncertainty the label had in the material.

Dr Byrds & Mr Hyde (+ 5 bonus tracks)

Now with Clarence White this sounds like a happy compromise.  A brilliant cover of Bob Dylan and The Band’s This Wheel’s On Fire, kicks off this intriguing mix of country influenced and psychedelic tracks.   A cover of Dylan’s Lay Lady Lay is a too respectful of the original which probably explains why it is a bonus track.

Ballad Of Easy Rider (+ 7 bonus tracks and 2 hidden advertisements for the album)

This is not the original soundtrack for the Peter Fonda movie although he contributed to the back cover.  It repeats the formula of the previous album with added Irish influences on Jack Tarr The Sailor.  The Dylan cover is what can only be described as an easy listening version of It’s All Over Now Baby Blue.  The advertisements document the label’s attempts to market the album by downplaying the country tracks, settling on the term “American Music” to describe the contents.

Byrdmaniax (+ 3 bonus tracks)

There is less country on this one which, at times, sounds like an early Jackson Browne record.  The Dylan cover is Just Like A Woman which again is too respectful of the original and is again a bonus track.

Farther Along  (+ 3 bonus tracks)

The final album in the box attempts to mix the approach on Byrdmaniax  and a return to the sounds of their initial albums without  hitting the heights of the latter.  The opening track, Tiffany Queen, is fun though.

Just before clocking off I double check The Byrds discography.  I see that a 2 disc legacy edition of Sweetheart has been released as has Untitled, the only other non-compilation album released during their active career not included in these two boxes.  I make a mental note to purchase the latter at some stage and drive to pick up Maria feeling less paranoid.