Ballad of Easy Rider

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ballad of Easy Rider
Studio album by The Byrds

Publication
(s)

29th October 1969

Label (s) Columbia

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Country rock , folk rock

Title (number)

11

running time

33 min 13 s

occupation

production

Terry Melcher

chronology
Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
(1969) 		Ballad of Easy Rider (Untitled)
(1970)

Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth studio album by the American folk rock band The Byrds , the ninth if you include their greatest hits album. It was released on October 29, 1969 on the Columbia Records label . The album peaked at # 36 in the United States and# 41in the UK . Thanks to the return of Terry Melcher , producer of the first two Byrds albums, Ballad of Easy Rider was a far greater success with fans and critics than its predecessor Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde .

Since Roger McGuinn was mainly busy composing the music for Jacques Levy's pop version of Peer Gynt during the album's creation phase and the three other members had little experience in songwriting, Ballad of Easy Rider mainly consists of cover versions of songs by other artists. Each band member only contains one song they wrote themselves. McGuinn contributed the title track, which had already appeared in a solo version of him on the Easy Rider soundtrack.

Two singles were released from the album. Ballad of Easy Rider, with B-side Oil in My Lamp , was released on October 1st, before the album was released, and hit # 65 in the US singles chart. Jesus Is Just Alright , which the Doobie Brothers made a hit in 1972, didn't hit the market until December 15th and only came up to # 97. The B-side was a new version of the Bob Dylan song It's All Over Now, Baby Blue , which the Byrds recorded with their original line-up in 1965 but had not released at the time.

Track list

A side

  1. Ballad of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn) - 2:00
  2. Fido (John York) - 2:40
  3. Oil in My Lamp (Gene Parsons / Clarence White) - 3:13
  4. Tulsa County ( Pamela Polland ) - 2:49
  5. Jack Tarr the Sailor ( Traditional ; Arrangement: Roger McGuinn) - 3:31

B side

  2. Jesus Is Just Alright ( Arthur Reynolds ) - 2:10
  3. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan) - 4:53
  4. There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To) ( Vern Gosdin / Rex Gosdin ) - 3:29
  5. Gunga Din (Gene Parsons) - 3:03
  6. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) ( Woody Guthrie / Martin Hoffman ) - 3:50
  7. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins ( Zeke Manners / S. Seely) - 1:41

Republication

On March 25, 1997 , Columbia released the album on CD with the following bonus tracks :

  2. Way Beyond the Sun (Traditional; Arrangement: Roger McGuinn) - 2:56
  3. Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood ( Jackson Browne ) - 2:44
  4. Oil in My Lamp (Gene Parsons / Clarence White) - 2:02 (alternative version)
  5. Tulsa County (Pamela Polland) - 3:39 (alternate version)
  6. Fiddler a Dram (Moog Experiment) (Traditional; Arrangement: Roger McGuinn) - 3:10
  7. Ballad of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn) - 2:26 (alternative version)
  8. Build It Up (Clarence White / Gene Parsons) - 5:34 (instrumental; with radio commercials as hidden tracks )

Web links