Fifth dimension

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Fifth dimension
Studio album by The Byrds

Publication
(s)

July 18, 1966

Label (s) Columbia

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Folk rock , psychedelic rock

Title (number)

11

running time

29 min 59 s

occupation

production

Allen Stanton

chronology
Turn! Turn! Turn!
(1965)
Fifth dimension Younger Than Yesterday
(1967)

Fifth Dimension is the third music album by the American folk rock band The Byrds . It was released on July 18, 1966 on the Columbia Records label . The album peaked at # 24 on the pop charts in the United States and# 27in the UK . The album meant a change in sound for the band, which now brought psychedelic elements into their music. Since it was one of the very first psychedelic rock albums, Fifth Dimension is considered one of the most influential rock albums of the 1960s.

The release of the album, like the Byrds' first two albums, was preceded by a hit single. On March 14, Columbia released Eight Miles High , which peaked at # 14 on the singles chart in the United States and at # 24 in the UK. For the first time, the biggest hit single on the album was the band's own composition. The B-side Why? Was not included on the original album, but appeared later on the bonus tracks of the new CD release. After recording the single, Gene Clark left the band.

On June 13, the second single was released in the form of 5D (Fifth Dimension) with the B-side Captain Soul , which failed in the top 40 in both America and Great Britain. After the album was released , another single came out on September 6th : Mr. Spaceman was a little more successful than 5D and climbed to # 36 in the American charts. The B-side was What's Happening?!?! .

Eight Miles High / Why

A few days before Christmas 1965, and shortly after their second album Turn! Turn! Turn! the Byrds and their manager Jim Dickson went to the recording studios of RCA Records . At this point in time, they were still in the original line-up and recorded three songs. The first was an attempt to adapt Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin ' . The other two would become the band's next single: Eight Miles High and Why . Under pressure from their record company, Columbia Records , the latter two songs had to be re-recorded a month later in Columbia Studios before they could appear as a single. The producer was Allen Stanton . The RCA recordings, which all band members later referred to as the better versions, were only made available to the public in 1987 with the release of the LP Never Before .

In the winter of 1965, the Byrds had taken a hurriedly recorded music cassette with recordings by John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar on their tour , which all band members listened to intensively. Roger McGuinn came up with the idea of enriching a new song by Gene Clark with jazz . He was convinced at the time that elements of jazz could be incorporated into a rock context, and later cited Rod Argent's organ break on the song She's Not There ( The Zombies ) as an example . The song, which eventually became Eight Miles High , was started by Clark while touring the UK and after spending an evening with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones . In terms of content, the text described the flight to England and Clark's impressions of this country.

Influenced by Coltrane's dense improvisation on scales, especially in the recordings for India and Africa / Brass , McGuinn first developed a riff from the notes D, B, G and A for the main theme and finally a guitar solo inspired by Coltrane on the scales in E minor and F sharp minor. The work of the rhythm group was also based on Coltrane's band with the bass ostinato played forward by Chris Hillman , the driving rhythm guitar by David Crosby and the drum rhythm of Michael Clarke, which was influenced by Latin American music . While Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn played the melancholic main melody that is typical for Clark predominantly in unison, Crosby expanded it with his harmony singing to jazz sounds like Gmaj7.

With the back of the single Why, the Byrds broke new musical territory with a guitar solo in which McGuinn imitated a sitar , just as he had imitated a saxophone on Eight Miles High . The model was the recordings of Indian ragas by Ravi Shankar. On the occasion of the release of the single, McGuinn explained at a press conference that although no sitar was played on Why , the song founded a new genre: Raga Rock . The Byrds were supposed to re- record Why for their 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday .

Fifth dimension

In July 1966 the album Fifth Dimension was finally released . Gene Clark left the band shortly after recording Eight Miles High / Why and Chris Hillman took over his vocal part on stage, but not yet in the studio. In contrast to their first two albums, the Byrds did without cover versions of Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger this time . Without Clark, whose songs were best suited for radio, McGuinn and Crosby developed their own songwriting skills and experimented with styles, rhythms and sounds.

The title track 5D (Fifth Dimension) was written by McGuinn and is stylistically and vocally similar to Bob Dylan recordings from that period, including the Hammond organ played by Van Dyke Parks . In terms of content, the attempt is made to explain Albert Einstein's theory of relativity , inspired by the book 1-2-3-4, More, More, More, More by Don Landis.

Wild Mountain Thyme is a Scottish folk song by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), which later belonged to the standard repertoire in American coffee houses and became known through recordings by the McPeake Family in 1957 and the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem . The special feature of the Byrds' version was an orchestration arranged by producer Allen Stanton.

McGuinn's second solo composition, Mr. Spaceman , was released as a single , like 5D , and achieved moderate chart success. Stylistically, Mr. Spaceman is the Byrds' first country song, and McGuinn's first science fiction contribution lyrically . McGuinn was hoping for friendly communication with extraterrestrial intelligence and is quoted as saying in the liner notes for the re-release of the album on CD in 1997: “I thought that if the song was played in the airwaves, it would be a good way to make us heard with them ".

I See You can be seen as the third contribution of the jazz rock and raga rock experiments. Again, McGuinn improvises on a Coltrane-style scale and the up-tempo rhythm is strongly reminiscent of Why .

What's happening?!?! , David Crosby's first single entry as a songwriter and lead singer, is, according to Crosby, “an odd song where I ask questions. After every question, McGuinn answers on the 12-string guitar “. Crosby's questions express confusion and disorientation. Musically it is remarkable that the raga influence appears even stronger here than on Why .

In I Come and Stand at Every Door , McGuinn set to music a poem by the Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet about the ghost of a child who died when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima , to a melody from the folk song Great Selchie of Shule Skerry , recorded by Judy Collins in 1963 .

On Eight Miles High follows Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go) , Crosby's second solo presentation, which by Billy Roberts had been written. Crosby had gotten to know the song through Dino Valenti , who had secured the rights to the song. It was part of his solo repertoire in folk clubs for some time. Crosby intended to record this song during the recording sessions of the previous two albums, without success. When he found out that other Los Angeles bands ( Love , The Surfaris and The Leaves ) had covered Hey Joe, the Byrds finally recorded their version.

When Captain Soul is one of the few instrumental pieces of the Byrds. Michael Clarke suggested trying an R&B song. The result was Motown - Soul - and Blues inspired and had a topic on the Eingangsriff of the song Get Out of My Life Woman of Allen Toussaint recorded in 1966 by Lee Dorsey , based. It is one of the few pieces by the Byrds that Michael Clarke co-wrote.

John Riley is another adaptation of a folk song, this time from England, that Joan Baez released on her debut album in 1960. Other sources, such as the album cover of Fifth Dimension , name Bob Gibson as the author and recall a recording of the song by Odetta . As on Wild Mountain Thyme , McGuinn and Crosby sing in two voices throughout with Allen Stanton's orchestral accompaniment. Chris Hillman's bass, however, influenced by soul and jazz, offers a radical atmospheric contrast that gives the song a dark and dramatic mood.

McGuinn's 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) concludes the album, which was planned by McGuinn and Crosby as an innovation in the field of electronic music . The song was dedicated to McGuinn's friend John Lear , the developer of the Learjet . The sound effects, which some mockingly suspected to be a vacuum cleaner, were recorded directly on the aircraft with an Ampex tape recorder. The Beatles , who are considered to be the pioneers of such sound experiments, only experimented with similar effects a few months later on Yellow Submarine from the album Revolver . It is not yet clear who contributed the dynamic blues harp. Some sources suspect Gene Clark, who briefly returned to the band.

I Know You, Rider / Psychodrama City

Ten days after Fifth Dimension came out , the Byrds went back to the studio with Allen Stanton to record a new single. It was planned to edit another folk song, I Know My Rider . It had previously been recorded under the title Rider by The Big 3 , a folk group led by Cass Elliot . Later he was part of the repertoire of Mama Cass and the Grateful Dead as I Know You, Rider, as well as David Crosby's solo program before the Byrds were founded. Apparently the group had been working on the song before Gene Clark dropped out as he is listed as one of the arrangers.

The Byrds 'version, with its up-tempo arrangement, is influenced by Paperback Writer , the Beatles' current hit at the time. For reasons unknown so far, I Know You, Rider was not released at the time and only appeared on the 1987 album Never Before , as did David Crosby's psychodrama City , another piece with a jazz-influenced guitar. In terms of text and content, it rounds off the sessions on Fifth Dimension , which began with Gene Clark's fear of flying and his panic attack before a flight and finally led to his departure from the band.

Summary

With Eight Miles High , the Byrds radically broke with the pattern of their previous repertoire. For many it is the ultimate song of the group and at the same time the beginning of so-called "psychedelic music". With the album, they continued on this innovative path. At the same time they clearly gave art priority over certain chart successes.

While the two previous albums were atmospherically light, Fifth Dimension seems dramatic, sometimes dark. Compared to the following album Younger Than Yesterday , the song selection seems less balanced. At that time the band was looking for a balance between the different contributions to the songs and the stylistic interests of their members.

Additional musicians

Track list

A side

  1. 5D (Fifth Dimension) (Roger McGuinn) - 2:33
  2. Wild Mountain Thyme ( Traditional ; Arrangement: The Byrds) - 2:30
  3. Mr. Spaceman (Roger McGuinn) - 2:09
  4. I See You (Roger McGuinn / David Crosby) - 2:38
  5. What's happening?!?! (David Crosby) - 2:35
  6. I Come and Stand at Every Door ( Nâzım Hikmet ) - 3:03

B side

  1. Eight Miles High (Gene Clark / Roger McGuinn / David Crosby) - 3:34
  2. Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go) ( Billy Roberts ) - 2:17
  3. Captain Soul (Roger McGuinn / Chris Hillman / Michael Clarke / David Crosby) - 2:53
  4. John Riley ( Bob Gibson / Ricky Neff ) - 2:57
  5. 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) (Roger McGuinn) - 2:12

Republication

On April 30, 1996 , Columbia released the album on CD with the following bonus tracks:

  1. Why? (Roger McGuinn / David Crosby) - 2:59 (original single B-side)
  2. I Know My Rider (I Know You Rider) (Traditional; Arrangement: Roger McGuinn / Gene Clark / David Crosby) - 2:43
  3. Psychodrama City (David Crosby) - 3:23
  4. Eight Miles High (Gene Clark / Roger McGuinn / David Crosby) - 3:19 (alternative version)
  5. Why? (Roger McGuinn / David Crosby) - 2:40 (alternative version)
  6. John Riley (Bob Gibson / Ricky Neff) - 16:53 (instrumental version, with an interview with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn as a hidden track )

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