Mr. Tambourine Man (album)
| Mr. Tambourine Man | ||||
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| Studio album by The Byrds | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Columbia | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
31 min 35 s |
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Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut album by the American folk rock band The Byrds . It was released on June 21, 1965 on the Columbia Records label . In the United States, the album reached No. 6 in the pop charts, in Great Britain No. 7. The album was also successful with critics, today it is considered a classic of pop music and landed in the 500 best albums of all, compiled by Rolling Stone in 2003 Times on No. 232.
Before the album was released, Columbia had released two singles: The title song, the cover version of a Bob Dylan track from his album Bringing It All Back Home , was released on April 12, making it the band's debut single. The song was recorded on January 20th, before Dylan's original version was released on March 22nd . The single topped the charts in both the UK and America and instantly made the Byrds stars on both sides of the Atlantic. The instrumental accompaniment of the single, as well as that of the B-side I Knew I'd Want You , was not recorded by the Byrds themselves: Due to the initial uncertainty of the inexperienced band in the studio, Columbia had the instrumental tracks from renowned studio musicians import. Only Roger McGuinn was able to contribute his guitar part. The Byrds themselves can be heard on their instruments on all other tracks on the album.
The second single All I Really Want to Do was released on June 14th . It is also the cover version of a Dylan song, this time from the 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan . The Byrds could not repeat the success of their first single with All I Really Want to Do , it only came to No. 40 in America, in Great Britain it at least made it to No. 4. As the B-side, the now often covered I ' ll Feel a Whole Lot Better used.
The sound of the album is characterized by the vocal harmonies of McGuinn, Clarks and Crosby, as well as McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar.
Mr. Tambourine Man / I Knew I'd Want You (Single)
The distinctive opening theme of Mr. Tambourine Man , played by Jim (later Roger) McGuinn on a twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar with a compressor, was first heard on the radio in April 1965 and it is easy to understand how exciting even today these new tones from the USA had an impact on the listeners. McGuinn's opening is answered by a bass line played by Larry Knechtel , before Hal Blaine join in with a drum roll and McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby with the choir singing.
Before recording their first single as The Byrds, the group and their manager Jim Dickson had been looking for their own musical profile for several months, combining the beat, the energy and the harmonies of the Beatles with the demanding song structures and lyrics of Bob Dylan found. The stylistic devices they used were not even inspired by their own. The harmony singing was reminiscent of the Beatles and the Everly Brothers . McGuinn's solo vocal was an imitation of the voices of Bob Dylan and John Lennon . Even the jingle jangle game on the Rickenbacker was influenced by the Searchers . Finally, record company and producer Terry Melcher insisted on replacing the rhythm section with outside musicians on the recordings. The so-called The Wrecking Crew , represented here by the studio musicians Larry Knechtel (bass), Hal Blaine (drums) and guitarist Jerry Cole , who u. a. who also worked for the Beach Boys , contributed an accompanying rhythm that was reminiscent of the Beach Boys' 1964 recording Don't Worry Baby . The secret to the success of the single lies in the fact that the merging of these familiar elements came to such a fresh-looking result that Mr. Tambourine Man has remained a revelation for many to this day.
On the back, I Knew I'd Want You , Gene Clark was given the first opportunity to publish one of his sensitive ballads. His voice is clearly in the foreground as he is accompanied by McGuinn in unison and David Crosby in a treble. Leon Russell contributed an electric keyboard here, as did Mr. Tambourine Man , but where it was almost completely taken out of the mix. McGuinn played a guitar with subdued arpeggios . From earlier demo recordings of the song, released on the album In the Beginning , it is clear that Clark originally had a Beatles-style ballad in mind. The rhythm is reminiscent of the Latin groove of Besame Mucho or No Reply . Due to the arrangement by McGuinn and The Wrecking Crew, however, the piece largely lost all Liverpool influences, except for the vocal ending: "I knew I'd want you, oh yeah, oh yeeaah ...".
Mr. Tambourine Man (album)
Two months after the single reached number 1 on the US charts, the album of the same name was released. It also contained the two tracks from the single. For all subsequent recordings, the Byrds had insisted on playing the instruments themselves. Gene Clark was the most prominent songwriter with five contributions, followed by four songs by Bob Dylan, one each by Pete Seeger and Jackie DeShannon, and finally an evergreen from World War II, We'll Meet Again .
The second track on the album, right after the title track Mr. Tambourine Man , has an up-tempo rhythm and is one of Gene Clark's best compositions: I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better . At the same time, it is a typical song of the early Byrds that combined all of the band's later trademarks: the jingle jangle guitar solo by McGuinn, the "aaaah" choir singing, Crosby's energetic rhythm guitar and the innovative and nimble bass guitar playing by Chris Hillman , not forgetting Michael Clarke on drums. The song features some of Clark's most intelligent chord progressions and melodies and the “probably” in the lyrics gives the singing rhythm more swing.
Spanish Harlem Incident is the cover version of a lesser-known song by Bob Dylan. Although the Byrds had initially strived for a Beatles-like music, they soon became aware of the importance of Dylan. He liked her idea of adding beats to his folk, visited her while recording in the World Pacific Studios and even performed with them on stage. Your version of Spanish Harlem Incident is particularly notable for the work on the bass guitar. Chris Hillman, who played mandolin in bluegrass bands for the Byrds , never made a secret of the fact that Paul McCartney had inspired him the most. At Spanish Harlem Incident, however, he already went his own way.
You Won't Have to Cry names Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn as songwriters. The song is more influenced by the Beatles than other pieces on the album. Clark was writing songs all the time at the time, and his contributions to singles and albums earned him significantly higher royalties than his fellow musicians. This led to envy, but as McGuinn would later say: "Gene was so superior to us in songwriting back then that no one could keep up".
Another highlight of the Gene Clark originals is Here Without You . Eight Miles High from the 1966 album Fifth Dimension anticipates it harmoniously and melodically . On the occasion of the album's re-release on CD in 1996, David Crosby said of the extraordinary harmonies: “Gene wanted to imitate the Beatles and he used more folk than rock changes on his songs. His songs had good chord structures. They always had more than three chords and Gene always found a good solution to snake the melody through the chord progression. "
The Bells of Rhymney is one of the most extraordinary songs on the LP. The Welsh poet Idris Davies ' poem about a mining disaster was edited by Pete Seeger and the Byrds had made their version the hippies' favorite song when they first performed at the Ciro's folk club in Hollywood . The Beatles listened carefully, too, and George Harrison took great inspiration from The Bells of Rhymney for his If I Needed Someone . Davies had structured the poem from a British nursery rhyme: "Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clements". The Byrds' version sounds surprisingly easy and entertaining at first, given the terrible events described in the text. But McGuinn's hypnotic, recurring guitar riff and Michael Clarke's emphasis on the rhythm on the ride cymbal convey an alarming mood. Crosby's upper voice is tasteful and never drifts into pathos. In the finale, all three voices first come together in a deep unison, then in a choral "Aaaahh .." with a crescendo. The result of this arrangement was so overwhelming that the band later decided to try another adaptation of a Pete Seeger song: Turn! Turn! Turn! .
When Bob Dylan first heard the Byrds edit his All I Really Want to Do , he reportedly exclaimed, “Wow. Man, you can even dance to it. ”Another take of this song was released as the successor single to Mr. Tambourine Man and was only kept out of the top chart positions in the USA by a version of Sonny and Cher that was released at the same time . It is known that Dylan's angry remark to McGuinn: "They hit you, man!"
On I Knew I'd Want You further joint composition by Clark and McGuinn, followed by It's No Use . The song is heavily influenced by the Beatles and is partly reminiscent of I Saw Her Standing There . The Byrds play harder here than on any other track and McGuinn's guitar work is more rock 'n' roll than folk rock . This "punk" sound should soon be adopted by bands like The Leaves and Love .
The Byrds occasionally covered rock 'n' roll songs in their live program, such as Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away with its signature Bo Diddley- inspired rhythm. Michael Clarke tried his hand at such a beat on Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe , even if not particularly convincingly. The song was written by the singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon , who was one of the first established artists to publicly endorse the Byrds. Out of gratitude, manager Jim Dickson insisted on recording one of her songs.
The last cover version of a Bob Dylan song, Chimes of Freedom , initially caused a lot of trouble during studio recording. David Crosby refused to sing the song and wanted to leave the studio. Jim Dickson then, according to his own statement, "declared to Crosby that he could only leave the studio on my corpse". Thereupon he “burst into tears” and “sang like an angel”. As the Byrds were delighted with the result, Chimes of Freedom soon became a permanent feature of the band's live program.
With We'll Meet Again , the Byrds let one of their albums end in a humorous way for the first time. The most famous version of the song was by Vera Lynn from the time of the Second World War. However, the album's liner notes indicate that McGuinn and Crosby were big fans of Peter Sellers . He was the leading actor in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strange or: How I learned to love the bomb that also sang We'll Meet Again . The song was part of the band's live repertoire at the time.
The Gene Clark song She Has a Way was originally intended for their first album . Written in 1964, it was heavily influenced by the music of the Beatles and only appeared in 1987 on the LP Never Before and the compilation The Byrds Boxed Set . An original version can be heard on In the Beginning , another, with different vocals, appeared as a bonus track on the 1996 CD.
Summary
In 1965 LPs consisted mostly of a hit single and lots of "fillers". It was the Beatles and the Byrds who fundamentally changed this pattern by adding inspired and high-profile songs to their albums.
Track list
A side
- Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan) - 2:29
- I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better (Gene Clark) - 2:32
- Spanish Harlem Incident (Bob Dylan) - 1:57
- You Won't Have to Cry (Gene Clark / Roger McGuinn) - 2:08
- Here Without You (Gene Clark) - 2:36
- The Bells of Rhymney (Idris Davies / Pete Seeger ) - 3:30
B side
- All I Really Want to Do (Bob Dylan) - 2:04
- I Knew I'd Want You (Gene Clark) - 2:14
- It's No Use (Gene Clark / Roger McGuinn) - 2:23
- Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe (Jackie DeShannon) - 2:54
- Chimes of Freedom (Bob Dylan) - 3:51
- We'll Meet Again (Ross Parker / Hughie Charles) - 2:07
Republication
On April 30, 1996, Columbia released the album on CD with the following bonus tracks:
- She Has a Way (Gene Clark) - 2:25
- I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better (Gene Clark) - 2:28 (alternative version)
- It's No Use (Gene Clark / Roger McGuinn) - 2:24 (alternative version)
- You Won't Have to Cry (Gene Clark / Roger McGuinn) - 2:07 (alternative version)
- All I Really Want to Do (Bob Dylan) - 2:02 (single version)
- You and Me (Roger McGuinn / Gene Clark / David Crosby) - 2:11 (instrumental)
Instrumental line-up for the single Mr. Tambourine Man / I Knew I'd Want You
- Jerry Cole - guitar
- Larry Knechtel - electric bass
- Hal Blaine - drums
- Leon Russell - keyboard