The Byrds
In The Beginning (64) - Rhino 1988) Comments:This is a selection of demos that the Byrds recorded before their breakthrough in 1965 with "Mr Tambourine Man". Many of the were previously issued on the 1969 album, “Preflyte” The sound and the musical finish are fine on most tracks, but, of course, you can't compare them with the later Columbia releases. The tracks were recorded over half a year in 1964, and you can clearly feel that the group is at a crossroads between their folk roots and their fascination with English groups such as the Beatles and the Searchers.
The group had in Gene Clark a fantastic songwriter and which is already obvious on many of these early songs. Apart from "The Airport Song", "It Won't Be Wrong" and "Mr. Tambourine Man", Clark has a songwriting share on all songs; in many cases as sole songwriter.
Some tracks were later re-recorded and released on the first Columbia albums; "You Won't Have to Cry", "Here Without You", "I Knew I'd Want You" and "It's No Use", came out on the debut "Mr. Tambourine Man", while "It Won't Be Wrong" first appeared on "Turn! Turn! Turn!”.
All of Clark's songs are so good that they deserved to be re-recorded and released; unfortunately, for reasons of group politics, it was decided that Clark would take up too much space. A strong track like "She Has a Way" was re-recorded, but was not released until many years later on the rarities album "Never Before". It's a really nice song with a nice little guitar riff.
The Turtles discovered the potential of these early demos and had a big hit with "You Showed Me", in an arrangement almost identical to The Byrds'.
The fact that they failed to continue working with other strong tracks such as "Tomorrow is a Longs Ways Away", "You Movin'", "For Me Again", "Please Let Me Love You" etc. is a bit of an enigma. Firstly, the group's early albums were quite short with plenty of room for an extra track or two, and moreover, some of the tracks that were selected were fairly unremarkable cover versions such as "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe", "We'll Meet Again", "Oh, Susannah" and "The Times are a'Changing".
In any case, it's a great pleasure to listen to these early tracks from one of the greatest groups in American rock. Actually a little gold mine of great songs.
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