Ballad of Easy Rider (album)

Untitled

Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth album from the influential folk rock group The Byrds, released in October 1969 on Columbia Records, catalogue item CS 9942 in stereo. It peaked at #36 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums during a chart stay of seventeen weeks, a substantial improvement over its predecessor, but not in the United Kingdom where it only made it to #41. A single released ahead of the album, "Ballad of Easy Rider," peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is the second album featuring the new line-up of Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons and John York.

Bob Dylan had been asked by the producers of Easy Rider to compose a theme song for their film; but, apparently disapproving of the ending, he merely wrote out a couplet on a cocktail napkin and had it sent to Roger McGuinn with the instructions to flesh it out. The result was the film's exit music (in a solo, bluesy version by McGuinn), and, eventually, the ensuing Byrds album's title track. It was to be McGuinn's sole songwriting contribution to the LP; at the time McGuinn was preoccupied with composing the music for Broadway impresario Jacques Levy's pop-music adaptation of Peer Gynt, cheekily entitled Gene Tryp by the pair. The play was never completed, but most of the songs would see release on the next two Byrds albums.

The album's programme consists mostly of covers. The group's earlier days are harkened back to in a version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," which the original quintet configuration first recorded in 1965. Every member of the band penned an original: White contributed a loud, deliberately-paced, harmony-laden arrangement of a Baptist hymn, "Oil In My Lamp;" York offered "Fido," making this the second Byrds album in a row with a paean to a canine friend; and Parsons's "Gunga Din" would become something of a signature song. McGuinn also arranged and sang a highly influential version of "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)".

Terry Melcher, producer of The Byrds' first two albums in 1965, returned to the dials to produce Ballad of Easy Rider, beginning an association that would last even longer than their first one - three albums up until Byrdmaniax in 1971. It revived The Byrds' commercial fortunes, giving them their first U.S. Top 40 album in two years. Two singles were released - the abovementioned title track and "Jesus Is Just Alright," which topped out at #97 in the US. The latter received some airplay, and went on to inspire a hit version by the Doobie Brothers. "Jesus Is Just Alright" was covered once more in 1992 by dc talk.

Ballad of Easy Rider was remixed and remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series, reissued in an expanded form on March 25, 1997. The seven bonus tracks include a song taken from an album by the British folk-rock band The Pentangle, "Way Beyond the Sun" (John York on lead vocal), "Fiddler a Dram" (another of Roger's moog synthesizer genre experiments), "Tulsa County" , and a number by then little-known songwriter Jackson Browne, "Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood."

Personnel

• Roger McGuinn - rhythm guitar, vocals
• Clarence White - lead guitar, vocals
• John York - bass, vocals
• Gene Parsons - drums, vocals

Track listing

1. "Ballad of Easy Rider" (Bob Dylan, 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" (trad. arr. Roger McGuinn) – 3:31
6. "Jesus Is Just Alright" (Arthur Reynolds) – 2:10
7. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (Bob Dylan) – 4:53
8. "There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To)" (Vern Gosdin, C. Gosdin, Rex Gosdin) – 3:29
9. "Gunga Din" (Gene Parsons) – 3:03
10. "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" (Woody Guthrie, Martin Hoffman) – 3:50
11. "Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins" (Zeke Manners, S. Seely) – 1:41

1997 reissue bonus tracks

1. "Way Beyond the Sun" (trad. arr. McGuinn) – 2:56
2. "Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood" (Jackson Browne) – 2:44
3. "Oil in My Lamp" (Gene Parsons, Clarence White) (alternate version) – 2:02
4. "Tulsa County" (Pamela Polland) (alternate version) – 3:39
5. "Fiddler a Dram (Moog Experiment)" (trad. arr. McGuinn) – 3:10
6. "Ballad of Easy Rider" (Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn) (long version) – 2:26
7. "Build It Up" (Clarence White, Gene Parsons) (instrumental) - song ends at – 2:35; at – 3:35 begins radio spot (to – 4:31); at – 4:38 begins radio spot – 5:34

Singles

1. "Ballad of Easy Rider" b/w "Oil in My Lamp" (Columbia 449900) 1 October 1969

reissued:

1. "Ballad of Easy Rider" b/w "Wasn't Born to Follow" (from The Notorious Byrd Brothers) (Columbia 44990) 1 October 1969
2. "Jesus Is Just Alright" b/w "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (Columbia 45071) 15 December 1969

Sources

• Ballad of Easy Rider CD booklet essay, David Fricke, c.1997.
• AllMusicGuide.com
• "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001", Joel Whitburn, c.2002.