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Turn! Turn! Turn! (album)

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Untitled

Turn! Turn! Turn! is the second album by the folk-rock band The Byrds, released 1965 on Columbia Records, catalogue item CL 2454 in mono, CS 9254 in stereo. It peaked at #17 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and went to #11 in the United Kingdom. The single of the same name preceded the album by two months, and topped the singles chart in the States. Another single taken from the LP, "Set You Free This Time," peaked at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Like its predecessor Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn! Turn! epitomised the folk-rock genre, continuing the successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker electric guitar from Roger McGuinn. The lead single and title track, a Pete Seeger adaptation of text from the Book of Ecclesiastes, had been arranged earlier by McGuinn in a chamber-folk style, when he had worked with singer Judy Collins[1] - his arrangement for the Byrds version used the strident folk-rock style of the band's previous hits. The band chose two more Dylan covers for the album, The Times They Are a-Changin' and a previously unreleased song, "Lay Down Your Weary Tune". McGuinn had increased his songwriting output, David Crosby received his first writing credit, but the prolific Clark still contributed most of the Byrds' originals. Chris Hillman suggested the cover of "Satisfied Mind," a country and western chart-topper for Porter Wagoner in 1955, the first sign of the band's interest in country music, and as on the previous LP, Turn! ended with a tongue-in-cheek number, this time a send-up of Stephen Foster's 19th century classic, "Oh! Susannah," arranged by McGuinn.

This would be the last full Byrds album to feature the participation of Gene Clark until the reunion album of the original quintet, in 1973.

Turn! Turn! Turn! was remixed and remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series, reissued in an expanded form on April 30, 1996, with seven bonus tracks, including three alternates and the Clark b-side "She Don't Care About Time".

Personnel

Track listing

  1. "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)" (Ecclesiastes, Pete Seeger) – 3:49
  2. "It Won't Be Wrong" (McGuinn, Gerst) – 1:58
  3. "Set You Free This Time" (Clark) – 2:49
  4. "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" (Bob Dylan) – 3:30
  5. "He Was a Friend of Mine" (trad. arr. McGuinn) – 2:30
  6. "The World Turns All Around Her" (Clark) – 2:13
  7. "Satisfied Mind" (Red Hayes, Jack Rhodes) – 2:26
  8. "If You're Gone" (Clark) – 2:45
  9. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (Dylan) – 2:18
  10. "Wait and See" (McGuinn, Crosby) – 2:19
  11. "Oh! Susannah" (Stephen Foster) – 3:03

1996 CD reissue Bonus Tracks

  2. "The Day Walk (Never Before)" (Clark) – 3:00
  3. "She Don’t Care About Time" [Single Version] (Clark) – 2:29
  4. "The Times They Are A-Changin’" [First Version] (Dylan) – 1:54
  5. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" [Version 1] (Dylan) – 3:03
  6. "She Don’t Care About Time" [Version 1] (Clark) – 2:35
  7. "The World Turns All Around Her" [Alternate Mix] (Clark) – 2:12
  8. "Stranger in a Strange Land" [Instrumental] (Crosby) – 3:04

Singles

  1. ""Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)" b/w "She Don't Care About Time" (Columbia 43424) 1 October 1965 (US #1, UK #26)
  2. "Set You Free This Time" b/w "It Won't Be Wrong" (Columbia 43501) 10 January 1966 (US #63)

Release history

Date Label Format Country Catalog Notes
December 6, 1965 Columbia LP US CL 2454 Original mono release.
CS 9254 Original stereo release.*
1987 Columbia CD US CK 9254
April 30, 1996 Columbia/Legacy CD US CK 64846 Reissue containing seven bonus tracks and a stereo remix of the entire album.*
May 6, 1996 UK COL 4837062
* The album's title track and "He Was a Friend of Mine" was never mixed into stereo and appears in mono on all stereo releases of the album.

Remix information

Turn! Turn! Turn! was one of five Byrds albums that were remixed as part of their re-release on Columbia/Legacy. The reason for the remix was stated by Bob Irwin (who produced these re-issues for compact disc) during an interview:

The first four Byrds albums had sold so well, and the master tapes used so much that they were at least two, if not three generations down from the original. In most cases, a first-generation master no longer existed. They were basically played to death; they were worn out, there was nothing left of them.

He further states:

Each album is taken from the original multi-tracks, where they exist, which is in 95% of the cases. We remixed them exactly as they were, without taking any liberties, except for the occasional song appearing in stereo for the first time.

Irwin's assertions that no liberties were taken have been proven false in a couple of instances. For one, the vocals on most of the album's songs are mixed noticeably higher than they were on the original mixes. The fades are different on almost every song as well.

Many fans enjoy the remixed album because it's very close to the original mix in most cases and offers noticeably better sound quality. However, there are also a lot of fans who dismiss the remix as revisionist history and prefer to listen to the original mix on vinyl or the 1987 CD release.

References

  • Fricke, David. Liner Notes, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Columbia/Legacy CK 64846 1996.
  • AllMusicGuide.com
  • Whitburn, Joel. "Top Pop Albums 1955-2001," ISBN 0-89820-147-0
  • Bob Irwin remarks from ICE #108, March, 1996

Notes

  1. ^ Fricke, p. 7
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