In the comment sections of Byrds songs on YouTube, I've noticed that a lot of people think that the steel guitar on albums like The Notorious Byrd Brothers and Sweetheart of the Rodeo are played by Clarence White on B-Bender electric guitar. Although Clarence did play electric guitar on those albums, the pedal steel player on the former is Red Rhodes, and the latter players are Lloyd Green and JayDee Maness. What likely contributes to this confusion is that when the Byrds played live after adding Clarence to their lineup, he transcribed the steel parts to guitar, so people assumed that he played those parts on the recordings.

‘Joe’s wife’ in Old John Robertson = Joe’s ‘woman’ in Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go)

🙀

She was injured in the shooting

I think this will make for a fun discussion post - something I found out not too long ago that blows my mind is that Gene Clark had 13 other siblings! Does anybody know of any other interesting tidbits about the band or its various spinoff groups and solo members?

I enjoyed seeing Roger McGuinn on Wednesday night in suburban Chicago in a solo act that included songs and stories. At age 82 he still sounded good. The last time I saw McGuinn in concert was in 1979 with McGuinn, Clark & Hillman.

I had not heard before many of the Byrds related stories he told including how he first met David Crosby in 1960 at a theater where McGuinn attended a play. Crosby was one of two actors who emerged from a trash can. "Before Sesame Street" as McGuinn quipped. They met backstage afterward. At some point later they both went to Crosby's parents' house where Crosby's mom made lamb and cheese sandwiches for them.

McGuinn referred to Crosby as "my friend."

Prior to playing So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" McGuinn joked about people saying "oh you are playing a Tom Petty song." I recall him also making a joke about the Petty connection 1979 with McGuinn Clark & Hillman by introducing it as "You probably heard the Tom Petty version. We want to play you our original version." He and Petty later met and became friends.

McGuinn talked a great deal about his upbringing in Chicago and how he taught himself to play guitar by listening to songs on a transistor radio. He later took lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music and as a teen played in clubs in Chicago before heading to Los Angeles after high school.

Crosby taught McGuinn how to drive a car in Los Angeles, including having McGuinn drive uphill using a stick shift for the first time without backing up into cars behind him as a challenge. McGuinn said that since Chicago had so many public transportation options he never learned to drive there.

Coincidentally I saw David Crosby perform with his latest band at the same theater six years ago. Unlike McGuinn, Crosby disappointingly played no Byrds songs.

Here is the set list from McGuinn's concert-

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/roger-mcguinn/2024/north-shore-center-for-the-performing-arts-skokie-il-3b5324fc.html

Here is the set list from the earlier Crosby concert-

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/david-crosby/2018/north-shore-center-for-the-performing-arts-skokie-il-3b97e448.html

It just crossed my mind that we could use a super deluxe edition for some of the albums (Untitled is the perfect example), but what would you like to see, official releases speaking?

When I listened to Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde after Sweetheart of the Rodeo was strange. The country-rock songs were an evolution of their direction, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could prepare me for "This Wheel's on Fire", "Child of the Universe", half of "King Apathy III" and "Bad Night at the Whiskey". These were HEAVY stuff for them, even more than some of the NBB stuff.

That's begs the question - whose idea was it to write (and for TWoF, to arrange) songs in such a different way? I love these tracks, but no one could expect these ones.