Dig This! ~ The Byrds' "Notorius Byrds Brothers" compared to "Sgt. Pepper" and "Quadrophenia"

[AnEnglishBoy <campbell@fix.net>]

Subject:
            Re:  Triad
       Date:
            Wed, 20 Feb 2002 09:52:42 -0500

Hi, Buddy,

NBB is a concept album just as surely as Sgt. Pepper.  And the Beatles
recorded "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" during the Pepper
sessions, and they didn't "make the cut" so to speak.  "Hey Jude" and
"Lady
Madonna" didn't make the White Album cut either.  The reason is that
they
didn't fit into the concept of those albums, and neither "Triad" nor
"Lady
Friend" fit the NBB concept.  Putting either song on that album would be

every bit as jarring as putting them onto Sweetheart of the Rodeo would
have
been.

The first side to NBB is to me perhaps the best side of any album every
recorded.  It flows just as surely as Abbey Road or Quadrophenia.  If
"Triad" was in direct competition with "Goin' Back", as has been
reported,
it would have created a complete disjunction that would have destroyed
the
flow of that side.  It *might* have some topical merit sandwitched
between
songs like "Tribal Gathering" and "Space Odyssey" but not stylistic
merit.
I've played around with the ordering of these tunes over the years but
can't
make them fit anywhere within the concept of the NBB.

Other Byrds outtakes, like "She Don't Care About Time", or "It Happens
Each
Day" are stylistically and topically consistent with the albums that
they
were recorded with, and it's quite easy to add them into the album and
delete something else.  In these cases it's a judgment call...which
songs do
you like best?  Why did the producers punt it?  But "Triad" and "Lady
Friend" have subtle but nevertheless important stylistic and topical
differences such  that they just couldn't make the cut.  I don't think
the
"politics" of David Crosby had anything to do with it, because McGuinn
and
Hillman were quite willing to use "Tribal Gatherings" and "Dolphin's
Smile"
because they could be modified to fit the project (even if caused Cros
much
consternation). "Triad" and "Lady Friend", however, would require that
the
project be modified to fit the songs.