40 Year Itch: Faithful Till Death

 

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In the early morning hours of July 15, 1973 a drunk driver hit Clarence White as he was loading equipment into his van following a gig in Palmdale, California. He died the next day at the age of 29.

Though best known for his stint with The Byrds ( beginning as a session musician on Younger Than Yesterday and then as a full fledged member from 1968 -1973), White also played with country rock pioneers Nashville West, the bluegrass super group Muleskinner, Gram Parsons and with his brothers in The Kentucky Colonels.

As a bluegrass artist, he was  a fast, accurate and incredibly innovative guitarist.

  With an electric guitar he practically invented country rock. He and Gene Parsons came up with a device called the B Bender which can make an electric guitar sound like pedal steel when the neck is pulled back. You can hear a B Bender on a lot of Linda Ronstadt and Eagles tunes ( especially "Peaceful, Easy Feeling").




  The legend of Clarence White is approaching the same mythical status as Gram Parsons ( who sang "Farther Along" at White's funeral). If you want to learn more and hear more from White check out the ten part series by Adios Lounge.

5 Wretched Songs That Ruined Classic Albums

1 "Mind Gardens" from Younger Than Yesterday
David Crosby must have been inspired by The Incredible String Band for this foray into psychedelic folk. Roger McGuinn hated including the song on the poppy Younger Than Yesterday, claiming the tune had no "rhythm, meter, or rhyme." Crosby was fired during the recording of the next album.

2. "Mother" from Synchronicity
Andy Summers' Mother was a bomb dropped right into the heart of The Police's Synchronicity. Small wonder that it was the last album the blond boys did together.

3. Phenomenal Cat from Village Green Preservation Society

  Were The Kinks smoking helium? "Phenomenal Cat" is kitty litter compared to the rest of Village Green Preservation Society, which has become a fan favorite for good reason.



At least it's better than Bowie's equally helium filled "Laughing Gnome"

4. Fitter, Happier from OK Computer
It's the NOT OK tune on OK Computer. Described by Thom Yorke as a checklist of slogans for the 1990s, he considers "Fitter, Happier" "the most upsetting thing I've ever written". Might have been better as liner notes.

5. Student Demonstration Time from Surf's Up
'   The Beach Boys were always better at offering us breakaways from our troubled times than commenting on them. But good old Mike Love had something to say about student protests--even if it meant swiping the Leiber-Stoller song "Riot in Cell Block #9" to do it. The must skip track off Surf's Up was also released as a single as if it say "Look, we can crank up our guitars too!"





What's your choice for wretched songs that nearly ruin great albums?

40 Year Itch: Funny How The Circle Turns Around

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Only Gene Clark shines in this half hearted reunion album released on March 7, 1973. That's perhaps because the band ( last together in their original line-up in 1966) didn't reunite out of  a strong desire to start up the band again. As Roger McGuinn told Creem Magazine's Cameron Crowe, it all started off kind of half-assed.

 Nobody really pushed for it very hard, which is partly why it happened. It was sorta “how’d ya like to…,” an open invitation to all the original Byrds. Nobody stood to lose anything, even David Crosby, who really didn’t stand to gain by it because he was already doing okay by himself. I think he wanted to reinstate himself as a Byrd,; his pride was at stake. He didn’t like the idea that I continued the group without him. 



 There were two different points of view, one is business and the other aesthetic. (Drummer) Michael Clarke stood to gain quite a bit. Chris Hillman was doing okay and I was doing all right. I could’ve passed it up, but then I thought, well, it could be pretty big. It could reopen the catalog of past Byrds albums and a lot of people would probably like to hear the new one. Looking at it aesthetically.



The album received generally bad reviews. There were two Neil Young covers (a limp "Cowgirl In The Sand" and "(See the Sky) About to Rain"), a Joni Mitchell cover ("For Free" from Ladies of the Canyon) and two songs each from Hillman, McGuinn, Clark and Crosby ( including a very similar "Laughing" to the one Crosby recorded for his solo debut). So the Byrds final flight was a shaky one. McGuinn would release his solo debut later in the year.