Twenty Thousand Roads by David Meyer

Author:David Meyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345507860
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO was released on August 30, just weeks after Gram returned to Los Angeles. The illustrated cover, supposedly designed by Geller & Butler Advertising, features an illustration by artist Jo Mora from a 1933 catalog for rodeo gear that included the phrase that became the album’s title. “We never had a working title while we were in Nashville,” Byrds road manager Jimmi Seiter says. “I bought the [Mora] poster at some funky shop. I took it to the studio and showed everybody. They said, ‘Ah, nice name!’ And boom—it’s the album title. Of course, the album got panned.”

“They try to sing country, I think,” one British newspaper wrote. “Let’s hope they don’t try it again.”

Another reviewer demonstrated the deep confusion the album wrought: Country was redneck music, and the context of Sweetheart had to be explained before anyone could enjoy it. Painstakingly describing various connections between the Byrds’ earlier efforts and Bob Dylan on the one hand and country and western on the other, the review concludes by warning that “in a super hip society” the album “will be accused (in fact it already has been accused) of being a put-on. Tragically, this indictment mirrors a callous code of savoir faire whose essence sounds a death knell for all but a Dadaist aesthete. This is a great album in spite of the fact you might enjoy it.”

The album charted at number seventy-seven, down thirty from the Byrds’ previous LP, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. In the face of negative reviews and disappointing sales, McGuinn disclaimed responsibility. “We’ve always dabbled in country music, but we ran into Gram Parsons, who wants to be the world-champion country singer, and he hung out with us for a couple of months,” he said. “He was going to be in the group, but it didn’t work out. While he was with us, he led us into this direction headlong which we would never have done. We were afraid to commit ourselves. It was a little foreign to us.”

Sweetheart didn’t receive the acclaim it deserved, but the times were catching up to Gram’s ideas. As he returned to Los Angeles, the country-rock scene was beginning to coalesce.

Richie Furay, whom Gram had first met in Greenwich Village two years before, had gone on to form Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin. Buffalo Springfield is best known for their hit single “For What It’s Worth.” The song’s spare arrangement and almost-spoken solo vocal track does not reflect the signature Springfield sound of multiple-voice harmonies and intertwining lead guitars. Their final LP, 1967’s Last Time Around, featured pedal steel. By then the group had exploded; no two band members played together at the same time during the recording.

Now Furay was putting together Poco, which was conceived from the first as a country-rock band. (He’d originally planned to call the group Pogo, after the brilliant daily newspaper cartoon by Walt Kelly. Pogo’s copyright holders objected, so Furay changed one letter.) Furay joined forces with Jim Messina (guitar), Rusty Young (pedal steel), and Randy Meisner (bass).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.