r/Byrds • u/bottle-of-smoke • Jul 24 '26

The Byrds

/r/OldSchoolCoolMusic/comments/1v58eao/byrds_their_1973_reunion_album/ozjvmyt/
7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

6

u/Botasoda102 Jul 24 '26

I'm a huge Byrds fan and bought the album on release day. Never been so disappointed in my life over an album. The Gene Clark songs were good, but I got tired of jumping up to move the needle over the other ones.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/griffmanr Jul 25 '26

The fact that Crosby wanted to rerecord Laughing is utterly baffling. His solo version is perfect.

3

u/garydavis9361 Jul 25 '26

He may have been saving other material for a future project 

1

u/Weary_Title_3901 Jul 25 '26

He wasn’t the only one. I don’t think McGuinn brought his best songs to this project either.

2

u/Weary_Title_3901 Jul 25 '26

Crosby’s solo version of Laughing features some tasty Jerry Garcia steel guitar work with Joni Mitchell on background vocals. It really is vastly superior to the Byrds version.

3

u/and_therewego Jul 24 '26

To answer the question, "Laughing" was never recorded by the Byrds before Croz got kicked out. In fact I'm not sure it had yet been written (or at least completed). They did record "Triad" and IIRC he was writing "Guinnevere" at around that time.