New Book About The Byrds - Steel Content

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Christopher Hjort has written the definitive biography for the Byrds fan: A day-by-day chronology from 1965-73. You can find it on Amazon or any other online bookstore. I just got my copy the other day. Fascinating read.

I actually have a personal connection to this book. About 8 months ago, Hjort emailed me concerning correspondence that I had through email with Lloyd Green. (A while back, I had asked Lloyd some questions about the Sweetheart sessions via email. As many of you know, Lloyd, along with Jay Dee Maness, played on this famous Byrds album.) I had posted some of this correspondence here on the forum, at Lloyd's request, to answer forumites' questions. Hjort had found these posts, and contacted me for permission to use these emails for the Sweetheart of the Rodeo section of his chronology. I contacted Lloyd, who was gracious enough to not only allow the quotes to be used, but allowed me to put him and Hjort in direct contact. I also had several other emails from Lloyd concerning Sweetheart that Lloyd allowed me to forward to Hjort. One email appears almost verbatim, I'm proud to say. Some of the Sweetheart stuff was taken from prior interviews, but other stuff came right from my emails. Being such a Byrds fan, this thrills me. To top it all off, I found my name while browsing through the Thank-You list in the back of the book. It says: "Chris LeDrew (for the pedal steel connection)". He also thanks Lloyd (of course), calling him "a real gentleman" - no truer words ever spoken. So there you go, another example of the forum being pivotal in the steel guitar world. I was just a messenger, really, but it still makes me proud.

There are several mentions of both Lloyd and Jay Dee Maness during the 1968 section. It's worth the read for sure. One interesting tidbit was an account of Jay Dee playing live with the Byrds in an L.A. club during a farewell party for publicist Derek Taylor in 1968. Lots of Clarence White in there as well. Great pics and stories. I highly recommend the book.

Joshua Grange · From: Los Angeles, California

SHWEET!!

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Josh, remember that night at the club when I said you were a dead ringer for Gene Clark? You gotta see some of these photos.....you'll laugh.

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Upon further reading, I also notice mention of Red Rhodes and Sneaky Pete.

Did you know that the Burritos and the Byrds doubled-billed a lot in '69? They used to do a set each, then end the night together. That must have been something to see: Clarence White, Gram Parsons, Sneaky Pete, Hillman, McGuinn etc., on the same stage. Come to think of it, I'm going to link this thread to the Music section as well, seeing that it doesn't solely concern steel players.

Joshua Grange · From: Los Angeles, California

Hey Chris!
I don't remember much from that night. But I do remember talking about the Byrds....
Looks like a good read. Dwight gave me their boxed set last year for X-Mas. Great stuff....!

Pete Finney · From: Nashville Tn.

A copy of this came my way a few months ago and it's pretty interesting, though as much as I like a lot of the Byrds stuff I can't imagine sitting down and reading every page cover to cover; it's a lot of detail. But it's been fun reading different sections...

It's also an interesting reminder of how much Red Rhodes played on "Notorious Byrd Brothers", before their Gram Parsons/Sweetheart/country phase, with the steel integrated in an interesting way into some very diverse tunes...

Chris, that's cool that you were responsible for some of the Lloyd Green stuff, I recognized some of the information from the forum but didn't know it came through you!

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Josh, that box set is great...it introduced me to lesser-known gems such as Chestnut Mare and their version of Jesus is Just Alright.

Pete, the two sections that appear in the book, from my emails, concern the ill-fated Ralph Emery radio station visit in Nashville (March 1968) and the phone call from Gram to Lloyd asking him to join the Byrds for a world tour (April 1968). The other Sweetheart stuff was taken from a prior interview for the Sweetheart reissue, which is credited in the sections. The uncredited "Lloyd recalls" stuff is from my emails. I had read through most of the Sweetheart section and was wondering why Hjort didn't use the Gram call to Lloyd. Sure enough, a little ahead of the main Sweetheart section, it was used. Gram mentions in the phone call that Lloyd would have to grow his hair out a bit; Lloyd declines anyway, stating that his busy recording schedule will not allow him to tour. Lloyd no doubt has told this story to others; I just happened to supply Hjort with the info. Nevertheless, it sure is a thrill to be involved.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Chris,I have oneor two bootlegs of Byrds/Burritos shows...one I'm sure if from '70 or later as it has Rick Roberts on it. It ends with a free-for-all jam with Clarence and Sneaky paying "tag". Unfortunateyl, it's not a soundboard recording and is tough to listen to, but great from an historical standpoint.

Another book - mentioned in another thread - is "Hot Burritos", so-written by Chris Hillman. It's a good look at the early Burritos, but dsadly Chris comes across as a bitter, mean guy - he mops the floor with the 70's/80's Sneaky "pick up band" Burritos, ALL of which were far better live than the Gram/Chris version; calls Gene Parsons a "bad drummer" and slams Sneaky on several occasions. Puts a real damper on an otherwise fun read.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

lloyd growing his hair out! that's pretty funny considering how many guys had to cut their hair to keep a gig!

Mark Eaton · Posted 9 Jan 2009 1:34 pm

Drew Howard · From: 48854

I loves dem Byrds.
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http://www.drewhoward.com

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Cool stuff, Chris. As much as I would love to have an email relationship with Lloyd, I'm too concerned with embarrassing myself with my adulation. I have nothing to offer him. So I am content to read his comments via other peoples' conversations & communications.

The Byrds place in my life goes way back and their earliest stuff ("I Feel A Whole Lot Better"!) still kills me. I also love the Beatles/Byrds inter-relationship----in some ways it's like the Byrds were trying to do the Beatles but instead, this is what came out. That's a whole area in art that fascinates me---how people who are not necessarily trying to blaze trails end up doing so by their inability to copy others----either by lack of imitative skill or by sheer irrepressible strength of their personalities/creativity.

Anyway, I can see you are jazzed by this book---glad for you.

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Jim, that's strange about Hillman. I've only heard and read good things about him. He always comes across as a laid-back sort of guy. I'll have to get the book.

Chris, Lloyd must have certainly laughed at the irony as well.

Mark, their version of Jesus is Just Alright took me surprise when I first heard it as well. Certainly not as well-known a version as the Doobies, who really put it on the map.

Drew, I've always loved 'dem too!

Jon, believe me, the only thing I have to offer Lloyd is tale or two of fighting the great Altantic salmon on a fly rod. He likes to fish. Smile

We corresponded a bit when I came across that rare old Sho~Bud Baldwin transitional D10 a while back, and he was kind enough a few times to satisfy my curiosity about the Sweetheart sessions and Panther Hall. The funny thing is that he's no doubt reading this thread (Hi Lloyd!). For a man who has so many admirers around the world, he's so laid back and kind. Those who know him in person can surely attest to that. I'd really like to meet Lloyd one day in person. At that point, I may - as you say - embarrass myself with my adulation. Ha!

I can see your point about originality coming out of limitations. Interestingly, it sometimes flips over on itself. It certainly did fashion-wise with the Beatles and the Byrds. Look at the cover of Rubber Soul......the Beatles are dressed like the Byrds. The Byrds couldn't afford the suits, so they wore what they could; the Beatles thought the Byrds looked cool and got rid of their suits. Smile

Craig Stock · From: Westfield, NJ USA

Chris,

Nice post, I will have to get the book, I also just finished 'Hot Burritos' and loved it. What I liked was the fact that John Einarson let different people give their perspective on the same subject and most of the time it was contradictory.

I had the pleasure of promoting a benefit show featuring Roger McGuinn back in 1999 and he was very complimentary of Lloyd Green on the 'Sweethearts' recording, though very reserved, Roger was very nice and sharp with his recollections of the Byrd days.
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Regards, Craig

I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man who had no feet.

Today is tomorrow's Good ol' days

Stephanie Carta · From: Florida, USA

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

I'll have to check it out on LP......thanks, Stephanie!

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

The Art Reynolds Singers released the original version of "Jesus is Just Alright" before the Byrds '69 version, they recorded for Capitol Records.

The Art Reynolds Singers were, at one point produced by Gary Paxton, two of the '69 Byrds used to be part of Paxton's studio band, one would assume that he may have introduced the song to them in one way or another.

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

I sure hope that the author gave the same effort to contact JayDee Maness, whose steel playing was equally important to the Sweetheart album.

JayDee is oft overlooked, and is one of the truly great steel players of all time.

Pete Finney · From: Nashville Tn.

There's quite a bit in the book about JayDee as well as Lloyd (as there should be of course...). According to the credits JayDee also talked to the author and contributed info to the book.

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

I agree about Jay Dee being an important element of the album. "The Christian Life" intro is wicked, as is "You're Still on my Mind". You can really differentiate between Lloyd and Jay Dee on the album.

As Pete says, Jay Dee is mentioned quite a bit in the book.

Here is a breakdown of who played on what, for those who are curious:

Lloyd - "You Ain't Going Nowhere" (Bob Dylan) – 2:38
No Steel - "I Am a Pilgrim" (trad. arr. Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman) – 3:42
Jay Dee - "The Christian Life" (Charles Louvin, Ira Louvin) – 2:33
No Steel - "You Don't Miss Your Water" (William Bell) – 3:51
Jay Dee - "You're Still on My Mind" (Luke McDaniel) – 2:26
No Steel - "Pretty Boy Floyd" (Woody Guthrie) – 2:37
Lloyd - "Hickory Wind" (Gram Parsons, Bob Buchanan) – 3:34
Lloyd - "One Hundred Years from Now" (Parsons) – 2:43
No Steel - "Blue Canadian Rockies" (Cindy Walker) – 2:05
Jay Dee - "Life in Prison" (Merle Haggard, J. Sanders) – 2:47
Lloyd - "Nothing Was Delivered" (Bob Dylan) – 3:34

So Lloyd played on four, and Jay Dee played on three. Jay Dee's tracks were cut on L.A., and Lloyd's were mostly cut in Nashville with him flying to L.A. for a session or two. He used a Deluxe Reverb in Nashville and a Twin Reverb in L.A., with (I believe) the sunburst D10 Fingertip as the guitar, same one he used on Panther Hall, which was recorded within months of these sessions. There are, of course, outtakes on the deluxe Sweetheart, which feature both Lloyd and Jay Dee's playing. An outtake highlight for me is Lloyd and Clarence White trading licks on the instrumental, "All I Have are Memories". I believe this one was cut in L.A., and I really like Lloyd's sound with the Twin.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Well, there must have been some sloppy editing/resource checking.

Or maybe listening?

"You Don't Miss Your Water" has steel all over it!
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

Good eye, Jim. My mistake. Jay Dee is on "You Don't Miss Your Water". My stereo is weak on one side. Smile

Here is a thread from the old forum, with a quote from Lloyd outlining who played on which song. I was only one off Smile

:

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/005996.html

As you can see, he also outlines who played on the extra songs from the deluxe edition.

As I type this, I'm listening to the outtakes from "The Christian Life"......Jay Dee is played some wicked stuff. There are several kick-offs where he plays something different each time. Very nice.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Nice posts Chris and Jim.. I love early Jay Dee, although "Sweetheart" is pretty much A-1 Jay Dee, I find the International Submarine Band LP, out the same year, but in '67, to have some wild and raw Jay Dee as he plays in a more brash style, giving a lot of muscle and style to a rather good, but thinly produced record.

tom anderson · From: leawood, ks., usa

I got both books after Christmas & are reading both along with a 33&1/3 book on "The Guilded Palace of Sin".
John Einarson almost fans Chris Hillman's flames at the beginning of the book. Chris does slam Gram throughout most of what I have read, but you can tell it is a love/hate kind of relationship. I have read many things Chris has said over the years about the band & his band-mates, but I think that while sometimes harsh or critical, he basically seems thankful & respectful of his former band mates. He certainly said some nice things about Sneaky after he died. I think the Burrito book is more Einarson trying to stir up controversy.
I didn't think I would be able to read the Byrds book-3 columns per page with small print, but it is as fascinating as can be.

Steve Hotra · From: Camas, Washington

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