Music Video Of the Week - May 1, 2026

"The Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - March 27, 2026

"We May Never Pass This Way (Again)" by Seals and Crofts  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Byrds (1973)

An eight-year period is a blink of an eye in the big scheme of things.  Yet a lot can happen in eight years.  It's the time it takes to go from being a pre-med college freshman to graduating from medical school and being ready to begin a hospital residency.  It's the lifespan of a two-term U.S. Presidency.  And in rock and roll, an eight-year period is an eternity.  Times change, the music changes, and those who last eight years are far removed from where they were eight years earlier - sometimes for the worse.  And that's where the reunion album of the original Byrds comes in.

When the Byrds debuted in 1965, their sound was a sprightly Southern California blend of British Invasion rock and roll with the lyrics of Bob Dylan and other folk legends, as well as some inspired original songs.  By 1973, when the Byrds had broken up with Roger McGuinn as the last original member of the band, and with his former original bandmates between projects, the quintet, having had their disagreements, buried the hatchet, reunited, and recorded an album that, quite frankly, showed how eight years had changed the dynamic between them - and not in a positive way.

The original Byrds were no longer the young folkies enthralled by the Beatles' movie A Hard Day's Night and newly converted to rock and roll when McGuinn, David Crosby, and Gene Clark first got together, recruiting Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke soon after.  They were seasoned veterans who had no hope of recapturing the magic that made them so wonderful in the first place.  They had all become more traveled in their experiences, be it McGuinn keeping the Byrds going, Crosby joining forces with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, or Hillman forming the Flying Burrito Brothers with fellow Byrds alumnus Gram Parsons and later joining forces with Stephen Stills in Manassas.  The chemistry that brought them together was gone, and it shows here in the listless playing, the mediocre originals, and the poorly arranged covers.  

To be fair, the Byrds did not try to regain their original sound but instead aimed for a new sound based on their own varied experiences since leaving the band for other endeavors or, in the case of McGuinn, redefining the Byrds after the others had left.  The wealth of diversity in the music from these experiences - especially Hillman's tutelage with Stephen Stills - should have been, on paper at least, the basis for an incredible listen.  Instead, the sound that resulted on Byrds was more diffuse than diverse.

Highlights - I use that word loosely, with some irony -  include the dull and lackluster country ballad "Sweet Mary," which McGuinn wrote with occasional Dylan collaborator Jacques Levy, Crosby's unwieldy "Long Live the King," about the uneasy heads that wear crowns (yet another one of Crosby's political diatribes not good enough for a CSN album), and also Hillman's original song "Things Will Be Better," a lightweight pop ditty apparently about Chris resuming his solo career.  Even Hillman admitted that the song wasn't one of his best, a song he deemed unworthy for a solo album, but McGuinn's "Born to Rock and Roll" makes Hillman's song sound like "Like a Rolling Stone" by comparison.  Only Gene Clark's "Changing Heart" is at the Byrds' high standard.

The covers are even more embarrassing, especially when Crosby sings them, such as a clunky, blues-based remake of Joni Mitchell's "For Free" that sounds like the band was half asleep when they recorded it.  Crosby even had the Byrds remake his own "Laughing," a highly philosophical song that was originally done - and arranged much more imaginatively and intriguingly - on his debut solo album two years earlier.  Here Crosby tries to recast it as a heavy raga-rock number when it had worked so well as a wistful ballad on his solo record - and with Jerry Garcia guesting on guitar.  Alas, Garcia was nowhere to be found as a guest artist on this LP, and he could have been useful in sparking interest in the Byrds' Neil Young covers - for example, they try to re-imagine "Cowgirl In the Sand" as a bluegrass ballad (wrong!) with a false ending.

Still, Byrds has a certain charm about it.  Some of the playing is occasionally inspired, such as most of Hillman's mandolin lines, and McGuinn's guitar still sparkles intermittently.  But the overall sound lacks cohesion, and David Crosby, who produced this album, wasn't able to communicate with his bandmates in order to add substance to their style; he reportedly tried to be what Italian-Americans would call "da bigga da boss."  Crosby isn't even good here at getting anything out of himself, never mind the others.  Even his solo work, which had its occasional flaws, offered more heart and depth that what Crosby can produce or compel others to create on this record.

It goes without saying that I'd rather hear a Byrds reunion album a dozen times than hear a Duran Duran reunion album even once, but there's more to musical quality than arranging songs for instruments you don't need a computer science degree to play.  There was far better country rock being produced by other artists in 1973, which is why this album was a flop in the first place.  Byrds exists mainly as an argument against band reunions, though few have heeded its warning. And while there may be those who defend the Byrds for at least striving for a new, fresh sound that was still as seasoned as that hypothetical 26-year-old medical school graduate who began pre-med studies when their cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" was first released, consider this.  In his 1988 autobiography "Long Time Gone," David Crosby and his editor Carl Gottlieb provided an ostensibly complete account of every record Crosby had ever performed on or produced up to that point, but one record was left unmentioned.  Guess which record.

Music Video Of the Week - September 5, 2025

"Domino" by Van Morrison  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - June 6, 2025

"Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" by Rick Derringer with the Edgar Winter Group  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - November 22, 2024

"For Everyman" by Jackson Browne  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - June 14, 2024

"Never Let You Go" by Bloodstone  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - March 29, 2024

"Touch Me In the Morning" by Diana Ross (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - March 8, 2024

"Piano Man" by Billy Joel  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - February 2, 2024

"Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers Band  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week- January 26, 2024

 "Jet" by Paul McCartney and Wings (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - January 19. 2024

"Bell Boy" by the Who  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Christmas Music Video Of the Week - December 22, 2023

"Step Into Christmas" by Elton John  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - November 24, 2023

 "Oh My My" by Ringo Starr (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - November 17, 2023

 "Mind Games" by John Lennon (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - November 3, 2023

"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" by Rick Derringer  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

(This is a special record review, in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of this album's release this month.)

With all due respect to the Rolling Stones and Exile on Main St., Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the signature double album of the seventies.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road presents everything that was good and even a few things that were embarrassing in the decade that Elton John defined with his music.  You get the flash, the glitter, the professionalism, and even a bit of the cheesiness of some of 1970s pop's more regrettable moments.  It also brings together all of the various forms of pop of the time; art rock, heavy rock, singer-songwriter pop, glam, and soul.  The music is immaculately played by Elton himself and his band of guitarist Davey Johnstone, bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson, given the right amount of tinsel and polish by producer Gus Dudgeon. 

Lyricist Bernie Taupin describes Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as a cinematic album, and he and Elton constructed it in a sweeping, epic manner.  The LP kicks off with the astonishing eleven-minute suite "Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding," which begins with the sound of wind and funeral bells and a morose organ, settling into a somber piano piece before slowly building up energy and explosively segueing into a rocking song.  Other songs throughout the album are presented as scenes from a movie, from the glam-rock concert vibes of "Bennie and the Jets" (released as a single in America when it started getting airplay on soul stations)  to the gangster lore of "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34)." There are also moments of  nostalgia like the Marilyn Monroe tribute "Candle in the Wind" (not one of my favorite Elton John songs, but as a power ballad, it works in the context of the rest of the album) and the ballad ""Roy Rogers," a song with a corny big-time Nashville "countrypolitan" about a bored father and husband who escapes watching reruns of Roy Rogers' old TV show.    

There are plenty of memorable rockers on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, made even more so by Johnstone's spirited, forceful guitar solos and Olsson's punchy drums, along with Murray's solid but subtle bass lines.  Elton is still the star of the show; he works up a frenzied vocal line on "Your Sister Can't Twist" (but She Can Rock 'n' Roll)" carried to a ridiculous tempo by a swirling organ, and his piano on "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" is just as heavy as Johnstone's crunchy riffs.  He's just as able to deliver some of Bernie's more seamy lyrics, such as a tender ballad about a prostitute ("Sweet Painted Lady") and a jokey reggae sex romp "(Jamaica Jerk-Off")  And Elton really gets it on with "All the Girls Love Alice," a tale of a lesbian who "pleasures" bored housewives set to a nasty and dirty rock beat.

The title song is a perfect centerpiece for the album, with its poignant yearning to return to one's roots even after living the high life, and despite Elton's sympathetic delivery, you know a part of this songwriting team is ready to escape to the fantasy world of the denizens of Oz.  (The LP's cover, depicting Elton walking into the imagined world of L. Frank Baum's stories, underscores the irony.)  "Harmony," an uplifting ballad of reconciliation, closes the album with a great deal of satisfaction for the 76-minute journey, a positive vibe you don't get from other great double albums, and that includes the Beatles' White Album ("Good Night" is too melancholy) or Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde ("Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is just so darn long!).  If you want to know what Elton John is all about - and what the 1970s were all about - this is the album for you.

Music Video Of the Week - October 27, 2023

"Frankenstein" by the Edgar Winter Group  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - October 20, 2023

"Will it Go Round In Circles" by Billy Preston (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - October 13, 2023

"Top of the Hill" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)