Younger Than Yesterday: Remastered

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Editorial reviews

From Amazon.com
Four of the five original Byrds were aboard for this folk-rock landmark. Within months of its release in the summer of 1967, David Crosby would move on and the group would enter a permanent period of flux. Younger Than Yesterday, however, finds songwriters Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Chris Hillman prodding one another with varied but complementary triumphs. "My Back Pages" is one of their best Dylan covers (and the Byrds had plenty of them), while "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" (written as a jab at the Monkees) represents two minutes of compressed pop cynicism that's as valid today as it was when it hit the airwaves. --Steven Stolder

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Customer reviews

review by: Pod Meister date: 2008-09-24 rating:
Younger than anyday!
I've had copies of this album since the first month it came out.. in mono vinyl, stereo vinyl (several times), and most of the CDs that have come out here and in the US. In fact I have collected all of their material since the first album arrived back in 1965.

The Byrds were so lucky that all of their incarnations brought forward new challenges, and with Jim/Roger at the helm they always delivered, right up the the last recording lineup with Skip, Gene and Clarence. Every lineup was masterful, although the final lineup was the one that was so powerful live (I'm a great Clarence White fan).
Coming back to Younger Than Yesterday, it was (and still is) a groundbreaking album, with so many new ideas and effects that it stood apart from all of its excellent predecessors. I can only comment on one guy here who gave it 1 star as he believed that the remastering made many of the lead guitar parts too quiet. I can't say that I've ever noticed that, he based his comments on vinyl (I think), so maybe he was relating it to the mono version - the twelve string lead guitar on "Everybody's been burned" was re-recorded for the stereo version and to my ears isn't as good..? Else I can't hear any difference with all the versions that I've grown up with (and this is merely a remaster not a reMIX).

This is a great album, go buy... as I would say to ANY Byrds album!

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review by: Jon Oxley date: 2008-06-06 rating:
The most accomplished Byrds album
This is probably The Byrds most consistent and accomplished albums. It is only let down by 2 tracks, which I will mention later. Chris Hillman's songs are a revelation - catchy single Have You Seen Her Face along with 3 really strong album tracks Thoughts And Words, Time Between and Girl With No Name. Other highlights include the single So You Want To Be A Rock N Roll Star, Crosby's Everybody Has Been Burned and Renaissance Fair. Now the 2 dodgy tracks - the b-side of Eight Miles High, Why, has been re-recorded and re-released and tagged onto the end of the 11 tracks - it was never the strongest of tracks, so why-oh-why did The Byrds decide to put it on this album? Also, Crosby's Mind Gardens is too off-the-wall and justs sounds like a dirge. They would have been better off replacing these 2 tracks with the excellent Crosby compositions Lady Friend and It Happens Each Day, both added on here as Bonus Tracks.

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review by: date: 2008-03-18 rating:
Warning!
Sorry to add a note of caution. I'm a huge fan of this record and was looking forward to a CD copy rather than my battering old vinyl LP. I've played it on three different CD players now (all of them fairly high-quality players), but it still sounds truly terrible: in the remastering, they've somehow remixed McGuinn's twelve-string lead guitar right back, so far that it's barely audible, even on eg My Back Pages and Everybody's Been Burned, where the guitar part is the main hook. In other tracks the lead guitar disappears entirely for some bars, then faintly remerges behind the bass. Maybe I've just bought a dud pressing, but I don't think so, with the vocal tracks etc sounding crystal-clear. Be warned!

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review by: date: 2007-02-14 rating:
Music for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
The departure of singer-songwriter, fear of flying victim, Gene Clark from The Byrds' ranks and a reluctance to rely on Bob Dylan material had coincided with a blossoming of the composing skills of Roger McGuinn and David Crosby shown on the group's previous outing "Fifth Dimension". This was a strong collection and it boded well for the sustained future of the band, despite the loss of a key member. This next album, "Younger Than Yesterday" did not disappoint, in fact this ever-evolving unit pushed on boldly to pastures new, continuing to innovate and broaden their musical horizons. It turned out to be the finest hour of this incarnation of The Byrds (McQuinn, Crosby, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke) and one of the best records of it's era.

Roger McGuinn continued to contribute songs, collaborating with David Crosby as well as with bass player Hillman and also with his fellow science fiction fancier Bob `R J' Hippard. This latter partnership produced the novelty "CTA-102", one in the series of `space rock' songs. McGuinn and Crosby gave us "Why" (a left-over song from the previous album, albeit re-recorded) and "Renaissance Fair" (which was obviously more to do with David than Roger). The McGuinn/Hillman team produced the hit single, the most well-known track here, "So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star". This was a comment on the manufactured-for-television group, The Monkees, and was complete with dubbed on screaming girls, recorded during The Byrds 1965 British tour.

It was, however, the solo writing offerings from Crosby and from Hillman that are of special note, for very different reasons. David Crosby had become the most adventurous song smith by far, both with his melodies and chordal structures in addition to his poetic lyrics. Songs seemed to be bursting out of him at this point and it was becoming a struggle for him to get them fair inclusion. On this album he managed to get the superb jazz-flavoured torch song "Everybody's Been Burned" in place along with the maligned "Mind Gardens", a puzzling proposition, ridiculed by some. It now appears a brave piece, David's cool clear tenor voice over Roger's backwards twelve-string. The avant garde caught us off guard, as indeed it should.

Such was Crosby's output that a further two great compositions were excluded from the original LP. These were "Lady Friend" which was issued as a (flop) single probably only remembered by the faithful, and the startling "It Happens Each Day" which had to lay dormant for over twenty years. Both are found as bonus cuts on this reissue. (Another song "Triad", to be found as an extra track on the next of this essential series, "The Notorious Byrd Brothers", with a controversial message of sexual liberation, convenient legend had it, was deemed a step too far and was a significant factor in David's dismissal from the group.)

The rise of Chris Hillman's songwriting ability was the big surprise here. Not previously credited as a composer (except on the funky instrumental group jam "Captain Soul" - presumably the riff was his) he brought forth no less than four fine efforts. These included his impressive debut "Time Between" (a hint of country things to come with "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo" and later, The Flying Burrito Brothers) and arguably his finest solo composition, "Thoughts And Words".

Vocally, this Byrds were stronger than ever. Three part harmony of McGuinn, Crosby and now Hillman present and correct and all three taking expressive, passionate leads. Michael Clarke had become a more than competent, straight ahead drummer and Chris Hillman's bass playing was evermore melodic and innovative while always anchoring proceedings. Crosby and McGuinn's guitar interplay was at a zenith, the former being THE rhythm guitarist and the latter keeping on his twelve-string jingle-jangle magic in addition to summoning up inventive solos especially on Chris` "Have You Seen Her Face" (playing Crosby's six-string) and on David's "Everybody's Been Burned"(a special spine-chiller, underpinned by springy, growling bass).

Roger's guitar raga's out on "So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star" and is glorious on the one none-Byrds composition, the solitary nod back to Bob Dylan, a creditable reading of Mr Zimmerman's goodbye to protest, "My Back Pages". Here, the group (especially McGuinn) show themselves yet again to be most worthy interpreters of Dylan. Think on, the list of artists whose cover versions of Bob Dylan songs have really ever added to, or `bettered' the original is short. The Byrds, The Band, Jimi Hendrix. After them, we're struggling. Nobody does Dylan like Dylan (as the ancient publicity claimed) except maybe a select chosen few.

A couple of notable guest musicians add to the excellence on show. Wizard bluegrass-rooted guitarist Clarence White, destined to become a full-time Byrd himself in the near future, provides his unique brand of electric string-bending on "Time Between"; while jazzer Hugh Masekela adds meandering trumpet power to the mix on "So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star".

This is a highly recommended album from 1967. This high flying Byrds at their peak with a mind-boggling variety of top-notch songs executed in grand style. What we have here is remarkably energetic music that never tires. Music for yesterday, today and tomorrow.



review by: Steven Dedalus date: 2006-12-01 rating:
The End of an Era
"Younger Than Yesterday" signifies the end of the first part of the Byrds career (and end that had been on the cards from "Fifth Dimension" or maybe even from the day they got together...). It is the last album to 'officially' feature David Crosby as a member of the group, and as such, it is tempting to see it as being 'his' album, the one on which he got to realise his version of the group.

After the departure of Gene Clark, the remaining Byrds were left in a very precarious situation. Clarke had been the group's main songwriter, and compared to his work, that of Roger McGuinn and David Crosby does tend to pale in comparison. Their public perception was founded on their interpretation of other writer's work, which ultimately led to a scenario where their own view of themselves was not necessarily a view that the public shared. The band that became famous with hits such as 'Mr Tambourine Man' and 'Turn, Turn, Turn' bear scant resemblance to the "Younger Than Yesterday" era Byrds. It is no coincidence that, whilst they arguably did their finest work in this period, the commercial decline begins here.

It's hard to see why, though. Every track on "Younger Than Yesterday" demands attention. Opener, 'So You Want to be a Rock'n'Roll Star' has one of their most chiming and melodic guitar parts, along with lyrics bemoaning the pressures of fame (apparently referring to the Monkees, but more accurately aimed at their own formative years). Out of no-where, Chris Hillman - who had previously just been the bassist for the band - emerges as a major writer. 'Have you Seen her Face' and 'Thoughts and Words' are easily two of the best songs on the album, bristling with energy and creative freedom. McGuinn's guitar work, always the unifying factor with the early Byrds, is on top form, with the sonic experiments of "Fifth" Dimension" taken to their logical extreme, as guitars are put through all manner of studio trickery and lengthy backwards guitar drones are utilised. (and speaking of 'logical', isn't McGuinn one of the most 'logical' guitar players of his generation? Rarely is a note wasted and parts chime with almost scientific exactness. Even his guitar 'freakouts' seem perfectly orchestrated.)

However, as I said before, it does feel like it's Crosby's album. Whereas "Fith Dimension" was a whimsical journey through the various scientific and sci-fi themes that preoccupied Roger McGuinn, "Younger Than Yesterday" seems to be a platform for Crosby's meandering spirituality as well as his sense of sinister eroticsim. 'Everybody's Been Burned' could well be the greatest song the Byrds ever recorded, every musician playing at the very height of the powers. McGuinn's spine-tingling guitar part interlocks exactly with Hillman's superbly melodic bassline. And the solo is one of those moments where the listener simply has to hold their breath. 'Mind Gardens' deals with the more spiritual side of his writing, but its rambling drone textures and stream of consiousness lyrics are not to everyone's tastes (why two versions (three if you count the uncreditied instrumental take at the end of the cd) of this - only marginally different from each other - have been included on this set is absolutely baffling). 'Renaissance Fair' frequently strays into the realm of hippy-tweeness, but is set aside by its dazzlingly good bassline and Crosby's obvious enthusiasm for the subject.

On this album, Crosby's songs do tend to be that little bit more experimental, and frequently not entirely successful, but that is what gives him the edge over his bandmates. In essence, Crosby's version of the Byrds is the one that could have flown highest, taken the most risks and reaped the most rewards. McGuinn frequently takes a safer route (even if he did want to send them flying into outer space with his futuristic moog experiments) and Hillman was always going to go down the country roads. One can only wonder what the fate of the Byrds would have been if Crosby's artistic impulses were indulged...

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