I bought this when I lived in Mount Isa, a north-west Queensland mining town that had an annual rodeo. I was easily influenced !!
This is another one of those albums that gained stature and respect well after it was released. At the time it was positively reviewed but mostly commercially ignored. It was only later when taken in the context of hindsight and history that 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' became classed as an influential album in the development and acceptance of country rock.
The Byrds were created in 1964 by Jim McGuinn. Jim began using his middle name in 1967 so is better known as Roger McGuinn. By 1965 when they recorded their #1 hit, the Dylan song 'Mr. Tambourine Man' they were yet to be fully formed in terms of musicality, so session musicians (later known as The Wrecking Crew) were used for the track. One of them was Leon Russell, playing electric piano. Lovely trivia !!
Their early music was essentially folk-rock, but as time went on and group members changed so did their output, and then psychedelia kicked in. After a diet of 'Tambourine' and 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' things like 'Eight Miles High' and '5D (Fifth Dimension)' began to creep in along with 'Mr. Spaceman' and the punchier 'So You Want To Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star'.
By 1968 Gene Clark, Michael Clarke and David Crosby had come and gone from the group and all that was left was McGuinn and Chris Hillman. Kevin Kelley, Hillman's cousin, came on as drummer and then Larry Spector, the bands business manager, brought in Gram Parsons.
That proved to be a pivotal move - the 21 year old Parsons had firm ideas for his musical direction and set his sights on using the Byrds as a platform for his passion. McGuinn had the bones of an idea for the 'Sweethearts ..' album, wanting to create a 2-disc set of the history of American popular music. Parsons however felt that a fusion of styles that he termed 'Cosmic American Music' but basically came to be country-rock was the best way to go and through persuasion and influence he eventually got everyone on board. The Byrds had used country in their previous albums, but the direction that 'Sweethearts .. ' took was quite a departure from their earlier hybrid releases.
Even so, there were still two Dylan compositions on the album. The first one, 'You Ain't Goin' Nowhere' caused a bit of to-and-fro between Dylan and Roger McGuinn. On Dylans original version from 1967 (which he didn't record) the line was
'Pick up your money, pack up your tent' .. but McGuinn transposed it and sang ..
'Pack up your money, pick up your tent'.
In 1971 Dylan did a major re-write of the song before recording it himself, adding a callout to Roger ..
'Pack up your money, put up your tent, McGuinn'.
Roger waited until 1989 when he did lead on the same song for a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album and sang ..
'Pack up your money, pick up your tent, Dylan'. All good clean fun.
Despite Gram Parsons heavy involvement in the album, he quit the band almost eight weeks before it was released. There was some legal hassle surrounding Parsons previous contract and if he should have even been on the album. McGuinn jumped in on post-production and replaced 3 of Parsons lead vocals with his own voice, although 3 other songs still featured Gram on lead.
Gram Parsons went on to have a short but brilliant solo career, particularly with his album 'Grievous Angel', but his death at age 26 was all sorts of weird. He used to like going to Joshua Tree National Park, getting extremely drunk and stoned. In September 1973 it got the better of him and he died of an overdose of alcohol and morphine. Now for the weird bit. His wish was to be cremated at Joshua Tree and have his ashes scattered over Cap Rock. His stepfather organised a funeral in New Orleans and didn't invite any of his music friends and associates. One of his friends, Phil Kauffman, got wind of it and along with another person they stole his body from L.A. airport in a borrowed hearse, took it to Joshua Tree, poured a few gallons of petrol into the coffin and tossed in a match. After they were arrested they were fined for stealing a coffin. pparently there was no law against stealing a dead body !!
Regardless of everything surrounding the making of this album, it now has it's place in the history of country rock, helping to bring about acts such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Souther Hillman Fray, New Riders of the Purple Sage and having influence on CSNY, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and even The Grateful Dead.
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