Farther Along is the eleventh album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in November 1971 on Columbia Records. For the most part, the album was recorded and produced by the Byrds themselves in London, England, over the course of five work-intensive days in July 1971. It was quickly released as a reaction to the commercial failure of the Byrds' previous album, Byrdmaniax, and as an attempt to stem the criticism that album was receiving in the music press.
Byrdmaniax had featured a large amount of orchestration, which producer Terry Melcher had applied to the album, allegedly without the band's consent.
Upon release, the album only managed to reach number 152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and failed to break into the UK Albums Chart altogether. A single taken from the album, "America's Great National Pastime", was released on November 29, 1971, but failed to chart in the United States or in the United Kingdom. Farther Along has the dubious honor of tying with Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde as the Byrds' album to have spent the least amount of time on the Billboard album chart. In addition, it was almost the lowest charting album of The Byrds' career in America, being beaten only by Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, which charted at number 153. The Byrds' annoyance over Melcher's additions to Byrdmaniax prompted them to try to rectify the situation by quickly recording a new album, this time produced by themselves. Despite a heavy touring schedule—resulting from the band being an in-demand fixture on the live concert circuit—the Byrds were eager to release another studio album as soon as possible.
Upon arriving in England for an appearance at the Lincoln Folk Festival on July 24, 1971, the Byrds booked into a London recording studio with engineer Mike Ross to record their next album. The tapes were then brought back to the U.S., where they were mixed by Eric Prestidge at Columbia Studios, Hollywood in August 1971, with the song "Bugler" receiving additional Mandolin and lead vocal overdubs from the band's lead guitarist, Clarence White. The second Battin–Fowley song, "Precious Kate", was a love song based on a real life incident and was, according to Battin, written in five minutes. Rather than being sung by Battin himself, as most of the Byrds' Battin and Fowley penned songs were, "Precious Kate" featured McGuinn on lead vocal.
Farther Along was released on November 17, 1971 in the United States (catalogue item KC 30150) and January 21, 1972 in the United Kingdom (catalogue item S 64676), less than five months after Byrdmaniax. The album peaked at number 152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, during a chart stay of seven weeks, but failed to break into the UK Albums Chart. Caroline Boucher, writing in Disc magazine, awarded the album three stars out of four, while Lon Goddard's review in Record Mirror stated that the album showed the Byrds "slowly drifting away from the more apparent country influences that came to the fore with Sweetheart of the Rodeo and combining into a hybrid that features more of the approach utilised on their earlier albums." Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke described the album favorably in 2000 as "a warm, fine record: a rustic, intimate surprise still rarely appreciated for its quiet nobility and winning performances." The Byrds did, however, record a handful of new songs during 1972 but these remained unreleased at the time. Included among these new songs were versions of David Wiffen's "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" and McGuinn's own "Born to Rock and Roll", recorded on January 12 and April 18, 1972 respectively. According to McGuinn, the January 12, 1972 session that produced "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" saw the guitarist being backed, not by the Byrds, but by hired studio musicians. Following Parsons' dismissal, a further three songs ("Draggin'", "I'm So Restless", and "Bag Full of Money") were taped by the band at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood during July 1972. Bass player Skip Battin was fired soon after and in late February 1973, McGuinn finally disbanded the latter-day line-up of the Byrds in order to facilitate a reunion of the five original members of the group.
Farther Along was remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series. It was reissued in an expanded form on February 22, 2000 with the addition of three bonus tracks. These bonus tracks were all taken from the Byrds' early to mid-1972 studio sessions and included "Lost My Drivin' Wheel", "Born to Rock and Roll" and "Bag Full of Money".
The Byrds
- Roger McGuinn – guitar, vocals
- Clarence White – guitar, mandolin, vocals
- Skip Battin – electric bass, piano, vocals
- Gene Parsons – drums, guitar, harmonica, pedal steel guitar, banjo, vocals
Note: Bonus track 12 is a recording not by the Byrds, but by Roger McGuinn and a group of unknown studio musicians. Bonus track 13 features the regular band line-up plus Charles Lloyd (saxophone), an unknown musician (synthesizer), and a number of unnamed female backing singers. Bonus track 14 features McGuinn, White and Battin, along with John Guerin (drums), Buddy Emmons (pedal steel guitar), and an unknown musician (piano).
Release history
{|class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Date
!Label
!Format
!Country
!Catalog
!Notes
|-
|November 17, 1971
|Columbia
|align="center"|LP
|align="center"|US
|KC 30150
|Original release.
|-
|January 21, 1972
|CBS
|align="center"|LP
|align="center"|UK
|S 64676
|Original release.
|-
|1975
|Columbia
|align="center"|LP
|align="center"|US
|LE 10215
|"Columbia limited edition" reissue.
|-
|1993
|Columbia
|align="center"|CD
|align="center"|UK
|COL 468418
|Original CD release.
|-
|1993
|Line
|align="center"|CD
|align="center"|Germany
|901024
|
|-
|rowspan=2|February 22, 2000
|rowspan=2|Columbia/Legacy
|rowspan=2 align="center"|CD
|align="center"|US
|CK 65849
|rowspan=2|Reissue containing three bonus tracks and the remastered album.
|-
|align="center"|UK
|COL 495078
|-
|2003
|Sony
|align="center"|CD
|align="center"|Japan
|MHCP-106
|Reissue containing three bonus tracks and the remastered album in a replica LP sleeve.
|-
|}
Single release
- "America's Great National Pastime" b/w "Farther Along" (Columbia 45514) November 29, 1971
References
Bibliography
- Rogan, Johnny, The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited, Rogan House, 1998,
- Hjort, Christopher, So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965–1973), Jawbone Press, 2008, .