The Byrds - Love that Never Dies - Non-Album Tracks (1989-1998)

The Byrds disbanded in 1973. There were some reunions and collaborations between various key members in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but those faded out. Then, in 1989, the Byrds had a brief renaissance, culminating in all five original members appearing on stage to accept being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and even playing a few songs together. 

But things faded out again soon after that. One factor was that, only a few months after the Hall of Fame induction, key member Gene Clark died of cancer, exacerbated by various addictions, But also, Roger McGuinn was always central to the Byrds sound, with both his distinctive voice and guitar playing. He put out his first solo album in many years in 1991 with "Back to Rio," and even had a minor hit, "King of the Hill." However, shortly thereafter it seems he decided he wasn't interested in a conventional rock music career, and switched to mostly performing solo acoustic versions of traditional folk songs. Since 1991, he's only put out one conventional rock album of new songs, "Limited Edition," in 2004, with none of the other former Byrds on it. He rebuffed many requests by David Crosby for a Byrds reunion, saying he didn't need the money and preferred to keep the Byrds as a fond memory from long ago. Now, as I write this in 2023, Crosby has died as well, so no further Byrds reunions are possible.

This collects the best of what I could find from that early 1990s reunion time period. I've included songs actually done by the Byrds, which is defined here as original members McGuinn, Crosby, and Chris Hillman. Those three were on the outs with the other original members, Clark and Michael Clarke, due to legal battles over the use of the band name (other than their reunion for the Hall of Fame). Additionally, I've included a couple of songs with at least two members, McGuinn and Hillman or Hillman and Crosby. Finally, I've included songs just by McGuinn that had that Byrdsy sound to it. Putting all that together is just enough material for what I think is a very solid album.

McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman played a few concerts as a threesome in 1989, as part of their legal battle to argue that they were the real Byrds, and different bands led by either Clark or Clarke were not. I'm not including any songs from those concerts since the sound quality is rougher than everything else here. But if people are interested, I could post the best sounding bootleg from those shows. However, those concerts led to McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman recording four songs together in the studio, which came out on the 1990 box set simply titled "The Byrds." Three of those were covers, but the fourth, "Love that Never Dies," is a very nice McGuinn original. 

Tracks six through ten are what I consider the best songs from McGuinn's 1991 album "Back from Rio." However, one of those, "Without Your Love," is labelled as a Byrds song, because Crosby and Hillman also played and song on it. In 1996, McGuinn released a live acoustic album called "Live from Mars." But it had two new, original extra studio songs on it, "Fireworks" and "May the Road Rise," that were done with a full band. So I've included those here. The final song come from a Hillman solo album.

I didn't include any songs from the 1991 Hall of Fame induction. The performance was pretty rough, obviously with no practice, and Clarke totally drunk. (He would die of liver failure due to years of heavy alcohol consumption in 1993.) You can find videos of a couple of songs from that on YouTube. Far better were two songs done for a Roy Orbison tribute concert in 1990. I've posted that full concert here recently. But I'm including the two Byrds songs from that as bonus tracks, for those who don't want the whole show.

This album is 48 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman)
02 He Was a Friend of Mine (Byrds)
03 Paths of Victory (Byrds)
04 From a Distance (Byrds)
05 Love that Never Dies (Byrds)
06 Someone to Love (Roger McGuinn)
07 Suddenly Blue (Roger McGuinn)
08 King of the Hill (Roger McGuinn with Tom Petty)
09 Without Your Love (Byrds)
10 If We Never Meet Again (Roger McGuinn)
11 Fireworks (Roger McGuinn)
12 May the Road Rise (Roger McGuinn)
13 I'm Still Alive (Chris Hillman with David Crosby)

Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds with Bob Dylan)
Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Byrds)

https://www.imagenetz.de/files/3d5c794a4e93fd8f5fe1e8c4fafdd28e.zip

The cover photo was taken backstage at the Roy Orbison tribute concert in 1990. From right to left, that's Hillman, Crosby, and McGuinn. I used Photoshop to darken the background, because there were some distracting balloons and other things there.