Having tackled the "Stranger in a Stranger Land" Byrds mash-up in my last post, I figured why not try another one. There's one other Byrds song I know of that is just an instrumental badly in need of vocals, and that's "Bound to Fall," a bonus track off the 1968 "Notorious Byrd Brothers" album.
The song was written by Mike Brewer of Mastin and Brewer, a little known duo that sometimes opened up shows for the Byrds in 1966 but only released one single that didn't contain this song. (Brewer would later go on to bigger success in the duo Brewer and Shipley, and that group would finally record the song on a 1974 album.) However, the song is associated with Byrds bassist Chris Hillman, who has played it off and on during his long career, Aside from the instrumental Byrds version, which came out in 1997 and obviously wasn't originally meant to be released in that form, a Hillman version of the song wouldn't get released until 1972, when it was done for the "Manassas" album led by Stephen Stills. Hillman was a member of the Manassas band, and he sang the song on the album with his voice intertwined with Stills' voice.
It would be very difficult for me to combine the Byrds version with the Manassas version, because Manassas does it in a different arrangement. I couldn't find any versions of the song sung only by Hillman. However, I found a bootleg of Hillman singing the song in a duet with Kim O'Kelley at My Father's Place in Roslyn, New York, on March 1, 1978. It was possible to isolate the vocals because the song was performed acoustically and in front of a very small crowd, so the vocals were clear.
I think the mash-up worked out well, although I should warn that I'm new to this sort of thing and I'm sure there are others who can do it better. One problem is that Hillman and O'Kelley were performing the song without any sort of rhythm section, so sometimes they got a little bit ahead of the beat or behind it, when compared to the Byrds' version. I tried my best to fix that, but I can only do so much with my limited audio editing skills. It was also tough to sync up the pitch and tempo.
Maybe someone with more skills will see this effort and make a better version. As with my last mash-up, I've included the two versions I combined, so one has the raw materials to make one's own combination.
As it is, I'd much rather hear this version with Hillman's vocals than the instrumental version. I hope you feel the same.
https://www.upload.ee/files/15239501/TByrd_BndtoFallSongEdit.zip.html
Have you ever tried to combine the backing track of You Showed Me on the Byrds Preflytr Sessions ( Sundazed ), with the vocals from the acoustic version ?
ReplyDeleteNo I haven't. That's an idea. What do you think of my two Byrds mash-ups?
DeleteThanks for that. Your version is very good. Would you mind if I add it in to the zip file? Then people can pick whichever one they prefer.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, I just read your post while checking up on some B & S songs and photos. I was Sherry Snow but changed my name to Halimah in 1969. You can check that out online or on the B & S wiki page. I downloaded your Mash-up but it didn't quite line up, an interesting idea anyway. David sold "Stranger" to Frank Werber partly as he needed the money. I think it would have been great with the Byrds. I sang with them once at a show though I forget where it was, probably in early 1965, definitely before "Mr. Tambourine Man" was released. As has been noted, Frank should have released it sooner since the Book (yes, I grokked it!) was a cult favorite, but he was looking for a better record and distribution deal. Of course, the distribution was minimal. I often think it would be a perfect song to have on the radio on a hot summer day, riding in a convertible to Venice Beach.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you, Paul!!