The Byrds - Acoustic Sessions - Non-Album Acoustic Tracks (1964)

The Byrds recorded a lot of songs in 1964, before they hit it big, and before they even were calling themselves "the Byrds." These recordings have been packaged in many ways, usually with "Preflyte" in the title. I decided to split them into two, with the full-band versions on one album and the acoustic versions on the other. As you can tell from the album title, this is the acoustic album.

With this album, I'm not worrying if I repeat some songs from the other 1964 album, or from later Byrds albums, because the fact that they're acoustic versions makes them sufficiently different and interesting. There are a few songs that would appear on the 1965 "Mr. Tambourine Man" album - "Here Without You," "I Knew I'd Want You," "You Won't Have to Cry," and "Mr. Tambourine Man."

But what really fascinates me is that the song "Everybody's Been Burned" is also included here. That song wouldn't be released by the Byrds until the 1967 "Younger than Yesterday" album. Yet this version is basically exactly the same, minus the instrumentation to flesh it out. The song is written by Byrd member David Crosby, so clearly he had songwriting skills years before it has generally been realized.

Also, the first song here is actually still unreleased, and is a Crosby solo performance dating back to 1962 or even 1961! His vocals sound great even back then. I wonder if that's an original song too.

Speaking of Crosby, some of the other songs are actually Crosby solo performances too. Plus, there are a bunch of solo performances by Gene Clark, who was the main singer and songwriter in the Byrds at the time. Rather than having a big bunch of Crosby songs in a row, and then another bunch of Clark's, I've tried to scatter both throughout the album, to give it more variety.

Oh, one of those Clark solo songs is rather odd if you listen to the lyrics: "All for Him." In it, Clark sings about another man he's fallen in love with. No, Clark wasn't secretly bisexual or the like. It turns out this was a demo for a song he wrote that was intended for a female singer.

One more note. There's one more song, another solo Clark song, that I failed to include: "I'd Feel Better." That's because I consider it such a poor song that I can't even bear to add it as a bonus track. The lyrics are simple and trite and the melody nothing special. I'm mentioning it in case you're a die-hard completist, in which case please track it down elsewhere.

01 It's Been Raining (David Crosby)
02 Why Can't I Have Her Back Again (Gene Clark)
03 All for Him (Gene Clark)
04 You Showed Me [Acoustic Demo] (Byrds)
05 I Knew I'd Want You [Acoustic Demo] (Byrds)
06 If There's No Love (Gene Clark)
07 You Won't Have to Cry [Acoustic Demo] (Byrds)
08 Tomorrow Is a Long Ways Away [Acoustic Demo] (Byrds)
09 The Way I Am (Gene Clark)
10 Everybody's Been Burned (David Crosby)
11 That Girl (Gene Clark)
12 Mr. Tambourine Man [Acoustic Demo] (Byrds)
13 I'm Just a Young Man (David Crosby)
14 The Only Girl I Adore [Demo] (Byrds)
15 A Worried Heart (Gene Clark)
16 Brotherhood of the Blues (David Crosby)
17 She's the Kind of Girl (Gene Clark)

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Originally, I made the album cover using a 1965 black and white photo of the band that shows them holding acoustic instruments. I figured it fits well with the acoustic theme. But over a year later, I looked at it again and was displeased at the lack of color. So I picked a different photo of them from 1965, but this one in color. Then, in 2023, using superior new computer technology (the program Palette), I colorized that pic too.

Here is the original photo, colorized, in case you prefer it. For both versions, I added the appropriate record company logo and stereo logo.