The Byrds – Los Angeles, CA (08/23/70)

The Byrds
08/23/70
Ash Grove
Los Angeles, CA

Lover Of The Bayou
You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Well Come Back Home
Old Blue
My Back Pages
Baby What You Want Me To Do
He Was A Friend Of Mine
Truck Stop Girl
Break My Mind (with Gram Parsons & Linda Ronstadt)
I’m Movin’ On (lead vocals by John Hammond)
Take A City Bride (lead vocals Gib Guilbeau)
Chestnut Mare
Wheel’s On Fire
It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Ballad of Easy Rider
Jesus Is Just Alright
Turn Turn Turn
Mr. Tamborine Man
Eight Miles High

I’m honestly not much for the Byrds. I absolutely adore their country rock phase that comes from Gram Parsons and the album Sweetheart of the Rodeo and I dig some of the Dylan covers, but most of the rest leaves me flat. I really like Roger McGuinn’s guitar playing on that crazy 12-string Rickenbacker, which makes me not liking them kind of weird. I can’t really pinpoint the why, and I’ve tried a bunch of times to like the rest of their music, but something about the sound just doesn’t do it for me.

This bootleg, honestly doesn’t help much in those matters. The sound quality is less than to be desired. It purports to be a soundboard cut, which is believable enough, but the tapes must have been mistreated, for it sounds battered and beaten. The band also sounds a bit ragged. Definitely worth it for fans, but otherwise you’re better off leaving it alone.

Liberated Deep Six bootleg
Excellent stereo soundboard re-pitched, de-hummed and remastered