DommeDamian
Imperfect, sensitive Aspie with a melody addiction
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Location: where the flowers grow. 
- #2
- Posted: 04/26/2025 08:55
- Post subject:
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Nearly all of music snobs on the internet have read either a little bit or all of Scaruffi's infamous text on The Beatles. I certainly have, more than once, yeah I know my life is boring and dumb. When I got to his take on The White Album, I was curious to see a parallel he would draw to an album that was as varied and as temporary is that. He stated that it was "very similar in spirit to The Byrds' The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)", and that alone made me want to dive into their discography, head first. I ended up loving The Byrds, a surprise to nobody, and especially that album that subconsciously started it. Now granted, they are two very different records, The White Album is thrice the length and songs of this Byrds record and is more cluttered.
However, The Notorious Byrd Brothers is cleearly a better release simply as it features masterful song after masterful song, flows magnificently, still sounds original to this day, and doesn't play around. If you hate The Beatles, I understand why. If you hate The Beach Boys, I can understand the reasons to do so. If you hate The Byrds, I have no clue. Like, how can you actually really hate these guys? Disliking mellow music I get it, but they weren't always mellow (whilst being exceptionally great at it) and they helped invent genres and guitar sounds, mainly the classic jangle. At the same time, it's hard to describe or point out what makes them so good. Nearly everytime I have heard one of their albums through, my day got better. Key words; one of their albums, and they don't match The Notorious Byrd Brothers; not only their greatest record, but a masterpiece in everything it touches (gorgeous harmonies, jangling guitar melodies, flavorful psychedelia, etc).
If you're gonna make uplifting and optimistic music or an album filled with it, you better be extremely substantial, make it short, and drown out my depression with your marvelous creativity. The Byrds did that better than anybody else probably, on this album. The Notorious Byrd Brothers is a varied madness of an album filled with satisfying music. This album is a prime example of how much musicality and colorfulness you can put into a few short running time. Like 28 minutes. I say that again. 28 MINUTES! And nothing is out of place and has more to say and show than most people's entire catalog. Now that's what I call the recipe to a mouthwatering classic.
Kicking things off with Artifical Energy, with some eerie trumpets and a booty-shakingly sexy bass line, what is not to love? Goin' Back is my favorite song ever. If Jesus has showed that he's real and loves us, is that he made the Byrds do a cover of Dusty Springfield's best song and make it not only much better, not only amazing but absolutely transcendent in beauty. From the verses that are the musical equivalent of getting baptized in a holy river after days of fasting, to the beyond-majestic chorus of peak everything in musicianship, the musical equivalent of God carrying you in his arms like a baby and dancing around. This song has given me life time and time again.
It flows through the air like a needle through water into Natural Harmony. If you're a musician or a movie maker with many small great ideas that don't know how to be fulfilled, listen to songs like this to be inspired to tie 'em all together. It can truly work. Draft Morning is probably one of the best best best examples of the Byrds going full psychedelic pop rock, and really, they beat a lot of other psychedelic bands at their own game quite smoothly. That structure and build-up of Wasn't Born To Follow has a typical folk rock song, but uses so many delicious effects that make it easy to burn itself into the mind. And, I cannot stress enough how eccentrically arranged this entire record is front to back. And it keeps going into the majestic Get To You; the sound of a song like that is so spiritually peaceful and calming, it's like a religious experience in disguise of dreamy rock music.
The album has such an amazing flow (perhaps one of the greatest in music history) that one even forgets where in the album is transported. It flows like a pacific daydream of nostalgic presentism. For Change Is Now, oh man I love the mixing of the drums on this one; punchy but not over the top. By the chorus, we get some country twangs, a little taste of the genre "country rock" that these guys invented on the follow-up to this album. But only a taste cause it is quickly swallowed in eerie guitar tones that are both deafening and wonderful. It's mostly impossible to pick up everything happening in one listen, but which genre they experiment on, what the lyrics can portray, and all the fragments of harmonic soulfulness. Yet, it's all so packed and structured like nothing else. The next song, Old John Robertson, embraces an upbeat rhythm but makes sure to throw so many brilliant effects on the guitars and violins, giving it a surrealistic effect that puts a smile on your face.
Indescribable is arguably what I'd call Tribal Gathering. It's probably one of the first songs to use an odd time signature, with 5/4, but unlike so many math rock bands of the 90s (especially), the way they structure it makes it so even and tranquil, that you'd hardly recognize it. And Dolphin's Smile could be the silliest in the Byrds catalog? Maybe. At least it drowns out worries in the everyday with the charismatic drum percussion, the strange sounds lighten up the day. At last, Space Odyssey - the album closer, that has to be the most psychedelic soundscape a la Pink Floyd. It's almost electronic music, a few years prior to that being a thing. I see this getting hated on, but the melody around the aquatic musicianship is literally just like so good man. And even though Panda Bear's excellent Person Pitch album draws more influence from the Beach Boys, there is no song from them that matches that vibe quite like this one.
There are many choruses and catchy elements in the music that could be singalong-esque, but when listening to it all, the listener is taken in by amazement and trippiness that it's easier to be left impressed and speechless. The Notorious Byrd Brothers is a flavorful little record that is the 28-minute highpoint of all 60s bands for me.
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