Ric Menck - The Byrds The Notorious Byrd Brothers

The Notorious Byrd Brothers

Praise for the series:

It was only a matter of time before a clever publisher realized that there is an audience for whom Exile on Main Street or Electric Ladyland are as significant and worthy of study as The Catcher in the Rye or Middlemarch.... The series, which now comprises 29 titles with more in the works, is freewheeling and eclectic, ranging from minute rock-geek analysis to idiosyncratic personal celebrationThe New York Times Book Review

Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just arent enoughRolling Stone

One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planetBookslut

These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerdsVice

A brilliant series...each one a work of real love NME (UK)

Passionate, obsessive, and smartNylon

Religious tracts for the rock n roll faithfulBoldtype

[A] consistently excellent series Uncut (UK)

We...arent naive enough to think that were your only source for reading about music (but if we had our way...watch out). For those of you who really like to know everything there is to know about an album, youd do well to check out Continuums 33 1/3 series of books. Pitchfork

For reviews of individual titles in the series, please visit our website at www.continuumbooks.com and 33third.blogspot.com

Also available in this series:

Dusty in Memphis by Warren Zanes

Forever Changes by Andrew Hultkrans

Harvest by Sam Inglis

The Kinks Are The Village Green

Preservation Society by Andy Miller

Meat Is Murder by Joe Pernice

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by John Cavanagh

Abba Gold by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Electric Ladyland by John Perry

Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott

Sign O the Times by Michaelangelo Matos

The Velvet Underground and Nico by Joe Harvard

Let It Be by Steve Matteo

Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk

Aqualung by Allan Moore

OK Computer by Dai Griffiths

Let It Be by Colin Meloy

Led Zeppelin IV by Erik Davis

Armed Forces by Franklin Bruno

Exile on Main Street by Bill Janovitz

Grace by Daphne Brooks

Murmur by J. Niimi

Pet Sounds by Jim Fusilli

Ramones by Nicholas Rombes

Endtroducing... by Eliot Wilder

Kick Out the Jams by Don McLeese

Low by Hugo Wilcken

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Kim Cooper

Music from Big Pink by John Niven

Pauls Boutique by Dan LeRoy

Doolittle by Ben Sisario

Theres a Riot Goin On by Miles Marshall Lewis

Stone Roses by Alex Green

Bee Thousand by Marc Woodsworth

The Who Sell Out by John Dougan

Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti

Loveless by Mike McGonigal

Use Your Illusion I and II by Eric Weisbard

Court and Spark by Sean Nelson

69 Love Songs by LD Beghtol

Songs in the Key of Life by Zeth Lundy

Forthcoming in this series:

London Calling by David L. Ulin
Daydream Nation by Matthew Stearns
Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm by Shawn Taylor

and many more ...

Ric Menck

2007

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

www.continuumbooks.com

Copyright 2007 by Ric Menck

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
written permission of the publishers or their agents.

Printed in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Menck, Ric.

The Notorious Byrd brothers / Ric Menck.
p.cm. - (33 1/3)
eISBN-13: 978-1-4411-0675-9

1. Byrds (Musical group) Notorious Byrd brothers. I. Title. II. Series.

ML421.B93M46 2007
782.421660922-dc22

2006036506

For my parents, my sisters and my darling Laura.

Im a junkie for records. If you give me twenty bucks to live on for a week, Ill blow the whole thing on records in the first hour. Its been that way ever since I was a kid. I need records like I need food, water and air, and so far the record habit has been impossible to kick.

This book is about one record in my collection. I could have written about any number of albums, but I chose The Notorious Byrd Brothers because it has always stood out for me. The first time I heard it was revelatory. Id never imagined music could sound so multidimensional. Not only could I hear the album, I could actually visualize it in my mind. Id only experienced this previously in brief glimpses while listening to records like Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles, and Glen Campbells evocative version of Jimmy Webbs Wichita Lineman (my first favorite record). The Notorious Byrd Brothers was the album that finally opened up my mind all the way.

In writing this book, I tried hard to do justice to the music. The Byrds music means so much to me. So does their story. At the very least, I hope my book will focus some attention on an album that has remained underappreciated for far too long.

I needed a lot of help writing this book and, thankfully, someone was there to give it to me. Laura Guild stuck by me throughout the entire process, and whenever Id lose faith in myself shed buck me up again. Often times it seemed she had more confidence in me than I did in myself. There is no way I could have written this book without her.

David Barker was a great editor for me to have on my first book project. He was patient while I shilly-shallied around in the beginning, and he helped shape all my various ramblings into a digestible form at the end. There is no way I could have finished this book without him.

If, when youre finished reading this book, you feel the need to blame someone for its existence, go ahead and blame Joe Pernice. It was his idea I write the damn thing in the first place. There were several points during the creative process when I felt the need to curse Pernice for convincing me I could actually write an entire book about one album, but in the end Im glad he presented me with such an incredibly rewarding challenge. Thanks Pernice.

Id like also to mention Greg Shaw. Greg was my favorite rock & roll writer while I was growing up. He had a passionate enthusiasm for rock & roll that I always found contagious. Whenever he wrote about a record I always really wanted to hear it. I can think of no better kind of music journalism than that. Greg passed away while I was writing this book, which was a real loss for rock & roll, and sad for me because I really wanted to give him a copy.