A promo of Gene Clark's "Echoes" on a 10.5 inches reel tape.

I don't remember ever playing it!

And I don't remember whom I bought it from!

8 mm silent movie featuring the original lineup of The Byrds.

The movie is called THE BYRDS FLIP THEM IN FRESNO and was recorded at the Radcliffe Stadium, Fresno, CA on Saturday, May 22, 1965.

The Byrds opened for The Rolling Stones at this performance.

It is a black and white silent movie (approximately 6 min duration).

From Christpher Hjort's book:

"The Byrds' visit to Fresno was filmed and later sold as a low fidelity 8 mm film in black and white and without sound. It was advertised in the teen press as The Byrds Flip Them in Fresno and sold on mail order basis only."

See stills from the movie, posters and details here:

http://byrdsflyght.ucoz.com/index/byrds_in_fresno_movie/0-33

 

 

 

Third find today; it's a limited edition pin (# 1793 of 10,000) for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony in 1991, when The Byrds were inducted.

Left is a scan, right is a picture.

Next find is a set of 3 Byrds tapes from a US radio station, with interviews and music...probably, judging by what's written on them.

Of course, I never managed to play them as they are special cassettes needing radio station equipment to be played.

The lockdown has its advantages, one of them being having spare time to search our archives.

I'm currently searching in boxes that haven't been opened for decades.

Here's the first of my recent finds.

It's a postcard...or...a record...actually both!

A musical postcard that plays Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds. 

Well, actually, I never tried to play it on my turntable; it's just a collectible piece that I bought decades ago.

Judging by the cyrillic characters and the statue of Lenin, it's probably from the USSR.

More goodies coming soon.

 

Doing nothing is not in our psyches. We thrive on working. Now, Roger goes to the studio and records a project that has been waiting to do for over 60 years – the songs from “Gene Tryp”. It was a play that Jacques Levy asked Roger to write the music for in 1968. The play never got on Broadway but Roger got some wonderful songs to sing. “Chestnut Mare” being his favorite. 

Once recording begins, his studio door is shut from 1- 4pm, Monday-Thursday. Closets and cabinets beckon me to purge them and so does the kitchen. I have finally used the dusty KitchenAid mixer and all of its attachments. Fresh bread and fresh pasta roll out of the machine like it was made for the task. When the song tracks are ready, Roger invites me in to work on the mixing and mastering. 

There is truth to the statement “give a busy person the job that needs to be done”. Not being real busy anymore, my office has stacks of mail and papers sitting all around. I just tell myself, “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll think about that tomorrow. Time to make pasta”.

Two weeks ago, Roger took a break to think about the song for the December “Folk Den”, the online project he has recorded monthly on mcguinn.com for over 25 years. December is the month for a Christmas song. The two 4 CD sets of “The Folk Den Project” were on his desk. He picked them up and listened to all the December songs. It was the Christmas recording he always wanted to do. We tried it years ago, but didn’t feel right about it, but this time we were both amazed at the joy we felt as we were listening. 

Technology has come a long way in 25 years. Some of the songs were just two tracks recorded on DAT. Realizing that if we digitally re-mastered the recordings the quality of the mixes would improve. It took two days to master the 13 songs we picked. Then it was easy to put the art work together from photos I had been taking for years to feature on a Christmas CD. 

Our intent was to make it for our neighbors and send it to our friends as a Christmas card. I called Oasis Manufacturing to get a quote and realized if we wanted it to be professionally pressed we needed 300 copies. We were happy with the songs, maybe someone else will be also. The process of a simple Christmas card became a little more complicated. CDBABY was contacted, the final product was approved and we are waiting with Christmas anticipation for the gift we have to give. 

“Merry Christmas” has an official release date of December 1st. It will be available for download and streaming. The physical CD will be primarily listed on Amazon. CDBABY takes care of distribution to all outlets.

http://rogermcguinn.blogspot.com/2020/11/roadie-report-84-by-camilla-mcguinn-oh.html

Roger McGuinn has a seasonal new CD out (December 1, 2020)

“Merry Christmas”

1. Children Go Where I Send Thee (5:04)
2. What Child Is This (2:58)
3. Angels We Have Heard On High (3:25)
4. Away In A Manger (2:46)
5. I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (2:05)
6. The First Noel (3:17)
7. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (2:57)
8. The Cherry Tree Carol (4:20)
9. The Virgin Mary (2:07)
10. I Saw Three Ships (2:02)
11. Mary Had A Baby (1:58)
12. The Twelve Days Of Christmas (3:58)
13. We Wish You A Merry Christmas (1:37)

The ever-present Jean-Pierre Morisset sent us a link with tens of mostly unpublished pictures of Gene Clark (with The Byrds, solo and with group).

http://www.photos.reelinintheyears.com/search?search=Gene%20Clark

The picture above is The Gene Clark Group in 1967.

Left to right: Clarence White, Eddie Hoh, Gene Clark and John York.

Other pictures of Gene alone are labelled "Notorious Byrd Brothers Sessions 1967" (which proves that Gene was present at the recording sessions).

Thank Jean-Pierre for your continuous involvment.

Note: we just found this on some website:

We found this on a website:

In 1967, Gene Clark revamped his Gene Clark Group, this time with Clarence White (guitar), John York (bass) and Eddie Hoh (drums). They performed only once in front of an audience. They recorded “The French Girl” and “Only Colombe” to be released as a single, but it was shelved. Both songs later appeared on the “Echoes” compilation in 1991.

I’m missing one track by Chris Hillman

If any good soul could send a link to get it, I would be eternally grateful.

The source and the link won’t be published.

Thanks in advance.

“Old Rockin’ Chair” (download only bonus track from “The Other Side” - 2005)

One can say that Firefall has a rather strong connection to The Byrds.

Not only was Michael Clarke their original drummer (recording their first three LPs with them), but other original members Jock Bartley and Mark Andes were members of The Chris Hillman Band in the 70s, and Jock Bartley was a member of Gram Parsons’ Fallen Angels.

More, the original founder and leader of Firefall was Rick Roberts, who replaced Gram Parsons in The Flying Burrito Brothers and became the leader of that band when Chris Hillman left.

Rick Roberts was also a member of the Gene Clark Byrds Tribute bands in the mid-80s.

Firefall underwent many lineup changes over the years, always with Jock Bartley at the helm.

Since late 2014, three original members, Jock Bartley, David Muse and Mark Andes, reunited and toured along with long time member Sandy Ficca (since 1984) and, since 2015, Gary Jones.

Firefall will release a new album of studio recordings on December 11, titled COMET.

 It is announced as "Firefall's first album of new music in 25 years".

01 Way Back When
02 A Real Fine Day
03 Hardest Chain
04 Nature’s Way
05 Younger
06 There She Is
07 Ghost Town
08 Never Be The Same
09 Before I Met You
10 A New Mexico

See and hear a Mark Andes interview and a preview of "Way Back Then" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7v-UMFOns8

Rick Roberts and Larry Burnett aren't part of the reunion but they perform together again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO3hynhwoPo