The American Beatles. Well, they did name themselves in misspelled fashion just like their British counterparts. However, maybe it was the timing of their success, maybe it was the harmonies, or maybe it was the collaboration between David Crosby and Roger McGiunn…  the beautiful lyrics and melodies with an edge that they produced that evoked that comparison. In any respect, this was one of America’s most intelligent and creative musical forces. This album is a statement of sorts, a hint of things to come, a celebration of a time now long gone. While the personalities that comprised the Byrds project themselves individually and strongly throughout  Younger than Yesterday they also meld into timeless, ethereal harmony. Every time I listen to this album, “I think that maybe I’m dreaming.”

How many felt the Byrds had lost their collective minds when they dove into country music? The  song, “Time Between,” from this album gave a hint of this penchant for artistic license that led them to country and that also looked a lot like musical suicide. Think about Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Sure it was tight and expertly performed, but was it cool? Music critics have retrospectively declared that it was.

"So You Wanna Be a Rock n' Roll Star” may have been the most recognizable of the songs on this album. It was a great 60’s radio tune, but it portended much more for Roger McGuinn and the other Byrds. Lines such as “sell your soul to the company, who are waiting there to sell plastic ware,” were lived by these musicians. It became a cause celebre’ for McGuinn, as he later testified to Congress regarding the historic rip-off of musicians by recording companies and managers. Aside from the politics, this song’s searing 12-string guitar riff by McGuinn is trademark Byrds. Who else could do that, and who else would even consider taking a Rickenbacker guitar, redesigning its electronics and using it for lead guitar?

This album did not include Byrds mainstay Gene Clark, but Chris Hillman's “Have You Seen Her Face” and “The Girl With No Name”  show him as more than suitable as a replacement. His own career bears that out. Clarence White, a future Byrds star, makes an appearance with his guitar on Hillman’s “Time Between.”

One could look to the Byrds for innovation. Example – Chris Hillman’s moving bass line in “Everybody’s Been Burned” broke new ground for bassists and rock in general by departing from the old “just follow the bass drum” technique. That song also must rank as one of David Crosby’s best. Minor keys, melancholy lyrics, surprising and trippy melodic twists abound. Crosby also provided “Renaissance Fair,” a tinkling Tolkeinish work that just sounds like the times. Unfortunately, he insisted that the psychedelic travesty “Mind Gardens,” or Crosby at his worst, be included on what was otherwise the Byrds best album. This song widened a split in the Byrds, that grew more with McGuinn’s insistence on including Dylan’s “My Back Pages” over Crosby’s objections.

Within Younger than Yesterday, the seeds of the dissolution of the Byrds were firmly planted.     DM