Photo: Alysse Gafkjen
Original on SF Chronicle.com
In 1968, the Byrds marked a huge shift away from psychedelia to country rock with the album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.” The pedal steel guitars and banjos may have confounded critics and fans, but over time the groundbreaking album has earned its place among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s most influential work. Having veritably started the alt-country genre, it provided the blueprint for countless acts that followed.
To mark its 50th anniversary, Byrds co-founders Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman are performing the album in its entirety at select venues, with an assist by Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. McGuinn, 75, spoke to The Chronicle from his home in Orlando, Fla.
Q: You don’t typically go near the Byrds stuff. What made you want to pause and revisit “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”?
A: Well, Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” had “Sweetheart” on top of all the Byrds albums for some years now. It seems ironic to me because when it came out, it was not well received. But gradually it’s been rising on the charts, if you will. So I thought, that’s something to celebrate - 50 years of that. And it took 40 years for it to catch on. I think that’s kind of fun.
And then we got Marty Stuart to play with us. I toured with him before. He owns Clarence White’s old guitar — the Telecaster that he played in the Byrds — and he knows how to play all those licks. So we can do “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” stuff just like it was. Clarence played on a couple of songs, so I’m excited about that part of it.
Q: Do you feel vindicated since so many people either felt the Byrds committed career suicide with that album — or, more accurately, flat out ignored it?
A: I wasn’t actually thinking in terms of vindication. When it came out, nobody liked it — the country people didn’t like it, the rock and roll people didn’t like it. I remember walking into a country station in L.A. and walking into a hallway ... and there was a bulletin board at the end with the album pinned to it and I went, “Oh, great! They’re playing it!” And I got closer and it said, “Do not play. This is not country music.” So it feels really good that people like it now.
Q: Did you feel like you were taking a dramatic step when you recorded it?
A: Well, I think we were so in love with the music we didn’t really notice or think about what the audience was going to do. We didn’t think of it in terms of betrayal of the rock audience or being interlopers in the country field. We just thought, “We love this music and we’re very sincere and careful to do it well.” And we had a great band. I mean, the instrumental tracks are incredible on that album.
Q: What were you listening to at the time that pushed you in that direction?
A: Well, we dabbled in country before. Chris Hillman came from a bluegrass background, and I was a folk musician. We did “Satisfied Mind” on the “Turn! Turn! Turn!” album. And then Chris came up with “Old John Robertson” and “The Girl With No Name” and some other stuff, countryish things. Even Clarence White played with us back then. So it wasn’t a foreign thing to us.
Then Gram Parsons came along, and he was just nuts about country music at that point. His enthusiasm was contagious. He got us all fired up about doing a whole album of country and going to Nashville. We loved it. We had so much fun doing it. And then it came out and it was a total bomb.
Q: Even though he tried to fire you at the time, do you still have fond memories of working with Gram Parsons?
A: Yeah, I do. I forgave him for that. We were friends after that. He used to come over to my house and play pool. We would ride motorcycles together. When he and Chris were putting together the Flying Burrito Brothers, I went down and hung out with them. I was amazed at some of the great material they had. So I didn’t really hold it against him.
I was sorry that he left because he was an asset. I was also sorry about the South African thing (Parsons was let go in 1968 because he refused to join the band on tour in the country, saying he wouldn’t play to segregated audiences). That turned out to be a total disaster. We got in trouble with the government down there and everything and had to escape on a DC-3. The reason I went there was because I’d known Miriam Makeba since I’d worked with the (Chad) Mitchell Trio back in the early 1960s and she said, “You should go there and see it for yourself.” I wanted to go over and do what I could to help out. In retrospect, I wouldn’t do it again.
Q: Even though there were few people who bought the album, it seems like everyone who did started a band: the Eagles, Jackson Browne, R.E.M., Wilco, Ryan Adams and so on. In a way, it started a whole genre.
A: I’m happy about that. We got the Eagles and outlaw country out of it. It did have a strong influence, and that’s a good thing.
Q: What does Marty Stuart bring to the equation?
A: Well, he’s going to bring Clarence White’s guitar and all the licks he played. His band, the Fabulous Superlatives, are really great. I’ve played with them before and I love them. Marty and I are really good friends. We’ve known each other for nearly 20 years, and we like to work together. It’s a perfect fit. His guys are like the Wrecking Crew, so talented and professional. So it’s going to be a really hot band.
Q: Are you throwing any other songs into the set?
A: We’re going to work up to “Sweetheart” in the second half of the show. In the first half we’re going to do some of the songs we did in the Byrds prior to the album and tell the story of how the album developed and how it all came together.
ThisSmallPlanet video of Roger McGuinn doing Byrds co-founder Gene Clark's classic song "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better"...
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