Younger Than Yesterday
Encyclopedia
Younger Than Yesterday is the fourth album
by the American rock
band
The Byrds
and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records
(see 1967 in music
). The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock
into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP
. In addition, the album captured the band experimenting with new musical textures, including brass instrument
s and reverse tape effects
. It also marked the emergence of the band's bass player
, Chris Hillman
, as the group's third songwriter
. Two of Hillman's compositions on Younger Than Yesterday exhibited country and western
influences and thus, can be seen as early indicators of the country rock
direction the band would pursue on their later albums. The title of Younger Than Yesterday is derived from the lyrics of "My Back Pages
", a song written by Bob Dylan
which was covered
on the album.
Younger Than Yesterday peaked at #24 on the Billboard Top LPs
chart and reached #37 on the UK Albums Chart
. A preceding single
, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
", was released in January 1967 and reached the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100
. Two additional singles taken from the album, "My Back Pages" and "Have You Seen Her Face
", were also moderately successful on the Billboard singles chart. However, none of the singles taken from the album charted in the United Kingdom. Although it was largely overlooked by the public at the time of its release, the album's critical standing has improved over the years and today Younger Than Yesterday is considered one of The Byrds' finest albums.
album, the band found themselves without a record producer
when Allen Stanton, who had worked on Fifth Dimension, left Columbia Records to work for A&M
. The band chose to replace Stanton with Gary Usher
, a former songwriting partner of Brian Wilson
, who had recently co-produced ex-Byrd Gene Clark
's debut solo album, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers
. Usher had a wealth of production experience and a love of innovative studio experimentation that would prove invaluable as The Byrds entered their most creatively adventurous phase. In addition to producing Younger Than Yesterday, Usher would go on to produce the band's next two albums as well.
The entire album was completed during a work-intensive, eleven-day period, starting on November 28 and finishing on December 8, 1966. The original working title
for the LP was Sanctuary, but ultimately this was dropped in favor of a title inspired by the chorus
lyrics
of the album's Bob Dylan cover
, "My Back Pages":
Younger Than Yesterday was the first album to be entirely recorded by The Byrds without the participation of original member and principal songwriter Gene Clark. As on the band's previous album, guitar
ists Jim McGuinn
and David Crosby
continued to hone their songwriting skills in an attempt to fill the void left by Clark, while Michael Clarke
continued to mature into a competent and at times, impressive drummer. However, the most surprising development within The Byrds at this time was the emergence of bass player Chris Hillman as the band's third songwriter. On the Fifth Dimension album, Hillman's only writing contribution had been a shared credit for the instrumental "Captain Soul", but on Younger Than Yesterday he is credited as the sole songwriter of four tracks, as well as the co-writer of "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star".
bands like The Monkees
. However, the song also suggested certain ironies due to pre-fabricated aspects of The Byrds' own origin, including session musician
s having played on their debut single and drummer Michael Clarke having been initially recruited for his good looks rather than his musical ability. These factors led some fans to mistake "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" for an autobiographical song. Hillman's driving bassline
and McGuinn's chiming twelve-string Rickenbacker
guitar riff
form the core of the song, with the production being rounded off by the sound of screaming teenage fans, recorded at a Byrds' concert
in Bournemouth during the band's 1965 English tour. South African jazz
musician Hugh Masekela
contributed the trumpet solo featured in the song, which represented the first use of brass
on a Byrds' recording. Masekela and The Byrds would later perform "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" together at the Monterey Pop Festival
on June 17, 1967.
The album also found The Byrds successfully expanding their musical style into several different directions. Chris Hillman contributed two country rock
-flavored songs with "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", the latter of which was inspired by a young lady with the unusual moniker of Girl Freiberg. "Time Between", on the other hand, was a Paul McCartney
-influenced pop song and the result of Hillman's first ever attempt at writing a song on his own. Both songs featured the country
-style guitar playing of session musician Clarence White
, who would go on to become a full member of The Byrds' latter-day line-up from 1968 through to 1973. Both "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", like "Mr. Spaceman
" before them, anticipated The Byrds' future experimentation with the country rock genre. In addition to these two country-tinged songs, Hillman also contributed the LSD-influenced "Thoughts and Words", a metaphysical meditation on human relationships that featured the sitar
-like sound of backwards guitar effects
. A fourth Hillman-penned song on the album, the British Invasion
-influenced "Have You Seen Her Face
", was considered commercial enough to be issued as a single in the U.S. some months after the release of the album. These melodic, romantically-themed Hillman songs brought to the album elements that had largely been missing from the band's recordings since Gene Clark's departure.
McGuinn and Crosby's songs, written both separately and together, represented an expansion of the jazz influences and psychedelia
that had been featured heavily on the band's previous album. "C.T.A.-102", named after the CTA-102
quasar
and written by McGuinn and his science-fiction-minded partner, Bob Hippard, was a whimsical but ultimately serious song that speculated on the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life
. McGuinn explained the inspiration for the song in a 1973 interview: "At the time we wrote it I thought it might be possible to make contact with quasars, but later I found out that they were stars which are imploding at a tremendous velocity. They're condensing and spinning at the same time, and the nucleus is sending out tremendous amounts of radiation, some of which is audible as an electronic impulse on a computerized radio telescope. It comes out in a rhythmic pattern, but the frequency of the signal depends on the size, and originally, the radio astronomers who received these impulses thought they were from a life-form in space." Although the band's earlier song "Mr. Spaceman" had been thematically similar, "C.T.A.-102" was a slightly more serious attempt at tackling the subject matter, highlighted by the extensive use of studio sound effect
s, simulated alien voices and the sound of an electronic oscillator
.
Crosby's songwriting skills had also developed rapidly, with "Renaissance Fair" (co-written with McGuinn) being an example of his increasingly wistful and atmospheric writing style. The song is marked by the instrumental interplay between Crosby and McGuinn's guitars and Hillman's melodic, loping bass
. Inspired by a visit to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California
, the song's dream-like medieval ambience can be seen as a thematic precursor to Crosby's later song "Guinnevere
". Another of Crosby's songwriting contributions to the album was the moody, jazz-influenced "Everybody's Been Burned", a somber meditation on the need to find a balance between disillusionment and resolute perseverance in a relationship. Although the song was regarded as a leap forward in terms of musical sophistication, it actually dated back to 1962, before the formation of The Byrds. Originally written as a nightclub torch song
, Crosby had recorded demos
of "Everybody's Been Burned" as early as 1963. Author Johnny Rogan
has noted that The Byrds' recording of the song features one of Crosby's best vocal performances and one of McGuinn's most moving guitar solo
s, while critic Thomas Ward described it as "one of the most haunting songs in the Byrds' catalogue, and one of David Crosby's finest compositions."
Crosby's ambitions for artistic control within the band were expanding along with his compositional skill and the resulting turmoil would ultimately lead to his dismissal from the group during recording sessions for The Byrds' next album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
. One source of discontent for Crosby during the recording of Younger Than Yesterday was related to the Bob Dylan
cover
, "My Back Pages". The song had been suggested as a suitable vehicle for The Byrds by their manager, Jim Dickson, but since it was the fourth song from Dylan's Another Side of Bob Dylan
album that the band had covered, Crosby felt, with some justification, that recording "My Back Pages" was formulaic and a step backwards artistically. However, since the album's release, critics have praised the song as one of The Byrds' strongest Dylan interpretations.
Meanwhile, Crosby insisted upon the inclusion of two contentious tracks on the album. The first, "Mind Gardens", was disliked by the other band members and derided by McGuinn as having no "rhythm, meter, or rhyme." In fact, Crosby himself echoed McGuinn's comments but saw the song's unusual structure and atonal vocal as being positive aspects, rather than negative ones. In later years, Crosby defended the song in interview by stating "it was unusual and not everybody could understand it because they'd never heard anything like it before. At that time everything was supposed to have rhyme and have rhythm. And it neither rhymed nor had rhythm, so it was outside of their experience." Although the song is often dismissed by critics and fans for being excessively self-indulgent, its raga rock
ambiance, allegorical lyrics and attractive backwards guitar effects capture The Byrds at their most creatively adventurous.
The second contentious song that Crosby fought to have included on the album was the closing track, "Why
", which had already been issued as the B-side
of the band's "Eight Miles High
" single, some eleven months earlier. However, the version of "Why" included on Younger Than Yesterday was recorded during sessions
for the album and is a totally different take
from the previously released version. Exactly why Crosby insisted on resurrecting the song when there was newer original material in reserve remains a mystery, although The Byrds' roadie
, Jimmi Seiter
, has speculated that it was an attempt to increase Crosby's share of the songwriting on the album. Inspired by the music of sitar
ist Ravi Shankar
, the song's Indian classical music
influences were considerably watered down on the re-recorded version that appeared on Younger Than Yesterday when compared to the earlier B-side recording.
, CS 9442 in stereo
) and April 7, 1967 in the UK (catalogue item BPG 62988 in mono, SBPG 62988 in stereo). It peaked at #24 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, during a stay of 24 weeks, and reached #37 in the United Kingdom, spending a total of 4 weeks on the UK chart. The album's front cover featured a composite multiple exposure
photograph of the band, taken by Frank Bez. The preceding "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" single was released on January 9, 1967 and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the UK. Two additional singles taken from the album, "My Back Pages" and "Have You Seen Her Face", reached #30 and #74 on the Billboard chart respectively but again missed the UK chart. The "My Back Pages" single is notable for being the last single release by The Byrds to reach the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Upon release, the album received mostly positive reviews from the music press
, with Billboard
magazine predicting that "The Byrds will be riding high on the LP charts again with this top rock package." Pete Johnson in the Los Angeles Times
was more cautious, noting that "The group is musically adept and the album is a good one, but it would be sad if it served as a monument, marking the end of The Byrds' development. There is little to distinguish it from their previous LPs in terms of creativity." A resoundingly positive review came from the pen of Peter Reilly, writing in Hi-Fi/Stereo Review
, who described the record
as "an enjoyable and well-made album which, if listened to closely enough, explains a good deal about what is going on around us." However, the burgeoning underground press
in the U.S. was less complimentary, with Richard Goldstein
, writing in New York's The Village Voice
, noting that "There is nothing new or startling on Younger Than Yesterday." A slightly more positive review by Sandy Pearlman
in Crawdaddy!
expressed some reservations but praised the album's musical eclecticism, while noting "This sound is dense, but not obviously and impressively complicated. That is, it is very coherent. It works because of its unity, not out of an accumulation of contrasting effects such as volume changes and syncopations."
In the UK, journalist Penny Valentine
, writing in Disc
magazine, described the album as a return to form for The Byrds, before declaring that the band were "back where they belong with a sound as fresh as cream and sunflowers." Melody Maker
was also enthusiastic about the album, commenting "if you ignore this album you are not only foolish - but deaf!", while Record Mirror
awarded the album four stars out of five. Allen Evans of the NME
also praised the LP: "This is an exciting album, at times brash and noisy ('So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star', 'Have You Seen Her Face'), spooky (the science-fiction outer-space sounds on 'C.T.A.-102'), folksy ('Everybody's Been Burned'), weird (the irritating, monotonous backing to 'Mind Gardens'), and pleasant (the soft swinging of 'The Girl with No Name'). A lot of thought has gone into this album and it's good because of it."
Although Younger Than Yesterday was somewhat overlooked by the record buying public at the time of its release, achieving only moderate chart success as a result, its critical stature has grown substantially over the years. Richie Unterberger
, writing on the Allmusic website, described the album as one of "the most durable of the Byrds' albums" and noted rock critic Robert Christgau
, writing in 2007, called it "the Byrds' first mature album, a blend of space-flight twang and electric hoedown infused with the imminent glow of 1967 yet underlined with crackling realism." In 2003, the album was ranked at #124 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
.
Younger Than Yesterday was remaster
ed at 20-bit
resolution and had three of its tracks remix
ed as part of the Columbia/Legacy
Byrds series. It was reissued in an expanded form on April 30, 1996, with six bonus tracks, including "Lady Friend
" and "Old John Robertson", which had both been issued as a non-album single in July 1967. The remastered CD also included the David Crosby penned track "It Happens Each Day", which had been omitted from the original album, and "Don't Make Waves", a song that had been written for the Alexander Mackendrick
film, Don't Make Waves
. The final track on the CD extends to include a hidden track
featuring the guitar parts from "Mind Gardens", which were heard on the album playing backwards
but are presented here playing forwards, as they were originally recorded.
In 2011, the audiophile
record label
Audio Fidelity released the original mono
mix
of Younger Than Yesterday on CD for the first time, remastered by Steve Hoffman.
The Byrds
Additional Personnel
. However, unlike Mr. Tambourine Man
and Turn! Turn! Turn!
, which were remixed extensively, only three tracks on Younger Than Yesterday were remixed, although it is unknown exactly which songs received this treatment. The reason for these remixes was explained by Bob Irwin (who produced these re-issues for compact disc) during an interview:
He further stated:
Many fans enjoy the partially remixed album because it is very close to the original mix in most cases and offers noticeably better sound quality. However, there are also a lot of fans who dismiss the remix as revisionist history
and prefer to listen to the original mix on vinyl
or on the pre-1996 CD releases.
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by the American rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
(see 1967 in music
1967 in music
The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles The...
). The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
. In addition, the album captured the band experimenting with new musical textures, including brass instrument
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s and reverse tape effects
Reverse tape effects
Reverse tape effects are special effects created by recording sound onto magnetic tape and then physically reversing the tape so that when the tape is played back, the sounds recorded on it are literally heard in reverse...
. It also marked the emergence of the band's bass player
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
, Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
, as the group's third songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. Two of Hillman's compositions on Younger Than Yesterday exhibited country and western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
influences and thus, can be seen as early indicators of the country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
direction the band would pursue on their later albums. The title of Younger Than Yesterday is derived from the lyrics of "My Back Pages
My Back Pages
"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment...
", a song written by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
which was covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
on the album.
Younger Than Yesterday peaked at #24 on the Billboard Top LPs
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart and reached #37 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. A preceding single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
"So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman and included on their 1967 album, Younger Than Yesterday. The song was released as a single on January 9, 1967 and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to...
", was released in January 1967 and reached the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. Two additional singles taken from the album, "My Back Pages" and "Have You Seen Her Face
Have You Seen Her Face
"Have You Seen Her Face" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by the group's bass player Chris Hillman and included on their 1967 album, Younger Than Yesterday. The song was released as the third single to be taken from that album on May 22, 1967 and reached #74 on the Billboard...
", were also moderately successful on the Billboard singles chart. However, none of the singles taken from the album charted in the United Kingdom. Although it was largely overlooked by the public at the time of its release, the album's critical standing has improved over the years and today Younger Than Yesterday is considered one of The Byrds' finest albums.
Background
Shortly after the release of The Byrds' Fifth DimensionFifth Dimension (album)
Fifth Dimension is the third album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1966 on Columbia Records . Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band's principal songwriter Gene Clark...
album, the band found themselves without a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
when Allen Stanton, who had worked on Fifth Dimension, left Columbia Records to work for A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
. The band chose to replace Stanton with Gary Usher
Gary Usher
Gary Usher was an American surf rock musician, songwriter, and record producer.-Biography:Usher's early life was spent in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended Norcross Grammar School with his sister, Sandra, who was in the same class and was likely his twin. Gary was kiddingly called "Chicken Feed"...
, a former songwriting partner of Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, who had recently co-produced ex-Byrd Gene Clark
Gene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
's debut solo album, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers
Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers
Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers is the debut solo album of Gene Clark, released in February of 1967 on Columbia Records, catalogue CS 9418. It was his first effort after his departure from folk-rock group the Byrds in 1966...
. Usher had a wealth of production experience and a love of innovative studio experimentation that would prove invaluable as The Byrds entered their most creatively adventurous phase. In addition to producing Younger Than Yesterday, Usher would go on to produce the band's next two albums as well.
The entire album was completed during a work-intensive, eleven-day period, starting on November 28 and finishing on December 8, 1966. The original working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
for the LP was Sanctuary, but ultimately this was dropped in favor of a title inspired by the chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
of the album's Bob Dylan cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
, "My Back Pages":
- Ah, but I was so much older then,
- I'm younger than that now.
Younger Than Yesterday was the first album to be entirely recorded by The Byrds without the participation of original member and principal songwriter Gene Clark. As on the band's previous album, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ists Jim McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
and David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
continued to hone their songwriting skills in an attempt to fill the void left by Clark, while Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (musician)
Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
continued to mature into a competent and at times, impressive drummer. However, the most surprising development within The Byrds at this time was the emergence of bass player Chris Hillman as the band's third songwriter. On the Fifth Dimension album, Hillman's only writing contribution had been a shared credit for the instrumental "Captain Soul", but on Younger Than Yesterday he is credited as the sole songwriter of four tracks, as well as the co-writer of "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star".
Music
The album's opening track, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", was an acerbic but good-natured swipe at the success of manufactured popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
bands like The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
. However, the song also suggested certain ironies due to pre-fabricated aspects of The Byrds' own origin, including session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s having played on their debut single and drummer Michael Clarke having been initially recruited for his good looks rather than his musical ability. These factors led some fans to mistake "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" for an autobiographical song. Hillman's driving bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
and McGuinn's chiming twelve-string Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
form the core of the song, with the production being rounded off by the sound of screaming teenage fans, recorded at a Byrds' concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
in Bournemouth during the band's 1965 English tour. South African jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
contributed the trumpet solo featured in the song, which represented the first use of brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
on a Byrds' recording. Masekela and The Byrds would later perform "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" together at the Monterey Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
on June 17, 1967.
The album also found The Byrds successfully expanding their musical style into several different directions. Chris Hillman contributed two country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
-flavored songs with "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", the latter of which was inspired by a young lady with the unusual moniker of Girl Freiberg. "Time Between", on the other hand, was a Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
-influenced pop song and the result of Hillman's first ever attempt at writing a song on his own. Both songs featured the country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
-style guitar playing of session musician Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
, who would go on to become a full member of The Byrds' latter-day line-up from 1968 through to 1973. Both "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", like "Mr. Spaceman
Mr. Spaceman
"Mr. Spaceman" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds and was the third track on their 1966 album Fifth Dimension. The song was initially written by band member Jim McGuinn as a "melodramatic screenplay" but it soon evolved into a whimsical meditation on the existence of extraterrestrial...
" before them, anticipated The Byrds' future experimentation with the country rock genre. In addition to these two country-tinged songs, Hillman also contributed the LSD-influenced "Thoughts and Words", a metaphysical meditation on human relationships that featured the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
-like sound of backwards guitar effects
Reverse tape effects
Reverse tape effects are special effects created by recording sound onto magnetic tape and then physically reversing the tape so that when the tape is played back, the sounds recorded on it are literally heard in reverse...
. A fourth Hillman-penned song on the album, the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
-influenced "Have You Seen Her Face
Have You Seen Her Face
"Have You Seen Her Face" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by the group's bass player Chris Hillman and included on their 1967 album, Younger Than Yesterday. The song was released as the third single to be taken from that album on May 22, 1967 and reached #74 on the Billboard...
", was considered commercial enough to be issued as a single in the U.S. some months after the release of the album. These melodic, romantically-themed Hillman songs brought to the album elements that had largely been missing from the band's recordings since Gene Clark's departure.
McGuinn and Crosby's songs, written both separately and together, represented an expansion of the jazz influences and psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
that had been featured heavily on the band's previous album. "C.T.A.-102", named after the CTA-102
CTA-102
In astronomy, CTA 102, also known by its B1950 coordinates as 2230+114 and its J2000 coordinates as J2232+1143 , is a quasar discovered in the early 1960s by a radio survey carried out by the California Institute of Technology...
quasar
Quasar
A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
and written by McGuinn and his science-fiction-minded partner, Bob Hippard, was a whimsical but ultimately serious song that speculated on the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
. McGuinn explained the inspiration for the song in a 1973 interview: "At the time we wrote it I thought it might be possible to make contact with quasars, but later I found out that they were stars which are imploding at a tremendous velocity. They're condensing and spinning at the same time, and the nucleus is sending out tremendous amounts of radiation, some of which is audible as an electronic impulse on a computerized radio telescope. It comes out in a rhythmic pattern, but the frequency of the signal depends on the size, and originally, the radio astronomers who received these impulses thought they were from a life-form in space." Although the band's earlier song "Mr. Spaceman" had been thematically similar, "C.T.A.-102" was a slightly more serious attempt at tackling the subject matter, highlighted by the extensive use of studio sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
s, simulated alien voices and the sound of an electronic oscillator
Electronic oscillator
An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a repetitive electronic signal, often a sine wave or a square wave. They are widely used in innumerable electronic devices...
.
Crosby's songwriting skills had also developed rapidly, with "Renaissance Fair" (co-written with McGuinn) being an example of his increasingly wistful and atmospheric writing style. The song is marked by the instrumental interplay between Crosby and McGuinn's guitars and Hillman's melodic, loping bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
. Inspired by a visit to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California
Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California , is the first, original modern Renaissance Fair; it opened in 1962 and has run yearly since that time. Presently owned by Renaissance Entertainment Productions , it is a commercial re-enactment of a 1580s market faire at Port Deptford, an...
, the song's dream-like medieval ambience can be seen as a thematic precursor to Crosby's later song "Guinnevere
Guinnevere
"Guinnevere" is a folk song written by David Crosby in 1969. The song appears on Crosby, Stills & Nash's critically acclaimed eponymous debut album. The song is notable for its serene yet pointed melody and its unique lyrics, which compare Queen Guinevere to the object of the singer's affection,...
". Another of Crosby's songwriting contributions to the album was the moody, jazz-influenced "Everybody's Been Burned", a somber meditation on the need to find a balance between disillusionment and resolute perseverance in a relationship. Although the song was regarded as a leap forward in terms of musical sophistication, it actually dated back to 1962, before the formation of The Byrds. Originally written as a nightclub torch song
Torch song
A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affected the relationship...
, Crosby had recorded demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of "Everybody's Been Burned" as early as 1963. Author Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan is an author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He has written influential biographies of The Byrds, The Smiths and Van Morrison. His writing is characterised by "an almost neurotic attention to detail", epic length and a sometimes hostile...
has noted that The Byrds' recording of the song features one of Crosby's best vocal performances and one of McGuinn's most moving guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
s, while critic Thomas Ward described it as "one of the most haunting songs in the Byrds' catalogue, and one of David Crosby's finest compositions."
Crosby's ambitions for artistic control within the band were expanding along with his compositional skill and the resulting turmoil would ultimately lead to his dismissal from the group during recording sessions for The Byrds' next album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in January 1968 on Columbia Records . Musically, the album represents the pinnacle of The Byrds' psychedelic experimentation, with the band blending together elements of folk rock, psychedelic rock,...
. One source of discontent for Crosby during the recording of Younger Than Yesterday was related to the Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
, "My Back Pages". The song had been suggested as a suitable vehicle for The Byrds by their manager, Jim Dickson, but since it was the fourth song from Dylan's Another Side of Bob Dylan
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Another Side of Bob Dylan is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released August 8, 1964 by Columbia Records....
album that the band had covered, Crosby felt, with some justification, that recording "My Back Pages" was formulaic and a step backwards artistically. However, since the album's release, critics have praised the song as one of The Byrds' strongest Dylan interpretations.
Meanwhile, Crosby insisted upon the inclusion of two contentious tracks on the album. The first, "Mind Gardens", was disliked by the other band members and derided by McGuinn as having no "rhythm, meter, or rhyme." In fact, Crosby himself echoed McGuinn's comments but saw the song's unusual structure and atonal vocal as being positive aspects, rather than negative ones. In later years, Crosby defended the song in interview by stating "it was unusual and not everybody could understand it because they'd never heard anything like it before. At that time everything was supposed to have rhyme and have rhythm. And it neither rhymed nor had rhythm, so it was outside of their experience." Although the song is often dismissed by critics and fans for being excessively self-indulgent, its raga rock
Raga rock
Raga rock is a term used to describe rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and tabla...
ambiance, allegorical lyrics and attractive backwards guitar effects capture The Byrds at their most creatively adventurous.
The second contentious song that Crosby fought to have included on the album was the closing track, "Why
Why (The Byrds song)
"Why" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Jim McGuinn and David Crosby and first released as the B-side of the band's "Eight Miles High" single in March 1966. The song was re-recorded in December 1966 and released for a second time as part of the band's Younger Than Yesterday...
", which had already been issued as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of the band's "Eight Miles High
Eight Miles High
"Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby and first released as a single on March 14, 1966 . The single managed to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 30 of the UK Singles Chart...
" single, some eleven months earlier. However, the version of "Why" included on Younger Than Yesterday was recorded during sessions
Studio recording
The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.-Studio cast recordings:...
for the album and is a totally different take
Take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...
from the previously released version. Exactly why Crosby insisted on resurrecting the song when there was newer original material in reserve remains a mystery, although The Byrds' roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
, Jimmi Seiter
Jimmi Seiter
Jimmi Seiter has worked as a musician, tour manager, artist manager, music producer, sound designer, stage producer and architect....
, has speculated that it was an attempt to increase Crosby's share of the songwriting on the album. Inspired by the music of sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
ist Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
, the song's Indian classical music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
influences were considerably watered down on the re-recorded version that appeared on Younger Than Yesterday when compared to the earlier B-side recording.
Release and reception
Younger Than Yesterday was released on February 6, 1967 in the United States (catalogue item CL 2642 in monoMonaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
, CS 9442 in stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
) and April 7, 1967 in the UK (catalogue item BPG 62988 in mono, SBPG 62988 in stereo). It peaked at #24 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, during a stay of 24 weeks, and reached #37 in the United Kingdom, spending a total of 4 weeks on the UK chart. The album's front cover featured a composite multiple exposure
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
photograph of the band, taken by Frank Bez. The preceding "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" single was released on January 9, 1967 and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the UK. Two additional singles taken from the album, "My Back Pages" and "Have You Seen Her Face", reached #30 and #74 on the Billboard chart respectively but again missed the UK chart. The "My Back Pages" single is notable for being the last single release by The Byrds to reach the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Upon release, the album received mostly positive reviews from the music press
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
, with Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine predicting that "The Byrds will be riding high on the LP charts again with this top rock package." Pete Johnson in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
was more cautious, noting that "The group is musically adept and the album is a good one, but it would be sad if it served as a monument, marking the end of The Byrds' development. There is little to distinguish it from their previous LPs in terms of creativity." A resoundingly positive review came from the pen of Peter Reilly, writing in Hi-Fi/Stereo Review
Stereo Review
Stereo Review was an American magazine first published in 1958 by Ziff-Davis with the title HiFi and Music Review. It was one of a handful of magazines then available for the individual interested in high fidelity. Throughout its life it published a blend of record and equipment reviews, articles...
, who described the record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
as "an enjoyable and well-made album which, if listened to closely enough, explains a good deal about what is going on around us." However, the burgeoning underground press
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
in the U.S. was less complimentary, with Richard Goldstein
Richard Goldstein (writer born 1944)
Richard Goldstein is an American journalist and writer. He wrote for the Village Voice from June 1966 until 2004, eventually becoming executive editor. He specializes in gay and lesbian issues, music, and counterculture topics....
, writing in New York's The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, noting that "There is nothing new or startling on Younger Than Yesterday." A slightly more positive review by Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman is an American music producer, artist manager, professor, poet, songwriter, and once was a record company executive...
in Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
expressed some reservations but praised the album's musical eclecticism, while noting "This sound is dense, but not obviously and impressively complicated. That is, it is very coherent. It works because of its unity, not out of an accumulation of contrasting effects such as volume changes and syncopations."
In the UK, journalist Penny Valentine
Penny Valentine
Penelope Ann Valentine was a British music journalist, rock critic, and occasional television personality....
, writing in Disc
Disc (magazine)
Disc was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into Record Mirror. It was also known for periods as Disc Weekly and Disc and Music Echo ....
magazine, described the album as a return to form for The Byrds, before declaring that the band were "back where they belong with a sound as fresh as cream and sunflowers." Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
was also enthusiastic about the album, commenting "if you ignore this album you are not only foolish - but deaf!", while Record Mirror
Record Mirror
Record Mirror was a British weekly pop music newspaper, founded by Isadore Green and featured, news articles, interviews, record charts, record reviews, concert reviews, letters from readers and photographs. The paper became respected by both mainstream pop music fans and serious record collectors...
awarded the album four stars out of five. Allen Evans of the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
also praised the LP: "This is an exciting album, at times brash and noisy ('So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star', 'Have You Seen Her Face'), spooky (the science-fiction outer-space sounds on 'C.T.A.-102'), folksy ('Everybody's Been Burned'), weird (the irritating, monotonous backing to 'Mind Gardens'), and pleasant (the soft swinging of 'The Girl with No Name'). A lot of thought has gone into this album and it's good because of it."
Although Younger Than Yesterday was somewhat overlooked by the record buying public at the time of its release, achieving only moderate chart success as a result, its critical stature has grown substantially over the years. Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...
, writing on the Allmusic website, described the album as one of "the most durable of the Byrds' albums" and noted rock critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
, writing in 2007, called it "the Byrds' first mature album, a blend of space-flight twang and electric hoedown infused with the imminent glow of 1967 yet underlined with crackling realism." In 2003, the album was ranked at #124 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
.
Younger Than Yesterday was remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed at 20-bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
resolution and had three of its tracks remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ed as part of the Columbia/Legacy
Legacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated...
Byrds series. It was reissued in an expanded form on April 30, 1996, with six bonus tracks, including "Lady Friend
Lady Friend (song)
"Lady Friend" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by David Crosby and released as a single on July 13, 1967. The single reached #82 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the United Kingdom...
" and "Old John Robertson", which had both been issued as a non-album single in July 1967. The remastered CD also included the David Crosby penned track "It Happens Each Day", which had been omitted from the original album, and "Don't Make Waves", a song that had been written for the Alexander Mackendrick
Alexander Mackendrick
Alexander Mackendrick was a Scottish American director and teacher. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and later moved to Scotland...
film, Don't Make Waves
Don't Make Waves
Don't Make Waves is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sex farce which starred Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, Dave Draper and Sharon Tate...
. The final track on the CD extends to include a hidden track
Hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
featuring the guitar parts from "Mind Gardens", which were heard on the album playing backwards
Reverse tape effects
Reverse tape effects are special effects created by recording sound onto magnetic tape and then physically reversing the tape so that when the tape is played back, the sounds recorded on it are literally heard in reverse...
but are presented here playing forwards, as they were originally recorded.
In 2011, the audiophile
Audiophile
An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Audio Fidelity released the original mono
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
mix
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
of Younger Than Yesterday on CD for the first time, remastered by Steve Hoffman.
Side 1
- "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll StarSo You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star"So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman and included on their 1967 album, Younger Than Yesterday. The song was released as a single on January 9, 1967 and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to...
" (Chris HillmanChris HillmanChristopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
, Jim McGuinnRoger McGuinnJames Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
) – 2:05 - "Have You Seen Her FaceHave You Seen Her Face"Have You Seen Her Face" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by the group's bass player Chris Hillman and included on their 1967 album, Younger Than Yesterday. The song was released as the third single to be taken from that album on May 22, 1967 and reached #74 on the Billboard...
" (Chris Hillman) – 2:25 - "C.T.A.-102" (Jim McGuinn, Robert J. Hippard) – 2:28
- "Renaissance Fair" (David CrosbyDavid CrosbyDavid Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Jim McGuinn) – 1:51 - "Time Between" (Chris Hillman) – 1:53
- "Everybody's Been Burned" (David Crosby) – 3:05
Side 2
- "Thoughts and Words" (Chris Hillman) – 2:56
- "Mind Gardens" (David Crosby) – 3:28
- "My Back PagesMy Back Pages"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment...
" (Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
) – 3:08 - "The Girl with No Name" (Chris Hillman) – 1:50
- "WhyWhy (The Byrds song)"Why" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Jim McGuinn and David Crosby and first released as the B-side of the band's "Eight Miles High" single in March 1966. The song was re-recorded in December 1966 and released for a second time as part of the band's Younger Than Yesterday...
" (Jim McGuinn, David Crosby) – 2:45
1996 CD reissue bonus tracks
- "It Happens Each Day" (David Crosby) – 2:44
- "Don't Make Waves" (Jim McGuinn, Chris Hillman) – 1:36
- "My Back Pages" [Alternate Version] (Bob Dylan) – 2:42
- "Mind Gardens" [Alternate Version] (David Crosby) – 3:17
- "Lady FriendLady Friend (song)"Lady Friend" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by David Crosby and released as a single on July 13, 1967. The single reached #82 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the United Kingdom...
" (David Crosby) – 2:30 - "Old John Robertson" [Single Version] (Jim McGuinn, Chris Hillman) – 5:05
- NOTE: this song ends at 1:53; at 2:03 begins "Mind Gardens" [Instrumental Guitar Track] (David Crosby)
Singles
- "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" b/w "Everybody's Been Burned" (Columbia 43987) January 9, 1967 (US #29)
- "My Back Pages" b/w "Renaissance Fair" (Columbia 44054) March 13, 1967 (US #30)
- "Have You Seen Her Face" b/w "Don't Make Waves" (Columbia 44157) May 22, 1967 (US #74)
Personnel
NOTE: Sources for this section are as follows:The Byrds
- Jim McGuinnRoger McGuinnJames Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - David CrosbyDavid CrosbyDavid Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
– guitar, vocals - Chris Hillman – electric bassElectric BassElectric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...
, vocals (acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
on bonus track 12) - Michael ClarkeMichael Clarke (musician)Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Additional Personnel
- Hugh MasekelaHugh MasekelaHugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
– trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
(track 1, bonus track 16) - Cecil Barnard (Hotep Idris GaletaHotep Idris GaletaHotep Idris Galeta was a South African jazz pianist and educator. His legal name at birth was Cecil Galeta, but according to local custom he was more commonly known as a child and young man as Cecil Barnard, his father's first name being used instead of a last name.In his teens he played with...
) – pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(track 2) - Jay MiglioriJay MiglioriJay Migliori was an American saxophonist, best known as a founding member of Supersax, a tribute band to Charlie Parker....
- saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
(track 4) - Vern GosdinVern GosdinVern Gosdin was an American country music singer. He idolized The Louvin Brothers and The Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called The Gosdin Brothers. An inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard, Gosdin was nicknamed "The Voice" by his...
– acoustic guitar (track 5) - Clarence WhiteClarence WhiteClarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
– guitar (tracks 5, 10) - Daniel Ray (Big Black) – percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
- unknown - organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
(track 9)
Release history
| Date | Label | Format | Country | Catalog | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 6, 1967 | Columbia Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
LP LP album The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry... |
US | CL 2642 | Original mono Monaural Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path... release. |
| CS 9442 | Original stereo release. | ||||
| April 7, 1967 | CBS Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
LP | UK | BPG 62988 | Original mono release. |
| SBPG 62988 | Original stereo release. | ||||
| 1987 | Edsel Demon Music Group Demon Records is a United Kingdom record label founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera who had previously started Stiff Records... |
LP | UK | ED 227 | |
| 1987 | Edsel | CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
UK | EDCD 227 | Original CD release. |
| 1989 | Columbia | CD | US | CK 9442 | |
| 1993 | Columbia | CD | UK | COL 468181 | |
| April 30, 1996 | Columbia/Legacy Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated... |
CD | US | CK 64848 | Reissue containing six bonus tracks and a partially remixed version of the stereo album. |
| May 6, 1996 | UK | COL 4837082 | |||
| 1999 | Simply Vinyl | LP | UK | SVLP 0007 | Reissue of the partially remixed stereo album. |
| 1999 | Sundazed Sundazed Records Sundazed Records is a record label based in Coxsackie, in the Catskills of New York. It specializes in obscure and rare recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.Label founders Bob Irwin and his wife Mary started the label in 1989... |
LP | US | LP 5060 | Reissue of the partially remixed stereo album with three bonus tracks. |
| 2003 | Sony Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation.... |
CD | Japan | MHCP-69 | Reissue containing the partially remixed stereo album with six bonus tracks in a replica LP sleeve. |
| 2006 | Sundazed | LP | US | LP 5200 | Reissue of the original mono release. |
| March 22, 2011 | Audio Fidelity | CD | US | AFZ110 | Reissue of the original mono release. |
Remix information
Younger Than Yesterday was one of four Byrds albums that were remixed as part of their re-release on Columbia/LegacyLegacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated...
. However, unlike Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man (album)
Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut album by the American folk rock band The Byrds and was released in June 1965 on Columbia Records . The album, along with the single of the same name, established the band as an internationally successful rock act and was also influential in originating the musical...
and Turn! Turn! Turn!
Turn! Turn! Turn! (album)
Turn! Turn! Turn! is the second album by the folk rock band The Byrds and was released in December 1965 on Columbia Records . Like its predecessor, Mr. Tambourine Man, the album epitomized the folk rock genre and continued the band's successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string...
, which were remixed extensively, only three tracks on Younger Than Yesterday were remixed, although it is unknown exactly which songs received this treatment. The reason for these remixes was explained by Bob Irwin (who produced these re-issues for compact disc) during an interview:
He further stated:
Many fans enjoy the partially remixed album because it is very close to the original mix in most cases and offers noticeably better sound quality. However, there are also a lot of fans who dismiss the remix as revisionist history
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
and prefer to listen to the original mix on vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
or on the pre-1996 CD releases.