The singer Roger McGuinn regretted taking control from: “Much better”
Over the course of their decade of activity, The Byrds were certainly blessed with not just a slew of incredibly talented members but a whole host of exceptional collaborators who passed through their doors at one point or another.
Having achieved their big break courtesy of being donated an acetate of Bob Dylan’s then-unreleased ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, which they chose to cover and release as their debut single, the band were already in good company from the outset. This instant association with perhaps the most notable folk singer of his generation opened many avenues for the band, both in terms of their own prospects and the sort of people they could invite into the fold in the future.
As could be expected of a band that burst into action all of a sudden, there were departures and personnel changes that had to be made, with de facto bandleader Roger McGuinn having to make several decisions on who to hire as a suitable replacement when key figures like Gene Clark and David Crosby left to follow their own individual creative pursuits.
Given how both were accomplished multi-instrumentalists, and how The Byrds had accrued a reputation for their complex and lavish folk rock arrangements after just a couple of albums, it was evident that they couldn’t simply settle for any old musician to join the ranks of the band when Clark and Crosby absconded.
The remaining trio of McGuinn, bassist Chris Hillman and recently-recruited drummer Kevin Kelley eventually settled on bringing country and western artist Gram Parsons into the group, initially as a keyboard player, but eventually as a rhythm guitarist and vocalist. However, this would quickly prove itself to be a problematic appointment, with Parsons attempting to direct the band towards the style he was more comfortable with and gain control from the driving force that was McGuinn.
Parsons would work with the band on the sessions for their sixth album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, but departed before it could be finished, which was at the time believed to be as a result of him having befriended the Rolling Stones while in England.
In order to regain some of the power and to prevent the album from seeming like it was entirely Parsons’ idea, McGuinn re-recorded the vocals for ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’, ‘The Christian Life’ and ‘One Hundred Years From Now’, but upon reflection, this was something that McGuinn deeply regretted, and that he felt ultimately ruined the album.
“That wasn’t exactly my idea of what I wanted to do,” he revealed in a 2016 interview with Rock Cellar. “We would’ve left his vocals on Sweetheart, in fact, but he had another record deal so we had to take them off. On the box set we were able to put them back on. They’re much better than my replacement vocals, because I think that Gram was the guy to sing those songs. He sounded more authentic. But while he was there we had a good time and we had a lot of fun.”
It goes without saying that Parsons could have been an incredible asset for the Byrds had he known to stay in his lane and not interfere with the rest of the band’s vision for the project, but his brief stint was ultimately overshadowed by his desire to remould them into something that they weren’t in a position to become – which was, ostensibly, his backing band.
