firecrackeroh ja. klingt gut! werde mich auch drum kümmern, sie zu bestellen… edit: schon passiert. freu‘ mich auch drauf!
Leider wohl ohne Beteiligung von Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman und David Crosby, dafür aber mit Gene Parsons und John York, was den Fokus auch auf Clarence White lenken sollte. Insgesamt scheint es eine (die erste) durchaus sehenswerte Byrds-Dokumentation zu sein.
Byrds FlyghtWith 3 hours and 13 minutes dedicated to The Byrds, it allows some people who were involved with the Byrds (including ex-members John York and Gene Parsons) to express their points of view for the first time on such a release.
Five minutes into watching, and already incredible exerpts from live performances by The New Christy Minstrels with Gene Clark!
We’ve spent the last 3 and a half hours viewing these DVDs, and there’s no other thing like that for true Byrds fans. It goes deep into details of all eras of the band’s career.
Recommended!!!
Clarence White ForumI can only confirm that it’s the most complete Byrds documentary I’ve seen so far.
Although there’s no McGuinn participation at all, there are a few Crosby and Hillman interview parts, probably taken from other past interviews. The John York and Gene Parsons comments are a goldmine, as they never had the opportunity to speak out like this before. In some way, it’s even better than it would have been with McGuinn, Hillman and Crosby participating. They would have told the same stories that we’ve heard a thousand times before anyway.
Then Byron Berline, Jerry Cole, Vern Gosdin, and much Van Dyke Parks.
A must-have (or at least a must-see).
Clarence White ForumOverall I thought it was pretty fascinating; not that there was any earth-shattering new material covered, but the way it was done gave at least 4-5 different views of each album, and quite a bit of opinion as to the influence of each member. Michael Clark is hardly mentioned, which honestly is appropriate from an „influence“ standpoint, neither being a writer, singer, nor revolutionary drummer (to say he least). Hillman isn’t really much of the story until they get to Younger Than Yesterday, which is very perceptive since that’s where he started to blossom. Gram Parsons is noted as important, but not God-like, which is welcome break from his usual „on a pedestal“ treatment – but I did like how almost all the reviewers saw „Hickory Wind“ as a song that’s become a „standard“.
McGuinn is the „glue“ of the whole thing, but not put forth as the biggest influence (although his 12-string is noted as absolutely critical to the band’s start). A lot of the band’s strengths are discussed, and the focus is on Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Clarence and how critical each was in his own way to the band’s direction and success. There was also some interesting focus on the Gene/Skip combination and how strong those two were as a unit; how it really changed the „power“ structure of the band, especially live.
The lack of interviews from former members other than Gene and John (the Hillman stuff is from the Parsons bio film; not sure where the Crosby takes are from) and producers/engineers are, to me, a good thing – because if they were all interviewed it would be an „authorized“ bio, and all the critical analysis would be turned into oatmeal, resulting in a rah-rah film.