Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 70

Record label: Columbia

Produced: Allen Stanton

Recorded: CBS, Hollywood; January 25, April 29–May 25, 1966

Released: September 22, 1966 (UK) July 18, 1966 (US)

Chart peaks: 27 (UK) 24 (US)

Personnel: Roger McGuinn (g, v); David Crosby (g, v); Michael Clarke (d); Chris Hillman (b); Gene Clark (v, hm, pc); Van Dyke Parks (k); Ray Gerhardt (e)

Track listing: 5D (Fifth Dimension) (S); Wild Mountain Thyme; Mr Spaceman (S); I See You; What’s Happening?!?!; I Come And Stand At Every Door; Eight Miles High (S); Hey Joe; Captain Soul; John Riley; 2-42 Fox Trot.

Running time: 28:34

Current CD: Sony Legacy 483707 2 adds: Why; I Know My Rider; Psychodrama City; Eight Miles High (RCA studio version); Why (RCA studio version); John Riley (instrumental)

Further listening: Younger Than Yesterday (1967); The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)

Further reading: The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited (Johnny Rogan, 1997); Mr Tambourine Man: The Story Of The Byrds’ Gene Clark (John Einerson, 2005); www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/ kadler/public_html/rmcguinn/; www.thebyrds.com

Download: HMV Digital

The Byrds faced some formidable obstacles during the recording of their third album. Their recent groundbreaking single Eight Miles High had been banned because of alleged drugs references in the title and, worse still, its composer, Gene Clark, had flown the nest. Clark had provided the key in-house songs on the first two albums, prompting critics to wonder whether the Byrds could survive his loss. A policy decision to avoid relying on Bob Dylan as a song source meant that their troubles were doubled. The obvious answer lay with McGuinn and Crosby, who were forced to mature as singer-songwriters in order to fill the gap. McGuinn looked back to his folk roots and emerged with some tastefully orchestrated takes on Wild Mountain Thyme and John Riley. Crosby, eager to pursue the jazz direction pioneered on Eight Miles High, included the moody What’s Happening?!?! and spacey I See You. The presence of Eight Miles High ensured that the album secured chart honours but McGuinn’s hopes for a big hit with the title track 5D were scuppered as a result of further drugs allegations.

At the time of the record’s release showbiz bible Variety featured the ominous headline: ‘Pop Music’s Moral Crisis: Dope Tunes Fan DJ’s Ire’. As McGuinn ruefully observed: ‘I was talking about something philosophical and very light and airy with that song, and everyone took it down … they took it down to drugs. They said it was a dope song and that I was on LSD, and it wasn’t any of that, in fact. I was dealing with Einstein’s theory of relativity, the fourth dimension being time and the fifth dimension not being specified so it’s open, channel five, the next step. I saw it to be a timelessness, a sort of void in space where time has no meaning. All I did was perceive something that was there.’