Review: 'Decade of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed the World'

Bob Dylan has been narrow-sightedly lionized for his idealism, misrepresented as a protest singer, and denigrated as a disappointment for embracing beats and electricity. But despite his almost compulsive self-mythologizing, Dylan probably never wanted to be anything more than a successful songwriter, and no one's going to say he didn't achieve that. The number of powerful or timeless songs he wrote in the sixties alone is staggering. That so much of his autobiography was bullshit seems to matter little when you consider that the guy wrote "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" and "My Back Pages" and "Positively 4th Street" and "Visions of Johanna" and so on and so on. 

Review: Vinyl Reissue of The Flying Burrito Brothers' 'Burrito Deluxe'

While their debut album seemed intent on showcasing how seriously The Flying Burrito Brothers took American roots music, they allowed themselves to loosen up and rock a lot more on their second disc. If there is a defining sound of Burrito Deluxe, it is the rumble of Chris Hillman and (especially) new-recruit Michael Clarke’s rhythm section. They deliver the same hard-driving boogie that made The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo a true country-rock record. In fact, the guys even resurrect “Lazy Day”, a tough Sweetheart of the Rodeo outtake. They also overdrive Dylan’s “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” into something approaching country-punk and have the distinction of being the first band to release a version of “Wild Horses”. You know you have a tough album on your hands when a Rolling Stones cover is its most delicate track.

Because of its unflagging chutzpah, Burrito Deluxe is a more immediately likable album than the subtler and more elegant The Gilded Palace of Sin and Intervention Records’ new vinyl reissue really highlights the bottom that makes the album move. The throbbing bass on “older Guys” will knock you off your hay bale. The 180-gram disc was mastered from a half-inch safety copy of the original master tapes using an all-analog process. Attention to detail inside and outside the sleeve is strong…dig the slick foil lettering on the cover.

20 Things You May Not Have Known About The Byrds

As Roger McGuinn turns 70 today, Psychobabble takes a look at 20 things you may not have known about The Byrds!

1. During his pre-Byrds days, Jim (not yet Roger) McGuinn backed up Bobby Darin on guitar and banjo during the crooner's folk phase.

2. In The Byrds' original incarnation as the four piece Jet Set, singer Gene Clark played rhythm guitar and David Crosby played bass. Clark's inadequate guitar skill necessitated Crosby's move to rhythm and the hiring of bassist Chris Hillman.

3. When The Jet Set released a single in 1964 with Elektra Records, the label's Jac Holzman tried cashing in on the British pop craze by renaming his new acquisitions The Beefeaters.

4. According to Alan Clayson's book on The Stones' Beggars Banquet, The Byrds got their wings on "Mr. Tambourine Man" after British R&B maniacs The Pretty Things, who had "first refusal," passed on Dylan's demo.