Farther Along (The Byrds album)

Farther Along
Studio album by
the Byrds
ReleasedNovember 17, 1971 (1971-11-17)
Recorded
  • July 22–28, 1971
  • August 1971
Studio
Genre
Length32:02
LabelColumbia
ProducerThe Byrds
The Byrds chronology
The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II
(1971) 		Farther Along
(1971) 		The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II
(1972)
Singles from Farther Along
  1. "America's Great National Pastime"
    Released: November 29, 1971

Farther Along is the eleventh album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in November 1971 on Columbia Records.[1] For the most part, the album was recorded and produced by the Byrds themselves in London, England, over the course of five work-intensive days in July 1971.[2] It was quickly released as a reaction to the commercial failure of the Byrds' previous album, Byrdmaniax, and as an attempt to stem the criticism that album was receiving in the music press.[3][4]

Byrdmaniax had featured a large amount of orchestration, which producer Terry Melcher had applied to the album, allegedly without the band's consent.[3][4] The band were unhappy with this and Farther Along was intended as their answer to what they perceived as Melcher's over-production, as well as an attempt to prove that they themselves could produce an album that they regarded as superior to Byrdmaniax.[3][4] Band biographer Johnny Rogan has suggested that the rapidity with which the Byrds planned and recorded Farther Along resulted in an LP that the band themselves were unhappy with and that failed to undo the damage to their reputation inflicted by Byrdmaniax.[5]

Upon release, the album only managed to reach number 152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and failed to break into the UK Albums Chart altogether.[6][7] A single taken from the album, "America's Great National Pastime", was released on November 29, 1971, but failed to chart in the United States or in the United Kingdom.[7][8] Farther Along has the dubious honor of tying with Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde as the Byrds' album to have spent the least amount of time on the Billboard album chart.[9] In addition, it was almost the lowest charting album of The Byrds' career in America, being beaten only by Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, which charted at number 153.[6]

  1. ^ Rogan, Johnny. (1998). The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited (2nd ed.). Rogan House. pp. 542–547. ISBN 0-9529540-1-X.
  2. ^ Hjort, Christopher. (2008). So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965-1973). Jawbone Press. pp. 280–283. ISBN 978-1-906002-15-2.
  3. ^ a b c Rogan, Johnny. (1998). The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited (2nd ed.). Rogan House. pp. 325–329. ISBN 0-9529540-1-X.
  4. ^ a b c "Byrdmaniax". ByrdWatcher: A Field Guide to the Byrds of Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 2009-05-29. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
  5. ^ Rogan, Johnny. (1998). The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited (2nd ed.). Rogan House. pp. 330–334. ISBN 0-9529540-1-X.
  6. ^ a b Whitburn, Joel. (2002). Top Pop Albums 1955-2001. Record Research Inc. p. 122. ISBN 0-89820-147-0.
  7. ^ a b Brown, Tony. (2000). The Complete Book of the British Charts. Omnibus Press. p. 130. ISBN 0-7119-7670-8.
  8. ^ Whitburn, Joel. (2008). Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Record Research Inc. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-89820-172-7.
  9. ^ Fricke, David. (2000). Farther Along (2000 CD liner notes).