(Untitled) | ||||
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Studio album / Live album by | ||||
Released | September 14, 1970 | |||
Recorded | Live album: February 28, 1970, Colden Center Auditorium, Queens College, New York City March 1, 1970, Felt Forum, New York City Studio album: May 26 – June 11, 1970, Columbia, Hollywood | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 71:27 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Terry Melcher, Jim Dickson | |||
The Byrds chronology | ||||
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Singles from (Untitled) | ||||
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(Untitled) is the ninth album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in September 1970 on Columbia Records.[1] It is a double album, with the first LP featuring live concert recordings from early 1970, and a second disc consisting of new studio recordings.[2] The album represented the first official release of any live recordings by the band, as well as the first appearance on a Byrds' record of new recruit Skip Battin, who had replaced the band's previous bass player, John York, in late 1969.[3][4]
The studio album mostly consists of newly written, self-penned material, including a number of songs that had been composed by band leader Roger McGuinn and Broadway theatre director Jacques Levy for a planned country rock musical that the pair were developing.[4] The production was to have been based on Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt and staged under the title of Gene Tryp (an anagram of Ibsen's play),[5] but plans for the musical fell through.[4] Five of the songs that had been intended for Gene Tryp were instead recorded by the Byrds for (Untitled)—although only four appear in the album's final running order.[4]
The album peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart.[6][7] A single taken from the album, "Chestnut Mare" b/w "Just a Season", was released in the U.S. in October 1970, but missed the Billboard Hot 100 chart, bubbling under at number 121.[1][8] The single was later released in the UK in January 1971, where it did considerably better, reaching number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.[1][7] Upon release, (Untitled) was met with positive reviews and strong sales, with many critics and fans regarding the album as a return to form for the band.[2] Likewise, the album is today generally regarded by critics as being the best that the latter-day line-up of the Byrds produced.[9]