Recording
Recording sessions for the album began on October 7, 1968, with nine songs intended for Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde being recorded during that month. Among these songs were "Nashville West", an instrumental written by Gene Parsons and Clarence White during their tenure with the country rock group of the same name, and "Your Gentle Way of Loving Me", a song that Parsons and Gib Guilbeau had previously released as a single in 1967. Another song recorded during these sessions was McGuinn's "King Apathy III", a comment on political apathy and a championing of the rural idyll as an antidote to the excesses of the L.A. rock scene. The October recording sessions also saw the band attempting the traditional song "Old Blue", which McGuinn had originally learned from watching Bob Gibson and Bob Camp at Chicago's Gate of Horn club back in April 1961. "Old Blue" is the first of three dog-related songs to be recorded by The Byrds: the second and third being "Fido" from the Ballad of Easy Rider album and "Bugler" from Farther Along. "Old Blue" features the first appearance on a Byrds' recording of the Parsons and White designed StringBender, an invention that allowed White to duplicate the sound of a pedal steel guitar on his Fender Telecaster.
The October recording sessions also yielded "Bad Night at the Whiskey", a song that would go on to be issued as the A-side of a single two months before the release of the album. Named after a disappointing gig at the Whisky a Go Go and co-written by Joey Richards, a friend of McGuinn's, "Bad Night at the Whiskey" featured allusive lyrics that bore little or no relationship to the song's title. The Byrds also recorded a version of Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire" during the October 1968 sessions but this version was not included on the final album. "Stanley's Song", a rather lackluster country shuffle, written by McGuinn and his friend Robert J. Hippard also dates from these sessions but it was eventually discarded and did not appear in the final track listing for Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.
Another composition recorded during the October 1968 sessions was the McGuinn and Gram Parsons penned "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man". The song had been written by the pair in London in May 1968 before Parsons' departure from the band and was inspired by the hostility shown towards The Byrds by legendary Nashville DJ Ralph Emery when they appeared on his WSM radio program. The song's barbed lyric contains a volley of Redneck stereotypes, set to a classic country 3/4 time signature and begins with the couplet "He's a drug store truck drivin' man/He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan." It should be noted, however, that Emery was not, in fact, a Klansman. The song was subsequently performed by Joan Baez at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and dedicated to the then governor of California, Ronald Reagan. Baez's performance of the song also appeared on the Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More album.
An acetate version of Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, dated October 16, 1968 and containing a seven-track programme for the album is known to exist. At this point the album consisted of the songs "Old Blue", "King Apathy III", "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" and "This Wheel's on Fire" on side one, with "Your Gentle Way of Loving Me", "Nashville West" and "Bad Night at the Whiskey" on side two.
The Byrds returned to the studio on December 4, 1968 to re-record "This Wheel's on Fire", which had initially been attempted by the band in October. During this same December session, The Byrds also revisited two songs that had been written for the 1968 film Candy. Of these two songs, "Child of the Universe", written by McGuinn and soundtrack composer Dave Grusin, was used in the film, while the McGuinn—York penned title track was not. A medley featuring the Dylan-authored Byrds' hit "My Back Pages", along with an instrumental named "B.J. Blues" and a jam version of the blues standard "Baby What You Want Me to Do" was also recorded during this December recording session.
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Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)