Farther Along (The Byrds Album) - Post-release

Post-release

Following the release of the album, The Byrds continued to tour the U.S. and Europe throughout 1972, but no new LP or single release was forthcoming and ultimately, Farther Along would turn out to be the last studio album by the McGuinn, White, Parsons, and Battin line-up of the band. The Byrds did, however, record a handful of new songs during 1972 but these remained unreleased at the time. Included among these new songs were versions of David Wiffen's "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" and McGuinn's own "Born to Rock and Roll", recorded on January 12 and April 18, 1972 respectively. "Born to Rock and Roll" was intended for a proposed single release, most likely with "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" as the B-side, but ultimately the single failed to materialize. According to McGuinn, the January 12, 1972 session that produced "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" saw the guitarist being backed, not by The Byrds, but by hired studio musicians. However, since McGuinn was contracted to Columbia Records as a member of the band and not as a solo artist, the studio documentation for this session lists "Lost My Drivin' Wheel" as a Byrds' recording.

In July 1972, Gene Parsons was fired from the group and replaced by session drummer John Guerin, although Guerin was never officially a fully fledged member of The Byrds and instead worked for a standard session musician's rate. Following Parsons' dismissal, a further three songs ("Draggin'", "I'm So Restless", and "Bag Full of Money") were taped by the band at Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles during July 1972. Ultimately, the five songs recorded by The Byrds throughout 1972 would all be re-recorded for McGuinn's debut solo album, Roger McGuinn, with the exception of "Born to Rock and Roll", which was re-recorded for The Byrds' 1973 reunion album, Byrds. McGuinn did, however, re-record the song for his 1975 solo album, Roger McGuinn & Band.

In January 1973, the band taped a cover version of "Roll Over Beethoven" and a re-recording of their signature song, Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", for the soundtrack to Banjoman, an Earl Scruggs tribute film in which they also starred. Bass player Skip Battin was fired soon after and in late February 1973, McGuinn finally disbanded the latter-day line-up of The Byrds in order to facilitate a reunion of the five original members of the group. The Byrds' reunion was centered around the release of a comeback album in March 1973 and featured McGuinn, along with original band members David Crosby, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke.

Farther Along was remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series. It was reissued in an expanded form on February 22, 2000 with the addition of three bonus tracks. These bonus tracks were all taken from The Byrds' early to mid-1972 studio sessions and included "Lost My Drivin' Wheel", "Born to Rock and Roll" and "Bag Full of Money". The remastered reissue also includes, as a hidden track, an alternate version of "Bristol Steam Convention Blues".