Untitled (The Byrds Album) - Live Recordings

Live Recordings

The latter-day line-up of The Byrds, featuring McGuinn, White, Parsons, and Battin, was regarded by critics and audiences as being much more accomplished in concert than previous configurations of The Byrds had been. This being the case, it made perfect sense to capture the band's sound in a live environment and so, in February and March 1970, two consecutive New York concert appearances were recorded. The first of these was the band's performance at the Colden Center Auditorium, Queens College on February 28, 1970, with the second being their performance at the Felt Forum on March 1, 1970. (Untitled) featured recordings from both of these concerts, spliced together to give the impression of a single continuous performance. Of the seven live tracks featured on the album, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Mr. Spaceman", and "Eight Miles High" were drawn from the Queens College performance, while "Lover of the Bayou", "Positively 4th Street", and "Nashville West" originated from the Felt Forum show. The appearance on the live LP of the band's earlier hit singles "Mr. Tambourine Man", "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", and "Eight Miles High" had the effect of forging a spiritual and musical link between The Byrds' current line-up and the original mid-1960s incarnation of the band.

The opening track of the live LP is "Lover of the Bayou", a new song written by McGuinn and Levy for their aborted Gene Tryp stage show. The song is set during the American Civil War and was intended for a scene in which the eponymous hero of the musical is working as a smuggler, bootlegger, and gun runner for both the Confederacy and the Unionists. Despite the central character's appearance in the scene, McGuinn explained in a 1970 interview with journalist Vincent Flanders that the song wasn't actually intended to be sung by Gene Tryp but by another character, a voodoo witch-doctor (or houngan) named Big Cat. "Lover of the Bayou" is followed on the album by a cover of Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street", which would be the last Dylan song that The Byrds would cover on an album until "Paths of Victory", which was recorded during the 1990 reunion sessions featured on The Byrds box set. The remainder of side one of (Untitled) is made up of live versions of album tracks and earlier hits. In a 1999 interview with journalist David Fricke, McGuinn explained the rationale behind the inclusion of earlier Byrds' material on the album: "The live album was Melcher's way of repackaging some of the hits in a viable way. Actually, I wanted the studio stuff to come first. Terry wouldn't hear of it."

Side two of the live album is taken up in its entirety by a sixteen minute, extended version of "Eight Miles High", which proved to be popular on progressive rock radio during the early 1970s. The track is highlighted by the dramatic guitar interplay between McGuinn and White as well as the intricate bass and drum playing of Battin and Parsons. The song begins with improvisational jamming, which lasts for over twelve minutes and culminates in an iteration of the song's first verse. The Byrds' biographer, Johnny Rogan, has noted that the revamping of "Eight Miles High" featured on (Untitled) represented the ultimate fusion of the original Byrds and the newer line-up. At the end of the live performance of "Eight Miles High", the band can be heard playing a rendition of their signature stage tune "Hold It", which had first been heard on record at the close of the "My Back Pages/B.J. Blues/Baby What You Want Me to Do" medley included on Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.

Additional live material from The Byrds' early 1970 appearances at Queens College and the Felt Forum has been officially released over the years. "Lover of the Bayou", "Black Mountain Rag (Soldier's Joy)", and a cover of Lowell George's "Willin'", taken from the Queens College concert, were included on The Byrds box set in 1990. Additionally, performances of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "Old Blue", "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", "Ballad of Easy Rider", "My Back Pages", and "This Wheel's on Fire" from the Felt Forum show were included on the expanded (Untitled)/(Unissued) release in 2000. A further two songs, "You All Look Alike" and "Nashville West", taken from the Queen's College concert were included on the 2006 box set There Is a Season.