Ballad of Easy Rider (album) - Background and Easy Rider Film

Background and Easy Rider Film

Recording sessions for Ballad of Easy Rider were produced by Terry Melcher, who had also worked as The Byrds' producer during 1965, on their Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn! albums. The band decided to work with Melcher again as a result of their dissatisfaction with Bob Johnston's production on their previous album, Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, and on their recent single, "Lay Lady Lay". Melcher was happy to accept the band's invitation to produce the album but his one stipulation was that he would also take on management duties for The Byrds, not wishing for a repeat of the conflict he had experienced with Jim Dickson, the group's original manager, in 1965. Melcher's return to the producer's chair began an association with the band that would last until Byrdmaniax in 1971, much longer than his first tenure as The Byrds' producer.

In early 1969, the script writer and leading actor of Easy Rider, Peter Fonda, asked Bob Dylan to compose a theme song for the film. Dylan declined but as a consolation he offered the lines - "The river flows, it flows to the sea/Wherever that river goes, that's where I want to be/Flow, river, flow" - which he hurriedly scribbled onto a napkin, before telling Fonda to "give that to McGuinn." The fragment was dutifully passed on to The Byrds' guitarist, Roger McGuinn, who added his own lyrical and musical contributions to fashion a completed song, which he titled "Ballad of Easy Rider". After seeing a private screening of Easy Rider and realizing that he had been named as co-writer of the film's theme song, Dylan demanded that his writing credit be removed, leading McGuinn to theorize in later years that Dylan had disliked the film's ending and anti-hero motif. In 2000 McGuinn recounted to Jud Cost the story of how Dylan disowned credit for the song: "I got a call from Dylan at three o'clock in the morning going 'What's this? I don't want this credit. Take it off.'" Another possible reason for Dylan insisting that his name be removed from the song's credits may have been a suspicion that his name was being exploited to boost the film's credibility.

Two versions of the song "Ballad of Easy Rider" were released. The first was the version included on the Easy Rider soundtrack album, which was listed as a solo performance by Roger McGuinn, although it also featured fellow Byrd Gene Parsons on harmonica. The second was the recording by The Byrds, which was included on the Ballad of Easy Rider album and released as a single. The version of the song found on the soundtrack album and used in the film is a completely different take to the version released by The Byrds.

As recording sessions for the Ballad of Easy Rider album continued throughout July and August 1969, public interest in the band mounted as a result of their involvement with the Easy Rider film. This prompted McGuinn to announce that the title of The Byrds' forthcoming album would be Captain America, named after Peter Fonda's character in Easy Rider. Ultimately, this working title would not be used and the album was instead named after the film's theme song in an attempt to emphasize the connection with Easy Rider.

Following completion of the album, The Byrds' bass player, John York, was asked to leave the band in September 1969. York had become increasingly disenchanted with his position in The Byrds and had been vocal about his reluctance to perform material that had been written and recorded before he had joined the band. York felt that it was spurious of him to perform songs that had been made popular by musicians who had since left the band. The rest of The Byrds had begun to doubt York's commitment and so a consensus was reached among the other three members that York should be fired. He was replaced, at the suggestion of drummer Gene Parsons and lead guitarist Clarence White, by Skip Battin, a freelance session musician and one-time member of the duo Skip & Flip.