Farther Along (The Byrds Album)

Farther Along (The Byrds Album)

Farther Along is the 11th album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in November 1971 on Columbia Records (see 1971 in music). For the most part, the album was recorded and produced by The Byrds themselves in London, England, over the course of five work-intensive days in July 1971. It was quickly released as a reaction to the commercial failure of The Byrds' previous album, Byrdmaniax, and as an attempt to stem the criticism that album was receiving in the music press. Byrdmaniax had suffered from excessive and inappropriate orchestration, which producer Terry Melcher had applied to the album, allegedly without the band's consent. As such, Farther Along can be seen as the band's answer to Melcher's over-production as well as an attempt to prove that they could produce an album superior to Byrdmaniax themselves. Unfortunately, the rapidity with which The Byrds planned and recorded Farther Along resulted in yet another uneven LP, which the band themselves were unhappy with and which failed to undo the damage to their reputation inflicted by Byrdmaniax.

Upon release, the album only managed to reach #152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and failed to break into the UK Albums Chart altogether. A single taken from the album, "America's Great National Pastime", was released on November 29, 1971 but failed to chart in the United States or in the United Kingdom. Farther Along has the dubious honor of tying with Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde as The Byrds' album to have spent the least amount of time on the Billboard album chart. In addition, it was almost the lowest charting album of The Byrds' career in America, being beaten only by Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, which charted at #153, one place lower than Farther Along.