Mr. Tambourine Man

The whiplash of going from Public Enemy ending Fear Of A Black Planet with "Fight The Power" to The Byrds opening this with a jangly "Mr. Tambourine Man" was jarring. Anyway, The Byrds do a lot of Dylan for their first album, is it that great? good? passable?

Meh...

It's only saving grace is its punchy play time, 18 songs in 44 minutes, a lot of bang for your buck.

Funny fact, "The Bells Of Rhymney" came up as "Hey Jealousy" by The Gin Blossoms on my phones ambient "now playing" display

I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better is the best song on here by quite some distance. The Dylan songs just made me wish Dylan was singing them. A low three; marginally better than other Byrds efforts.

Gezapige jaren '60 klanken. Luister het direct na The Kinks. En dan zit er toch een flink gat tussen de twee albums. Ik erger me nu continue. En dan begint en eindigt het album met twee van mijn grootste muziekergernissen. Wellicht versterkt doordat ik deze veel te vaak aan moest horen. Een onafgeronde 1.

It's just a jolly Bob Dylan cover album and that's not a bad thing.

Good Byrds

Just because something was commercially successful in the era when there only like 5 bands and all they did was rip each other off and smoke the mildest pot and think they were tripping doesn't mean it's essential listening. As much as I like the Rickenbacker jangle, this doesn't hold up well at all. Sounds like if the Monkees were a Dylan cover band.

It’s ok

Fun folksy rock and roll. Recognized a few of the songs. Worth a listen or two.

this list needs more byrds albums i think

The music from this era just feels so dated.

Really enjoyed that toe-tapping sound of the sixties!

It listens like a little grittier version of Simon & Garfunkel, where, with the jangly guitar, they're going for a bit more Beatles- and Dylan-esque sound.
It's not unpleasant, but the Byrds would be doing better things down the track.

It makes me want the harmonization of the Mamas and the Papas. I like the instrumentation but everything else is kind of meh, hasn't held up over time. 2.5* rounded down, I think.

Haven't heard this for years, seem to remember buying a Byrds box set. Enjoyed this more than I expected, high quality jangle pop

It's nice and jangly, and whips along at a fair old pace. This just reminds me of Saturday mornings, my dad playing this album while cooking a bacon sandwich for everyone. Nostalgia!

Folk-rock, nice. En hel debutplade hvor halvdelen af sangene er Dylan covers? Arghh..

Pretty great. Probably sleeping on the Byrds a little. Don’t love MTM but the rest was enjoyable. 3.5/5

I'm unsure if I'm just more open to the Byrds sound this time around, or if this album just is better because they're ripping off much better acts and blending them together, but this was pretty alright. I feel a lot of the power of the Bob Dylan tracks was stripped here, but a lot of the other covers had an energy to them that was appreciated, just like the brief runtime of the whole album. Perhaps I should give the other Byrds album another try.

Just far too jangly.

This is my second Byrds album reviewed on this generator. This is their debut album, and should be more folk rock than psychadelica (which they had started experimenting with on the other album I reviewed by them (The Notorious Byrd Brothers)).

The first thing that catches your attention when listening to this record is Roger McGuinn's 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. It has such a jangly, rich sound to it. That coupled with the beautiful harmonies attained by the band makes for some beautiful, soft, easy listening music.

Bob Dylan wrote 4 of the 12 songs on the album. The rest were originals, mainly written by Gene Clark. The bands sound was like that of the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, or Buffalo Springfield (that early 60's hippie rock vibe). The term "folk rock" was first used to describe the Byrds, and the handle kind of stuck.

Overall, a great record today, and one that I will absolutely visit again.

Favourite songs: I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, Spanish Harlem Incident, You Won't Have to Cry, Mr. Tambourine Man, "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe", Chimes of Freedom

Least favourite songs: The Bells of Rhymney

4/5