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THOUGHTS & WORDS: READER FEEDBACK
Batch #1: April 18, 1997
About Thoughts & Words
Thoughts & Words is a place for reader responses to ByrdWatcher. It's analogous to the letter column of a magazine. (Just as all magazines do, ByrdWatcher reserves the right to edit any correspondence, and the right to decide which correspondence to run on this site.) Questions, comments, criticisms and queries are all welcome at byrds@ebni.com. Names, handles, and E-mail addresses of correspondents will be published unless the writer asks that they be withheld or leaves them off the message. Looking forward to hearing from you...
This is an archived batch of older submissions to Thoughts and Words. To read a different batch, use the appropriate link below:1: April 18, 1997
2: June 16, 1997
3: August 5, 1997
Current
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 08:59:46 -0600
From: Jeff and Lisa Dunn (jldunn@dave-world.net)
Subject: ByrdWatcher web-site
Hi Tim!
What a great surprise to find this new addition
to Byrds stuff on the web. I like the layout so far, and
look forward to seeing the page evolve. Glad to see that
you're encouraging outside input, 'cause there are lots
of creative Byrd fans out there. Good luck with everything!
Sincerely,
Jeffery Dunn
jldunn@dave-world.net
Date: Sat Mar 29 05:45:14 1997
From: gdjayhawk@aol.com (GD Jayhawk)
Subject: Re: New ByrdWatcher Website!
Hi Tim,
A really great new site with so much important information.
I'm a musician and love FBB, Parsons, Hillman, Clark etc.
What I'm looking for are all lyrics and chords especially
FBB and Parsons.
Many songs are on my homepage:
http://members.aol.com/gdjayhawk/index.html
(Songbook "F","H","P")
From: hargerst@airmail.net (Harvey Gerst)
Subject: Your Byrds Page
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 21:36:06 GMT
Organization: Indian Trail Recording Studio
Absolutely incredible!! BTW, Thanks for the plug.
Harvey Gerst, Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://user.aol.com/ITRstudio/
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 20:07:59 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy E. Josephson" (roy77@bigfoot.com)
Subject: ByrdWatcher
Hi Tim,
Your new ByrdWatcher site is just tremendous. You have
provided a wonderful resource for Byrds fans worldwide.
I've just scratched the surface but will be returning
again and again to get all the wonderful details you have
included. Your site was the talk of our ByrdChat last
Saturday. All my alt.music.byrds and Byrdmaniax friends
are very impressed with and appreciative of your efforts.
Your site should make published works like Timeless
Flight sit up and take notice of the intense
competition!
Roy
Cocoa Beach FL
Thanks, Roy! Of course, I'll be first in line
for a copy of Timeless Flight Revisited, which
is slated for reissue this summer, so I regard the
comparison as a great compliment.
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 1997 15:00:30 -0500
From: Paul Birch (birch@uofrlaw.richmond.edu)
Organization: University of Richmond - School of Law Library
Subject: Hi, Tim!
I just saw your posting to Byrdmaniax announcing the web
page, and immediately clicked on the hotlink to see what
you'd produced. Great job! I'm a bit overwhelmed at the
amount of data, but expect to enjoy clicking around in it
for quite a while, especially after the other individual
Byrd links come up. (Please do Gene next!).
Paul Birch
Hi Paul, and thanks again for your help! You'll be
happy to know Gene (I know you meant Gene Clark) will
be the next member profile to come up.
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 12:05:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Richard Russell (rrussell@q-net.net)
Subject: Re: Thanks again
Hi Tim,
The site looks great -- I look forward to exploring it...
Richard
Thanks Richard, and thanks for your gracious comments
on the Byrdmaniax mailing list, which every Byrds fan
should join if they haven't already. See Internet
Resources for details on joining Richard's list, and
for a link to Richard's cool Byrd's Nest website.
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 10:57:05 -0600
From: davel505 davel505@concentric.net
Subject: Byrds
Love your site, I've been a major Byrds and related fan
since 1965, have seen them in all incarnations many many
times, and have met most of them. Keep up the great work.
Dave
Date: Tue Apr 8 21:53:58 1997
From: jbickhar@waonline.com (Jim Bickhart)
Subject: nitpicking
As a long-time Byrdmaniac, I'm mightily impressed with the
amount of effort invested in this project. As I peruse it,
if I am reminded of tidbits that may be of use to you, I'll
shoot them along.
On the Byrds-related artists page, your entry for the Everly
Bros. fails to note that Clarence White and Gene Parsons
played on the last Everlys single for Warner Bros., "I'm
On My Way Home Again," while they were still members of
the Byrds. It's an outstanding record. In this case,
it's not a matter of the Everlys influencing the Byrds,
but the other way around, which probably merits the
Everlys being included in another of your sections.
Thanks, Jim. I'll take all the tidbits you got! And I'm
betting you must have a few good ones. I dug out a tape
I had with the Everlys single you mentioned, and you're
right: it is a good song.
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 13:08:10 -0800
From: Larry Blumenfeld (jblumenf@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us)
Subject: Your new site
I'm impressed! As someone who is more interested in the
rays of talent generated by various Byrds members than
the Byrds themselves, this is a godsend. I've never seen
so much cogent, well-thought-out material in one place,
and I like the idea of being able to follow several paths
to continue the story. The link from the end of the Burritos
to Gram didn't work, but I suppose you'll catch that. You
get an A+ from me...thanks!
Happy trails,
Larry B.
Thanks, Larry. I know there are some links that go
nowhere... I created some of those pages months earlier
with the assumption that they wouldn't go up until all
the member profiles were converted to HTML. Later I decided
to put up what was finished, but I didn't have time to
deactivate all of those links before leaving town. I'm
weeding out the links to pages that aren't there yet;
they should all be gone soon.
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 21:31:28 -0500
From: "Matthew F. Kowalski" (mkowalsk@compuserve.com)
Subject: Your Byrdwatcher page
I have just spent a half hour reading your Byrdwatcher
page, and first of all I want to congratulate you on such
a well-crafted and massive work! Well done! You have
replaced Rogan's Timeless Flight as the definitive
Byrds history.
I do have a few "suggestions" however. I make these not
to nit-pick, but because your page is such a substantial
work that will be seen by so many as maybe their first
information about the Byrds.
I had the same frustration with some of the album reviews
that I found reading Rogan's book; you seem WAY too harsh
on the later '69-'73 albums.
Someone not familiar with the Byrds might wonder why an
author was interested enough to write such in-depth
reviews, when he makes the albums sound like pieces
of junk! It's true that the Parsons/White Byrds never
quite worked the magic on vinyl that they could in live
shows, but their albums had excellent musicianship and a
"smoothness" that holds up over the years.
I know that a critic has the right to state his opinions
since he did the work of writing, but the best critics
focus on objective information to help the reader draw
his own conclusions. It is less helpful, e.g., to
describe the live version of "8 Miles High" and
"Yesterday's Train" as "boring," since this is such a
subjective judgment. Though many would disagree with
me here, I think a reviewer should err on the side of
blandness in stating his own reactions, while describing
the particular ingredients of the songs in detail. This
yields reviews that stand up over time and cultural
differences.
Whew! I'm off my soapbox now. Thanks again for such a
major work on the Byrds. The online Byrds community is
a familiar & friendly bunch as you may already know.
Matthew K.
Thanks for your generous review, Matthew. See the
response above on the issue of Rogan's book...
I appreciate your thoughts on the reviews. As you can
tell from the disclaimer at the beginning of the Albums
Section, I anticipated this criticism. I might feel the
way you do about some of those later releases if I had
been buying them in real time, as I suspect you may
have been. As someone who first heard them many years
later, I obviously don't have the same happy
associations as a fan who bought them at the time. Of
course, as someone with (I'll bet) a knowledge of
Latin, you are no doubt familiar with that venerable
apothegm, "De gustibus non disputandum."
Your point about characterizing something as "boring" is
well-taken; that's not a very helpful description no
matter what one's view on the role of criticism. But I
have to disagree with your view about "erring on the side
of blandness" so as not to scare off new Byrds fans.
If I rave about every release, someone might start out
with Byrdmaniax, hate it, and never check out
any of the first six albums. Why should they trust me when
I say Notorious is great if I also enthuse about,
say, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman? In the long run,
it seems wiser to be candid about my views and let the
reader figure out if our tastes are similar enough to
use mine as a guidepost. (One funny thing about the
reissues is reading between the lines of David Fricke's
and Johnny Rogan's liner notes. They avoid outright
criticism of the releases, but on, for example, Dr.
Byrds, they pointedly do not use the same
complimentary language as they do in the notes for other
releases.)
In light of the general consensus about those albums
(which you yourself concede), the negative opinions
expressed by almost all of the participants in their
recording, and the fact that even official label
releases like Fricke's notes to the Box have
admitted that they aren't up to the same high
standard as the early releases, I figured it wasn't
too big a deal. Besides, now we have something to
debate!
Thanks again for your kind words, and for your critiques.
Oh yes -- I definitely agree with you about Byrds fans
being extra-cool people.
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