Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

To be released in five days:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016G ... pe_snp_X4O

Scroll down and you can download it now. I saw it come up on iTunes the other day.

Matthew

I received "Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1971" last week directly from Sundazed. As you might expect, it's fantastic. Surpasses the original "Untitled" in several ways, and serves as a great companion piece to the added live cuts on the reissued "Untitled". Of course, the Byrds had been honing this set for more than an extra year when it was recorded, so the added experience is to be expected. But compared to other Byrds' sets around this time — where it seems the band is overly familiar with the material (I'm thinking in particular of the Live at Buddy's boot) — there's thankfully none of that lethargy here. As Roger says, "It was a great night."

The first thing I noticed was how much better the vocals are all around, both Roger's leads and the backup singing. The harmony on Lover of the Bayou jumps out to listeners accustomed to the original. The four-part harmony on the acoustic MTM is great, as it is on Amazing Grace. Clarence's guitar work is, of course, spectacular, more akin to his playing on the Fillmore set where he interweaves sharp fills throughout McGuinn's vocals (and he doesn't steps on the vocals, as he occasionally does during the Fillmore show).

Overall, the Byrds perform the songs at a bit of an accelerated pace, which adds to the energy and excitement of the set. It's amazing that after hearing these songs for close to 40 years, it's still wonderful to hear them reworked yet again. IMO, anyway.

Cool bit of trivia: Byrdmaniax list members will note that Raoul Verolleman is among those credited as having provided photos and graphics!