I came across a listing for The Byrds 'Untitled' while perusing a Roger McGuinn discography, which I had been inspired to access after seeing McGuinn on the recent Bob Dylan PBS retrospective. I had forgotten all about this release, which I once owned on vinyl in the early 1970's. I frequently played the first disc of this double-LP, which featured live recordings of studio tracks laid down by the original Byrds line-up, featuring Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke. By 1969 only Roger McGuinn was left, but that was still enough to make this a legitimate Byrds album, such was the immense influence asserted by McGuinn over the original sound of The Byrds. These live tracks (presumably recorded in 1969 or 1970) feature the most durable Byrds line-up, which included Gene Parsons on drums, Skip Battin on bass, and Clarence White on guitar. While the recording suffers from a poor mix at times, there are only a handful of live recordings of many of these songs, making the 'Untitled' live disc of historic importance.

Side one of the original vinyl opened with a new track from the band, 'Lover of the Bayou'. You would have to suspect that McGuinn had been inspired by the sound and lyrical content of Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Born On the Bayou', as 'Lover of the Bayou' possesses the same gritty, loping demeanor and, of course, Cajun imagery. Consider "I cooked the bat in the gumbo pan, I drank the blood from a rusty pan, turned me into the Honga man" as a taste of the unique cuisine and superstitions of the delta country McGuinn serves up. Side one also includes two fine covers of Bob Dylan compositions, a faithful version of 'Positively 4th Street' and a revamped (primarily through the presence of White's guitar leads) version of 'Mr. Tambourine Man'. Live versions of 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and two other songs from 'Untilted' ('Nashville West', a two-minute instrumental, and 'So You Want To Be a Rock 'N Roll Star') can be had on earlier live official releases by The Byrds ('Live At the Fillmore West' and 'Monterey Pop'), but the recordings of 'Mr. Spaceman' and 'Eight Miles High' are unique to 'Untitled'. 'Eight Miles High', at sixteen minutes plus, took up all of side two on the original vinyl, and it's a gem. There is a great deal of firry jamming on this, one of the finest psychedelic rock compositions of all time. It includes a several minute classic duet from the rhythm section of Battin and Parsons, and loads of fine lead improvisation from McGuinn and White.

The studio disc is less impressive. McGuinn's compositions, including 'Chestnut Mare' and 'Just a Season' are musically extraordinary, but lyrically mediocre. There is an abundance of diversity among the nine tracks offered, ranging from country-rock ('Truck Stop Girl') reminiscient of Buffalo Springfield, to psychedelic environmentalism ('Hungry Planet'), to drug-addled blues (a rendition of Leadbelly's 'Take a Whiff On Me'), to anti-war sentimentalism ('Well Come Back Home'), to romantic ballad ('All the Things'). Clearly, however, The Byrds best years had already been covered, and their decline as a musical force had begun.