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JAY
FARRAR: A RECORD THAT CHANGED
MY LIFE
THE
BYRDS - FIFTH DIMENSION
(1966) "At the point in my life when I discovered Fifth Dimension, I'd been listening to a lot of Dylan and The Beatles - and even The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man - but coming across this took all that and just ran with it. At the time of hearing it, I hadn't really gotten into punk, but was just getting into '60's garage rock and all that classic stuff. It all sort of happened around the same time. "I think the one thing that really impresses me about it is how they combined all the different elements they were listening to. On all those Indian-influenced guitar solos, you can feel the effect of listening to people like Ravi Shankar, whilst Roger McGuinn's John Coltrane-influenced guitar work is pretty special in itself. "There was obviously a lot of friction within the band, but that friction was probably also what I think allowed them to make such great records. The fact that they were all off into different styles of music helped diversify the mix. I'd hesitate to say that [original member] Gene Clark leaving was the primary factor in their change of direction, but it was definitely all part of it. When they brought all those diverse elements into one song and everything went right - like on 'Eight Miles High', for instance - it sort of has this otherwordly quality that's really hard to place. When you listen to it, it's hard to even place it as belonging to The Byrds, it's so original. "That transition from Fifth Dimension through to Sweetheart Of The Rodeo [1968] was a pretty big shift, but then again, they had Gram Parsons to help them along. Younger Than Yesterday [1967] was OK, but never really grabbed me as much as Fifth Dimension. That record is truly inspired." |
