The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo
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On this episode, we explore the unlikely 1968 masterpiece by the Byrds: Sweatheart of the Rodeo. New member of the band, Gram Parsons was hired as a piano player. Instead, what the band got , as founding member Roger McGuinn describes it, was “George Jones in a rhinestone suit!”
Gram Parsons was an Ivy League, trust-fund baby who followed the beat of his own drummer. He was a member of the Byrds for only a short time, but he changed the bands course from making what was going to be an album chronologically exploring the music of the 20th century, to (with the help of country conspirator Chris Hillman) making a strait on full-blown country record.
While not a commercial success at the time, the album ended up becoming one of the most influential albums of all time. Without this album, it's unlikely we'd see the country rock of the 70s or the alt-country movement of the late 80s and early 90s.
Listen to find out more about this fascinating album, this fascinating band, and one of the most fascinating individuals in popular music.
