Clarence White + Chris Hillman = 1966 Gold

Clarence White fans, I have not forsaken you. Trust that lo these many keith moons, I have labored on the elaboration of the White tale. In a fortnight or so hence, 1972 will be loaded for bear. For now, an updated edition of Clarence White and his Transition to Telecaster: 1965-66. Originally posted: July 28, 2008. Part 2 of what figures to be a 12-part series. A new excerpt:

As 1966 came to a close, The Byrds were in the studio recording songs for Younger Than Yesterday. Hillman, inspired by his recent session work with Letta Mbulu and Hugh Masekela, brought his first songwriting efforts to the studio. I don't think there's enough critical appreciation of Hillman's artistic leap from Fifth Dimension to Younger Than Yesterday. He was an inventive, melodic bassist and provided great harmonies, but in a group with Roger/Jim McGuinn, Dave Crosby, and Gene Clark, he was a role player. He wrote zero Byrds songs prior to these sessions, only getting songwriting credits on instrumentals and folk rearrangements. And yet, on Younger he unleashed a murderer's row of excellence: "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" (co-written w/McGuinn and featuring Masakela on trumpet), "Have You Seen Her Face," "Thoughts And Words," and two straight-up country-rock songs, "Time Between" and "The Girl With No Name." For the latter two, Hillman enlisted his old buddy Clarence to lay down the law. So, he did.

Byrds - Time Between [CD] [Vinyl] [eMusic]

Chris Hillman: "I got so excited coming out of (the Masekela) sessions that I wrote 'Time Between,' which had nothing to do groove-wise with what I'd been doing all day. It's really like a bluegrass tune."

Clarence, panned left, steals the show. The vocal harmonies and insistent right channel maraca is pure Beatles (or Sir Douglas Quintet, with whom The Byrds played many dates in 1965-66). White dominates the left channel, channeling Don Rich and then going way beyond Bakersfield. The solo from 1:13-1:31 is great, but his dive bomber run from :44-:58 is CW turning the corner and figuring out his electric guitar sound. In so doing, he also foreshadows his monster solo in "Tell Me."

If you're unfamiliar with the CW "revisitation project," here's what I spake in Chilton's Missing Years + Revisiting Clarence White:

"I've begun the arduous task of revisiting the Clarence White Chronicles. Aside from editing the prose, I'm fixing broken links and replacing pictures as needed. I'm also removing the individual song links from each page and replacing them with zip files. Think of them as downloadable playlists and in some cases I'll be adding a song or two.

In time, every CW post will have a zip file at the top of the page containing every song highlighted in that piece. Furthermore, the zips will work together as a master playlist. Therefore, if you DL every zip file and add every song to an iPod, the songs will be labeled in sequential order. Also, while the zips are named for each blog post, the songs themselves are tagged with the same album title: (The) Adios Lounge Presents: Clarence White. This is just another way to organize information in the era of the playlist. Clear as mud???"

Speaking of Chilton, that's where the Adios Lounge is going in a matter of days. Better buckle up.