burdsongs, xxii

Change is Now is the most explicit statement on The Notorious Byrd Brothers of the record's moment in time. Things that seem to be solid are not. The song moves from folk rock to c&w to full-on acid raga, and back again, all in less than three and a half minutes.  What I hear in the song, with the benefit of more than four decades hindsight, is that things went from this to this to this because of this and this and this. The pensive Beatles-ish chord that brings things to a close makes me want to close my eyes and raise my face to the warm rays of the California sun.  And that’s the thing. For all the internal and external discord and tumult that is the music’s condition of possibility, the message and vibe are strangely optimistic.  Dance to the day when fear it is gone.  You’d never guess at the time that a radical retreat was only months away.  I suppose imminent death or collapse breeds bravery as one comes to the realization that there’s nothing left to lose… The raga break - achieved, I believe, with a heavily flanged guitar and an early use of moog synthesizer, as well as Hillman’s super-heavy yet agile bass playing – is at once lurid, beautiful, terrifying, pleasing and  disturbing, like a B-52 making the most gorgeous sounds you’ve ever heard. To experience the full magnificence of this song, I recommend hearing it through a set of cans and playing it maximum volume...