byrdsongs, xliii

The late Jacques Levy was one of the truly enigmatic figures lurking in the shadows of 70s rock, and certainly one of the most unique. How does a trained clinical psychologist with a background in theater end up in songwriting collaborations with Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn? I’m a little fuzzy on the particulars, but after directing the all-nude Broadway show Oh Calcutta! in the late 60s, Levy teamed up with McGuinn and the two began work together on a country rock musical with the working title Gene Tryp, which was intended to be an Americanized interpretation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.  Mercifully, the musical never saw the light of day, but several songs from their work together ended up on Untitled, including Chestnut Mare, arguably the best late-period Byrds song. It’s a great tune, and it’s also strikingly bizarre in the way it creates a surrealistic dreamscape where a man becomes romantically fixated on a horse.  That the horse is merely Levy’s vehicle for a Freudian/Jungian sexual conquest fantasy doesn’t make the song any less strange.  The phallic symbolism comes hard and heavy, so to speak: ‘I got my rope out, and I flung it in the air.’ … ‘A sidewinder all coiled and ready to strike.’ … 'I’m going to catch that horse if I can, and when I do I’ll give her my brand.’ … Levy uses the same songwriting concept – a sexual odyssey – in his collaboration with Bob Dylan on Isis, with equally satisfying results...

In musical terms, Chestnut Mare was the most assured studio recording McGuinn was involved in since The Notorious Byrd Brothers. His intricate arpeggiated rhythm guitar playing holds the song together beautifully and provides the perfect backdrop for Clarence White’s deft little flourishes.  The live version I’m posting tonight leaves out the complex (and super-surrealistic) middle section of the song, but you can hear it here if you’re so inclined.  I just thought the live footage was too good to pass up, and the pretty German girl hovering over the band at the beginning seemed so appropriate to this material.  Das Byrds indeed!