The Ballad of Easy Rider is a fairly patchy record. It features a few good tracks, including today's song, which was first done by the Art Reynolds Singers. By this point, the Byrds were best suited to the live environment. The studio setting definitely dulled the sharp Tellie twang of Clarence White's guitar playing. Which brings me to a story I've been waiting to tell... I have a crazy aunt, and when I say crazy I don't mean that she's just eccentric or a bit strange. She's certifiably nuts, a bipolar acid casualty from the 60s. But during one of her more lucid moments, about 20 years ago or so, she told me that she and my mom (who are sisters) took me to a Van Morrison concert in Central Park. I have a hard time picturing my mom at any kind of rock show, but whatev. I was an infant and have no recollection of the concert, but knowing that I was there has stayed with me through the years... A few years ago, I was thinking about myself as a baby at this Van Morrison show, possibly in a stroller or one of those backpack baby carriers, and I looked up Van Morrison's concert history on the internet. Sure enough, Van Morrison played a concert in Central Park in July 1970, after the release of Moondance but before His Band and Street Choir. But here's the best part of the story: Guess what band opened for Van the Man? Yup. And I was there. No wonder, then, that Clarence White's guitar playing hits me on such a primordial level...
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