McGUINN, CLARK & HILLMAN : LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE 1979

  1. introduction (Pete Fornatale)
  2. Sad Boy
  3. Long Long Time
  4. Little Mama
  5. Don't You Write Her Off
  6. Release Me Girl
  7. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
  8. Surrender to Me
  9. Chestnut Mare
  10. It Doesn't Matter
  11. Feelin' Higher
  12. You Ain't Going Nowhere
  13. Backstage Pass
  14. Stopping Traffic
  15. So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
  16. Mr. Tambourine Man
  17. Eight Miles High
  18. I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better
  19. Bye Bye, Baby

Label : no label

Venue : The Bottom Line, New York City, New York, USA

Recording Date : February 24, 1979

Length : 69:22

Quality : FM recording (A+)

Review : Here's the latest installment of the Gene Poole Collection, a random wellspring of recordings which have recently surfaced. This time we take you to a broadcast of one of the McGuinn, Clark and Hillman shows at the Bottom Line. This was the second of a three-night stand. Maybe someone in the know can chime in about whether this was the early or late show. Three-fifths of the Byrds does not a reunion make, so we won't call it that. Maybe they were filling a void left in the aftermath of the Byrds breakup and during a lull with the Eagles; the demand to see them three of them perform was there. This all started back up again when McGuinn, Clark and Hillman played on a joint triple bill with their respective solo bands during the prior year in Europe, but there were different permutations of the Byrds members performing together as a duo or three-piece or quartet since 1977 and continuing right up to recent times with the Sweetheart of the Rodeo 50th Anniversary shows. The music is always pleasant and the Byrds numbers seem to shake off some of the slumber and complacency, and just hearing the three of them harmonize satisfies more than a nostalgic jones. This was happened at a time when disco was the enemy, and so any song with a danceable beat thrown into it like "Release Me Girl" was allergically regarded as a disco song - amusing in hindsight, as there's just nothing disco about it at all. Nothing rare about this show either, as it's circulated before, even running about a minute longer. Here it seems like Gene made an edit at the encore point, probably to remove some on-air DJ commentary. Figured it was worth sharing since this one does come with the certainty of known lineage. Enjoy !