The Byrds-"I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better"-9/16/65

[rafacigarros]

How much have been listening this music a modern band called Band of horses , Great for them !

[73849309378]

Thanks mcd220! Nothing better than live renditions! A shame they made them speed up and shorten the song though. Tom Petty did this one too, but was no comparison to the Byrds.

[macaibhistin]

The bass playing rocks!  So unorthodox!

[hkyoutoob]

@macaibhistin Glad someone like yourself picked up on that. He was all over the neck, laying down a relatively melodic, and piercing bass line. Seems like he was utilizing lead-ins and/or lead-out bass lines from one to the next of the many chord changes, in the tune. On the studio reordings, he usually cut thru very well, and added alot of punch to the songs. Remmber to "keep it LOW"!

[TheBluesguy62154]

Love the integrity and honesty in the vocals.

[taypar11]

What a band! You can see where David Crosby took these harmonies and blended with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It's so sad that Gene Clark, the lead singer of this band was such a alcoholic and died too soon.

[Tomboy91xoxo]

the drummer is cute :)

[lhcarter]

Wow, Gene Clark, best looking guy EVER in my opinion.

[securitycat11]

Rodger is so under rated

[nhoner]

McGuinn was vamping again, big time. He does look possessed. It's fun to watch. I wonder if the fast tempo was a group decision, or it just happened due to adrenaline.

[seanreillyireland]

Gene the genius. Crosby's facial expressions are those of a guy who's spent time in front of the mirror miming to Lennon. McGuinn, priceless.

[abt7217tc]

chris hillman entered beastmode on this show

[amu3261]

grandiosos

[abt7217tc]

at a certain angle, doesn't Gene look like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs?

[ejectorerector]

i hate how it suddenly zooms in on crosby after the solo

[typicalwebster]

Gene had difficulty singing this at this tempo. He tends to drag the song vocally back to the original tempo as they were playing it much faster, but the band didn't slow down. I wonder if he either didn't like the tempo and was trying to slow them down or if he was intentionally going for some sort of effect, or just couldn't quite feel that tempo. Either way, still love the Byrds.

[agingstoner]

Electrifying performance!

[DeliciousHayes]

I LOVE the Byrds! A great song written by the tambouring-shaking lead singer Gene Clark...despite the fact that they were being rushed to fit a TV time slot, they do a nice job here...as a musician, I marvel at how awesome their vocal harmonies were. Other folks who do a nice job covering this song: Tom Petty (Full Moon Fever album) and Teenage Fanclub (here on youtube).

[555sss]

Pure Magic!

[Kamisamadesu1]

McGuinn looks psychotic in this...and David looks like a doofus. Amazing.

[aiames]

@Kamisamadesu1

McGuinn's got a s**t-eating grin on his face, as if to say "Don't look now, folks, but I'm about to take over this band!" As for Crosby, he's still probably in shock over all those big numbers on his first paycheck

[shyboiy5]

This is great!!! The bass line is quite different to the one on record, but it only makes this video more and more interesting...

[catoohey]

At 0:40 and again later - I think McGuinn bears a strong resemblance to Will Ferrell.

[arizonabay15]

Roger reminds me of the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[Crankcase01]

@arizonabay15 - Or the wolf that's about to blow the little pigs' house down.

[elsalieridecharly]

dale charlyyyyy :P

[Davian67]

Thanks so much for posting this !!! :-)

[lhcarter]

OMG, I just can't believe how good this song is, and how gorgeous Gene Clarke was!

[Babyhowdy233]

@lhcarter

I've always said that Gene Clarke was one of the best-looking men I've seen in my 55 years on this earth.

[imusfan48]

That is my favorite 'Byrds' song!!!!

[captainfairfield]

This should put to rest the notion that the original five Byrds could not play live!!!

[andyinoregon]

Thanks, mcd220. You're right about Chris Hillman's unmistakable bass lines. Remember his melodic, driving bass on "Don't Doubt Yourself Babe"?

[champagnevoluptuous]

I didn't know this song was that old!

[Nokorola]

Great performance either way. I always enjoy watching another one of these that I've yet to see.

[pappatacio66]

Clearly they took some pillows, amphetamine or something.

[junkie4vids]

There is no singing to a track here...this is totally live...you can hear the slight instrumental imperfections, but the Byrds performance is great. Nowadays, every performance is pre-recorded, polished, and made sanitary to the point of sterility.

[pilesovinyl]

@junkie4vids What a classic clip, great song and one of the few McGuinn didn`t sing lead on. Clarke`s hair was longer than anyone and as stated great to experience another "live" performance that was nicely done.

[jeffkahl]

chances are they're singing to a track. often what they'd do in the 60s was have a live vocal but due to audio constraints in those days they didn't tend to mic amps and such.

[lhcarter]

Sorry, I mean Gene Clark at :18-:24.

[lhcarter]

I was in love with Gene Clarke back then, take a look at that dreamy face at 1:18-1:25!

[chris393s]

this isnot live although it is a great trick on about half of all shindig performances are pre-recorded in a live studio performance the day before the only truly live shindig performances where the ones taped in england of the who/yardbirds etc with screaming girls played over them

[dankmon1992]

this song is much faster and shorter than the studio recording. mcguinn's solo is also cut off.

[chris393s]

this is a pre-recorded track done in a studio the week before all shindig artists who appeared live on the show in studio recorded the songs they would sing the day before so it would sound live purposely meant not to sound like the studio recording. its a known fact that shindig artists rehearsed for an entire week until they got it perfect

[dankmon1992]

whoa....well why dont they rehearse and then just play live knowing theyre good? lol.

[RodCow]

Point Of Interest:-

The shots of the screaming girls are flown in from footage of the Beatles filmed in London playing'Kansas City'/'Boys'&'I'm A Loser'

[mcd220]

Cool! Did NOT know that. :-)

Christian

[BETSYSUEU]

@mcd220 ...IF YOU LISTEN, U WILL NOTICE THERE IS NO BASS DRUM IN THIS SONG...JUST THE SNARE & THE OHHRT TO PNE...NO TOM-TOM, EITHER...

[mcd220]

@BETSYSUEU Yep. :-)

[zhanay]

@BETSYSUEU I saw the Byrds many times and it's true that they were not great live. One BIG problem was Michael Clarke who was often too high. I saw them once when they removed him from the drum set and Kevin Kelley finished the set. In my opinion all the best Byrds songs were written by Gene Clark one of the best songwriters EVER. I don't love Mr. McGuinn's singing and would have loved Gene to have sung more. Love Mr. Crosby too.

[catoohey]

@RodCow You can tell because the girls are yelling "Paul" ;-)

[sdingeswho]

Great clip, mcd220 --- like yourself, I always love REAL LIVE PERFORMANCE on TV, which is very rare.

Y'know, everybody always goes on about how ripped Crosby frequently was --- uhhh, take a look at *McGuinn*, here LOL! Just *diabolically* weird (and that's a *good* thing, don't get me wrong!). I wonder if you can go to Starbucks and get a shot of whatever it was that was in Roger's coffee? :-D