AMG Review of Sweetheart of the Rodeo [Legacy Edition]

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

A lot of extras from the sessions for Sweetheart of the Rodeo surfaced before the 2003 release of this two-CD set, on both the 1990 Byrds box set and the 1997 single-CD expanded edition of the album. This deluxe edition, however, stretches out the body of material yet further, including everything from the official LP itself, the six outtakes and alternates from the box set, the instrumental outtake "All I Have Is Memories" (which first appeared on the 1997 expanded edition), and even a 1968 radio commercial for the album. And that's just disc one. For fans and collectors, the real bonuses are on disc two, which has no less than 14 previously unissued tracks, including alternates of "Lazy Days," "Pretty Polly," and "Hickory Wind"; two rehearsal versions apiece of "The Christian Life," "Life in Prison," "One Hundred Years from Now," and "You're Still on My Mind"; two alternate takes of "All I Have Is Memories"; and a rehearsal version of "Blue Canadian Rockies." That's not all, either, as disc two leads off with three of the four songs from the 1966 non-LP singles by Gram Parsons' pre-Byrds group, the International Submarine Band, along with three songs from the International Submarine Band's sole album, Safe at Home. For all that, a couple alternate versions that were on the 1997 expanded edition don't seem to have made it onto the deluxe edition, though you need a scorecard to figure that out with all the juggling that's gone on for the record's various configurations. So how is that added material, particularly the previously unreleased tracks on disc two? It's OK, and historically interesting in that several of the previously unreleased versions have Gram Parsons on vocals. Really, however, these songs don't differ all that much from the takes that made the final cut, and the variations are more valuable for the analysis of Byrdsmaniacs than they are for revealing different angles on the songs that were discarded. One gets the feeling that the material was picked very much with an eye toward Parsons cultists, particularly given the preponderance of Parsons-dominated selections on disc two, half a dozen of which (the International Submarine Band numbers) have no Byrds on board except Gram. Still, those three International Submarine Band non-LP cuts make a welcome appearance as they've been rare for decades, with that group's "Truck Drivin' Man" a clear indication of Parsons' country-rock direction, even if another of the non-LP single tracks, "One Day Week," sounds rather like the Dave Clark Five. Overall, this is a worthwhile and thorough excavation of the sessions that led to this early country-rock benchmark, though there's too much repetition in the form of the alternate versions to make this a great listen for the more general fan.