Lyve Twytter

AMG Review of Lyve Twytter

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

At least until the February 2000 release of the Byrds' Fillmore live show from 1969, this bootleg is just about the best representation of a quintessential latter-day Byrds show that one is likely to find. The performance itself is tight and highly focused, both in the playing and the singing, which is superior to the vocals on the live portion of the Untitled album. Moreover, this is off of a good, stereo soundboard master, so the fidelity ranges from good to excellent, with perfect balances on the instruments in most of the tracks, including Skip Battin and Gene Parsons' rhythm section. The only flaw is that the songs come up from silence on the opening bars of some tracks (most notably "My Back Pages" and "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n Roll Star"), rather than being edited together properly as a continuous stream of sound, and the audience presence is moderate to non-existent. The 17 songs range across the group's history, from "Mr. Tambourine Man" thru "Eight Miles High," to "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" (which segues right into "The Ballad of Easy Rider"), "Willin'," and "Jesus Is Just Alright." There's no date or location listed, although this is clearly a foreign audience, since McGuinn mentions a language barrier where the lyrics and the audience are concerned. It's a keeper, wherever it's from, just for McGuinn's stunning vocals and Clarence White's playing, which alternates from smooth and elegant to jagged and savage.