The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo｜Vinyl Monday
“We were pioneers with arrows in our backs.”
Welcome (or welcome back) to Vinyl Monday! This is my series where I give the who/what/when/where/why and how I feel about classic albums in my collection. My thoughts on the Byrds’s contribution to the advent of country rock: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (released 1968.) Subscribe for more Vinyl Monday!
Keep in touch:
Instagram: @abigaildevoe https://www.instagram.com/abigaildevoe/
My website: https://www.abigaildevoe.com
Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@abigaildevoe
SpunIt (it’s Letterboxd for vinyl geeks): spunit://spunit.io/friendProfile?profile=sZN9N7hTusP0ifQ20TdlzbBvtHd2
I cohost the Dolls Podcast!: https://open.spotify.com/show/4JsH0rsXUNjgvFLIbwYgnK?si=798d0d6d67864c4e
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unveiling-the-legends-dolls-of-the-60s-70s/id1749327932
Follow the Vinyl Monday playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/27N3dOWRJU7ydqY4f54nJB?si=bf7980c428c04340
Abigail Devoe x The Hippie Hour!: https://www.mixcloud.com/WBTVLP/the-hippie-hour-total-assault-with-abigail-devoe/
Brondesbury Tapes on TrackingAngle: https://trackingangle.com/music/just-drop-in-on-the-brondesbury-tapes
Timestamps:
intro – 0:00
art/packaging/personnel – 2:22
Sweetheart – 5:49
track listing/release – 16:24
my thoughts – 24:33
thanks for watching! – 41:24
Music:
Intro Music: Yeah Yeah Yeah (Long) by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Outtro Music: Ticket To Nowhere Man by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Vinyl Monday logo by Callum: https://www.youtube.com/@clynaack
#vinyl #vinylcommunity #byrds #gramparsons
@abigaildevoe
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
*july 1968
and yes i am very much aware gram’s given last name was connor! he took his stepdad’s name
what music did you grow up with? comment below!
@cwdkidman2266
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Thx for doing this album. The singing on I am a pilgrim breaks my heart – he holds it all in. He is glad to be alive in a country music don'tgiveanythingaway/Lou Reed way. It is the song I think of when I hear the word plaintive, whether my definition is right or wrong. And then there are the two Gram Parsons songs. I love them.
@stephenthornton2115
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Great album. Listen to The Gilded Palace of Sin and listen to Chris' vocals. Isolate them and you will be blown away.
@Unit8200-rl8ev
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
I was born and spent much of my childhood in a couple of small towns in rural Kansas, not far from Dodge City. One day when I was six years old and walking home from Catholic School, an older, bigger boy came up to me and asked me if I was a "Cat-licker". Before I could answer, he punched me as hard as he could in my face. I have never liked Country music, nor Country attitudes, nor Country culture, nor Country anything – including Christianity, patriotism, and Americanism. I was 17 and living in Portland Oregon when the Byrds' "Sweetheart" album came out, and I thought, "WTF?" I didn't listen to it, although I have heard bits and pieces of it over the years. By accident, I heard the Flying Burrito Brothers (including Gram Parsons wearing his marijuana suit) perform a free concert in a very small theater at Reed College in Portland in 1970. I wasn't very impressed. I don't like Country Rock, including the Country flavored songs of the Grateful Dead and Neil Young. Although I do like a very few exceptional Country Rock songs such as the Band's "The Weight" and Poco's "Heart of the Night". The Country and Hillbilly idioms are too retrograde and representative of ignorant cultures for my taste. I have no nostalgia at all for cowboys, nor the Old West, nor Americana, nor US History. If I'm hanging around and you want to drive me away, just start playing some Country music.
@maurice-it2um
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
You are wonderful
@rkdazet
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
The last Byrds album in my collection is The Notorious Byrd Brothers. My son brought The Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons to my attention in the past couple of years since he lives next door to Joshua Tree. Cap Rock and all that is very familiar. I did remember that Gram Parson played on Sweetheart and have since listen to the streaming version. Even though I'm a country rock fan (think Rusty Young and Poco) this is good, but not a favorite. The Byrds "Turn Turn Turn" is however a favorite and easily in my top 20 favorites. Anyway, Bye Bye. 🙂
@samcroft2252
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
I think I'm massively in the minority on this but I love Roger's vocals on this album. I just can't imagine loving it as much if it had all of the Gram vocals instead.
Nothing against Gram whatsoever but Roger's voice is The Byrds, just as much as his guitar for me.
@matthewdickerson6560
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
For your next foray into Country Music I suggest "Ridin' High" by Jerry Jeff Walker.
@billspencer9430
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Delaney and Bonnie ? "Morel shots" has three Dominos and two Byrds.
@MultiStats
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
"100 Years from Now" is my favorite song on the album. Gram Parsons had a vision and a lot of knowledge. I still remember Keith Richards writing about Gram in his autobiography.
@fernandoperdomomusic
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
YEE HAW!!!!!!
@marcyfan-tz4wj
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Sorry about Bobby Whitlock's passing, Abigail…I was commenting on Gram believing he'd walk into the Byrds and become lead singer. Roger was their lead singer despite Gram's credentials but my phone shut down before I could click on comment.
@NotMyGumDropButtons.444
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
your make-up is to die for…. & thank you for another great history lesson !
@jltbass56
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
You are just amazing!❤Continued success!❤
@AaronKaplan
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Abby is Awesome.
@astorreherrera6346
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Please, "Younger Than Yesterday" & "The Notorious Byrd Brothers". Those are the records.
@1977sadhana
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Ummm, I assume you consider Elvis Presley Rock N' Roll?
@henrykujawa4427
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
I got most of my Byrds CDs in the late 90s when they were were remastrered, sounded better than they had in decades, and had tons of bonus tracks. 5 songs were recorded twice: the first time with Gram Parsons, the 2nd time with Roger McGruinn on lead vocals, because that STUPID incompetent contactural problem prevented Parsons from actually being allowed to sing on too many of their songs on that album. Geez. This caused me a bit of confusion when I put together one of my all-time favorite custom CD comps, "PROFESSOR H GOES COUNTRY" (2004), in that I had a tough time deciding which version of a Byrds song to include. I finally went with the one that WASN'T on the officially-released album, as I just liked it better! Track listing:
1 – BRIGHT LIGHTS AND COUNTRY MUSIC / Rick Nelson
2 – BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN BLUES / John Fogerty
3 – BACK TO TENNESSEE / Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
4 – LOVE IS NOT BLIND / Lonesome Bob
5 – WIDE AWAKE / Rolling Hayseeds (v: Kevin Karg)
6 – YOU'RE STILL ON MY MIND (v.1) / The Byrds (v: Gram Parsons)
7 – I CAN'T HELP IT (IF I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU) / Hank Williams
8 – THE CATTLE CALL (v.3) / Eddy Arnold *
9 – JOLENE / Dolly Parton
10 – SEND ME THE HEART / Wings (v: Denny Laine)
11 – MUGS O' PLENTY / The Boss Martians
12 – HALF KANSAS MOON / Dash Rip Rock
13 – HELLO MR. HEARTACHE / The Dixie Chicks
(10-second side break)
14 – FAR AWAY EYES / The Rolling Stones
15 – WHAT AM I DOING HANGIN' 'ROUND? / The Monkees (v: Mike Nesmith)
16 – SLEEPLESS NIGHTS / Ben Vaughn Combo
17 – SURE TO FALL / Ringo Starr
18 – EAST BOUND AND DOWN / Jerry Reed
19 – LYIN' EYES / The Eagles
20 – CAN I BLAME IT ON YOU? / Kevin Johnson & The Linemen
21 – I DON'T CARE (JUST AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME) / Buck Owens & His Buckaroos
22 – I GO DOWN SWINGIN' / Exene Cervenka & Los Straitjackets
23 – SALLY G / Wings (v: Paul McCartney)
24 – THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA / Charlie Daniels Band
25 – TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS / John Denver w/ Fat City
26 – I'VE BEEN EVERYWHERE / Johnny Cash
I had a now -EX friend who objected to this as "not containing a lot of hits". She completely missed the point, this was MY PERSONAL PICKS for some of my all-time favorite country songs, no matter WHO it was who was playing them!
* THIS is the recording, done with a full, LUSH orchestra, that is credited for creating, years before-the-fact, "The Nashville Sound", where they did big, over-produced recordings to make "country" music more palatable for NON-country music fans…. the same way "The Motown Sound" did that for "black" R&B music.
An album I recommend for you to review: Buck Owens & his Buckaroos: I'VE GOT A TIGER BY THE TAIL
@andrewpatrick9103
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
I thought guys like Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers were the ones who popularized/romanticized the fancy cowboy image?
@thecaveofthedead
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
As a white South African old enough to remember apartheid, I find it hard to believe that they even got assurances that audiences wouldn't be segregated. Masekela was right. And You notice Miriam Makeba didn't tell them to play South Africa, just to visit and see for themselves. I think their explanations are bullshit. Sure Parsons could easily stand up for what's right because he didn't need the money. But it was still right.
Watch this now when artists try to make the same excuses. It's not weird to excoriate people who try to profit from systems of extreme injustice.
@THEScottCampbell
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
The Byrds did the Country standard "Satisfied Mind" on their second album in 1965 and began using country guitarist Clarence White in 1966 while recording "Younger Than Yesterday". McGuinn wrote "Mr. Spaceman" and The Byrds released it in 1966. Hence, Ritchie Furay didn't do the first "country-rock" song though he wasn't far behind.
CECIL (GRAM) was a pathological liar which was proven repeatedly in interviews. He even stole the name The Flying Burrito Brothers from an L.A. pickup band.
@flannigan7956
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Rorse engineering! Agree request Gene music episode
@ronchambers3713
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
I rate this record as one of the defining moments of pop music of that era, just great in so many ways
@fallspeed
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
You are adorably cute.
@George-tm1ol
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Thank you for featuring this album! I've always considered the music on it as good for the soul – very earthy, simple and pure. The instrumental arrangements are spot on for these songs as are the vocals and harmonies. One of my all time favorite records.
@russellkaplan1818
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Saw The Byrds support this album at The Fillmore East in 1969
@MrDane634
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
You are so cool
@steveberkson3873
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
This was a pretty fun waltz through one of my fave albums,I had a copy back in the day,early ‘70s northern NM was rockin the bluegrass and country rock. Anyway,Thanks,been a while
@lonh6744
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
I've had that Gypsy album since the 70s! Also SOTR…awesome album!
@joedee9811
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Ooo I don’t know if the Byrds were the ones that singlehandedly put Rickenbacker on the map.
Anyway I love the Byrds, I really wish there was a modern Mono box set
@twtwtw1
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Just a BTW, 1950s Roy Rodgers was a rhinestone cowboy, so GP wasn't even close to original or first . Google ; Nudie Cohn
@moople72
September 6, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Spot on analysis.
Comments are closed.