BALLAD OF EASY RIDER
Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in November 1969 on Columbia Records. The album was named after the song “Ballad of Easy Rider”, which had been written by The Byrds’ guitarist and singer, Roger McGuinn (with help from Bob Dylan), as the theme song for the 1969 film, Easy Rider. The association with Easy Rider heightened The Byrds’ public profile and resulted in Ballad of Easy Rider becoming the band’s highest charting album for two years in the U.S. The album peaked at #36 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and #41 on the UK Albums Chart. Upon release, Ballad of Easy Rider was met with mixed reviews but is today regarded as one of the band’s stronger albums from the latter half of their career. (More from Wikipedia)
I always thought that “Jesus is Just Alright” was their first hit song, but it was actually the third single released by the Doobie Brothers (in late 1972), after “Listen to the Music”. Among rock bands, the Byrds actually recorded “Jesus is Just Alright” first, including it on their 1969 album, Ballad of Easy Rider.
(July 2014)
