Fifth Dimension

by The Byrds

Product Description:

The 1996 reissue of FIFTH DIMENSION includes six bonus tracks: "Why" (the B-side of the "Eight Miles High" single), "I Know My Rider (I Know You Rider)," "Psychodrama City," and alternate takes of "Eight Miles High," "Why" and "John Riley."

The Byrds: David Crosby (vocals, guitar); Jim McGuinn (vocals, 12-string guitar); Chris Hillman (vocals, bass); Michael Clarke (drums).

Additional personnel: Van Dyke Parks (keyboards); Gene Clark (tambourine, harmonica, vocals).

Producers: Allen Stanton, Jim Dickson.

Reissue producer: Bob Irwin.

Recorded between December 22, 1965 and July 28, 1966.

Includes liner notes by David Fricke and Johnny Rogan.

All songs have been digitally remastered using a 20-Bit Super Mapping system.

This is the album on which The Byrds truly exploded. They had already introduced the mainstream to a young folk singer named Bob Dylan by taking an electrified "Mr. Tambourine Man" to #1. They introduced California folk-rock to the masses, breaking ground for the likes of the Mamas & Papas and the Turtles. With FIFTH DIMENSION, The Byrds planted the seeds of psychedelia--and not just the San Francisco kind--in pop culture. The gray, dark trip of the Velvet Underground and the fuzzed-out minimalist boogie of such garage heroes as Count Five and the 13th Floor Elevators can also be found within these grooves. FIFTH DIMENSION recognized that musical higher consciousness had to be manifested in a dark side as well as a brighter one.

Gene Clark's departure from the band prior to these recording sessions, and the decision not to cover any Bob Dylan songs, streamlined the Byrds' sound and made the group's vision clear. "Eight Miles High," a highly-charged sonic release, evokes both VU's "Heroin" and John Coltrane's jazz explosions. The higher consciousness of "Eight Miles High," the harmony-driven stomp of "2-4-2 Fox Trot," and the CCR-meets-Stax boogie of "Captain Soul," all drenched in heavy guitar distortion, were unlike anything the pop world had heard. For the next three years, sounds inspired by FIFTH DIMENSION would make up the soundtrack of a cultural revolution.