A few songs are responsible for my love of Americana. I talked about ‘Hot Burrito #1‘ back in our Versions series in 2021, but as my journey into the genre is very much Byrds-related, this is one of the songs that began my interest in them.
First recorded on “Another Side of Bob Dylan” in 1964, The Byrds version of ‘All I Really Want To Do’ popped up on their first album, along with three other Dylan songs, a year later. It was one of at least ten versions released that year, which tends to put a stop to the assertion that Sonny Bono “stole” it from The Byrds for Cher’s first solo album. The versions are quite different, and while no doubt he heard the band playing it, it was just one of those songs everyone was covering in 1965.
The jangly Rickenbacker opening, and the ascending melody harmonies on the chorus would appear in other forms on songs for decades after. Mixing in a Beatles-style minor key bridge set a pattern that Country Rock and Americana would follow, and the guitar figure after the verse provided Creedence Clearwater Revival with a whole career. In just over 2 minutes The Byrds produced a manifesto for at least two pop styles and proved the worth of allowing them to play on their own album, after the session player filled first single ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘I Knew I’d Want You’, which don’t have the bite or sincerity of the rest of the “Mr. Tambourine Man” album.
I first heard ‘All I Really Want To Do’ on a cassette compilation in the early eighties. The jangly guitar sound was back in fashion, and everyone was citing the Byrds as an influence. Along with ‘I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better’ ‘All I Really Want To Do’ stood out as feeling most like the current bands I was hearing. It made regular appearances on mix tapes, until the mid-nineties. Reissues, mildly remixed, of the Byrds albums were released at about that time and the vastly better sound meant that they became far more listenable than my, by then, rather ragged tape. It also sat well with this thing called Americana which Uncut were reviewing enthusiastically and I was buying at Imperial Music on Bristol’s Park Street. From there I discovered Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers and all the other Byrds offshoots, but I still come back to this as a song that launched me into the world of Americana.
