FEATURE SONG: I KNEW I’D WANT YOU by THE BYRDS

If you had a 45 of “Mr. Tambourine Man” back in the day, then you probably flipped it over and heard our feature song. Or maybe like me you had the LP. Either way, this has got to be one of the sweetest, not to mention most under-appreciated, love songs of the era, written by Byrds member, Gene Clark. I decided that a song as affectionate as this just had to have been inspired by a real person, and I was going to try and find out who she was. I was sure that there would be scads for info and/or gossip and/or speculation out there on the W³. Imagine my surprise when I didn’t find any! At least not readily. So I decided to ramp it up and take my research to The Next Level (which consisted of making more coffee, relaxing, and then emailing an old friend in Toronto who is my go-to person about The Byrds). Here’s what I learned from his reply.

This song, like so many of the good vintage ones, is backed by the famous session musicians known as “Wrecking Crew, ” in this case Leon Russell on keyboards (see my June 28/08 post) and Hal Blaine on drums (who is also responsible for the percussion on the Beach Boys hit, “Don’t Worry Baby” and is therefore a total Drum God as far as I’m concerned). Well, okay, I’m glad to know that bit of info, but what about the girl? I read on. It turns out that back in the 60s, Gene Clark was a regular songwriting machine. He could turn out a couple dozen songs a week when he was on a roll. Of course, they weren’t all as good as this one or “8 Miles High.” The word among those in the know is that he would write about one good one per girlfriend. That could still be a lot of good ones, given the attraction young ladies have to musicians. Anyway, just as I felt we were getting somewhere, the trail went stone cold. Sorry I wasn’t able to come up with any names for you. Maybe we’ll hear from somebody out there in the Blogiverse who has the answer. Or a good guess. Or a wild guess. I’m up for anything.

Meanwhile, in looking for a YouTube vid for this song, I made the happy discovery of what has to be the YT resident expert on Byrds footage. Be sure to check out the rest of his channel. And now, without further ado, here’s our feature song:

“I Knew I’d Want You” – video, and lyrics




Byrds box set cover from Wikipedia
And special thanks to Doug in Toronto for the info.

WILL ANYBODY EVER WRITE A SONG ABOUT ICE CHIPS or BACTERIA?

For eons, we evolving humans looked at the stars and wondered, “What the heck are those twinkly little dots up there?” Then later, when we knew a bit more, we wondered, “Are we alone, or might there be somebody up there?” Blessed (or cursed) as we are with fertile imaginations, we then began to speculate on what such fellow occupants of the Universe might be like. Then we began to record our musings in story, movie, and song, and we have to admit that, for the most part, our supposed visiting interplanetary neighbors (that sounds like Weird Al spoofing Alanis Morissette!) haven’t been depicted as all that attractive, or friendly.

In popular music, nearly everyone has had a shot a singing about aliens, from Ella Fitagerald’s “Two Little Men in a Flying Saucer” (1951) right up to the present, with Outkast and Blink 182. The only one who doesn’t seem to think much of the topic is former Eagle Don Henley – “They’re Not Here, They’re Not Coming.” And he doesn’t exactly say he doesn’t believe, he’s just asking why would they bother coming here! Of course, if they don’t want to come here, we make house calls. In fact, we’re up there on Mars right now, looking for LGMs (industry term – Little Green Men). But so far, the only color up there seems to be that endless rusty red. Oh, and a bit of white, which is caused by some little square-ish tidbits of ice, which upon being unearthed (unMarsed?) by the module, promptly sublimated (go directly to Gas, do not pass Liquid, do not collect $200). So, suddenly… it’s gone! All we can hope to find now is maybe a few amino acids, or maybe some bacteria. Personally, if that’s the case, I’m glad we don’t get the module back…I just watched the remake of Andromeda Strain on TV the other night. Critters from other planets can be unattractive, unfriendly and very unhealthy. Anyway, my point is, I think we may have seen…or heard…the best of the alien songs. Once we rolled the ice dice, the romance of it all kinda went out the window. So let’s pause for a moment and remember the good old days, when aliens were little and green, and big and purple.

Sheb Wooley “Purple People Eater” 1958. This is terrific old footage, even if the SFX are a little old-fashioned!

The Byrds “Mr. Spacemen” 1968. Special effects are coming along nicely now, must be the acid.

I looked for the Don Henley song on YouTube. Unfortunately, it’s not there, is it coming?

UPDATE 23 JUN - After the commenter below clued me in about the Weird Al song "Germs", I found this little animation among several at YouTube. With LGM in it, I think you'll agree it's the perfect choice for this topic. And if you're up for it, there's another one on YT which I won't post here that's set to a compilation of scenes from the old X-Files series. Mind you, I was a huge X-phile, but somehow when all the "icky" scenes are strung closely together instead of spread out over dozens of episodes, well, it's a bit much before breakfast...