The Byrds: Gene Parsons (vocals, guitar, 5-string banjo, drums); Roger McGuinn (vocals, guitar, synthesizer); Clarence White (vocals, guitar); John York (vocals, bass).

Producer: Terry Melcher.

Reissue producer: Bob Irwin.

Recorded between June 17, 1969 and August 26, 1969. Includes liner notes by David Fricke and Johnny Rogan.

If Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde found Roger McGuinn having to re-create the Byrds after massive personnel turnovers (and not having an easy time of it), Ballad of Easy Rider was the album where the new lineup really hit its stride. Gracefully moving back and forth between serene folk-rock (the title cut, still one of McGuinn's most beautiful melodies), sure-footed rock & roll ("Jesus Is Just All Right"), heartfelt country-rock ("Oil In My Lamp" and "Tulsa County"), and even a dash of R&B (the unexpectedly funky "Fido," which even features a percussion solo), Ballad of Easy Rider sounds confident and committed where Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde often seemed tentative. The band sounds tight, self-assured, and fully in touch with the music's emotional palette, and Clarence White's guitar work is truly a pleasure to hear (if Roger McGuinn's fabled 12-string work seems to take a back seat to White's superb string bends, it is doubtful that any but the most fanatical fans would think to object). While not generally regarded as one of the group's major works, in retrospect this release stands alongside Untitled as the finest work of the Byrds' final period. ~ Mark Deming

By 1969, the Byrds had already been through the Gram Parsons-fired country rock innovations of SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO, and had just lost Chris Hillman, the last original member except for Roger McGuinn. McGuinn was involved in so many extracurricular activities that he found little time to compose new material for EASY RIDER. His sole writing credit is the stellar title tune, co-written with Dylan for the famous biker film that gives this album its name (disliking the film, Dylan removed his name from the song). Fortuitously, McGuinn's taste in cover material and the compositional abilities of his bandmates more than made up for his lack of new material.

McGuinn continued his experiments with combining old and new on an imaginative version of the traditional "Jack Tarr The Sailor," laced with synthesizer at a time when that instrument was barely being utilized in rock. Gene Parsons kicks in with one of the finest tunes of his career, "Gunga Din," a self-referential country-rocker that recalls the band's recent musical past. The balance of the album is a mixture of gentle folk-rock (Dylan and Woody Guthrie covers) and unabashed weirdness (the interstellar experimentalism of "Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins." All of it is eminently listenable.