Gene Parsons his love-lorn ballads. McGuinn and Skip Battin both do novelty songs, though in their more serious moments Battin's songs tend to have a spiritual cast, while Roger's tend to be pastel tributes to women.
Farther Along opens with McGuinn's "Tiffany Queen," a "Johnny B. Goode"-based "115th Dream"–a series of surreal nonsequiturs with "a Tiffany lamp overhead" as the refrain. "Get Down Your Line" is Parsons' "Gunga Din" or "There Must Be Someone" or "Yesterday's Train" this time around, although the chorus is multi-voiced and up-tempo. "Farther Along," laced with acoustic guitar and mandolin, is this album's "Oil In My Lamp" or "My Destiny." "B.B. Class Road" is dedicated to the road managers of the world, and is, I suppose, a bit of recognition long overdue. It is probably sung by one of the Byrds' own roadies–either Stuart Dawson or Jimmi Seiter–but is unfortunately postured and strident. "Bugler" perpetuates the tradition of Byrds animal songs like "Old Blue" and "Chestnut Mare," and like the other two is a childhood idyll. Clarence intones, "Bugler, bugler, bless your hide/Jesus gonna take you for a chariot ride ..."
"America's Great National Pastime" is a Battin-Kim Fowley written enumeration of such, and is sung in Skip's strangely nasal, elfin voice. "Antique Sandy" is one of Roger's preternatural creatures; his singing here is gentle and utterly typical. Likewise is "Precious Kate," Farther Along's "Kathleen's Song" or "Pale Blue," with, as a bonus, the Byrds' unique guitar texture. "So Fine," an unnecessary resuscitation of the Fiestas hit, was no doubt more fun to perform than to listen to. Its treatment qualifies it, like "Tunnel of Love" on Byrdmaniax, as another novelty song. "Lazy Waters" posits youth as the time for wisdom in one's life and pleads for its return. It is this record's "Absolute Happiness" and on it Battin's peculiar voice works personally and well. "Bristol Steam Convention Blues," like "Nashville West" and "Green Apple Quick Step," is an instrumental. Today, the occasional Byrds breakdown is more likely to be bluegrass than nervous.
In case you haven't already noticed, the key to all of this is that McGuinn (not to mention his 12-string and the traditional
