Everything Flows: Chestnut Mare

Trust me #56
Chestnut Mare by The Byrds

I first read about Chestnut Mare by The Byrds in an old NME / Melody Maker that I bought in Virginia Galleries in Glasgow. There was a shop that sold band t-shirts, posters and old music weeklies, so I got a stack of vintage NME and Melody Maker's that featured The Stone Roses, as I was so head over heels in love with the band. I'm guessing this was in 1992 when I'd regularly head into Glasgow on a Saturday to walk round town and visit the likes of FLIP clothing and Missing Records with the £10 or so I'd make every week from a bacon round on a Friday after school.

The NME (cover below) followed the Roses out on a European tour and the journalist talked enthusiastically about the tunes and artists played by the band on their bus; Hendrix, The Misunderstood, Burning Spear and Chestnut Mare by The Byrds.

In the months ahead I bought a CD compilation of The Misunderstood which had magnificent sleeve notes that talked of a radio session where they left their guitars feeding back to walk out of the studio for a cigarette break and then returned to just keep on playing. Check their song Never Had A Girl (Like You Before). CLICK HERE

20 Essential Tracks by The Byrds was the compilation I bought by The Byrds. What a fantastic introduction to the band! Teenage Fanclub had covered Mr Tambourine Man and I had a cassette of them doing that from the Reading Festival. With endorsements from both the Roses and the Fanclub, it was clear that The Byrds were a band I should be checking out.

Of course I fell for Roger McGuinn's chiming 12-string Rickenbacker guitar sound - just as Squire, Blake and McGinley clearly had. The Dylan covers (I'd go on to buy The Byrds Play Dylan) and the early singles were impeccable. Then you had the later day stuff like the beautiful Ballad of Easy Rider and then the song mentioned in the NME article - the stunning Chestnut Mare.

Chestnut Mare really stood out on the compilation as it sounded so different to everything else; the sound of McGuinn singing about trying to catch and tame a wild horse; always alone, never with a herd, prettiest mare I've ever seen. What a stop-you-in-your-tracks sound - McGuinn singing over his guitar before the rest of the band fall in as he sings the first short chorus, that The Byrds reach in just 18-seconds!

I'm going to catch that horse if I can

And when I do I'll give her my brand

Things slow down again to allow McGuinn to talk about chasing this mare for weeks,

I'd catch a glimpse of her every once in a while

Takin' her meal, or bathing

A fine lady

McGuinn then goes on to talk about the day he got real close, so he snuck up on her nice and easy, got my rope out and I flung it in the air

McGuinn's voice rises slightly with the excitement of recounting this moment, and after a second The Byrds really are in full flight for the full extended chorus. Listen to those guitars!

I'm going to catch that horse if I can

And when I do, I'll give her my brand

And we'll be friends for life

She'll be just like a wife

I'm going to catch that horse if I can

Continuing his tale, McGuinn talks about catching the mare, taking a chance and jumping on.

And she takes off, runnin' up on to the ridge

Higher than I've ever been before

His mare is then spooked by a sidewinder all coiled and ready to strike and his mare jumps off the edge, me holdin' on

Then there is a hazy psychedelic 2-verse middle section (lasting for almost a full minute from 2-minutes 16 seconds) as McGuinn and his mare appear to be gliding and riding over the moon, straight for the sun, before they start to fall ...

That glorious chorus kicks in again, before McGuinn resumes his story ... they have fallen 'bout a mile down I'd say and they land in this little pool of water 'bout six feet wide and one foot deep. I love the way McGuinn describes the force with which they hit it - we splashed it dry.

That's when I lost my hold and she got away

But I'm gonna try to get her again some day

I love the urgency in the way Roger sings that last line and then for the final chorus. McGuinn's 12-string combines gloriously with Clarence White's country-style acoustic and electric guitar picking, there is also the occasional delightful slide. Chestnut Mare is a beautifully told and sung tale, the band play sublimely and the production is simply divine.

Revisiting this song for my Trust Me section has led to me listening to The Byrds almost exclusively for around a week. I've been adding quite a few songs to my Never Ending Mixtape, including Wasn't Born To Follow, Draft Morning and One Hundred Years from Now.

Chestnut Mare is an incredible song, originally written in 1969 for a country rock musical that Roger McGuinn was working on. It never came about ... maybe it will some day.

In the meantime, I hope this blog causes you to go on a Byrds binge like I have. Chestnut Mare is added to my Trust Me playlist. You can find a list of all the songs on it to date below, along with links to the blogs.

Search for Everything Flows - Trust Me on Spotify , or CLICK HERE

The Byrds - Chestnut Mare (audio - full version)

The Byrds - Chestnut Mare (live)