As the world stepped into a new decade, nearly everyone had given up on the Byrds ever releasing that definitive awe inspiring album. Certainly the band had dropped many significant singles on us over the years, songs laced with jangling guitars and psychedelic inspirations, along with nods to their musical heroes.The Byrds were one of the most unstable bands to rise from the mid 60’s, composed of a group of musicians who seemed dead set on being anyone other than who they were. David Crosby wanted to be a Beatle, while Gene Clark fancied himself a latter-day saint in the wandering boots of Mr. Dylan, then there was Roger McGuinn, who just didn’t know who he was period, seeming to perpetually be searching for himself to this very day. Nevertheless, the song “Chestnut Mare” became a staple of progressive radio, a dreamy five minute number that spun out like like a short novel, filled with the western imagery of a half forgotten time in America, a number that caused people to stop and listen with near reverence. “Chestnut Mare” was nothing short of hypnotic harmonic brilliance, skillfully balanced and dispensed with a linear movement that was carried forth by by Roger’s twelve string Rickenbacker. There is a backstory to this number, though few at the time were aware of it. “Chestnut Mare” was not a new song, most of the instrumentation had been penned back in the early 60’s, at least the Bach-esque middle section was, and then fleshed out to be used as part of a musical. Seems that McGuinn and psychologist Jacques Levy were attempting to work out their own production of Henrik Ibsen’s five act play written in 1867, though moved the setting from Norway to some anonymous lonesome spot in the American west, to be titled ‘Gene Tryp’.There’ve been many interpretations of the song, where of course the most obvious is merely a glimpse of a literal cowboy catching and taming a beautiful horse. Yet on the flip side, with the rise of women’s rights, many saw the song as rather degrading, with the taming and branding (a wedding ring) of the horse belaying the unequal relationship between women and men in marriage, if not in society as a whole. Others claim that the number was nothing more than McGuinn’s chiming guitar standing side by side with mild countrified acoustic finger picking, a bit of simply profound guitar interplay between McGuinn’s Rickenbacker and White’s acoustic Martin during the emotional breakdown section, that continued the Byrds’ wayward search for freedom and exploration. Still, others saw the song as a lament for the taming of America, where the last vestiges of this country’s spirit fell under control of the hand of man, an analogy for the passing of untamed nature.Regardless of what one thought of the Byrds, “Chestnut Mare” was another in a short string of enchanting songs that gave the band yet another chance at securing sincere public acclaim, the hoped for defining album that had eluded them … though of course, it didn’t. Nevertheless, there’s a spot for this song somewhere in everyone’s collection of singles, as it’s a number that simply can’t be overlooked.Review by Jenell Kesler