Byrds, The - Wasn't Born To Follow Lyrics

That “freak out” is fuckin where it’s at.

Easy Rider (1969) brought me here.

Ride in peace Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda Easy Riders now layin' rubber down eternity's highway.. river of steel in the sky.

It’s impossible to listen to this and not feel happy! 😀

Wtf only 400k views,didn’t expect that

In 1966 in an LA interview when John Lennon was asked who was his favourite American band, he said the Byrds. And who could blame him?

Both "Goin' Back" & "Wasn't Born To Follow" were Gerry Goffin & Carole King tunes.

Hell, it's my theme bro

A great Byrd song that should have gotten more airtime RIP Pete .

Great song but it was not on The Notorious Byrd Brothers album.

It most certainly was....track five side one

thanks God, love big

R.I.P Peter Fonda!
I was thinking of you and this song today as I was riding through the desert.

good riddance to trash!!!

Those damn hillbillies shot him 😔

That shaper short is b.s.. You take one of these heffers home and when she gets undressed, it Jabba the HUT DAMN!!!!!!

Peter Fonda sul chopper Harley-Davidson, cinquant'anni fa, in Easy Rider. La mia canzone preferita di una colonna sonora perfetta.

RIP Captain America...Great influence for a 14 yo kid in 1969 to go your own way in life.

Really captures the essence of Easy Rider doesn't it? Lyrical poetic sweetly melodic wasnt born to follow

One of the greatest early treasures in my life was hearing Draft Morning heading into Wasn't Born to Follow.
Oh boy!

wonderful song

Never gets old.

The Byrds have always been super great 😀

Love the flange/phaser part when I pick up the glass pipe!

Country acid rock!!!

esta es una gran banda me imagino estando en la codillera aborilla de un riajuelo bebiendo una cervesa

Absolute classic. Timeless.

Goes from folk/country ish rock to pure psychedelic and back

Easy rider!

Gosh but these guys are good.

Could listen to 1:02 all day

Lots of people saying they live in the wrong generation, but the way I see it(I'm 17) our generation gets to appreciate this music so much more because we know how bad it can be.

"this is one of the Byrd's songs I really liked,they rarely played it on the radio here the seventies,only occasionally i would hear it on the radio in later years,and whenever they showed " Easy Rider" on tv, but I'd rather just hear this song I like their other songs but is my fave,next to "John Riley", & " the Bells of Rhymney",thanks."-🤗.

FLIPPING GREAT >>>>>>

And if you think I'm ready
You may lead me to the chasm where the rivers of our vision
Flow into one another

sub...........lime.............

California sound waves

Easy Rider!

Reminds me of a very special someone, when we were listening to this song in his car while kissing, windows rolled down with the summer night air all around us. Thank you for the great memories, The Byrds.

Great bands around in 1968,now in 2018 lets list all the great bands........ummm........anyone?

gerry o sullivan Rage Against the Machine is the only one I will remember...the sing "Killing in the name of Love" by a more gentile song..."The Ghost of Tom Joad". Trying to hold on...

A free spirit is never born to follow.

It needs to be this version for this song.

Oh I'd rather go and journey where the diamond crest is flowing
And run across the valley beneath the sacred mountain
And wander through the forest, where the trees have leaves of prisms
And break the light in colors that no one knows the names of

And when it's time I'll go and wait beside a legendary fountain
Till I see your form reflected in its clear and jeweled waters
And if you think I'm ready, you may lead me to the chasm
Where the rivers of our vision flow into one another

I will want to dive beneath the white cascading waters
She may beg, she may plead, she may argue with her logic
And mention all the things I'll lose
That really have no value in the end she will surely know
I wasn't born to follow.

Thanks for posting lyrics! For the last 46 years I thought he was saying "castle" instead of "chasm" lol

Take ten million dollars and contribute to the candidates running for Governor or Senator of Wyoming, Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota and South Dakota. Observe the result.

MAGICIAN NORMA 😎 #OITNB✌️

SMASH HIT!! ROCK ON

I'm blessed to have been born in the best generation! LIBERATING!!

Absolute class!👍

written by Carole King !

as was goin back

@Robert Ommundsen she da gal

@Robert Ommundsen Yes,and shows how switched on Goffin King were.That said,it took a band of the calibre of the Byrds to make the song truly alive

@Dave Johnson One can truly say that the Byrds paved the way for the Southern/Country rockers of the early and mid 1970s!

make a career out of covering Bob Dylan, sing: "Wasn't Born To Follow"

They didn't write this one either so they were just following one more person covering wasn't born to follow

Only 5% of recordings were Dylan songs

From my days. What an impression music like this had on me. The open road meant that a breakdown left you miles from anything. But people back then weren't afraid to help.

Sounds better with Crosby.

Qué ambiente tan delicioso pone esta canción, letra de Carole King, y la voz de Mcguinn es tan relajante! Excelente soundtrack de la peli easy ryder.
Me pregunto si el nombre largo del grupo en esta época era debido a que estaban de moda nombres de bandas como los "flying burrito brothers" etc, y para separarse un poco de la imagen de los Byrds de los inicios con David Crosby...

Es el nombre del album, no del grupo. Los Flying Burrito Brothers fueron formados después.

Oitnb brought me here

ROCK!! ON

i hate my music teacher for saying that this is definitely not a psychedelic song >:-I

Muito bom!

Oh I'd rather go and journey where the diamond crest is flowing and
Run across the valley beneath the sacred mountain and
Wander through the forest
Where the the trees have leaves of prisms and break the light in colors
That no one knows the names of

And when it's time I'll go and wait beside a legendary fountain
Till I see your form reflected in it's clear and jewelled waters
And if you think I'm ready
You may lead me to the chasm where the rivers of our vision
Flow into one another

I will want to die beneath the white cascading waters
She may beg, she may plead, she may argue with her logic
And then she'll know the things I learned
That really have no value in the end she will surely know
I wasn't born to follow

Thank you, Carole King & Gerry Goffin--and the Byrds for this definitive version.

Dive beneath, not die beneath 🤪

A short work of pure genius. From the album that was Roger McGuinns Sgt. Pepper.

Super song!

In the end she will surely know

well done Norma!

hey man, free bird

Psychedelic, maaaaannn

As psychedelic as it comes!

noah ? is that you??

bellissima

don't forget the introspective lyrics were by Gerry Goffin

Dig that Sitar. First rock album W/Sitar. Yes, before George.

starman714 Actually Harrison first played the sitar in '65 on "Norwegian Wood."

Does anyone know music or it's history? The song on Revolver was called Love You Too. the sitar was actually used by George Harrison before that on Rubber Soul on Norwegian Wood in 1965. The sitar was NOT used on this Byrds track either. The technique they used was called ''flanging'', which was a technique of distorting a musical instrument and in this case it was the guitar. A really great example of flanging can be found on this record, which dates from around 1960. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlE6eHEENg4

John McNally Actually the song was called “Love You To.”

That's right. Just a typo. Great song though from a great album.

Okay just to clear this up for everyone; there is no sitar on this, only heavily fuzzed 12 string guitar heard in the left channel of the middle bridge. This bridge is also being flanged on the master track (effecting every track in the song) which at the time involved running tape reels and variating speed in order to create the filter sweep and hence the whooshing effect. No sitar at all. The sitar was first played in popular music by George Harrison in 1965 on Norwegian Wood, a song on Rubber Soul.

This was when rock & roll was great!!

ROCK N ROLL IS STILL GREAT. BEST MUSIC EVER..............
.

I swear I was born in the wrong generation.

Do something to reshape the times you live in.

You had to be a teenager in the 60s like me. 67on 29th October.

@Pyro Bombastic Flow Too many idiots...

@A D Yes. A counter culture revolution might be spearheaded by pewdiepie in our times.

steelyman08 haha, anything is possible these days. A paradigm shift is already occurring.

Loved this from the first time I heard it on Easy Rider. Didn't know it was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin....

Thundergod129 all so initially recorded by the Monkees, just the musical parts though.

NEED A LONGER VERSION!

thanks carol and gerry !

the real feelings are the best !

Orange Is the New Black

Easy rider

MAGIC NORMA

great guitar work and harmonies here--used in the film Easy Rider--fantastic piece of music

Its a beautiful song with such soothing music thought provoking lyrics.

Loved the film "Easy Rider". Isn't that the film in which Jack Nicholson got his break?

+D Thomas  Yeah!

No lol

Google my man

That was earlier in "Five East Pieces."

The Little Shop of Horrors - 1960

The very Best

Easy Rider (y)

I wish that riff was at Least 1 Minute longer!

Same here

As good as any 2:05 ever recorded.  R.I.P. Gerry Goffin.

A perfect song. The timbre of the voices; the lyrics; the brevity of the performance. It has it's own niche. 

Very pleasant. The Byrds were very talented with transcending Folk with Psycheadelia in the 60's. That 'pulse' is what made them popular in the 60's. The L.A scene as well as the San Francisco scene really established more than a musical movement, but more of that consciousness that was growing back then. They were more than just that spaced out appearance that I remember on the "Ed Sullivan show (Good God like Ed was "Tuned in" ) !  I  still dig it!

LOve the Byrds!

The ultimate song for the free spirited.

one of the great songs ever

+stephen hanson (“quadrunner”) still is :))

oh please.

Why don't you show the cover of "The ballad of easy rider" which was completely done by the latter Byrds than giving credit to the earlier Byrds?  Country rock and this song was the genesis of Byrds guitarist Clarence White. The haunting guitar rift in this song was created by Clarence connecting his guitar amp to a Leslie Speaker, used on electric organs. No one had ever tried that new idea before.

Dear Henry, I never heard that but was wondering for long how they (at that time) arranged the sound. Thanks. Alf

@Alf Hofstetter Hello Alf, It was John York a former Byrd who discusses the genius of Clarence White and using a Leslie Speaker. On YouTube search "The Byrds: John York Part 16". I was fortunate once to have had a chance to speak with Clarence for a few minutes following a Byrds concert. Sitting literally at his feet during the show. You could tell he was a perfectionist and fussy for detail from his playing to his appearance. I found him humble, soft spoken and happy to answer anything I asked about himself, his guitar and playing style.  The most memorable few minutes of my life.  Sure wish he was still around today.  A very gifted person and likely loyal friend to all who knew him.

@henry nevins Before joining the Byrds Clarence White was already well known and respected as a talented bluegrass guitarist from the late '50s and early '60s having played with his brothers in The Kentucky Colonels. They even appeared on two episodes of the "Andy Griffin Show".  He innovated the "flat picking" style.  Also was a session guitarist on albums for artists such as Linda Ronstadt.

+henry nevins RIP Clarence. His influence still shines today. I love this song.

henry nevins I wondered about that sound. Thanks for the explanation, I though it was a citar or a pedal steel guitar👌

gotta love that flanger!