Roger McGuinn (1973)

McGuinn still can’t write, but having Bob Dylan play harmonica on an opening track that sounds like a Dylan cover almost works. Other minor pleasures are to be found: a catchy melody on “M’Linda,” a random children’s chorus popping up on “Stone,” a few traditionals given nice 70s-rock arrangements. But the original five Byrds reunite (again) for “My New Woman” only to be drowned out by a gratuitous sax, and while “Lost My Drivin’ Wheel” fares better, it makes one miss Clarence White and Gram Parsons, who brought more fire to a version inexplicably left off Farther Along. “Hannoi Hannah” is about a mean joke played on a prostitute (typically classy lyrics by Jacques Levy), and the Moog experiment “Time Cube” is a mean joke played on the listener. So things aren’t great here—and on subsequent McGuinn solo efforts, they’d only rarely get better.