10 More Rock Music Albums That Were Way Ahead Of Their Time
7. Sweetheart Of The Rodeo - The Byrds
You might know The Byrds for their jangly guitar pop staples Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn! That's what they were primarily famous for in the 1960s, so imagine how shocked everyone was when they released a country album.
In 1968, the group put out Sweetheart of the Rodeo, a Nashville-infused rock record produced with the help of legendary country artist Gram Parsons. Parsons was on a crusade to make his preferred style of music accessible to a younger audience and, with some help from his new friends, that's exactly what he did.
It's just a shame nobody bought it.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo was the band's worst-performing record to date, as conventional music listeners couldn't get into it. As for the country fans, well they weren't gonna let some long-haired ya-hoos tell them what to do, daggummit!
Just think about how big country rock would become after this album was released. The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt led the genre forward in the '70s, whilst the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd took things a little further and helped develop Southern rock.
And it can all be traced back to this one album that nobody liked.