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Released: July 18, 1966


Rating: 3.936 (average of 19 ratings)


Genre: rock > folk


Quotable: --


Album Tracks:

  1. 5D (Fifth Dimension) (McGuinn)
  2. Wild Mountain Thyme (traditional)
  3. Mr. Spaceman (McGuinn)
  4. I See You (Crosby / McGuinn)
  5. What’s Happening?!?! (Crosby)
  6. I Come and Stand at Every Door (?)
  7. Eight Miles High (Clark/ Crosby / McGuinn)
  8. Hey Joe (Powers / Roberts)
  9. Captain Soul (Clarke / Crosby / Hillman / McGuinn)
  10. John Riley (Gibson)
  11. 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) (McGuinn)


Total Running Time: 38:26


Sales:

sales in U.S. only --
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated --


Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 24
peak on U.K. album chart 27


Singles/ Hit Songs:

  • Eight Miles High (3/14/66) #14 US, #24 UK
  • 5D (Fifth Dimension) (6/13/66) #44 US
  • Mr. Spaceman (9/6/66) #36 US


Notes: A CD reissue added “I Know My Rider,” “Psychodrama City,” two versions of “Why,” and alternate versions of “Eight Miles High” and “John Riley.”


Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.


Fifth Dimension
The Byrds
Review:
“Although the Byrds’ Fifth Dimension was wildly uneven, its high points were as innovative as any rock music being recorded in 1966. Immaculate folk-rock was still present in their superb arrangements of the traditional songs Wild Mountain Thyme and John Riley” (Unterberger).

“For the originals, they devised some of the first and best psychedelic rock, often drawing from the influence of Indian raga in the guitar arrangements. Eight Miles High, with its astral lyrics, pumping bassline, and fractured guitar solo, was a Top 20 hit, and one of the greatest singles of the '60s” (Unterberger).

“The minor hit title track and the country-rock-tinged Mr. Spaceman are among their best songs; I See You has great 12-string psychedelic guitar solos; and I Come and Stand at Every Door is an unusual and moving update of a traditional rock tune, with new lyrics pleading for peace in the nuclear age” (Unterberger).

“At the same time, the R&B instrumental Captain Soul was a throwaway, Hey Joe not nearly as good as the versions by the Leaves or Jimi Hendrix, and What’s Happening?!?! the earliest example of David Crosby's disagreeably vapid hippie ethos. These weak spots keep Fifth Dimension from attaining truly classic status” (Unterberger).


Review Source(s):


Related DMDB Links:

Previous Album: Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965) The Byrds’ DMDB page Next Album: Younger Than Yesterday (1967)
Gene Clark’s DMDB page Michael Clarke’s DMDB page David Crosby’s DMDB page Chris Hillman’s DMDB page Roger McGuinn’s DMDB page


Last updated April 7, 2008.