 On November 17 , 1971 , less than five months after the release of Byrdmaniax , the Byrds issued their eleventh studio album , Farther Along . The album was met with slightly more enthusiastic reviews than its predecessor but nevertheless , only managed to climb to number 152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart , while failing to reach the charts in the United Kingdom altogether . Musically , the album found the Byrds beginning to move away from their country rock sound — although at least half the album still bore a strong country influence — and instead , embrace a style indebted to 1950s rock ' n ' roll music . The Skip Battin and Kim Fowley penned song " America 's Great National Pastime " was taken from the album and released as a single in late November , but it failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic . Johnny Rogan has concluded that , ultimately , the rapidity with which the Byrds planned and recorded Farther Along resulted in an album that was just as flawed as Byrdmaniax and as a result , it failed to rehabilitate the band 's ailing commercial fortunes or increase their declining audience . The album 's title track , sung by White with the rest of the group harmonizing , would later become a poignant and prophetic epitaph for the guitarist when it was sung by ex @-@ Byrd Gram Parsons and the Eagles ' Bernie Leadon at White 's funeral in July 1973 . 
