As there was a four-CD box set of
the Byrds back in 1990, the point of putting out another four-CD
Byrds box set about 15 years later wasn't all that clear, unless it was a mercenary exercise to get more mileage of the band's durable catalog. Yet appear this 2006 box set did, with many of the same tracks that had appeared on the 1990
Byrds box set, though there are some appreciable differences. The span of
There Is a Season is a little wider, taking in some of the demos they recorded prior to the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single, and also fitting in a couple of
Gene Clark songs from their 1973 reunion album. While all the hit singles and most of the group's most popular album tracks are on both sets, the secondary songs filling out the boxes vary, with
There Is a Season putting out some material that wasn't officially issued until after the 1990 box set (on expanded CD editions of their albums and
Live at the Fillmore West February 1969). Conversely, the earlier box set has some LP cuts and obscurities that failed to make the cut for
There Is a Season.