Posted on 10/15/2010 5:02:02 PM PDT by Reaganite Republican
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. This pioneering group underwent numerous personnel changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (aka Jim McGuinn) remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973, while also featuring David Crosby for three seperate stints.
Although they only managed to attain the commercial success on the scale of contemporary greats like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones for a fairly brief period (1965–66), time has treated their work well... as The Byrds are today considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 60s.
Initially, they pioneered the musical genre of folk rock, melding the influence of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary and traditional folk music. As the 1960s progressed, the band were also influential in originating psychedelic rock, raga rock, and country rock.
The Byrds' signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar has continued to be influential on popular music up to the present day. The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Byrds #45 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
Among the band's most enduring songs are their electric-cover versions of folk greats Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn!, along with the self-penned originals, I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, Eight Miles High, So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star, Ballad of Easy Rider and Chestnut Mare.
They covered quite a number of Dylan tunes in electric actually, bringing a lot to the material with variations of their own signature sound... like my own lifelong favorite, lip-synched here on the Ed Sullivan Show...
More/video at Reaganite Republican
My back pages....
12 string...
Love it...
And who can forget the fad started by McGuinn’s “Byrd” sunglasses. Even John Lennon wore them.
Guinn was wild, he even had a 7-string thing with a 2nd G
He said he discovered their jangly guitar sound “by mistake” on his old Rick
One of my absolute favorite bands and group of musicians! Brilliant. In my top 5 of all time.
Mr. Spaceman. : - D
How can someone write an article about the Byrds and not mention Gram Parsons?
Eight Miles High, loved it. Thanks for bringing back some old memories.
Sorry! Point taken... I was kind of sticking to 1965 on this one
I read Guinn was a big flying and airplane enthusiast, thus “Byrds” and “8 Miles High”- fwiw
Oh yeah, he came along later.
So true. So did I. My purple lenses were all that.
GP was with them for one album and perhaps one tour. Then splitsville.
Really? I thought Eight Miles High meant something else...not that I would know anything about that ; )
Only? Yeah to bad the Beatles and Stones never really made it big. I mean not like the Dave Clark Five or the Turtles.
(yes I know, he meant "Never")
Everyone had those freakin moptop haircuts back then....LOL.
The Byrds, the Animals, the Stones, the Turtles, Chad n Jeremy, the Yardbirds, the Who....moptops all of them. Glad they got over it quick.
Kudos to Art Garfunkel for never having a moptop.
Somebody approached Dylan at a party with a lyric for a new song. Dylan looked at the words:
The river flows
It flows to the sea
Wherever that river goes
That's where I want to be
Dylan then gave the guy the note back and said: "Give it to McQuinn, he can do something with it."
The song became "The Ballad of Easy Rider"
Epic band - I think I own just about every vinyl LP ever produced by the Byrds, including the anthologies and anthologies of anthologies.
IIRC, “Eight Miles High” won an award for top JAZZ recording the year it came out.
Some unheralded but dynamite (IMO) Byrds recordings -
“Pretty Boy Floyd”
“Truck Stop Girl”
“Baby Blue”
“Old John Robertson”
and check out their album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” - a real sleeper.
..... still play them regularly.
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