rashbre central: wasn't born to follow

Friday, 26 July 2024

wasn't born to follow

So we had Roger McGuinn from the Byrds on the crossing and he was only too pleased to tell of his very varied musical career. 

Fascinating that some of the Byrds setup was entirely pre-meditated. They studied the Beatles, and watched a Beatles movie to write down the names of each of the instruments being played. Oblong-sunshaded McGuinn uses a 12 string Rickenbacker - which looks deceptively like a 6 string.

Then, they acquired suitable hairstyles and found the Bob Dylan track, fresh at the time, which became their greatest hit. McGuinn is a highly accomplished musician and decided to adapt the tune to a Beatles-esque lead line and listened to various twiddles of George Harrison to get a suitable accompaniment to the song. They played it back to Dylan and made the song, which was 2 minutes and 40 seconds of history.

Roger McGuinn had played with many other bands and singers before this and knew the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Ritchie Havens, Barry McGuire, and many of the troubadours who played in Greenwich Village. He even played the guitar for Simon and Garfunkel on their Sounds of Silence demo.

A deep dive into McGuinn soon yields Dylan Baez and McGuinn playing together.

The 'Byrds' mis-spelling was also in deference to the Beatles.

And its fascinating to see him  start out as a jobbing muso playing 12 string and banjo for other acts.

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