It was there that I came to the notice of Gene Clark and David Crosby who were listening to the same records that I was and we instantly became friends and decided to form a band to sing folk and Country songs in a Beatles type style. It was an exciting time, playing coffee houses and folk clubs but when I first started adding Beatles songs to my set list and then singing my own songs in that ‘style’ it upset the traditionalists and I found work increasingly hard to come by until I got a residency at the Troubadour in LA. That record and my savings gave me enough money to leave New York for California where I set about becoming a folk-singer. It was also a hit in Australia by a singer called Jimmy Hannan and it was the Gibb Brothers (Bee Gees) who sang the harmonies! A few of my songs did get recorded but only one ‘ Beach Ball’ was actually a hit, by a band called The City Surfers which was really me playing guitar and a bunch of friends. At that time Surf music was just beginning to become popular so that was what I was influenced by. It wasn’t the hardest work I’ve ever done but was a fantastic learning experience in the actual mechanics of songwriting. I had to sit in my office all day listening to the radio and trying to copy the hits. Singing harmonies with someone like him, was a dream come true for me and when Bobby realised that his days were numbered as a Pop singer he moved into the Brill Building and took me with him. “Roger it’s a little known fact that you started your career with Bobby Darin and later worked in the Brill Building as a songwriter for him.” The conversation began with the obligatory background questions: With Roger’s upcoming UK tour on the horizon, I was honoured to interview him on your behalf.
#List of roger mcguinn songs series
The Byrds finally went their separate ways in 1973 and the heart of the band, Roger McGuinn subsequently released a series of solo records over the next decade and toured sporadically. In the 1980’s the bands on the Postcard Records roster in Scotland (Aztec Camera, Orange Juice etc) not only appropriated the Byrds sound but their dress sense too! Then if you jump forward to the late 20th Century you can hear McGuinn’s signature jingle-jangle 12 string guitar sound in the music of REM, Teenage Fanclub, Crowded House and even the Smiths.
What I can say, is that he not only influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the early to mid 1960’s, while spawning the embryonic Country-Rock and what was to become known as the West Coast Sound but with the ‘ Notorious Byrd Brothers’ album in 1968 it can be argued that he also had a hand in the birth of Psychedelia. It’s difficult to quantify the impact that Roger McGuinn had on popular music during his time with the Byrds over 40 years ago.
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