Byrds Nyrds: Talk about anything Byrds related here (Part 03)

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...s-as-random-does.351157/page-40#post-10945413

 

Wow! Look what turned up! Milestones video!

http://vk.com/video_ext.php?oid=-72345719&id=168851823&hash=59da2ab455033955&hd=1

 

Cool!!!

 

There's a great great series of interviews on Youtube with Gene Parsons of the latter day Byrds. Very fun. Gene is a musician's musician, soft spoken but very wise, and of course was a very close friend of Clarence White. It's wonderful to hear him relate some of these stories.



The interviews cover Gene's time in the band from Dr. Byrds through Father Along.

 

Something else I have never seen turned up on You Tube - enjoy! Anyone know the date?

 

Anyone heard any updates about Volume Two of "Requiem For the Timeless?"

 

Cool! Must be 1967, though - same tour that yielded the well-known lip-synch footage from Swedish TV.

 

Gene sure isn't real articulate about country rock in part 1 there. Donnie and Marie were at least melodic when they said 4 times in the space of a minute that its a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/16/how-we-made-eight-miles-high-the-byrds

I cannot believe the S**T McGuinn sprouts here! Pretty much ruined my breakfast.

"At the same time, Gene Clark [rhythm guitar] had some chords and a vague melody, which went into the more regular structure of Eight Miles High. In later years, Gene started to fantasise that he wrote the whole song. That wasn’t the case: it was a collaborative effort between myself, Gene and David Crosby [vocals, rhythm guitar]. The previous year, 1965, we’d been on a trip to England. It was our first time on a plane, and I had the idea of writing a song about it. Gene asked: “How high do you think that plane was flying?” I thought about seven miles, but the Beatles had a song called Eight Days a Week, so we changed it to Eight Miles High because we thought that would be cooler."

 

McGuinn's campaign to minimize, marginalize or otherwise belittle Gene's contributions continues apace. The use of the word "fantasise" here is particularly despicable--and completely inaccurate. Gene never claimed any such thing--not in any quotation I've ever heard or read.
Methinks Roger is projecting.

Just when I think I'm starting to like the guy he ups and says this. It would be interesting to know whether this quote is old or recent.

 

To play devil's advocate, is there any actual proof to the contrary?

 

Yeah, it's weird, right? Roger somewhere deep inside still holds a grudge of some sort related to Gene. I mean, Roger could have just blabbed away about writing the song along with Gene and David. But instead, he had to say something to put down Gene: "In later years, Gene started to fantasise that he wrote the whole song. That wasn’t the case". WHY did Roger have to say that? Completely unnecessary.

Arnie

 

It's interesting that in the selfsame article, Crosby calls some of McGuinn's memories into question, albeit in the most diplomatic "don't-want-to-piss-Roger-off-when-I'm-still-harboring-hopes-of-a-reunion" way possible:
"I thought it was Gene’s idea to write a song about our trip to London – he was a wonderful, talented man. But if Roger says it was his idea, maybe it was."

 

I've held up the collaborative aspect of the song before, but this is just mean-spirited. Isn't it enough for McGuinn to be proud of that fantastic arrangement?

 

Here's Gene's account of how 8MH was written, from 1978. He hardly is claiming to have written the song entirely by himself. In fact, his account is fairly similar to Roger's, with the only real bone of contention being whether Roger helped with the lyrics or not. Roger's "fantasize" comment is completely uncalled-for, and pretty underhanded given Gene can't defend himself anymore:

"I started writing a poem that didn't have any music. And the poem had words to it like ' Eight miles high, and when you touch down, you find that it's stranger than known'. I was into it because I was writing about a trip we had just done to England and the culture shock going over there and being very famous and having to live up to that. So I just came up with a couple of chords to play the poem to Roger and David with. We had been listening to these tapes of Indian music, Ravi Shankar, and John Coltrane all this time because we enjoyed listening to that kind of music, it was good traveling music. And Roger, I remember, suggested, 'Well, why don't we take that poem and put it to this kind of jazz rhythm and do the kind of Coltrane licks in it' because it was so into our heads. So then David came in and said 'Yeah, that sounds good. Let's arrange this', and it ended up the three of us collaborating on the song and that became 'Eight Miles High', which was the influence that we got from Coltrane's 'Africa Brass' and 'India'.

I wrote all the words except for one line that David wrote ' Rain gray town, known for its sound' and then Roger arranged it, basically, so I had to part something with those guys. There were a lot of images I got from thinking and remembering things we'd done on the English tour. I decided that I wasn't going to get a single out of this deal, because I'd already written so many songs with this group that they're gonna grab up the singles for their own stuff, you know, so I slit it with them so I could get a single. That and they really did help me write it, too."

 

Never saw that before . Way cool.

 

I'm sure some here have read this before, but it's worth throwing into the stew for this discussion.

• In his book Echoes, Gene Clark said that he wrote the song on his own with David Crosby coming up with one key line ("Rain gray town, known for its sound"), and Roger McGuinn arranging the song with help from Crosby. In the Forgotten Hits newsletter, McGuinn replied: "Not true! The whole theme was my idea... Gene would never have written a song about flying. I came up with the line 'Six miles high and when you touch down.' We later changed that to Eight because of the Beatles song "Eight Days a Week." I came up with several other lines as well. And what would the song be without the Rickenbacker 12-string breaks?" (Thanks to Kent at the Forgotten Hits newsletter, which you can join at [email protected].)

 

"His book Echoes"?

 

The only way I'd believe McGuinn had a major role in writing Eight Miles High is if there was a sea-shanty demo version out there - He gets points for brilliant arranging, inspired guitar playing, but he's not a songwriter

 

I would have thought that too, except for "5 D", which is quite wonderous in its own way.

 

Thanks! Imagine that taking the place of 'Hey Joe" on 5D or "Mind gardens" on YTY.

 

From everything I've read, Roger filled out the music from Gene's initial chords and sketches and contributed a song-defining guitar part. David contributed a verse.

This is how collaborations work.

Why do we always have to denigrate Roger to we can elevate Gene? And ... here we all come half a century later (almost) thinking we know the story. WE DON'T.

 

All three names are listed as composers. End of story.

 

But they keep moving around the order of those 3 names. ... Arnie

 

True dat.