The Byrds Wikipedia page Michael Clarke gained control in the '80s simply through touring under the name, and legally that somehow gave him ownership. Crosby obtained the rights from Clarke's estate in 2002. I recall reading in the '80s, when Time magazine used "Turn Turn Turn" in a heavy ad campaign, that McGuinn had gotten $500K for use of the song. So whoever owned the rights to the Byrds' name at the time, McGuinn apparently still controlled the music rights.
Apart from what came out of his mouth, Crosby had no say in what was or was not included in the film. It helps nothing to speculate otherwise. Crosby is a great interviewee; he had genuinely honest and insightful things to contribute. Is that so hard to accept?
The Byrds played "Lady Friend" on the Tonight Show in 1967 to promote its single release. IIRC Carson was off that week so Bob Newhart was the guest host. He did not have much regard for the Byrds (or rock music in general) and made some snide remarks as the Byrds struck up "Lady Friend" about "hearing them tuning up now." (Because of McGuinn's 12-string, the Byrds were [in]famous in the early years for tuning up on stage and they may have spent a while doing this off-mic and off camera.) Crosby replied, "We tune because we care." Audio of this performance is on Youtube -- or was, at one point. It began with Crosby's reply. But I believe no video has turned up. It was an OK performance, IMO better than the Monterey one.
Does Wiki site a source for this? My understanding is that McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman reasserted the rights to use the name in 1990 by using it both live and for recordings around the time of the 1990 box set. So if Crosby were now to have the rights to the name he would have had to have bought out the others. Unless wikipedia cites a source for a piece of information, and you verify it from that source, there is no reason to believe something you read there is necessarily accurate. Also, McGuinn would never had had the rights to the recording of Turn Turn Turn unless he bought it from Columbia at some point. And Pete Seeger would have had the rights to the composition. Actually kind of surprised if he licensed it for an ad campaign. This was an ad for Time magazine?
A TV ad campaign I read that at the time (possibly in The Village Voice) that McGuinn was paid $500K for it
I recently picked up "Another Dimension" at a record show and was very pleasantly surprised. The sound quality of most it is just amazing and hearing the (mostly) instrumental tracks is a lot more interesting and enjoyable than I was expecting. The band sounds really good here.
If you're as obsessed as I am with the band's creative process vis-a-vis "Eight Miles High" then it's indispensable. It's the missing link between the raucous RCA version from December '65 and the masterpiece recorded a month later. You can tell that they're almost there, Michael especially.
I love Michael's playing on this! He's trying out so many odd fills and styles. A lot of people want to critique his playing but he really was doing things that matched musically with the free form attitude the group had at the time. Even when everyone gets a little lost towards the end of "Psychodrama City" it still seems correct for them to be getting lost in unison.
Yeah, I agree. Keith Moon once brilliantly compared drumming to painting--drums were a palette from which one could use drumsticks as the brushes to create sudden flourishes, colourful swooshes, dramatic lines, etc. (I'm paraphrasing and somewhat extrapolating his ideas here.) One of my favourite things about Michael was that his approach to drumming was so incredibly unorthodox as to be entirely based on feeling over what *should* be done. It's kind of perfect that he was a painter, because I think of him as an impressionist of sorts. Look at his drumming on 8MH--it is very, as you said, odd. A trained drummer would never have done that! Ever heard an accomplished drummer play it? Compared to what Michael got, invariably you end up with just another boring, workmanlike still-life. But it's easy to criticize him because he could be brilliant one minute and then totally lose the plot and turn around the beat the next, as he did in "Psychodrama City".
McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman played a few shows billed as The Byrds in 1988, in an attempt to bolster their claim to the Byrds trademark. In April of 1989 they filed for a preliminary injunction against Clarke to stop him from using the name. The judge ruled against granting their injunction in May, and at that point McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman abandoned their legal challenge to Clarke's ownership of the name. Since the case never went to trial it was never cleanly established who owned the name. McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman used it a few more times after that for a few more reunion shows and the tracks on the box set. Meanwhile Clarke continued to use it for his live performances, and after his death Clarke's estate continued to license an ersatz Byrds Celebration touring band, well into the late 90s. The Byrds ebni site is apparently no more, but I found the article that describes the legal battle on the internet archive. I am positive I read an interview a few years ago where Crosby did say he had purchased the rights to the name from the Clarke estate. I can't find it now, however, but it is notable that the former Byrds Celebration band (which unbelievably, is still active) now goes by the name of "Younger than Yesterday." Since it was never legally established who owned the name, it probably would be more accurate to say Crosby's payment was designed to stop Clarke's estate from using it rather than to actually purchase the rights. Though one could argue that if it did go to trial at the turn of the century Clarke's estate would have had a strong case, given their almost 20 years of continuous use of the trademark compared to the sporadic use by the other three guys. At any rate, there wouldn't be any need for Crosby to buy out McGuinn and Hillman because McGuinn has no interest in using the name and Crosby has stated his intent not to use the name without the other two guys (despite the fact that McGuinn has given him permission to do so). I also am skeptical McGuinn would have received any payout for the use of Turn Turn Turn in a commercial, since as you noted he was not the songwriter and it would be Sony who owned the recording. But regardless, the commercial definitely did happen:
Jumping forward, his drumming on the two '70-71 "Byrds" tracks (She's The Kind Of Girl & One In a Hundred), while more accomplished, is still uniquely his work. Check the muscle he gives both songs in their respective bridges, which IMO are the emotional centers of both songs. Clearly he and Gene had a certain rapport.
To underline this, check out some of the performances of McGuinn playing this song with other bands. Lots of youtubes of him playing this on TV shows fronting house/pickup bands and the drummer always plays something very straight and very dull.
Jim((zobalob) linked this awhile ago. I had seen this original Carson show and remembered the "we tune because we care line", so it was a hoot to hear the line and the song all these years later. And as I had mentioned to Jim, it was a better live performance than I would have expected, or I had remembered anyway.
Thanks for finding the Byrds EBNI archived site Jason. There was a lot of information there. Wonder why it was pulled?
Agree with this completely. In fact, I'll admit to having stolen some of the fills he does in those two songs because I like his playing so much.
By contrast, this 1985 version featuring Clark and Clarke is pretty good (despite the absence of McGuinn) in large part because Clarke is there to replicate the unique rhythmic feel of the original track. Clarke's drumming was arguably just as important as McGuinn's guitar on that particular song. Sorry the quality of this clip is so lousy, but I guess that just makes it more psychedelic:
Yep, I love his playing with the Byrds. His playing is refreshing to me, for the reasons you mention. As is so often the case in bands we like, EVERYONE contributes to the sound picture.
+ Rick Roberts and John York. I saw them in concert several times, listening to their 2/13/85 Lone Star Cafe show right now.
Wish I could've seen one of these shows. I understand it was not the Byrds, but still an incredible line up of talent.
no - they didn't do it on Shindig or Hullabaloo. I think they did a snippet of The Beatles "I'm a Loser" on one of the shows and the Lovin Spoonfulls "Do you Believe in Magic" which is actually quite amusing!
no - they didn't do it on Shindig or Hullabaloo. I think they did a snippet of The Beatles "I'm a Loser" on one of the shows and the Lovin Spoonfulls "Do you Believe in Magic" which is actually quite amusing! In the director's commentary Paul Kendall mentions that there were some chunks left out - mainly because of the high cost of using it in the film. For me any Crosby is too much...lol!
