Classic Rock: Byrds, Creativity from the Union of Different Styles
There is no denying that the Byrds began their road to success with covers. The first song that took them to the top of the charts on both sides of the English-speaking ocean is in fact a reinterpretation of the now classic, but then just released, “Mr. Tambourine Man” Of Bob Dylan. Their second album also focused on a cover: “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)“, signed by another folk master, Pete Seeger.
But it’s easy to say cover. Sometimes the reinterpretations become so innovative that they take on a different value compared to the original. This is what happened to the band of Roger McGuinn (originally Jim McGuinn, guitar and vocals), Gene Clark (tambourine and voice), and David Crosby (rhythm guitar and vocals). Born as a trio, it then expanded with the entry of Chris Hillman (bass and vocals) and Michael Clarke (drums), thus forming the band in Los Angeles in 1964. Their reinterpretation, done with skill and courage to look beyond the original, led them to the creation of their own musical language that set a precedent, creating a genre: folk rock. The elements of popular music, usually bare, combined with those of early ’60s rock, gave life to a winning combination that offered new forms of expression and new clothes never worn by anyone in music before.
Their development work not only aimed at a new stylistic look, but also shaped an original, unmistakable sound, thanks to the use of a 12-string electric guitar, in particular of the brand Rickenbacker. A brilliant result in terms of sound, a fresh sound that influenced many artists in the following decades, including REM and Tom Petty, a sound that is identified with the name of jingle jangle.
Another distinctive element was the use of vocal interweavings, close to the BeachBoysbut fathers of the vocal harmonies that will come from CSN (& Y.)another epochal band that sees the founding presence of David Crosby, exited from the Byrds.
After reworking other Dylan covers and proposing original songs on their first two albums (“Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” – both from 1965), the Byrds began to explore other paths, contaminating other styles and creating new syntheses of elements.
As fashions and culture changed, the scent of the 70s began to be felt and the Byrds, with their particularly developed sense of smell, shifted their gaze towards the more psychedelic aspects of music. It was also the period of experimentation with drugs, a typical element of the era. Thus was born “Eight Miles High“, last composition before the abandonment of Gene Clark (singer and main songwriter of the band), as well as their first non-cover success. The song, according to the band, was born from an exchange of words between Clark and McGuinn during a flight at the altitude of the aircraft, but someone insinuated that it was a lysergic flight and so the radio boycotted it, causing it to plummet in the charts.
Even without the resigned Clark, the Byrds choose to explore this new vein, giving a greater rock push enriched with jazz elements (Coltrane) and “raga” atmospheres of Indian origin, taking Ravi Shankar as a model, transforming the sitar into a guitar. “Eight Miles High” together with other songs written by the remaining Byrds becomes part of the third album “Fifth Dimension” (1966), an album that, as the title suggests, takes us to a different dimension, psychedelic, dreamlike, but also more modern and innovative, in keeping with the times and the creative ferment of which the Byrds are the driving force, creators and stimulators of ideas, as well as an integral part of the cultural and social panorama of California.
Psychedelia is also found in the subsequent fourth and fifth albums “Younger Than Yesterday” And “The Notorious Byrd Brothers“, where however we can already glimpse the first signs of what will come later. In fact, in the variety of the album, we can hear the first hints of the country that will constitute, always mixed with rock, the backbone of the following “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” (1968). It is the masterpiece album of the Byrds, but also the one made without David Crosby, who in the meantime had left the group (like the drummer Michael Clarke) to join Stills and Nash, giving life to the historic trio (then quartet). The countryman replaced him Gram Parsons (who never formally joined the band), which led to the creation of a further innovative musical “format”. With “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” country rock was born, a genre later followed by many artists, among which the following stand out: Eagles. The reception of the album, recorded in Nashville, by the country music community was not the best. This mix did not please the purists of the genre, who saw it as “dirtying” the purity of country. Rock critics did not appreciate the album either, accusing them of using a musical style intended for an audience far from that of rock, even culturally. Thus, a seminal album like “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” did not reach the top of the charts. It was time, with subsequent events, that did justice to the evolutionary soul of the album and its greatness.
The creative drive of the Byrds ends with this album. They will remain a good lineup (different from the original) even in the following albums, but without that innovative flame, that spirit of research and that creative force that in three furious years of career (1965-1968) has distinguished them. Progressive spirit, desire to innovate, ability to resist the various abandonments and changes of lineup: the Byrds were a band able to create something new on several occasions. They were precursors, experimenters and not followers, founders and not repetitive. And let’s not forget that they also saw the sales charts from above. Not many other bands in the history of rock have had such a role: folk rock, country rock and psychedelic rock, all with a defined sound, can be traced back to this Californian group. This is why their importance is fundamental and the mark they have left is indelible.
