Roger And Me

(Note:  Taking a break today from the  normal -- or abnormal, as the case may be -- comedy/humorous stuff...  Today's post was inspired by seeing one of my pop music idols in concert  two weeks ago in Syracuse, NY.)

To start off with (and to dispel any rumors), yes, I grew up in the 60's  and yes, I DO remember them!

And I feel sorry for anyone who didn't and who doesn't.  It was probably the most remarkable decade of the last century. The 60's changed so many attitudes  that we had about our lives and the world around us.  It raised our consciousness level,  expanded our culture, made us more socially aware,  brought many of us to hate war and its consequences, and  taught us that our planet does not have an inexhaustible supply of energy, food, and clean air and water.

But most of all, it changed our  music. We went from listening to Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell and Lesley Gore to something that many people feared marked the end of civilization as we knew it.    In America, that change came about on February 9, 1964, with the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, and while I hadn't yet learned to pick up a guitar and determine which end you strum and which end you press down on, it wasn't long before  millions of guys (mostly) were trying to figure out how to get their fingers unstuck from between the strings on  their cheap Silvertone, Kay or Teisco guitars, growing their hair long, (much to the chagrin of their parents -- and sending their barbers to the poorhouse) and trying their best to mimic the Merseybeat sound.

The Beatles dominated the music scene  through 1964 and well in to 1965 -- and then one day in midsummer of  '65,  I turned on the radio and heard a sound that I'd never heard before, either from a guitar, or a rock group.  Some guys calling themselves the Byrds were doing  a song by Bob Dylan called "Mr. Tambourine Man", and  their leader, a fellow named Roger McGuinn (then known as Jim) was playing a 12-string electric guitar, with the most unique, almost bell-chimey sound in the world -- and a new pop music genre had instantly been created: Folk-Rock. By mid-July,  the song was No. 1 on the record charts.

On my 14th birthday I went out and bought the Byrds' first album.  It was amazing; these guys either  wrote their own songs or covered Dylan works that were totally different from anything that was coming out of the rest of the pop music scene in those days, be it the Beatles, Beach Boys or any group that was part of the British invasion. Want to hear a song about lost love? The Byrds had it ("I'll  Feel A Whole Lot Better").  Or offering some encouragement to a friend who was down ("Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe") -- or even a folk tune about a Welsh mining disaster ("The Bells of Rhymney").  And the music was all brought together by this chimey, jingle jangle sound of Roger McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker.  The liner notes quoted one of their fans in describing the band's unique sound and eccentricity (including McGuinn's wearing those strange little granny glasses) as being "orange and green and yellow and blue and near."  If  you lived during the 60's, you'll understand what she meant.

Roger wasn't the first to use a Rickenbacker 12-string  electric guitar.  Both George Harrison and John  Lennon owned Rickenbacker 12-strings, and you can hear George's prominently on such early hits as "A Hard Day's Night" "Can't Buy Me Love," and  "Eight Days A Week", and in fact Roger, who had been working on giving a Beatles-style treatment  to a lot of the traditional folk music he played,  bought his 12-string electric after seeing the movie "A Hard Day's Night" with band members Gene Clark,  David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke.

Roger's advantage was that he was one of the  great folk music pickers alive on both guitar and banjo, and had backed up such folk groups as the Limeliters and the Chad Mitchell trio ever since he graduated from high school -- and while I'm sure the people at Rickenbacker are forever thankful that George and John put their guitar brand on the map, it was Roger who showed the world what could be done with  it.  In fact as a kid in Buffalo, I remember hearing  Top 40 deejay Joey Reynolds playing "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Ticket to Ride", with their similar opening 12-string riffs back to back and pronouncing the Byrds effort to be the better of the two.

The songs themselves became, if not pop music standards (with one exception),  at least memorable hits,  enough so that someone can hear one on an oldies station and say to him or herself "Yeah, that's the Byrds!" [Matter of fact, I was in a guitar store one time playing a Rick 12-string before I decided to buy it, and was playing a few notes from "Mr. Tambourine Man" when another customer came over to me and said "That's great!  Takes me right back to high school!"] Besides "Mr. Tambourine Man", they had such hits as  "All I Really Want To Do," "It Won't Be Wrong," "Eight Miles High",  "5D"  "My Back Pages"  and "So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star" which Roger reportedly co-wrote with Chris Hillman after watching an episode of THE MONKEES.

But it was the monumental "Turn! Turn! Turn!", a song written by Pete Seeger and based on verses from the bible that people remember most often.  The opening notes and the instrumental solo  are characteristic of Roger's (and The Byrds') signature sound.

Roger McGuinn did things with a 12-string guitar that just didn't seem possible. Listen to the riffs in "Eight Miles High" which he claimed to have based on a sax improv by John Coltrane, and it seems to a man of lesser talent that it's impossible to perform with only the 10 fingers that God gave you. These days, if you listen to him do an acoustic version of it in concert and close your eyes,  you'll swear you're hearing three separate guitarists playing together.

Roger's influence on music and the growth of folk-rock spread quickly in the 60's. We heard such groups as The Turtles,  The Searchers, We Five and Sonny and Cher include the unique 12-string Rick sound in their singles. Even Bob Dylan  took up electrifying his music -- and the die hard folkies hated him for doing so.  Later on, in the '70's such acts as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Chrissie Hind and the Pretenders also made use of the sounds and chord changes Roger had given us with his music; and even in the 90's, the Rembrandts  borrowed that sound for their theme song for the show FRIENDS -- you can  hear 12-string Ricks all over the place.

As I got older and headed on to college and later  full-time work, I didn't pay as much attention to the Byrds as I had during the first couple of years. They had some good hits with "The Ballad Of Easy Rider", and "Chestnut Mare",   but the original band broke up, and with the new members (most notably Clarence White),  the band and Roger headed in a more country rock direction.  A reunion album that came out in 1973 with the original band members on it is well worth listening to though, as it  shows how the individual members had evolved in their tastes, and in the late 70's another album that reunited Roger, Gene Clark and Chris Hillman was released.

Roger's been kind enough to correspond with me via email now and then over the last few years (hence the title of this post), and my respect for him, his music and his legacy has grown immeasurably as time passes. These days,  although now a member of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame as one of The Byrds, Roger is content to tour and perform as a solo.  His website has his self-produced Cd's for sale and a separate section called "Songs From The Folk Den",  a collection of tunes which you can listen to or download for free.  It's part of his effort to keep the folk music tradition alive in our country today.

But if you have the chance, go see him in person.  It'll bring back memories that you probably haven't experienced in many years --  and yes, he's still playing his 12-string Rickenbacker! If you're new to his music, the time spent will be well worth it, since you'll be enjoying the talent of one of the great musical artists of our era. From a personal standpoint, now that I'm performing for a lot of senior groups, I can report that they all remember the Byrds and their music and love to hear me play their tunes.

And while Wikipedia would list him as being 80 as of tomorrow, he plays and sings like he's 25. Seeing him perform these days has the same effect on his fans and admirers. To paraphrase the words of the song he likes to open his show with:  We were all so much older then... We're younger than that now.

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Roger McGuinn (with the Byrds) then:



And now: