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Credit: Far Out \/ Fotoburo De Boer \/ Noord-Hollands Archief<\/p>\n
Roger McGuinn was one of the driving forces behind The Byrds<\/a>. Each band member was important, but it was McGuinn who helped them develop their folk rock style, which propelled them to stardom.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their cover of Bob Dylan\u2019s \u2018Mr Tambourine Man\u2019 was a real turning point for the band. They\u2019re often celebrated as one of the bands that helped to knock The Beatles off the top of the charts and usher in the new sound of folk rock<\/a>. It was Bob Dylan hearing them perform their version of his song in such a different way that made him want to chuck his acoustic guitar out the window and pick up something electric.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bassist for the band, Chris Hillman, has previously said that the song would likely have never been released were it not for McGuinn. The rest of The Byrds weren\u2019t blown away by the original version, and it wasn\u2019t until McGuinn played around with the structure of the track and the time signature that they realised just how much potential the song truly had. <\/p>\n \u201cKudos to Roger McGuinn for taking on \u2018Tambourine Man\u2019, which didn\u2019t knock us out when we first heard it,\u201d he said. \u201cBob Dylan had written it in a very countrified groove, a straight 2\/4 time signature, and Roger takes the song home and works with it, puts it in 4\/4 time, so you could dance to it. Bob heard us do it and said, \u2018Man, you could dance to this!\u2019 It really knocked him over and he loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n The band enjoyed some success, but eventually went their separate ways. It was for the best, as each member then moved on to a brand new project, which helped take their careers to new heights and show those listening just how much they could achieve as musicians. David Crosby, for instance, went on to form Crosby, Stills & Nash, a musical project which he acknowledged was every member\u2019s more adventurous effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe had already had some success. You know, The Hollies had had more hits than we\u2019ve ever had<\/a>, already, for [Graham] Nash [\u2026] Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds have had a good running,\u201d said Crosby. \u201cSo it wasn\u2019t the launch point for us, you know, really. It was the launch point for CSN.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, while each member of the band was able to venture off and enjoy the freedom of already having success to back them up while branching off into different styles, a lot of them wound up missing the music they started off making. This is what happened to The Byrds, as after an elongated time apart, a few members wanted to get things going again. One of these people was David Crosby<\/a>, who asked McGuinn if he wanted to get the band back together. McGuinn said no, but he also told Crosby he wouldn\u2019t be offended if he tried to get things going by himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI suggested it to him. He wants to do The Byrds,\u201d said McGuinn when an interviewer asked if he would be annoyed were the band to reunite without him, \u201cI said, \u2018Okay man, take it out and do it. I don\u2019t care\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n McGuinn went as far as to suggest the person the band should replace him with, but unfortunately, his potential substitute passed away before any kind of reunion could actually happen. \u201cThere\u2019s this guy Andrew Gold,\u201d he said, \u201cHe had all my Rickenbacker and vocal parts down for The Byrds, but he passed away last year.\u00a0I said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you just get Andrew Gold man, he can do all my parts, he\u2019d be great\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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