Video: Roger McGuinn’s jangly ticket to ’60s stardom
He’s one of the more eclectic characters from the ’60s golden age of rock.
Schooled on folk tunes and banjo music, Roger McGuinn (known in his early days as Jim McGuinn) played the Greenwich Village folk scene with Joan Baez and Judy Collins.
Bobby Darin hired him away from the Chad Mitchell Trio to write songs in New York’s famed Brill Building.
Mostly, McGuinn recounted Saturday at his Sanctuary show in Madison, that gig consisted of listening to the radio and “trying to write songs that sounded just like the hits.”
Years later, The BeeGees told him they sang backups on a surfer tune he had churned out.
When four British moptops exploded onto the airwaves, McGuinn got the brilliant idea of setting folk tunes to a Beatles beat.
He bombed in folk clubs, but fellow traveler Gene Clark loved the sound. Soon David Crosby was on board, along with Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke. They watched A Hard Day’s Night and bought the same instruments played by John, Paul, George and Ringo. The Byrds were born.
From left: David Crosby, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman, and Jim McGuinn.
Thanks to a rave review from a record executive’s young daughter, and a nod from Quincy Jones, The Byrds began scoring hits with their jangly “folk rock,” reinterpreting Bob Dylan favorites like Mr. Tambourine Man and My Back Pages.
The band explored psychedelia, jazz and country music, too, during many personnel changes.
McGuinn partied in London with The Beatles and Rolling Stones.
When Peter Fonda needed original music for Easy Rider, he screened the film for Dylan, who jotted some lyrics on a napkin.
“Give this to McGuinn. He’ll know what to do with it,” the icon said.
And McGuinn did, completing The Ballad of Easy Rider. He shared a songwriting credit with Dylan–who promptly refused it, saying he didn’t need the money.
McGuinn later joined Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour. He also toured with Tom Petty.
These days, McGuinn, now 73, is a frequent performer on PBS pledge drives. For the last 20 years he has been recording folk tunes from his youth, distributing them for free in hopes of preserving the music for future generations.
McGuinn’s best line at Drew University’s sold-out concert hall was inspired by the digital tuning device clipped to his 12-string Rickenbacker.
“If we’d had these back then, we could have got through the ’60s in half the time,” he quipped.
The Sanctuary series returns to its usual venue, the Presbyterian Church in Chatham, on June 4, 2016, for its season-ending Ice Cream Social. The concert will feature up-and-coming artists from the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, including Scott Wolfson, Annika Bennet and Mark Allen Berube. Admission: $20. At 240 Southern Blvd.
