![]() One of the strangest contradictions in the internal dynamics of the Byrds, however, was that their lead singer and principal songwriter was terrified of flying. Along with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, Gene Clark had been there at the very beginning - before the beginning really - and his voice and songwriting had been a seminal component of the group's image and success for its first year. If its commercial potential wasn't fully realized, the song's circumstances also reflected a major change in the group line-up. Its impact on the radio was, thus, muted compared with airplay that it should have received, based on musical appeal and requests. It ran into trouble over its title, the strangeness of its sound (which made more conservative programmers suspicious to start with), and the paranoia of some parents and radio station officials, who were convinced that the song was really a paean to drug use, rather than a song about flying that just happened to have been written by one or more composers on drugs. The singing, laced with impeccable high harmonies around an eerily compelling melody, was strangely alluring as well, and the song had all of the earmarks of a Top Ten hit. ![]() McGuinn had been listening to the music of John Coltrane, and made his 12-string guitar imitate the sound of a saxophone in a soaring, searing, rippling performance (repeated to some extent elsewhere on the resulting album on the song "I See You"). Opening with Chris Hillman's most prominent appearance on bass to date and a hard rhythm guitar accompaniment, the song was immediately seized by Roger McGuinn's 12-string guitar, sounding as though it had suddenly been transformed into another instrument. Inspired by the band members' first flight to London, it pulled together observations about flying, filtered through a druggy ambience - the members' condition writing the song, if not on the flight - and the surreal experience, on arriving, of becoming international stars in just a matter of months. This is further enhanced by the chopping rhythm guitar and frantic drumming.Īlthough the song may not have been directly inspired by drugs, it placed the Byrds firmly at the forefront of the emerging psychedelic movement and remains one of the finest singles of the mid 60s.The defining pop-psychedelic single by the Byrds, "Five Miles High" opened up a rich new territory of musical exploration for the band - but it was also the final single by the five-man line-up of the band, representing the final contribution of co-founder and principal songwriter Gene Clark and for all of its bold new sounds and lyrics, it also became the group's first controversial single and, as a result, never did as well as it should have. Ironically, by the time the song was released Clarke had left the band, citing a fear of flying.Īlways open to diverse influences, McGuinn's memorable guitar lick was inspired by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's 'India', and his sparkling modal runs during the solos were a direct imitation of Coltrane's 'sheets of sound' style, perfectly reflecting the lyric's sense of dislocation and confusion. The original title, Six Miles High (the cruising height of a transatlantic airliner), was changed after it was decided 'Eight' sounded more poetic. ![]() Their visit wasn't particularly well received by the press, and they were threatened with legal action by London band The Birds, hence the line "nowhere is there warmth to be found / among those afraid of losing their ground."Ĭlarke had already established himself as the bands most assured writer, with his literate folk rock tunes a highlight of their early canon. Largely written by Gene Clark after a night spent partying with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, the lyrics are filled with references to the culture shock felt by the band. On release, it was widely misinterpreted as a drug song and was banned by many radio stations, but was actually inspired by The Byrds' first trip to London in 1965, the "rain grey town/ known for its sound".
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