![]() His songwriting abilities were not really developed until the sessions for 'Younger Than Yesterday' (though, when they did, he became super-prolific). It would turn out to be the group's last Top 20 hit.Ĭlick to expand.I don't think Crosby had much to do outside the one line of lyrics, and his "progressive" musical interests/influences on McGuinn. Otherwise, it would have been a cinch for Top 5/#1. The Byrds, led by McGuinn, strongly denied this, but the damage was done: this ground-breaking classic- so far ahead of its' time- stalled out at #14 on the Billboard charts. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened, thanks to the dumb "Bill Gavin Record Report", which could not reccommend it for airplay because of implied drug references/encouragement (Richie Unterberger, "Turn!Turn!Turn!",pg 229, Backbeat Books, 2002). The Byrds never felt that the lyrics ("Signs in the street that say where you're going are somewhere just being their own") would be be interpreted as promoting drugs, and hurt the record commercially. While he had no hand in composing the song, Hillman's stunning bass line on the intro was awesome, and really set up McGuinn's ethereal guitar runs. Initially they were going to call it "Six Miles High" (technically more correct,=cruising altitude of a commercial jet then), but Clark convinced the rest of the group to go with "Eight"- "more poetic". Crosby's contributions-however indirect- cannot be underestimated: it was he who turned McGuinn onto John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar with tapes of those artists, and their effect on McGuinn and his Rickenbacker was truly profound. Have always understood it to be a true collaborative effort, with Clark coming up with the basic melody and some lyrics, McGuinn supporting the idea of writing about their London trip and working out the arrangements, and Crosby helping out with more lyrics. I'd assume that follows the original 1966 vinyl listing. The original Columbia cd (CK 9349 non-remixed, not 'remastered') lists the songwriting credits for "Eight Miles High" as: G.Clark-J.
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