![]() ![]() ![]() It no longer mattered that a band from Britain was playing “American music”, or that an American band like the Byrds was playing music that reflected a debt to the British Invasion. Of course, those sounds in turn were influenced by American music, which represents a clear Transatlantic connection that made rock music less reflexive culturally speaking, and more artistic and stylistically inclusive. In some ways, this song documents a sort of homecoming in that the band were highly influenced by that sound. The song was written around the time the Byrds went to London, the “rain grey town known for its sound” in the lyrics. ![]() Writers Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn, and David Crosby created this song under those musical influences, and from varied experiences ranging from airplane trips, to trips of other sorts that eventually caused some controversy, with this song being among the earliest songs about drugs recognized as such, although with claims otherwise by the band at the time in the face of a radio ban.īut, there is another reason why this song was so significant. On “Eight Miles High”, elements of “new thing” jazz, and the influence of Ravi Shankar’s Indian classical music all play into the sound of this song. It was a year which heralded a more experimental approach to the sound of those records too with tape loops, exotic instruments, and distortion being important elements. Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Soft Machine all formed in 1966, among other more sonically expansive-minded bands. Nineteen Sixty-Six in particular was an epicenter for this kind of artistic evolution, what with this track, the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”, The Yardbirds “The Shapes of Things”, and The Stones’ “Paint It Black” all exploring darker, and more inward-looking regions of human experience lyrically speaking. This song helped to shape what a pop record came to mean later into the decade. This song is like a wormhole back to a mythical period in pop music and cultural history of the mid-60s, a time when things really were a-changin’ in all sorts of ways, including the variety of influences that were having an effect on how bands and artists were approaching their work. It would be their last top 20 hit, and a single that would mark the end of their original incarnation. It’s their 1966 hit record “Eight Miles High”, released as a single in March of that year, and eventually was featured on their third record Fifth Dimension. Arranging has been very helpful in understanding music better and playing better and making better use of the guitar’s unique strengths.Listen to this track by folk-rock janglers and supposed progenitors of ‘raga-rock’ The Byrds. Just enough to arrange and play pieces for guitar. I understand the (western system) keys, chord structure, circle of fifths, a few other patterns in western music. When I was about 21, I heard Will Ackerman’s record It Takes a Year (a very mellow fingerstyle record - sort of the ur-version of a “Windham Hill” record but just solo guitar, no strings or wind instruments) and decided that same day I would play a guitar like that. I never played a musical instrument until I was 36 years old, never touched one. The fingerstyle genre mostly comes out of the folk+blues tradition, with some additions from jazz and classical (and other places). All kinds of folk music: Straight folk (anglophone), flamenco, blues and its child – rock, many other world folk traditions, slack-key guitar. Jam songs have never really done that much for me - even live (though that’s much better). I bought one CD but didn’t care for it very much. I don t know the Phish music very well but a few friends like it and have recommended it. I like a few songs (especially from the Dead) but overall, not so much. I am actually not a fan of Dead/Phish genre. In later years, he pulls a lot more out of it than his did on the original recording for Fragile. Mood isn’t so hard but Howe brings amazing feeling to it. Clap is really hard, for sure, I’ve never tried to play it. I highly recommend his live record Not Necessarily Acoustic. Peter Finger also does some amazingly difficult stuff. Martin Taylor, Pat Metheny, Django, Larry Carlton, I could go on for a long time … The difficulty question is a hard one - except, from my experience, they are mostly the arrangements the classical guys do and flamenco playing. He also does superb interpretations of the Beatles tunes. I will try to link to one of his pieces I like best: Little Wing. Great player.Īnother UK player I really love is Laurence Juber (formerly McCartney’s lead player in Wings). And the stuff he does with the banjo tuners during his pieces is pretty amazing. When he broke onto the US scene, he did a long series of travelogues on NPR as he went around the US – very funny and insightful. ![]()
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