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EXPLAINED: Byrds | Rare Historical Photos

“Ahhh, what a tune! It has more melodic genius and simple power than I ever realised”: The melancholy classic that made Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel the world’s hottest songwriting duo

Recorded in '64 then remixed and rereleased by popular demand in '65, The Sound Of Silence gave the songwriting duo their first number one and a track beloved by generations

MusicRadar

“He heard us playing his song electric. You could see the gears grinding in his head. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt”: How The Byrds reinvented a great Bob Dylan song and inspired Dylan to revolutionise his music

It was the first Dylan track to land at No 1 despite him not playing on it

MusicRadar

"We were only a small spark on the Sunset Strip at first, but we became a wildfire." How an unlikely rock star led the psychedelic revolution that swept 60s California

Arthur Lee inspired Jimi Hendrix, formed Love, gave Elektra Records their first hit and blew John Densmore's mind

Louder

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A Voice for Change: How Woody Guthrie Keeps Resonating With New Generations

A new documentary connects the life and music of the Depression-era singer-songwriter to today’s struggles for social justice, equality and immigrant rights.

Capital & Main

"Those teenage kids could be kind of wild. It could be downright frightening at times." The story of the tongue-in-cheek classic that slammed manufactured pop music, aided by a pair of South African legends

A light-hearted pop at the superficial workings of the pop industry in the 60s, it remains a minor classic. And if you saw the band live in Bournemouth in 1965, you might actually be on it!

Louder

“I heard Clarence White, and there were parts that I couldn’t physically do. Then I heard that there was this mechanism within the guitar...”: With Led Zeppelin over, Jimmy Page returned to the Telecaster, and embraced a particular, beloved mod

After a few years slightly adrift, the guitar god found his way back into arenas with the Firm in 1985, and leaned on some new tools along the way

Guitar World

Master the 12-string guitar: restringing, tuning and strumming made simple

Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, the Eagles, and Richie Sambora swear by 12-string guitars for sonic sparkle – after this guide, you will too

Guitar World

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“Bob Dylan wrote some notes on a napkin and said, ‘Give this to McGuinn. He’ll know what to do withit.’ It was like the Holy Grail”: Roger McGuinn on the making of The Byrds’ countercultural classic

Roger McGuinn explains how Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Bob Dylan and CBS-era Fender amps all factored into the making of The Byrds’ 1969 classic, Ballad of Easy Rider

Guitar World

“I thought, ‘Oh, it’s just a fellow musician, that’s fine,’ and he walked out with the case. When I went to get my guitar, it was gone”: Roger McGuinn on the Ovation 12-string that fell apart and the infamous Rickenbacker theft of ’65

The Byrds’ 12-string-toting folk hero talks Rickys, Roland JC-120s, JangleBoxes and more

Guitar World

“Morrison was very clever. He was a regular guy but he really played that image of his well. He was an actor”: The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn on John Lennon’s dangerous side, the myth of Jim Morrison and the forgotten guitar player who was as good as Hendrix

Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, The Beatles –Roger McGuinn has crossed paths with the them all

Louder

“This guy walked in with a silver Rickenbacker case. I thought, ‘Oh, it’s just a fellow musician, that’s fine’”: How Roger McGuinn’s Byrds Rickenbacker was stolen – from right under his nose

The guitarist’s trust in a ‘fellow musician’ was tragically misplaced

Guitar World

"The place was full of chickens, pigs and goats. The whole thing was fascinating": How an acid-tinged account of a North African adventure became the sound of the counterculture

With 60s pop music going psychedelic, Morocco's hippie trail inspired a song that took three years to come to fruition

Louder

My petty gripe: bands naming themselves as puns on other bands – will it never end?

Weren’t the Dandy Warhols and Celibate Rifles enough? It’s time we left tribute names to tribute bands, says Andrew Stafford

The Guardian - AU

“Once the show became a hit, people started going down the rabbit hole – ‘Oh my God! He really was in the Grass Roots!’” The life and times of Creed Bratton, from AM rock stardom to taking an Office job

From living it up in the Summer of Love to starring inNBC’s The Office, the former Grass Roots guitarist has had a career like no other

Guitar World

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The Guardian - UK

Dave Cousins obituary

Founder and frontman of the Strawbs, the folk-rock group best known for their 1973 hit Part of the Union

Guitar World

“I went, ‘You've made a big mistake. The E string on this guitar is worth that!’” How Marty Stuart came to own Clarence White’s iconic B-Bender Telecaster

Stuart paid under the odds for the historic electric – but White’s widow needed the guitar to go to the right home, not the highest bidder

Guitar World

“I don’t think LSD had a real big impact on the songwriting or guitar playing… it was just that we saw brighter colors and got high!” Roger McGuinn on The Byrds’ influential guitar style, and why they didn’t follow The Kinks and The Who into distortion

The banjo-inspired Rickenbacker guitar icon recalls how Miles Davis got them signed and weighs up the merits of David Crosby and Clarence White

The Guardian - UK

‘His music documented an America that no longer exists’: Brian Wilson’s brilliance, by key collaborator Van Dyke Parks

Wilson bought Parks a Volvo when he’d barely met him – and together they brought sublime poetry to pop. He remembers the making of Smile, Surf’s Up and more

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Guitar World

“David Crosby said, ‘I don't like it, man. That folky 2/4 time never gonna play on the radio’”: The Byrds needed a hit or they’d be dropped. Releasing a cover of Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man as their first single was a gamble that paid off

Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn was the third person to ever own a Rickenbacker 12-string, following George Harrison – and his timely purchase would completely transform the Dylan song, and the band's entire trajectory

Louder

“Hendrix took a look at my first album and said: ‘I’ll try it this way’. I don’t appreciate that. But then I can’t play the guitar like him”: The chaotic story of Arthur Lee and Love, the 60s renegades who helped invent the LA scene

The Doors were stars but their Sunset Strip peers Love deserved to be equally famous

The Conversation

Six covers of Bob Dylan songs that were better than the originals

He may never have strayed far from the minds of many music fans, but with his biopic A Complete Unknown hitting UK cinemas on January 17 and heartthrob Timothée Chalamet in the lead role, Bob Dylan may be about to gain an entirely new audience.

Guitar World

“When Clarence White entered the band, it elevated their guitar work. White and Roger McGuinn were electrifying”: Christian Parker on the Byrds’ legacy as folk-rock trailblazers, gear innovators and righteous players in their own right

Parker’s two consecutive albums of Byrds covers showcase the brilliance of one of the '60s most underappreciated guitar powerhouses

Louder

"Murder and mayhem never had their way, though the potential was there": A story of Moby Grape, chaos and courtrooms, acid trips and white witches

Moby Grape had it all, and were poised to be the next truly great band. Then came the rip-offs, the drugs, the madness, and the loss of everything

Guitar World

“Josh Homme’s guitar playing is very learned and proper. I’m self-taught, and my style is more unorthodox. My guitar is untamed.” Brant Bjork made his name as Kyuss’ drummer – but he found his voice on guitar

The drummer turned guitarist says starting in cover bands can improve your writing skills – and explains why he learned more from the Byrds and the Beatles than playing with Josh Homme in Kyuss

Louder

“The 80s? A lot of hard drugs, cocaine, heroin, people dying. And disco. I mean, how bad can it get?”: the epic life and times of David Crosby

In 2007, Classic Rock challenged the legendary David Crosby to an epic game of word association. Cue tales of women, drugs, prison, liver transplants and ex-bandmates

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