Eight Miles High

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Eight Miles High
The Byrds
publication March 14, 1966
length 3:35
Genre (s) Psychedelic rock
Author (s) Gene Clark , Jim McGuinn , David Crosby
Label Columbia Records
album Fifth dimension

Eight Miles High is a song by the American rock band The Byrds , composed by Gene Clark , Jim McGuinn (later: Roger McGuinn ) and David Crosby , which was released as a single by Columbia Records in March 1966 and top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top 30 of the charts in the UK reached. The song was also released on the band's third album, Fifth Dimension , in July 1966.

Shortly after it was released, the single was banned from the radio in the United States because the lyrics of the song were suspected of being related to drugs. Influenced by Indian music ( Ravi Shankar ) and jazz ( John Coltrane ), Eight Miles High , together with the single B-side Why (McGuinn / Crosby), set new standards and coined the terms psychedelic rock and raga rock .

history

The song was written by Gene Clark during the band's tour of Great Britain in August 1965 and in its original form was a typical Clark ballad. The editing together with the other band members began in November 1965 during a tour of the USA. David Crosby had a music cassette with the albums Impressions and Africa / Brass by John Coltrane and an LP by the Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar with him on the tour bus . Especially the modal jazz of Coltrane as a preliminary stage of free jazz influenced the musicians considerably in the arrangement. The reverse of the single Why, on the other hand, was inspired by Indian ragas. While McGuinn tried to imitate Coltrane's saxophone playing on the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar at Eight Miles High , at Why he wanted to imitate the sound of a sitar with the same instrument .

The Byrds even presented a real sitar at a press conference at which the single was presented, but it hadn't played a role in the recording. On December 22, 1965, the band recorded both songs for the first time in the RCA studios in Los Angeles . Columbia Records, however, insisted on new recordings in their own studios. Only these, recorded on January 24th and 25th, 1966 and produced by Allen Stanton, were released on single and album. The RCA recordings were only presented to the public in 1987 on the album Never Before and in 1996 on the CD re-release of the album Fifth Dimension .

In the month of the release of the single, Gene Clark left the band. Eight Miles High remained the Byrds' last single to reach the top 20 of the charts. Eight Miles High was part of the live repertoire of the band until they broke up in 1973 and was performed in TV shows such as Popside and Beat Club. The length of the song could reach times of over 15 minutes during a concert, as on the album (Untitled) . Gene Clark had the song regularly in his live program until his death in 1991, as did McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman in their short-lived Byrds reunion in 1989, Roger McGuinn solo to this day (2010), Chris Hillman with Herb Pedersen and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their reunion tour in 2000.

meaning

  • With Eight Miles High and Why , the Byrds were among those musicians who endeavored to further develop popular music by adding non-European musical genres, jazz and impressionistic texts.
  • In 2004, Eight Miles High reached number 151 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 best songs of all time and in 2005 Q magazine ranked number 50 on its Greatest Guitar Tracks list .

Cover versions

Since 1966 various musicians have covered Eight Miles High ; the best-known versions come from: Ventures (1966), Golden Earring (1969), Leo Kottke (1971), Roxy Music (1980), Hüsker Dü (1984). (Other versions)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Byrds version
  2. ↑ Eight Miles High - Song Facts
  3. ^ Guardian interview 2014
  4. ↑ Eight Miles High in the RS list
  5. ↑ Ventures version
  6. ↑ Golden Earring Version
  7. ↑ Leo Kottke version
  8. ↑ Roxy Music version
  9. ↑ Hüsker Dü version
  10. ↑ Further cover versions and modifications

Web links