The second style was a merging of saxophonist John Coltrane‘s free-jazz atonalities, which hinted at the droning of the sitar – a style of playing, first heard on the song “ Eight Miles High.” The first was “jingle-jangle” – generating ringing arpeggios based on banjo finger picking styles he learned while at the Old Town School of Folk – which was influential in the folk rock genre. It was also pivotal in transmuting folk rock into the new musical forms of psychedelia and raga rock.ĭuring his time with the Byrds, McGuinn developed two innovative, experimental, and very influential styles of electric guitar playing. The song represented a creative leap forward for the band and is often considered the first full-blown psychedelic rock recording by critics, although other contemporaneous acts, such as Donovan and the Yardbirds, were also exploring similar musical territory. ![]() As a result, the band were forced to re-record the song at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles on January 24 and 25, 1966, and it was this re-recorded version that would be released as a single and included on the group’s third album. However, Columbia Records refused to release this version because it had been recorded at another record company‘s facility. Impressed by the blend of their voices, the three musicians formed a trio and named themselves the Jet Set, a moniker inspired by McGuinn’s love of aeronautics.Įxperimentation: On December 22, 1965, the Byrds recorded a new, self-penned composition titled “ Eight Miles High” at RCA Studios in Hollywood. Soon after, David Crosby introduced himself to the duo at The Troubadour and began harmonizing with them on some of their songs. While performing at The Troubadour folk club in Los Angeles, McGuinn was approached by fellow Beatles fan Gene Clark, and the pair soon formed a Peter and Gordon-style duo, playing Beatles’ covers, Beatlesque renditions of traditional folk songs, and some self-penned material. By early 1964, McGuinn had become enamored with the music of the Beatles, and had begun to intersperse his solo folk repertoire with acoustic versions of Beatles’ songs. McGuinn had also spent time as a professional songwriter at the Brill Building in New York City, under the tutelage of Bobby Darin. All three musicians had a background rooted in folk music, with each one having worked as a folk singer on the acoustic coffeehouse circuit during the early 1960s. Purposefulness: The nucleus of the Byrds formed in early 1964, when Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967), Gene Clark, and David Crosby came together as a trio. IDEO studied innovation in 100 companies and found six insights in cracking the innovation code and when we apply those principles to the Byrds piece-the concept of innovation is illuminating.ġ: Purposefulness: A clear, inspiring reason for the organization to existĢ: Experimentation: Trying out new ideas, and making evidence-based decisions about how to move forwardģ: Empowerment: Providing a clear path to create change in all corners of the organization by reducing unnecessary constraintsĤ: Looking Out: Looking beyond the organization’s walls to understand customers, technologies and cultural shiftsĥ: Collaboration: Working together across organizational functions to approach opportunities and challenges from all anglesĦ: Refinement : elegantly bridging vision and execution The song Eight Miles High was always one where there seemed there was this confluence of a million things all happening at once and as I did some “research” I found the song to be an amazing example of innovation at work.Ī while back, I spent some time out at Stanford’s d.school and ran into David Kelley who founded the design firm IDEO. ![]() The Byrds were an iconic band when I was growing up, although they were well before my time, the music is in a sense timeless.
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