Although they only managed to attain the commercial success on the scale of contemporary greats like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones for a fairly brief period (1965–66), time has treated their work well... as The Byrds are today considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 60s.
Initially, they pioneered the musical genre of folk rock, melding the influence of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary and traditional folk music. As the 1960s progressed, the band were also influential in originating psychedelic rock, raga rock, and country rock.
The Byrds' signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar has continued to be influential on popular music up to the present day. The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Byrds #45 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
Among the band's most enduring songs are their electric-cover versions of folk greats Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn!, along with the self-penned originals, I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, Eight Miles High, So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star, Ballad of Easy Rider and Chestnut Mare.
They covered quite a number of Dylan tunes in electric actually, bringing a lot to the material with variations of their own signature sound... like my own lifelong favorite, lip-synched here on the
Ed Sullivan Show...
Previous RR Rock n Roll Oldies features -here-