![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Roger-McGuinn-Musician-1970-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Fotoburo De Boer \/ Noord-Hollands Archief)<\/p>\n
Wed 24 December 2025 4:00, UK <\/p>\n
Where would music be without the daring innovation of a select few creatives? We often overlook how much of an impact The Byrds<\/a> had on rock, folk, and country. <\/p>\n When we think of musical innovators in the 1960s, we often think of The Beatles, given they took over the States in \u201864 and wound up becoming one of the most popular bands in the world to pick up instruments, which is fair enough, but someone had to knock the Fab Four off the top of the charts, and that came in the form of the folk rock movement. <\/p>\n E Street guitarist Steve Van Zandt has previously spoken about the impact that folk rock had in the \u201860s. \u201cIt transformed America [\u2026] On February 8th, there were no bands in America; on February 9th, we had Ed Sullivan, and on February 10th, everybody had a band in their garage. It was literally overnight,\u201d said Van Zandt when discussing The Beatles\u2019 original impact, before confirming which band knocked them off the top spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Adding, \u201cThe floodgates opened until the summer of \u201865, when the Americans took the charts back with the folk rock of The Byrds and Bob Dylan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While Bob Dylan adopted folk rock, which was a controversial move for many, it was The Byrds who originally gave the style form. When they covered \u2018Mr Tambourine Man\u2019, Roger McGuinn took the track and added their own spin on it. It was a bold move, and one that the band didn\u2019t know would work at first. Bassist Chris Hillman said in an interview that he doesn\u2019t think they would have played the Dylan cover were it not for McGuinn\u2019s insistence. <\/p>\n \u201cKudos to Roger McGuinn for taking on \u2018Tambourine Man,\u2019 which didn\u2019t knock us out when we first heard it,\u201d said Hillman. \u201cBob Dylan had written it in a very countrified groove, a straight 2\/4 time signature, and Roger takes the song home and works with it, puts it in 4\/4 time, so you could dance to it. Bob heard us do it and said, \u2018Man, you could dance to this!\u2019 It really knocked him over and he loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n McGuinn had a great mindset when it came to music. He was innovative and trusted his gut, which is what steered him towards also embracing a country music style. You could hear this evidently on their record Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which they released in 1968, something which McGuinn admitted was a \u201clabour of love\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were so in love with this music, we listened to it day and night on the radio,\u201d said McGuinn, discussing the band\u2019s decision to head to Nashville and start recording country music. \u201cI went to Nudies, and I got some cowboy boots, and I got a black Cadillac El Dorado. I didn\u2019t put the bullhorns on it like Nudie had but I was into this whole country thing.\u201d<\/p>\n