{"id":352922,"date":"2026-01-05T06:44:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352922\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T06:44:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:44:04","slug":"the-talented-singer-roger-mcguinn-called-the-best-he-ever-worked-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352922\/","title":{"rendered":"The “talented” singer Roger McGuinn called the best he ever worked with"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roger<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Fotoburo De Boer \/ Noord-Hollands Archief)<\/p>\n

Mon 5 January 2026 1:00, UK <\/p>\n

There are some people who just get music. It\u2019s not something learned or built upon; it\u2019s just something that exists within them. Roger McGuinn<\/a> is one of those people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the best examples of McGuinn\u2019s knack for innovation is The Byrds\u2019 take on \u2018Mr Tambourine Man\u2019. Back then, folk rock was still finding its feet, and plenty of music fans weren\u2019t totally sold on it. Taking a Bob Dylan tune and layering electric guitars over it felt like a bold move, but McGuinn saw the potential, and he wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n

He received pushback from some of his band members, but eventually they realised just how much of a genius idea it was. In fact, The Byrds may not have become the band that everyone knows and loves today had they not taken on the ambitious cover.\u00a0<\/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 Byrds bass player Chris Hillman. \u201cBob Dylan had written it<\/a> 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

There are some people who attest that Bob Dylan would never have made the controversial move to go electric<\/a> were it not for the keen ear of Roger McGuinn. When he heard what The Byrds had done to his song and how they were able to elevate it, he knew it was unlike anything he\u2019d done before, and that made him want to try and replicate it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to hear us in the studio when we were building The Byrds,\u201d recalled David Crosby, \u201cAfter the word got out that we gonna do \u2018Mr Tambourine Man\u2019 and we were probably gonna be good, he came there and he heard us playing his song electric, and you could see the gears grinding in his head. It was plain as day. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger McGuinn\u2019s got a serious ear for music. He\u2019s not just a top songwriter, he\u2019s also brilliant at spotting real talent in the people around him. One of the musicians he once called the best he\u2019d ever worked with was his fellow Byrds bandmate, David Crosby. And to be fair, Crosby\u2019s talent speaks for itself \u2013 he did well in a few bands and held his own as a solo act, too. McGuinn always had a lot of time for him and genuinely loved working alongside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love David,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s funny, smart and very talented. He\u2019s one of the best harmony singers on the planet. He\u2019s a great rhythm player. He\u2019s written some really nice songs. I have nothing against David.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, The Byrds didn\u2019t stay together, and both Crosby and McGuinn went on separate songwriting paths. Despite being a big fan of his ability, McGuinn always said he wouldn\u2019t be interested in reuniting. While he knows they would make good music together<\/a>, he also believes they would be making it for the wrong reasons, as the financial incentive would loom over them too much.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I just think it would be about money and I don\u2019t need it,\u201d said McGuinn, \u201cMy wife is very good at budgeting. We don\u2019t need much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Fotoburo De Boer \/ Noord-Hollands Archief) Mon 5 January 2026 1:00, UK There are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[50550,96,128,39169,32766,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-352922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-david-crosby","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-roger-mcguinn","12":"tag-the-byrds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}