{"id":642303,"date":"2026-06-16T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/642303\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:05:10","slug":"the-1967-single-that-became-the-first-song-about-being-a-rock-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/642303\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1967 single that became the first song about being a rock star"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Record<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out<\/p>\n

Tue 16 June 2026 19:00, UK <\/p>\n

Songs of stardom had been dreamed up by the earliest rock and rollers<\/a>, but it took pop a while to actually grapple with the realities of having \u2018made it\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an understandable trajectory. Naturally, many an ambitious, wide-eyed hopeful will know full well the yearning of seeing their name in lights from their humdrum corner of nowhere, long before fame comes calling. Whether \u2018Johnny B Goode\u2019, \u2018Matchbox\u2019, and \u2018Mystery Train\u2019s 1950s chase of rags-to-riches glory, the early days\u2019 hungry optimism is a near universal for every artist gunning for their \u2018big break\u2019.<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s the demystifying thud of the industry. Finally winning the stature you\u2019ve been craving, any young band can find themselves wading through a cesspool of stale hedonism, corporate vultures, inept management, commercial pressures, and marketing string-pullers sucking suddenly throwing you around the music world like a ragdoll.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be about the music,\u201d to quote Milhouse Van Houten. Before long, a jadedness about your newfound fame can start guiding your lyrical pen. \u2018Barracuda\u2019s attack on sexism in the businesses, \u2018This Note\u2019s For You\u2019s satirical swipe at the world of cash-grabbing sponsors, and in Pink Floyd\u2019s case, much of their latter 1970s efforts channelling the soul-destroying trappings of \u2018the machine\u2019 and the many lives lost in its cigar-chomping maw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, what was the first hit about being a rock star?<\/p>\n

It was during the Summer of Love\u2019s flowering bloom that one of the West Coast\u2019s biggest names decided to take a snarky potshot at the whole rock and roll gig.<\/p>\n

Legend has it that The Byrds wrote \u2018So You Want to Be a Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Star\u2019 as a dig toward the day\u2019s most popular manufactured group. Leading 1967\u2019s Younger Than Yesterday, the single\u2019s half-cynical jab at the poster boys caught in the centre of the \u201cThe money, the game and the public acclaim\u201d has always been thought to refer to The Monkees, as they were dominating both the Billboard Hot 100 and 200 charts, as well as riding high from their NBC sitcom show.<\/p>\n

Featuring genuine audio of screaming fans caught at The Byrds\u2019 Bournemouth, UK show two years earlier, plus a piquant trumpet solo from South African jazzman Hugh Masekela, \u2018So You Want to Be a Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Star\u2019 reflects the adventurous spirit of the Younger Than Yesterday record, as well as marking a band slowly coming to terms with their own presence in the biz.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

While The Monkees certainly feel propped up in the track\u2019s shooting gallery, co-writer and Byrd frontman Jim McGuinn later confessed to standing as a more acerbic look at the pop industry in general<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t as bitter as that,\u201d McGuinn maintained to ZigZag in 1973. \u201cWe were thumbing through a teen magazine and looking at all the unfamiliar faces and we couldn\u2019t help thinking: \u2018Wow, what\u2019s happening \u2026 all of a sudden here is everyone and his brother and his sister-in-law and his mother and even his pet bullfrog singing rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u2019 So we wrote \u2018So You Want to Be a Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Star\u2019 to the audience of potential rock stars, those who were going to be, or who wanted to be, and those who actually did go on to realise their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out Tue 16 June 2026 19:00, UK Songs of stardom had been dreamed up by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[189535,96,36374,128,60169,32766,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-642303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-189535","tag-entertainment","tag-folk-rock","tag-music","tag-music-industry","tag-the-byrds","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642303","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=642303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}