Credit: Far Out / Daniel Kramer / Albert Grossman Management / Album Cover
October 24th, 2026 · 12:00am BST
“Judas”. That’s the famous word that was once hurled at Bob Dylan as he had the audacity to play an electric guitar.
Dylan had made a name for himself as one of the most popular folk singers in the world, and his style of performance very much fit the classic mould of a folk singer. He would sing quite serene and soft vocals while playing an acoustic guitar, and his fanbase was pretty happy with it. When he started playing the electric guitar, it was an incredibly controversial moment, so what possessed him to make such a move?
The short answer is The Byrds. Dylan’s songs have been covered far and wide, but only a few renditions have led to him changing his songs entirely. That’s what happened with The Byrds cover of ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, as the band took Dylan’s classic and twisted it into a folk rock classic. The man himself loved the sound of the song so much that he decided he would try to replicate it.
“Bob 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,” said bassist Chris Hillman, “Bob heard us do it and said, ‘Man, you could dance to this!’ It really knocked him over and he loved it.”
The brains behind the cover was Roger McGuinn, as he was responsible for that switched-up time signature and gave the track the much-needed spin that it was desperate for. His bandmates weren’t sure it was going to work, but once they heard what he had been cooking up, they knew that McGuinn had tapped into something special.
“Kudos to Roger McGuinn for taking on ‘Tambourine Man’,” said Hillman, “Which didn’t knock us out when we first heard it.”
What’s interesting is that not only was it McGuinn who came up with the idea for the cover, but he was also the only actual member of The Byrds who played on the record. That’s right, you had Terry Melcher, who was producing the record, and he wasn’t sure that the band were cut out to pull off the perfect version of the track. As such, Melcher decided to get some help in the studio.
Further reading: From The Vault
It was The Wrecking Crew who helped to bring McGuinn’s vision to life. You had Bill Pitman on guitar, Jerry Cole also helping out on the six-string, then Larry Knechtel on bass and Leon Russell playing piano. McGuinn was excited to work with all of the musicians, if only for a short while, but the artist he was most excited about teaming up with was the drummer Hal Blaine.
McGuinn later recalled how nervous he was about working with Blaine as he found himself incredibly intimidated by the drummer. Blaine was great, and he had the experience, look and style to back everything he did up. Apparently, McGuinn’s nervousness came through, as Blaine told The Byrds songwriter to take a breath, relax, go outside and grab a beer before coming back into the studio.
A beer has never been more needed, it seems, as McGuinn delivered on this cover along with the rest of The Wrecking Crew. While it might have been The Byrds who made the folk-rock Dylan rendition famous, it was McGuinn and The Wrecking Crew who originally brought the track to life.
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