By james art Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and former Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn comes to the Higley Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30pm on October 26.
“An Evening with Roger McGuinn” opens with the stage darkening and the sound of Roger’s 12-string Rickenbacker guitar filling the house as he approaches the standing microphone to sing his signature Bob Dylan song “My Back Pages.” He always starts his concerts with this song because he takes the audience on his musical life journey.
Jim McGuinn (he later changed his name to Roger) started playing guitar when he was 14 and left Chicago for his first professional job at 17. The Limeliters sent him a plane ticket to Los Angeles to play guitar and banjo on their RCA album ‘Tonight’ personally.”
During this recording, he joined them at the Hollywood Bowl, opening for Eartha Kitt.
Chad Mitchell heard of McGuinn’s abilities and asked him to join his band, The Chad Mitchell Trio, as an accompanist on guitar and banjo. He was 18 years old.
He toured with CMT for about a year, but when Bobby Darin saw him perform, he immediately offered McGuinn a job paying twice what he was making with Mitchell.
Darrin asked McGuinn to play his guitar and sing a 15-minute set of folk songs in the middle of his variety show.
When Darrin decided to take a break from performing live, he invited McGuinn to join him in New York to work in the famous Brill Building as a songwriter for TM Music. It was a day job, so in the evenings Jim worked as a studio musician in the city.
He became music director for Judy Collins, helped Paul Simon record the demo for “Sound of Silence” and was active in the record business as the “go to” guy for 12-string guitar.
It was at the Brill Building that McGuinn first heard the Beatles pitch the idea, using folk music chords with a rock beat. He was drawn to the idea and began singing “rocky” folk music in cafes in Greenwich Village.
The performances didn’t endear him to the folk singers of the time, but the club owner did. He put up a sign outside advertising “Beatle Imitations”, which McGuinn found uncomfortable.
He had to leave New York, so he took a job in Los Angeles at the Troubadour folk club, opening for Hoyt Axton, who was the first person to invite McGuinn to sing on a record. He sang harmony on Hoyt’s album “Balladeer”.
Folk audiences didn’t appreciate the combination of folk songs and Beatle Beat more than the people of Greenwich Village, but there was one musician who did: Gene Clark.
David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke joined the duo and the Byrds were born.
Their first single was written by Bob Dylan, but when the band heard the demo, they weren’t too impressed.
McGuinn had an idea how to fix the folk song. He was an arranger in New York, so adding a Bach-type intro and a Beatle Beat took the song “Mr Tambourine Man” to #1 in the world.
Tickets for An Evening with Roger McGuinn are $35.
Higley Center for the Performing Arts, 4132 E. Pecos Road, Gilbert. 480-279-7194.