Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

drumbob wrote:Does anyone know whatever happened to the tapes of The Byrds playing "MIlestones," that Mile Davis song that has never been released. There's a short snippet of it in a video or two on You Tube, but that's all.

However, MIlestones was a song Crosby was really behind. We worked on that for a couple of days, but the group never felt it came out 100%. There were timing difficulties, as well as a number of other problems associated with it. As I remember, it was Crosby's idea to finally shelve it; probably because he got tired of working with it. I really wanted to finish it and take it to the next level, because I felt it was a good departure for them. I tried, but I could never get them to finish it. The unfinished cut (from memory) is about five or six minutes long. (22) Usher.

A band is a chemistry, and everybody affects the chemistry. Roger [McGuinn, guitarist and lead vocalist] affected the chemistry of the Byrds more than the rest of us did. The Byrds went pretty much where Roger was, at first. All I contributed was some interesting harmonies; I didn’t really affect the direction of the group very much. But I did play Coltrane to Roger and the guys in the motorhome we traveled in. We had a reel-to-reel player in the back, playing through a Fender Bassman amp. I kept playing Africa/Brass. Roger is a very talented guy, and he’s very good at being affected by another kind of music and taking it into his stream. He would never have thought of the solo he played on “Eight Miles High” if he hadn’t listened to Coltrane.