The Byrds, Back Pages/A Collection of Cuttings

[Steve Gunderson]

I have been meaning to bring up an interesting book that I bought in 2001 called 'The Byrds,Back Pages/A Collection of Cuttings'. This was put together in 1989 in the UK by someone named 'D/L' It has 118 pages of what are bascially magazine, reviews and newspaper articles collected from the early 60s until 1989. There is no publishing company listed meaning it was an individual enterprise. There are some amazing articles/reviews like when they played with Donovan in Finsbury Park and were not received very well. I would be interested in knowing more about the history of this-anyone know?

[Steve Gunderson]

I should have added that there is an interview with McGuinn in this book called 'Roger McGuinn on Guitars'. I don't know the date, but here is some interesting stuff he says concerning RICs. 'Its not any promotional deal (with RIC), they don't give me free guitars-they make me pay for them. I don't think they (RIC) have a vague awareness that I have been playing their guitar-that I am responsible for their having sold a bunch of them. They do give me a break on the price-instead of charging me $1200, they charge me $400. Thats pretty good, but after all the guitars I've sold for them, you'd think they would lay one on me. I mean, I really have sold a bunch of them-at least fifty or sixty anyway'.

Wow, how the times have changed!

[Folkie]

Steve,

That sounds really cool! I assume the book is still in print?

Robert

[beatbyrd]

I should have added that there is an interview with McGuinn in this book called 'Roger McGuinn on Guitars'. I don't know the date, but here is some interesting stuff he says concerning RICs. 'Its not any promotional deal (with RIC), they don't give me free guitars-they make me pay for them. I don't think they (RIC) have a vague awareness that I have been playing their guitar-that I am responsible for their having sold a bunch of them. They do give me a break on the price-instead of charging me $1200, they charge me $400. Thats pretty good, but after all the guitars I've sold for them, you'd think they would lay one on me. I mean, I really have sold a bunch of them-at least fifty or sixty anyway'.

Wow, how the times have changed!

Well, Sir Paul 'sold' me my Rick 4001 bass and Jim McGuinn put the 360/12 on my 'someday I'm definitely gonna get one of those' list. Maybe someone should start a "Best Artist/Rick saleperson" thread. I think that McGuinn, 3 Beatles, and Chris Squire would have to be near the top of that list, with Petty, Campbell, and Geddy being up there, too. Tom

[Steve Gunderson]

Robert,
I don't think it is still in print. I think it was a one off sort of thing. I haven't seen it on Amazon or anything like that. It is am amazing work that someone took some real time to put together. I may be wrong and am happy to be corrected.
Steve

[mcd220]

"Back Pages" is almost imposible to find...I think there were only around 300 copies.

Kind of a holy grail in Byrds lore, it's a bootleg book, talked to two guys who have a copy, and they won't budge an inch!

Be nice if someone in the "Family" could find one; we could get the thing scanned, so it would be preserved for always. I hear there are lots of photos in the book as well.

I have a snapshot of the cover, but don't know if we can attach files from our "My Documents" or not?

Best, Christian

[mcd220]

Oh, Steven did find one!!

Congratulations...you were obviously in the right place at the right time...can't tell you how lucky you were to "Be there"...you were.."There", when you found that book, and..."There"...is a place that does not really exist in the real world.

You are very, VERY lucky to own a copy.

There are folks out there that I'm sure would pay in the upper three digits for that book.

Best, Christian

[chestnutmare]

I have a copy of this 'book' which was an interesting collection of articles. But it was actually just a bootleg – no publisher, no ISBN and, in some places, no proper credit. For example. Johnny Rogan's pieces from Dark Star are included with his name conveniently removed from the credits at the end of each piece. That seems rather naughty, to say the least. It's subtitled 'A collection of cuttings' which is what it is. I guess many us could have produced something similar from our own collection of cuttings. That said, I enjoyed it for what it was....

[Steve Gunderson]

At the same time that I bought 'The Byrds/Back Pages', I also bought two smaller 'magazines' similar to TBBP (this was in a small book shop on Denmark Street in London that specialized only in Rock/Blues/folk rock books sadly now gone replaced by a Fender Guitar store), one which is called 'Roger McGuinn' which is nothing but articles/photos-no info on who put it together, no publisher, etc, and another one called 'Byrds, Solo v.3" again just loads of articles/photos of the Byrds, obviously both were bootlegged. I wonder if it is the same two guys that did TBBP?