The Searchers/The Byrds

einar · Post by **einar** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 3:29 am

Hello Secondhand Dealers and Spacemen,

Issue August(!) 2003 of magazine UNCUT is headlined with a long article on the Byrds. It also offers a "free" CD: "Eight miles high" : "19 tracks inspired by the Byrds". The song selection is a mix of cover versions of Byrds songs, and other material more or less in the Byrds landscape (which is wide)! Amongst the included songs is When you walk in the room by the Searchers. This is a relevant inclusion, although you may call it doubtful whether it is "inspired by the Byrds". In the introduction to the track, UNCUT writes thar their (The Searchers') style "was clearly an influence on bands such as the Byrds". They also write that this 1964 cover of Jackie DeShannon's song "is further evidence of the connection".
It is often mentioned that the Byrds borrowed the guitar intro from Needles and pins for such songs as Feel a whole lot better and You won't have to cry, from their first LP. I taste that this pattern is quite obvious and not very pregnant, and even the Searchers repeated it on other songs later.
But here's another finding: In 1964, the Byrds rehearsed in the World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles. A lot of songs were taped, but never intended for publishing. A few of the songs from this year later appeared (re-dressed) on their 1965 albums. These sessions are a.k.a. the Preflyte sessions, and have eventually appeared on CD in later years. I recently bought a 2CD: Sundaced SC 11116 with this material on it. My attention is drawn to a song by the great, late Gene Clark: She has a way. There are 4 different takes of this song, named versions I-IV. The song never appeared on any Byrds album, but vers. II has been published before in another context. Nothing extraordinary happens on vers. I and II, although the Beatles influence is obvious and openly admitted. But what I find very interesting, is that the two later versions features a guitar pattern very nearly copied from When you walk in the room! This makes sense, since the Byrds were introduced to Jackie deShannon during 1964, and they also recorded her song Don't doubt yourself, babe on their debut album in 1965. I can't remember what Jackie's own version (if there was one) of WYWITR sounded like, and if it introduced the wellknown guitar pattern used by the Searchers. But it seems obvious that the development of She has a way is clearly inspired by this deShannon song, and my favourite theory is that they had heard or had been introduced to the Searchers' version during the autumn of '64 (probably through deShannon) and that the Byrds then used the guitar pattern in developing this particular song.

Although I love both the Searchers and the Byrds, and the Searchers are nearest to my heart, I gladly confess that I place the Byrds above in the "rock importance hierarchy tree". But, if any of the two groups was ever influenced by the other, it has to be the Byrds.

Summer vacating Einar.

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 7:56 am

Is this magazine available in UK Einar, there is a version odf Walk in The Room by De Shannon, guitar riff is the same but sounds like acoustic 12 string. Also lacks the opening bass riff which is the riff in my view that inspired Terry Melcher, who produced Tambourine Man, to use on that track somewaht, this is lacking from version on preflyte.

Number of songs on preflyte are british beat influenced not all Searchers influenced

jjr · Post by **jjr** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 1:51 pm

Einar,

Chris Hillman re-did "When You Walk in the Room" on his 1998 CD, "like a hurricane". In the liner notes for that cut, he wrote:

"One of my fondest memories of the
last 35 years was playing at a club
called Ciro's on the Sunset Strip.
Prior to our first 'hit single',the
Byrds played there every night over
a two-to three-week period. We bor-
rowed this song from the British
group, the Searchers. We borrowed a
lot from the Searchers back then."

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 10:32 pm

Did not know that John, nice to know

einar · Post by **einar** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 1:52 am

Hi,
thanks both.
I think UNCUT is published in UK (or else US). It's easy to find in most Norwegian towns!
Thanks John; although I have a foggy memory of McGuinn saying something about the Byrds' relation to the Searchers, I have not seen it stated as convincingly as by Chris here.

Einar

tim · Post by **tim** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 9:01 am

August 2003 issue of UNCUT is available in the U.K. I'll read the article and give you my thoughts.

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 5:30 am

The title of this free CD is somewaht misleading - 19 tracks inspired by The Byrds it states. More accurate title would be 18 inspired by The Byrds and one that inspired The Byrds.

tim · Post by **tim** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 5:39 am

The article is purely about The Byrds although the CD write-up does make it clear that The Byrds owed at least as much to The Searchers as they did to The Beatles.

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:41 am

Agree Tim being pedantic about title I suppose. It is actully a breakdown of tracks in the Mag that acknowledges Searchers influence not the CD

tim · Post by **tim** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 4:28 am

Yes Roy, that's the sad thing about the article, not a single reference to The Searchers influence on The Byrds. In some of The Byrds' fan club stuff that was sent out to members, Roger McGuinn and David Crosby did list The Searchers as one of their favourite groups.