First off, yes, this has been discussed before.johnallg wrote:I would imagine after up to 40 years with some of his songs that he is almost "trapped" into playing, though great songs, could get a little "stale" night after night after tour. Breathing new life into them (and him) by changing things up and instruments would keep him going and away from cynicism. IMHO
And I think I posted recently in the Byrds area about the approximate proportion of instruments in McGuinn's shows.
John, I agree with you 100% that Roger is "trapped" and has to play a good portion of the well known Byrds songs in every show. Otherwise, customers are going to leave disgruntled and say "why didn't he play such-and-such!?"
But I don't think "changing things up" is why he doesn't use the RIC a lot in shows. I agree with Ethan. The 370 is just not going to sound great with one man's voice and no band for entire concert.
As I wrote in that other post - for any song that has a memorable distinctly RIC hook to it (My Back Pages, Tambourine Man, Feel Whole Lot Better, etc.) Roger will pull out the 370. Every other song is up for grabs - either the 12-string acoustic or the seven-string Martin or even the banjo sometimes.
PS: By coincidence, I'm going to see Roger again this weekend at the Ranch.