Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Roger McGuinn has acknowledged reworking The Searchers' "Needles and Pins" riff for at least one Byrd's tune (which escapes me at the moment) and I certainly hear variations of it in more than one of the Byrd's recordings, "I Feel A Whole Lot Better" for example. It is of interest to me and perhaps less well known that The Searchers have said on more than one occasion that they were interested in covering a Byrd's tune. I wonder which one they would choose?

The Searchers have always said that they would have made a good job of "Mr Tambourine Man". Indeed John McNally was the featured vocalist and 12-string player (often using his Black/White Rickenbacker) during their late 90s live shows.

Thanks Tim for the "Mr. Tambourine Man" story. Yes I quite agree that The Searchers would do a great job on Mr. Tambourine Man." I really enjoy John McNally's 12-string work and think his Rickenbacker 620/12 is a great looking guitar as seen below.

Peter,

Thinking about your original question, The Byrds' song with the reworking of the "Needles And Pins" riff, may well be "Feel A Whole Lot Better". Another Byrds song displaying a strong Searchers' influence is the Jackie DeShannon penned "Don't Doubt Yourself Babe" from their debut album "Mr Tambourine Man".

I believe that distinctive opening 12-string riff on both The Byrd's "Feel A Whole Lot Better," and The Searchers "Needles And Pins," is a basic open D chord with the pinky alternately laying over to catch the sus 4th (G vs F#) and open high E string (9th), as well as F# (3rd).
It's almost as distinctive as the acoustic 12-string bass run to "Green Green" (New Christy Minstrels, with Barry McGuire).

These two riffs comprise my TOTAL stable of 12-string licks (so far)!

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Steve: Needles and Pins was recorded in the Key of A and I believe that you will find that the opening riff uses the A Major chord in the first position. A suggested tabulature is found at Needles and Pins

I have the sheet music for "Feel A Whole Lot Better" and the opening riff is based on the first position 'A' Major chord with the fretting on the second (B) string being varied.

Hey, don't forget the Searchers doing Deshannons
"When You Walk in the Room", which apparently the Byrds did for a short while in the beginning live.
Hillman also covered it on one of his last solo CDs.

I have had the good fortune to read an article written by Spencer Leigh for the Record Collector Magazine in 1997. Entitled "Searchin' For The Searchers" Leigh interviews Chris Curtis. There are a couple of comments made about The Byrds that I felt would be appropriate here.

RC: And then came "Needles and Pins"
CC: If you haven't got the listeners in the first few seconds, you haven't got them, and we had them with that. That opening A Chord on "Needles and Pins" will never be topped. It must have been a good riff as The Byrds have used it countless times - upside down, this way, that way.

RC: But you copied it from Jackie de Shannon, who wrote it.
CC: Sort of. Our version is simplier than hers. She goes through immense emotion on that song - all that, "Stop it now, stop it now". That was great for her, but it didn't fit in with a bland, teenybop Searchers record.

RC: And The Byrds, not the Searchers, ended up with the street cred.
CC: Well they were all, "Wow, man, let's take some drugs". Roger McGuinn had those little blue glasses and everyone thought he was on a trip. We wouldn't have wanted that kind of cred, but I don't think they took as many drugs as they implied. You can't keep taking things and perform well, at least not for long. I used to take Preludin because of the long nights in Hamburg, just to keep me awake, but all my playing was from the heart. I did take downers 'cause I needed to sleep.

Thanks to Tomcat, the following except was located in which Dan Harmon interviewed Roger McGuinn over the period September 27 to Oct 4, 1996.

DH: What other groups, if any, were using 12-string electric guitars at that time? Was that your idea? Who were your influences in 12-string acoustic and 12-string electric - or did you essentially work out your own style with the electric, based on previous acoustic explorations with guitar and banjo?


ROGER: The Seekers and The Searchers had put out records with a 12-string-like sound. I think they were actually using overdubbed 6-string guitars. Needles and Pins was a big influence on the 12-string sound. I used the pattern for "Feel A Whole Lot Better."

Tomcat's search also lead to this excerpt of an interview of Chris Hillman entitled:

Hillman proves powerful, like a hurricaneFrom Country Standard Time (June 1998) by Joel Bernstein

However, one cut strongly evokes The Byrds. Jackie De Shannon's "When You Walk In The Room," made famous by The Searchers, illustrates one of the distortions of time. The Searchers, now commonly lumped in as just another British Invasion rock band, were actually the first successful practitioners of the Rickenbacker guitar sound later made famous by The Byrds.

Their influence is not lost on Hillman. "I give them credit. We brought in a bit from them. What maybe derailed (The Searchers) was material. Roger (then known as Jim) McGuinn took the 12-string in another direction and was more conscious of material. But we identified more with The Beatles than The Searchers. McGuinn watched 'A Hard Day's Night' and saw George Harrison playing a Rickenbacker. He picked up that sound and took it another step."

just another angle on the riff used in pins & needles.
If you listen to or read the tab for The Who's So Sad about us, it uses the same riff but on a six string.