Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

It has always been a mystery to me as to why McGuinn's solo on Eight Miles High has not been officially recognized as the greatest electric guitar solo EVER....when i first heard it my blood froze...it is a staggering piece of work as a jazz piece. McGuinn wanted to get the feel of a sax going out full-bore, the clicking of the valves...everything.....there was nothing like it at the time, and there is nothing like it since that doesn't involve .008 1st strings and a bank of stomp boxes making a six string so responsive you don' have to PICK it....McGuinn PICKED and fingered every note on that solo.......

On the 5D album, I See You is another masterful jazz work by the Byrds and McGuinn-----a side adjunct is Hillman's bass playing----every bit as good as Joe Osborn or McCartney......great low register melodic scales.....essence of jazz bass....

If someone out here at the RRF has read any kudos on the solo work of McGuinn, point me in that direction......

I agree with your underlying premise; McGuinn is an underrated guitarist, and certainly one of Rock's most innovative.
JimK

Makes sense, even McGuinn admits that the "signature" part of the Eight Miles High Riff (the first four notes) is inspired from a jazz artist (either Charlie Parker or Miles Davis....I can't remember which).

Sounds like Coltrane to me.

sloop_john_b wrote:Sounds like Coltrane to me.

ah, yep----just googled it. John Coltrane indeed.


(Right about the 0:50 mark)

collin wrote:Makes sense, even McGuinn admits that the "signature" part of the Eight Miles High Riff (the first four notes) is lifted almost note-for-note from a jazz artist (either Charlie Parker or Miles Davis....I can't remember which).

I was wrakin' what's left of my brain to remember the sax player McGuinn was influenced by---it was John Coltrane

It took a few years before I realized those 2 great songs by the Byrds were ultra-modern jazz.....a precursor to Chick Corea and John McLaughlin......

A word here, also, for drummer Mike Clarke.....when the Byrds greatest stuff was being recorded, he had been playing drums only a couple of years---a pure instinctual musician......