The musician Bruce Springsteen said truly invented country rock: “Incredible, beautiful, beautiful music”
When Kiss enters the stage, they have an introduction that fans have memorised word for word.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you wanted the best, you got the best,” they say, a booming PA system ringing out over whatever stadium the make-up sporting rockers happen to find themselves in, “the hottest band in the world, Kiss.” Why am I telling you this in an article about Bruce Springsteen? Well, it’s to highlight that when welcoming people on stage, there always tends to be a bit of exaggeration.
As such, when Bruce Springsteen welcomed Roger McGuinn on stage as a surprise guest, people might have been sceptical when he gave him a glowing review. “I got a special guest with us tonight,” he said.
“Somebody whose music we really grew up on and whose being a tremendous influence […] It’s the guy that single handedly invented country rock, he invented trembling guitars, folk rock […] He’s made so much incredible, beautiful, beautiful music. We’re honoured to have on our stage, from The Byrds, Mr Roger McGuinn.”
‘Wow, that’s one hell of an introduction, Bruce,’ I hear you say, ‘Invented folk rock? Invented country rock? Sure.’ Your reservations are justified, but in this instance, unlike Kiss declaring themselves the hottest band in the world, Bruce Springsteen didn’t speak a single falsehood. The impact that Roger McGuinn had on music is pretty much second to none.
One of his first major contributions was his conjuring of folk rock. Bob Dylan hadn’t gone electric yet and was instead still taking his time putting together soft acoustic music that tugged on heartstrings.
However, prior to releasing ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, the singer caught wind that a band called The Byrds were going to put out their own version of it. It was nothing like the original; it had a swing and a step to it, and it’s also called the most common precursor to folk rock. Who do we have to thank for such a song? None other than Roger McGuinn.
“Kudos to Roger McGuinn for taking on ‘Tambourine Man,’ which didn’t knock us out when we first heard it,” said the band’s bassist, Chris Hillman. “Bob Dylan had written it in a very countrified groove, a straight 2/4 time signature, and Roger takes the song home and works with it, puts it in 4/4 time, so you could dance to it. Bob heard us do it and said, ‘Man, you could dance to this!’ It really knocked him over and he loved it.”
McGuinn didn’t stop at folk rock, though. After the band had some hits within that genre, he then turned his attention to the world of country, as he started playing around with the genre, embracing the culture, buying all the clothes, and making music that branched into the realm of country rock. He wasn’t quite as excited as this point in his career, as he felt the change of style at the time let his fans down; however, there is no denying how influential this new direction was.
“I’m sure we did influence a lot of people in that direction, but we also disappointed a lot of rock fans,” he said. “They said, ‘What is this?’ You know, because there was a sort of, country music was tainted with a political right-wing spin, and they thought, ‘Wow, you’ve gone over to the enemy side, man, like you’re letting us down here.’ But it wasn’t anything political, it was a love of the music. To me, country music was just another form of folk music.”
A glowing review from Springsteen, sure, but all true nonetheless.
