The world’s greatest raga rock song, according to Bobby Gillespie
Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie never shied from highlighting the work of fellow psychedelic rockers, from The Pogues to Thin Lizzy.
His favourite from The Byrds’ catalogue was a little-known track on the B-side of ‘Eight Miles High’, a monumental track in opening the door to Indian influences in Western music, and a song the world needs to be reminded about.
The Glaswegian’s choice is ‘raga-rock at his best’, and it could be no other than ‘Why’ from The Byrds’ 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, telling Uncut that Roger McGuinn’s guitar solo did particularly well in winning his favour: “It’s a scorching solo, totally out there. I think it’s only about three chords, but it’s always been a favourite of mine”.
The idea for the song came just as the band had returned to the studio after their November 1965 tour across the US. Having by now become a loyal fan of Indian music, Crosby brought a cassette of Ravi Shankar’s albums along to alleviate the listless hours spent crossing the country from show to show. The music was a staple on the tour bus, leading to a strong influence of Indian music on what they recorded next, finding full expression in the music of ‘Why’.
Renown for having been the first hand to pass one of Shankar’s albums to George Harrison and changing the course of Beatles history, Indian music was of such allure to lead guitarist McGuinn that he propelled his banjo-rock twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar to assimilate a sitar on the track. Its instrumentation is strongly reminiscent of traditional Indian instruments, but it’s just the clever witchery of a very fond guitarist pledging homage to an underrepresented genre and inviting it to sit at the table of American rock and roll. Alongside its A-side record neighbour ‘Eight Miles High’, ‘Why’ became a landmark in influencing and developing psychedelic raga-rock.
“The whole sound of The Byrds is what made them special. Yes, the 12-string is incredible, but the harmonies are out of this world,” the songwriter and frontman relayed, “Earlier today, I was listening to Preflyte, which is the album of demos, and even on there the harmonies are amazing. Listen to what Crosby and Clark are doing, and it’s so beautiful. You can hear what their influences are, but at the same time it’s something completely new.”
To capture their contemporary influences and make them sing as if India had been making English-speaking rock all along, produced an effortless merging of genres in a beautiful track.
“I’m a Byrds fanatic, really. I love the sound; it’s really joyous, euphoric music, and the whole attitude of the band. Everyone always goes on about Sgt Pepper’s, but Notorious… destroys it. And the performances on Fifth Dimension, especially, are outstanding. It’s a very intense record, almost like The Velvet Underground with songs like ‘I See You’ and ‘Eight Miles High’,” he gushed.
What Gillespie described as “primitive” is a work of spontaneous creativity, of artists following their wildest imaginations and setting them to Motown lyrics and the upbeat pounding of Chris Hillman’s gulping bass. Although largely forgotten, the song left its mark on alternative psychedelic movements, and I’m not sure I’m the only one to crave a Primal Scream cover.
