Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds 1965

Another classic from the Sixties which sounds just as good almost sixty years later. I picked up the album Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds at Burwood K-Mart because like a few of my other purchases it was on a cheap label and then further discounted to about 99 cents. I knew little about the Byrds except for Mr. Tambourine Man. This was the early seventies and I was more interested in Glam but I was starting to look to the sixties more and more. And I need that song!

 When this piece of vinyl hit the turntable he was almost too hard to get off. It just blew away so much of the pop stuff I was listening to. Those harmonies. That jangly guitar. And just brilliant songs. I don't think I even owned a Dylan album before this. (unluckily I first heard Dylan around New Morning time and couldn't understand the fuss) But it also kick-started my interest in Dylan.

By the late seventies, it was a major influence on my writing as I moved from punk to being in a Mod band and eventually embracing power pop. In 1982 Little Murders attempted to cover "Here Without You" I think we may have only played it once. At Macy's in South Yarra. Taped for posterity but I don't think we ever did it again. Little Murders also covered "Feel A Whole Better" which is also on this album. Now that song we covered through many line-ups. She Let's Me Know our third single was originally an attempt to write a Byrds type song. (actually, the chord sequence is cribbed from one of their songs) 

When my flat in Fitzroy was robbed and I lost my Ibanez Les Paul guitar (plus beer and cigarettes) at first I bought an electric 12 string electric guitar. I really wanted that Byrds sound. I took it to a gig at the Oxford Hotel. It was such a bugger to tune up and keep in tune that I took it back the next day and swapped it for my Fender Custom Telecaster.