Rich here, continuing to write about the songs the define their genre. This time, I'm making a case that The Byrds 1965 recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man" is the definitive Folk Rock song. Not songwriter Bob Dylan's original, folky acoustic version of the song, but rather the electrified rock version by The Byrds, with its gleaming vocal harmonies and the sparkling jangle of Jim McGuinn's electric 12-string guitar.
Now it's true that before The Byrds, there had been a handful of proto-folk rock records that featured harmony and jangly guitars -- "Just a Little" and "Laugh Laugh" by The Beau Brummels and "Needles & Pins" by The Searchers come to mind. And George Harrison's electric 12-string guitar (a gift from Rickenbacker Guitar Makers, the second they'd ever made at the time) had been featured on Beatles records for well over a year.
And folk musician Jim McGuinn (later known as Roger McGuinn) was paying attention. He loved The Beatles, and as an accomplished acoustic 12-string guitarist himself, he was particularly fascinated by Harrison's use of an electric 12-string guitar. So when McGuinn teamed up with a couple other like-minded folkies (Gene Clark and David Crosby) to start the band that would evolve into The Byrds, he traded in his acoustic guitar for an electric Rickenbacker 12-string.
After hearing an early demo of Bob Dylan's new folk song "Mr. Tambourine Man," The Byrds set about to recording it as their debut single. McGuinn changed the time signature of the song, Clark & Crosby would add their ethereal harmonies to Jim's voice, and McGuinn created the song's signature melodic introduction featuring the sound of his heavily compressed electric 12-string guitar that emphasized the instrument's jangly high frequencies. And once bass and drums were part of the mix, "Mr. Tambourine Man" was no longer the folk song it had been born as.
The results were electrifying. The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" was unlike anything else on the charts at the time. It became a Number One hit and helped to break the stranglehold of The British Invasion bands that had dominated the American record charts for almost a year-and-a-half. The Press dubbed the new sound "Folk Rock," and, suddenly, there were other folk-rock groups all over the airwaves. Even The Beatles paid attention, filling their next album "Rubber Soul" with folk rock-ish songs.
And "Mr. Tambourine Man" started it all.
