882 The Byrds “Eight Miles High” 1966

“Roger McGuinn’s twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar was one of the defining sounds of 1960s pop, and never was it heard to more brilliant effect than on Eight Miles High. He has said his soloing here was inspired by jazz saxophone legend John Coltrane, and indeed Coltrane’s ‘sheets of sound’ is  a phrase that applies to the breathtaking torrent of notes cascading from McGuinn’s guitar here—no doubt in turn also inspiring an up-and-coming virtuoso named Jimi Hendrix. It was Byrds colleague David Crosby who first turned McGuinn on to Coltrane and Indian sitar wizard Ravi Shankar” (Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Recordings, 2013). 

The Byrds “Eight Miles High”