Signs in the street, that say where you’re goingĪmong those afraid of losing their groundĪlthough the basic idea for the song had been discussed during the band’s flight to England, it did not begin to take shape until The Byrds’ November 1965 tour of the US. You’ll find that it’s stranger than known In addition, “Round the squares, huddled in storms / Some laughing, some just shapeless forms” describes fans waiting for the band outside hotels, while the line “Sidewalk scenes and black limousines” refers to the excited crowds that jostled the band as they exited their chauffeur-driven cars.Įight miles high, and when you touch down This attempt at legal action failed, amid a flurry of national press and television coverage. Other lyrics in the song that explicitly refer to the Byrds’ stay in England include the couplet: “Nowhere is there warmth to be found / Among those afraid of losing their ground”, which is a reference to the hostile reaction of the UK music press, as well as the English group the Birds (which featured Ron Wood) serving the band with a writ of copyright infringement because of the similarities in their names. Any reason they could come up with to rebuff the drug theme allegations would do. It was also claimed to be a nod to The Beatles, who had a hit with the song Eight Days a Week at the time. Although commercial airliners fly at an altitude of six to seven miles, it was felt that “eight miles high” sounded more poetic than six. McGuinn told him six miles, which was a leap-off point. Part of the story is that Gene Clark asked McGuinn how high they were in the sky. I’m not denying that the Byrds did drugs at that point – we smoked marijuana – but it wasn’t really about that.”Īt the time of release, the band definitely played down the drug references, instead claiming that the song was inspired by their flight to England. McGuinn was asked by Songfacts in 2016 if the song was really about drugs, and replied: “Well, it was done on an airplane ride to England and back. Any mention of “high” was almost automatically assumed to be a drug reference in those days. The song’s lyrics are, for the most part, about the group’s flight to London in August 1965 for their first British tour, as hinted at by the opening couplet: “Eight miles high and when you touch down, you’ll find that it’s stranger than known.” When Griffiths asked if Jones should’ve gotten a credit for his contributions, Clark said, “I thought he should have been credited at the time, but of course he didn’t care. The melody and lyrics I wrote myself in a hotel room with Brian Jones in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”Īpparently Jones was not keen to get a songwriting credit. “We were on a bus tour at the time, and we were listening to a lot of John Coltrane, a lot of Ravi Shankar, and they helped me finish the song. He said, “I wrote the song and presented it to McGuinn and Crosby on tour,” Clark later said. In an interview with Mike Griffiths on 3 November 1983, Gene Clark stated that Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had a hand in writing this song. One example is McGuinn’s John Coltrane-influenced guitar work, which gave it a stronger edge. The basic melody and most of the lyrics are his, but input from the others enhanced its final expression. Gene Clark would still have a major contribution on the album, as Eight Miles High was originally his song. A lot could be said about the background to this, but suffice to say that by the time Fifth Dimension was released in July 1966, he was no longer in the group. Unfortunately this seemed to happen at the expense of Clark, who found himself marginalized in the band on other fronts as well. On their third album Fifth Dimension, McGuinn and Crosby stepped up as songwriters in an attempt to increase the band’s reliance on their own material. Tambourine Man (June 1965) and a further two on their follow-up Turn! Turn! Turn! (December 1965), alongside other cover material and some originals. They still did more than a few covers, chiefly by Bob Dylan who was covered extensively – four songs on their first album Mr. The song is credited to Gene Clark, Jim (Roger) McGuinn, and David Crosby – and as we’ll see, some uncredited input from The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones.ĭuring the first few years of the band, Gene Clark had been its key songwriter. The crux will be what makes something “bona fide” or not, but no matter your view, it was certainly one of the first singles to bring that style and influence to the mainstream. The song was influential in introducing the concept of psychedelia and raga into the pop and rock music of its day.Ĭritics and music historians often site the song as being the first bona fide psychedelic rock song. Eight Miles High is one of the defining songs of the psychedelic rock movement of the 1960s.
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