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ROGER McGUINN
The Solo Years: 1981-1991
Roger McGuinn Bibliography
Solo Again
McGuinn spent most of the '80s touring solo, playing at small halls and on college campuses. He had no road crew other than his wife Camilla for these gigs, during which he cheerfully ran through a program made up mostly of old Byrds songs. By the late '80s, McGuinn had added song introductions and honed his show into the career retrospective later captured on Live From Mars (Hollywood, 1996).
Throughout the '80s, McGuinn was without a label. Unlike Hillman, McGuinn had little interest in working with smaller, independent labels, citing the problems of distribution and marketing.Guest Shots and Mini-Reunions
In 1984, the planets nearly aligned a few times, and McGuinn teamed up with some of his old bandmates. For example, in early 1984, McGuinn opened a few shows for David Crosby's All Star Band, although the two did not end up playing together. During a tour of Europe that summer, McGuinn was backed by the Peace Seekers, essentially the 1978 Flying Burrito Brothers under a new name. Skip Battin, Gene Parsons, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Jim Goodall opened for McGuinn, then backed him up after his own solo set. That fall, he performed with Gene Clark at McCabe's in L.A.
Around the same time, McGuinn began to show up on other people's recordings. He backed up old friend Vern Gosdin with both harmony vocals and prominent Rickenbacker work on Gosdin's remake of "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (He also played with Gosdin at the first few Farm Aid shows. In 1986, McGuinn played on a cover of the Pogues song, "A Pair of Brown Eyes" on Peter Case (Geffen, 1986). (As leader of the Plimsouls, Case had performed one of the great Byrds pastiches, "Million Miles Away.")That same year, at the suggestion of producer Terry Melcher, McGuinn guest-starred on the Beach Boys' remake of "California Dreamin'," the folk rock standard originally recorded by the Mamas and the Papas. McGuinn appeared in the video and opened some shows for the Beach Boys on their next tour.During this period, McGuinn sometimes played with a Florida group called the Headlights. More often, he still toured solo, sometimes opening for new friends such as R.E.M., and, on the European leg of their joint tour, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan.McGuinn, Hillman and Sometimes Crosby
Beginning in 1988, McGuinn kept a slightly higher profile. The release of In the Beginning that year and the augmented Never Before the next reminded many of the Byrd's former glory; having helped produce the CD's bonus tracks, McGuinn became the focus of renewed attention. Then, in June of '88, he, Hillman, and a cleaned-up and out-of-jail Crosby reunited for a one-off benefit to keep the Ash Grove open. They played a set of old Byrds tunes to general approbation.
In December of that year, McGuinn and Hillman collaborated again. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded a sequel to their classic three-record set, Will the Circle Be Unbroken (United Artists, 1972). For the new CD, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded with a group of friends from the country world and beyond, among them McGuinn and Hillman. The pair reprised Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" from Sweetheart of the Rodeo (this time, with Hillman and McGuinn trading off verses). The song was released as a single and, thanks to Hillman's success with the Desert Rose Band, it hit #6 on the Country chart in January of 1989. (The album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. Two (Universal/MCA, 1989), also sold well.)As their single hit the country charts, McGuinn and Hillman teamed up with Crosby again for three shows in California, in order to bolster their legal claim to the name "The Byrds" against Michael Clarke's bogus aggregation. Again, the shows consisted of Byrds classics and were enthusiastically received. (For more details, see Byrds v. Byrds: The Battle for the Byrds Name, 1989-1990.)McGuinn also appeared as a guest on two other CDs during 1989. He played 12-string on "...This Town....," the opening cut of Elvis Costello's fine CD Spike (Warner Bros., 1989) (His contemporary Paul McCartney contributed bass to the same track.)Later that year Crowded House released a CD EP featuring the single "I Feel Possessed" from their second CD, Temple of Low Men (Capitol, 1988). The EP contained three bonus tracks credited to "Byrdhouse" -- McGuinn backed by the members of Crowded House. Recorded live in LA, the EP featured performances of "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Eight Miles High," and "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star."In February of 1989, Arista Records announced that it had signed McGuinn to a solo contract. (Arista head Clive Davis had been at CBS during the Byrds' years with the CBS subsidiary, Columbia.)In 1990, the battle for the Byrds name continued. McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman performed at the Roy Orbison All-Star Tribute at the Universal Amphitheater in LA in February. Two of the songs from that event, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" appear on The Byrds Boxed Set. During "Tambourine Man," Dylan joined the three onstage to the delight of the crowd. As part of the same effort, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman recorded four new tracks together in Nashville in August 1990. These tracks would also appear on Boxed Set.In January of 1991, the five original Byrds performed together when the Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The original quintet set aside their differences long enough to run through "Turn! Turn! Turn!," "Mr. Tambourine Man," and "Feel A Whole Lot Better," just as the US began the Persian Gulf War.To read about McGuinn's renewed recording career in the '90s, see Roger McGuinn, the Solo Years: 1991-1997.
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