Inside South Orange, NJ’s SOPAC auditorium this spring-like Thursday, April 12, 2019 evening, excitement abounds as Roger McGuinn — singer, songwriter, guitarist, and founding member of The Byrds — is about to present an intimate solo evening of songs and stories for a house filled with admirers of the iconic ’60s folk-rocker.
On stage, potted palms and a variety of stringed instruments — notably several guitars and a banjo — have been carefully placed.
Entering stage right is McGuinn, who stands in the shadow of the spotlight dressed in a red-feathered hat, black jacket, dark pants, and boots singing Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages.” As he vocalizes the song’s ubiquitous refrain, “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now,” the audience joyfully sings along.
With a voice sounding strong and clear — his signature vibrato ringing out — McGuinn strums his famous Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, its swirly sound filling the SOPAC auditorium with a myriad of crystal clear vibrations.
After greeting the audience, McGuinn announces, “Just over 50 years ago The Byrds’ album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, was released. Last year, when we did the 50th anniversary celebration, I had to relearn some of those songs — including this one.”
Here, McGuinn launches into a solo rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Nothing Was Delivered.” Playing his acoustic guitar, McGuinn taps his foot on this country ballad as he delivers his “Nothing is better/Nothing is best/Take care of yourself/Get plenty of rest” message to the crowd.
McGuinn follows up with another Sweetheart of the Rodeo number — a folksy Woody Guthrie tune entitled about the 1930’s-era bank robber “Pretty Boy Floyd” — featuring some neat country flat-picking on the guitar.
Lastly, from Rodeo, McGuinn performs “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” another Dylan composition. After singing the lilting melody, he invites the audience to join in on the “Whoo-ee ride me high” chorus as he adds vocal harmonies to the crowd’s joyful noise.
After talking about his early days as a budding musician — confessing, “I found out girls liked me better when I played guitar” — McGuinn performs The Byrds’ “Drugstore Truck Driving Man.” Crooning to the driving beat, this countrified ditty breezes along under his expert playing.
Following avid applause, McGuinn exclaims, “I like that! That’s folk music!”
Going on to acknowledge Leadbelly as the “king of 12-string guitar,” McGuinn picks up his own 12-string to perform a soulful rendition of Leadbelly’s “They Hung Him on a Cross.” Poignantly singing, “One day when I was lost/They hung him on the cross/They hung him on the cross for me,” the audience feels McGuinn’s spirit on this traditional gospel number.
After revealing that starting in 1995, he began recording traditional blues songs and posting them online along with chords and lyrics, McGuinn performs Cab Calloway’s “St. James Infirmary Blues.” Audience members throughout the SOPAC auditorium can hear McGuinn’s foot tapping as he plays this minor blues, his 12-string guitar sounding twangy and bluesy as it accompanies his solo voice.
Taking some time to talk about folksinger Pete Seeger, McGuinn reveals, “He would take an old song and put new words to it.” Explaining that Seeger did just that with one of his compositions which borrowed several verses from the Bible, he imitates Seeger talking about McGuinn saying, “This guy I never met made a hit record out of it!”
Here, he invites the audience to sing along on “Turn! Turn! Turn!” As they sing, “To everything/Turn turn turn/There is a season/Turn turn turn/And a time to every purpose under heaven,” McGuinn’s trademark Rickenbacker swirls.
He regales the crowd with a story of how he became the banjo player for the folk group, The Limeliters — revealing, “They hired me, but before I could play with them, they had to wait until I was out of high school” — before acknowledging his later involvement with The Chad Mitchell Trio.
Detailing even more about his personal musical journey, McGuinn tells a story about how, in Los Angeles, singer Bobby Darin hired him away from The Chad Mitchell Trio as a songwriter. Moving to NYC, McGuinn went to work at the Brill Building, where he was told to listen to the radio and create songs based on hits he liked.
Although, according to McGuinn, at the time, “Rock and roll was three chords — and an attitude,” he realized The Beatles’ music was much more sophisticated in that, like with much folk music, “they were using passing chords on their songs.”
Upon hearing The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” McGuinn recalls how he decided to add the famous “Beatle beat” to a folk song he already knew, “The Water is Wide,” which he performs for the crowd tonight.
Following enthusiastic applause, McGuinn performs two songs from the motion picture, Easy Rider. First up is Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s “Wasn’t Born to Follow.” Strumming and picking as he sings this story song, McGuinn’s left foot dances as he performs.
Next, he presents the theme song from the film — “The Ballad of Easy Rider,” — which he co-wrote with Bob Dylan, revealing how Dylan scribbled some lyrics down on a napkin for the film’s star, Peter Fonda, before saying, “Give this to McGuinn — he’ll know what to do with it!”
Introducing the next number stating, “I love the melody,” McGuinn skillfully performs a sea chantey entitled “Randy Dandy Oh.” Singing “Roust ‘er up, bullies, the wind’s drawing free/Way hey roll and go,” the audience is captivated by this sailing melody in a minor key.
McGuinn follows up with a humorous story song entitled “The Preacher and the Bear.” Accompanying himself on the banjo, he vocalizes, “Preacher went out a-huntin’ was on one Sunday morn/It was against his religion, but he took his rifle along/He shot himself three mighty fine quail and one little measly hare/And on his way returning home he met a great big grizzly bear.”
The crowd cheers heartily for this audience pleaser, and after McGuinn plays a short guitar solo, he jokingly tells the crowd, “This is your NPR interlude music,” before taking a brief intermission.
When the second act begins, McGuinn enters stage right again and stands in the spotlight performing a sprightly version of “So You Wanna Be a Rock n’ Roll Star,” a tune he wrote in 1967 and Tom Petty covered in 1985. Following the lively chorus — “So you want to be a rock and roll star?/Then listen now to what I say/Just get an electric guitar/Then take some time and learn how to play” — everyone joins him in singing the catchy “la-la-la” coda.
Talking to the audience about Tom Petty — acknowledging “he did a great job doing The Byrds’ songs” — McGuinn performs “Lover of the Bayou.” Singing “Raised and swam with the crocodile/Snake-eye taught me the Mojo style” in a gravelly voice, his considerable guitar skills support him on this bluesy minor-key rocker.
McGuinn follows up with his own take on Tom Petty’s “American Girl.” His feet dancing as he strums his acoustic, McGuinn sings, “Oh yeah, all right/Take it easy baby/Make it last all night/She was an American girl,” to enthusiastic applause.
After declaring, “His music is always going to be with me,” McGuinn adds, “This is a song I wrote with him.” Here, he performs a number which he and Petty wrote about The Mamas and The Papas’ John Phillips entitled “King of the Hill.” On this straight-ahead rocker, he plays a percussive electric guitar part which ends with heavenly harmonics.
His voice sounding resonant and strong, McGuinn goes on to sing another classic Dylan composition. With a unique syncopated accent in the guitar accompaniment, the audience jubilantly joins him in singing the chorus of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”
“One more time!” he says.
As the audience continues to chant the chorus, McGuinn’s voice floats above the impromptu choir, adding a charming and ethereal vocal descant.
McGuinn goes back to the year 1968 to tell a story about how he was asked to write a country-rock musical based on Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, but which was “set in the American West of the 1850s, rather than in Norway.”
Here, he performs “Chestnut Mare” a number about a horse from that musical. Fingerpicking on his acoustic guitar, McGuinn half sings and half speaks lyrics like, “I’m gonna catch that horse if I can/And when I do I’ll give her my brand/And we’ll be friends for life/She’ll be just like a wife/I’m gonna catch that horse if I can.”
Next up, McGuinn performs a beautiful and poignant original composition, “Russian Hill,” his vocal crying on such poetic lines as “We ate in Chinatown, we rode the cable car/We did what tourists always do/But in the dream you were a movie star/And I was someone, too.”
Following hearty applause, McGuinn again takes the crowd back to the ’60s to a time when he was performing at The Troubadour in LA.
At the club, reveals McGuinn, “A chubby guy came up to me and said, ‘I want to sing in your band.’”
His name?
David Crosby.
At this point, he tells the audience a riveting story about the genesis of The Byrds.
According to McGuinn, Crosby was a person of interest to him because he told him and his colleague— musician Gene Clark — that he had access to a recording studio.
In order to round out their budding band, McGuinn and Gene Clark convinced another friend, Michael Clarke, a conga player, to learn to play the drums using cardboard boxes.
Next, they gave their buddy, Chris Hillman, a bass.
After seeing The Beatles’ movie, A Hard Day’s Night, however, the guys decided to go out and purchase the same instruments the Beatles used: a set of Ludwig drums, a Gretsch guitar, and McGuinn’s now-famous Rickenbacker 12-string electric.
Practicing at their manager’s house, the executive’s daughter — hanging out in her bedroom — immediately came downstairs upon hearing the Byrds’ music; evidently she thought they were The Beatles! Luckily, jazz legend Miles Davis just happened to be at the house at the time, and he said, “Kids have a way of knowing what’s good.”
Davis called Columbia Records in New York and recommended The Byrds, who were then offered a recording contact to cut a single.
Needing “that one song,” McGuinn recalls they came upon Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” He discloses that Crosby didn’t like the song, but McGuinn, who had been practicing Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring,” created an introduction and ending based on Bach’s piece on his 12-string Rickenbacker and, from there, he simply sandwiched in a segment of Dylan’s song between the Baroque-inspired intro and coda.
Here, McGuinn performs the tune, and even though it’s a one-man performance, it sounds like the original recording, particularly with respect to McGuinn’s distinctive voice and his jingly-jangly Rickenbacker guitar.
The entire crowd joyfully joins in as everyone sings together the famous “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man/Play a song for me” chorus.
McGuinn goes on to tell yet another tale from the 1960s, when he and Gene Clark decided to write a song about an airplane ride to England. Originally, the pair wanted to call the composition “Seven Miles High,” but they changed the title to “Eight Miles High” because of the success of the Beatles’ hit, “Eight Days a Week,” calling that “a cooler number.”
Here, McGuinn plays an outstanding unplugged version of “Eight Miles High,” which he says was “influenced by the work of John Coltrane, Ravi Shankar, and Andres Segovia.” His flamenco-influenced guitar work rocks the house and the appreciative crowd responds with a rousing standing ovation.
Lights gleam off of his guitar as he takes a bow before picking up his Rickenbacker and leaving the stage. As audience members continue to stand and cheer for an encore, McGuinn soon returns to the microphone. Launching into The Byrds’ “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” he sings, “The reasons why/Oh, I can’t say/I have to let you go, baby/And run away” to the appreciative audience.
Ending the evening with a second encore — a heartfelt rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom” — McGuinn leaves the audience on its feet smiling before exclaiming, “Thank you all so much!”
Following the show, fans in the audience take time to weigh in with their opinions of McGuinn’s performance.
Carol from Freehold asserts, “Roger McGuinn is phenomenal! He sings with such sincerity,” before noting, “This is my third time seeing him.”
Kathy from Old Bridge agrees adding, “He’s a great storyteller. He captures the audience with every word that comes out.”
Stefan from South Orange comments, “Roger McGuinn is really talented. He has a lot of energy, he’s enthusiastic, and his stories are great,” before noting, “My favorite songs tonight were were ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ and ‘Mr. Tambourine Man.’”
Mark from Whippany concurs adding, “There was a lot of nostalgia here tonight.”
Lastly, we chat with Freddie from New York who reveals, “Roger McGuinn is a childhood hero of mine. I’ve seen him perform many times — and I thought he was great tonight.”
Continuing, “When I first saw the stage set with all the guitars and the banjo, my first thought was ‘Where’s the Rickenbacker?’ But then he came out playing it!” notes Freddie, before exclaiming, “That twang! Those chords!”
Adding, “I feel like I’m hearing the songwriter’s soul whenever I hear him play,” Freddie concludes by declaring, “His soul always shines through.”
To learn more about Roger McGuinn, please go to www.ibiblio.org. For information on upcoming performances at South Orange, NJ’s SOPAC — including Graham Parker on May 15, Oleta Adams on May 17, and Richie Furay’s 75th Birthday Concert on May 18 — please click on sopacnow.org.
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