Test Flyte Downunder

Rip It Up, Issue 13, 1 July 1978, Page 10

Test Flyte Downunder

Peter Thomson

Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. iQfiR

“The tour itinerary didn’t say how far apart the last two towns were or how we were travelling up. When we found it meant a six-hour drive before the concert we got up early it was dark and took off for the airport: a bleary-eyed Roger McGuinn arriving in Auckland on a bleak, rain-lashed Saturday morning.

The recent New Zealand Tour by former Byrds, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and Gene Clark, along with Poco drummer George Grantham, constituted not just another reunion, but the first performances of a newly formed group. On return to the States they will begin recording an album in late July under the name Flyer. (The permanence of Grantham’s tenure with the band is not yet known although he will definitely be on the album.) The original and obvious moniker for the band is considered unsuitable because, as Hillman put it, “It just wouldn’t be the Byrds without David and Michael.” Moreover, any new recording under that name would remind audiences of the unhappy '72 reunion. About that album McGuinn and Hillman are blunt. It seems their enthusiasm for the future allows them an easy candour about the past. Hillman: ”1 hated that ’72 album. It was rushed. We needed 3 months just to get to know each other again. I think we all went in there with songs but we saved the good ones

for our own projects. I know I did. Gene had some good ones though.” McGuinn: “I listened to it again and it’s not as bad as I thought, although my “Born to Rock and Roll’ is a disaster.” A corporate title of surnames for the new group is also to be avoided “rather than risk another Souther-Hillman-Furay escapade.” That ill-fated 73 attempt at a supergroup is now dismissed by Hillman as "the ingredients of a great cake which just didn’t cook. We never worked together; just on each other’s songs.” Yet Hillman speaks fondly of his other post-Byrd outfits, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Manassas. His relationship with Stephen Stills in the latter band was "and is, very close. We have a good friendship.” In the New Zealand concerts Hillman featured two numbers he wrote with Stills. Looking back further, Hillman laughs in recalling when he, McGuinn and the original Byrds first stormed world charts with “Mr Tambourine Man.” “We really weren't sure if we liked the song at first.” Nonetheless that record virtually made them All-American heroes, the first group to break the Beatlesled, British stranglehold of the charts. From that beginning, the Byrds’ success grew as they progressed from the ‘folk-rock’ genre they had founded to developing the 'psychedelic sound’ on such fine albums as Fifth Dimension and Younger Than Yesterday. Then came the masterful Notorious Byrd Brothers which, following the untimely depar-

ture of David Crosby, was virtually a cooperative venture between McGuinn and Hillman. To this day they regard it as one of their finest moments. “We had a real good creative rapport there. Rog and I wrote two good songs in one evening." In his enthusiasm, Hillman compares their current working relationship to the Notorious period. “We recently sat doyvn and wrote a new song real easy. We have that same feeling as then.” McGuinn and Hillman origihally parted company in '6B after disagreements following the classic Sweetheart of the Rodeo , an album which had again seen the Byrds pioneering a new field. Today, any past friction is long forgotten as they joke about the split. Hillman: “Rog deserted me and left me in the street.” McGuinn: "No, he left me to go off with Gram Parsons.” Hillman: “We invited you." McGuinn: “That’s true, but I wasn’t into country enough to do that.” If further assurance of their rejuvenated harmony were needed, one could note that in concert McGuinn proudly introduced two Sweetheart numbers including a glorious acapella rendition of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” as “from one of our best albums.” They see no dilemma in still performing old Byrds’ numbers in a band which is trying to establish a new identity. McGuinn: “We’ll always play Byrds’ songs. After all they’re ours. Like Paul McCartney still plays "Yesterday” and he’s Wings." Hillman: “People have got to have that reference point. But we’re no nostalgia show. We’ve limited the old songs to 4 or 5 and people’s reactions to all the new ones have been real good.” Indeed, the new songs (on one hearing anyway) are all impressive and bode well for the coming album. As well as the band, concerts included short solo spots featuring material from members’ individual recordings: Hillman’s from Clear Sailin', McGuinn’s from Cardiff Rose, Clark’s being unreleased here. Individually or collectively, off-stage and on, their demeanour is relaxed. There is little attempt to present the image of 'A Rock and Roll Star’. Says McGuinn, “It's just a gig,” He grins and adds, “It’s pretty neat though.” Hillman: “We’re older now. I just feel I’m a musician. I’m not sure anymore what the ‘Star’ end of it means. Limousines and private airplanes?" The irony is heavy. This interview was conducted in a packed Honda after a turbulent early morning flight in an Air N.Z. Friendship. A wet and slightly dazed Hillman described the trip as “Jim Croce Airlines”, while McGuinn thought it rather complemented his “punk rock dream” of the night before. The June 10th Ready to Roll appearance was taped the day they arrived in New Zealand “wrecked from 15 hours on an airplane.”

McGuinn: “I was such a trooper, I wanted to do it.” Hillman: “He talked us into it. Somebody said we looked mean on T.V. We were just tired." McGuinn, a confessed space and technology freak, has always been a sucker for film and T.V. studios. “I don’t want to be a director or anything but I like to hang around and watch them do it.” On T.V. he wore a Star Wars' T-shirt. "I’ve seen the film 7 times. I've got some of it on video.” He’s recently cowritten a film script, although as yet has no plans for its production, and has had a few acting lessons. “I’m moderately interested but I’ve realised now that movie actors don't have the same liberty as musicians, especially when you get to our stage. Actors get told what to do all the time and we don’t.” Hillman: “As your credibility grows you get more chance to call the shots. We have pretty much artistic control.” McGuinn: “And movie actors never get the audience response until some guy has cut their part up. They don't see the final thing until it’s out. We have a large say in the recordings and we get immediate gratification from a concert audience.” Gratification indeed if the Auckland concert showed a typical response. Despite an atrocious sound system (for which the promoters should be shot), broken guitar strings and George Grantham being ill, they received a roaring acclaim. People tried to dance but the security guards, aware of the inevitable depravity ensuing from such activity, stopped it smartly. Of course the classic hits would invariably draw rapturous applause from such an audience; the maturing rockers and 'ageing hippies’ McGuinn had predicted. But Hillman was right; there’s more to it than nostalgia. This band was not a bunch of tired legends trading wornout harmonies on a past decade’s fame. (Beach Boys please note.) While things may appear casual, the ease is deceptive. Vocally, they are as strong as ever Grantham’s backing work is an asset and they still kick it, not just as experienced professionals, but with a rock ’n’ roll spirit which is very much alive. It may be a gig but, as the man said, it’s a pretty neat one.

(with thanks to Mary who arranged the interview and drove the car)