Eight Miles High

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“Eight Miles High”
Single by The Byrds
B-side "Why" (Jim McGuinn, David Crosby)
Released March 14, 1966
Format 7"
Recorded 1966
Genre Psychedelic rock
Length 3 min 33 s
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, David Crosby
The Byrds singles chronology
"Set You Free This Time"
(1966)
"Eight Miles High"
(1966)
"5D (Fifth Dimension)"
(1966)

"Eight Miles High" is a song by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby, first appearing as a single from 1966 by the rock band The Byrds. The single peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was included as well on their album Fifth Dimension, released on July 18, 1966. In tandem with its b-side, "Why," written by McGuinn and Crosby, the song was instrumental in ushering in a new strain of rock and roll in the mid-1960s, that of psychedelic rock.

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The obscure lyrics, penned by Clark, are about the group's plane trip touring England in 1965. "Eight miles high, and when you touch down, you'll find that it's stranger than known." Airliners fly at an altitude of six to seven miles high; but it was felt that "eight miles high" sounded better.

According to Clark, the lyrics were primarily of his doing, with the only contribution coming from David Crosby's line "Rain grey town, known for its sound". Since Clark's death, however, McGuinn has contended that it was he who conceived the idea for the song being about a plane ride, and that he and Crosby both contributed lyrics to Clark's unfinished draft. John Einarson's book, Mr. Tambourine Man, questions this claim and wonders if McGuinn's story would be the same had Clark lived.

Almost immediately after "Eight Miles High," the Byrds suffered the loss of Clark, their main songwriter. His fear of flying was the official reason for his departure, although other pressures were at work. After Clark's departure, the Byrds would never visit the top 20 with a single again.

[edit] Music

McGuinn's twelve string guitar playing — especially the famed introductory solo — was heavily inspired by Coltrane's saxophone on "India" from his 1961 Village Vanguard concerts on the Impressions album of 1963. McGuinn is very guarded of the effort that went into his approximation of Coltrane's technique to guitar. Chris Hillman's bass line drives the song, while the rhythm guitar work by Crosby and fast drumming of Michael Clarke add dramatic turbulence. On a 1966 taped interview added to the 1996 re-issue of the album, Crosby said that the catastrophic ending made him "feel like a plane landing."

[edit] The B-side

The B-side, "Why", equally pushed the envelope, its incorporation of raga aspects from Indian classical music even more pronounced than on the A-side. The lyric, unusual for the developing rock and roll groupie haven of Los Angeles, argues a very feminist viewpoint considering that it was written by two men, or one man, Crosby often claiming sole authorship of the song.[1] This version differs from the one later released on Younger Than Yesterday, by the more pronounced bass lines and vocal punch of the radio mix given a single side in the mid-sixties.

[edit] Other Versions

An earlier version of the song, along with "Why," had been recorded in RCA Studios in Los Angeles in December of 1965; those tracks saw release on the 1996 expanded reissue of Fifth Dimension on Legacy Recordings.

[edit] Covers

The song has been covered many times, notably by Golden Earring in 1970, who put a 19 minute version of the song on their Eight Miles High album.

“Eight Miles High”
“Eight Miles High” cover
Single by Hüsker Dü
Released March 1984
Recorded October 1983
Genre Alternative rock
Length 3:56
Label SST
Producer Spot
Hüsker Dü singles chronology
"In a Free Land"
(1982)
"Eight Miles High"
(1984)
"Celebrated Summer"
(1985)

Other artists who covered it include:

[edit] Legacy

In 2004 Rolling Stone Magazine named "Eight Miles High" the 150th Greatest Song of All Time. In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Eight Miles High" at number 50 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The Door's 1968 song "Spanish caravan", 27 seconds in, has a part which is similar to the opening chord progression of Eight Miles High, both being adaptations of the classical piece "Asturias" by Isaac Albéniz.

Don McLean's song "American Pie" makes reference to "Eight Miles High" with the line "Eight miles high and falling fast".

The indie rock band Okkervil River reference "Eight Miles High" in their song "Plus Ones" (from the 2007 album The Stage Names). The song, which mentions several classic numerical lyrics but alters their original intentions by adding one, includes the line, "You would probably die before you shot up nine miles high."

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[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Zimmer and Diltz, p. 37
  2. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dxfqxqq5ldte All Music Guide description