Friday, January 31, 2014

"Mr. Spaceman" (1966)




The Byrd's Roger McGuinn was a devotee of science-fiction, a film and literary genre that flourished in postwar North America alongside the musical genre of rock 'n' roll, which, by 1967, was beginning to hyphenate with other musical genres. While the Beatles were looking to the east, United States bands were looking within, particularly at that country's earlier and parallel tradition of country & western music.

Like yesterday's post, the Byrd's "Mr. Spaceman" is a song informed by science fiction. Also like yesterday's post, one of the original bandmates is missing -- in the Byrd's case, David Crosby, who left the band shortly before its green-screen lip-synched performance of a song about a visitor who, like Crosby and the Pixie's Kim Deal, was there one day, gone the next.

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