Why (The Byrds song)
Encyclopedia
"Why" is a song
by the American rock
band
The Byrds
, written by Jim McGuinn
and David Crosby
and first released as the B-side
of the band's "Eight Miles High
" single
in March 1966. The song was re-recorded in December 1966 and released for a second time as part of the band's Younger Than Yesterday
album. Born from Crosby's fondness for the music of Ravi Shankar
, the song was an attempt to assimilate traditional Indian music
into a rock and pop
format. However, rather than actually using Indian instruments on the song, the band instead used McGuinn's raga
-flavored guitar playing to emulate the sound of the sitar
. "Why", along with "Eight Miles High", was influential in developing the musical styles of psychedelic rock
and raga rock
.
of Ravi Shankar. Crosby's affection for Indian raga
s stemmed from his friendship with the session guitarist
Eric Hord, who would often play in a style approximating the drone-like qualities of traditional Indian music. Crosby's love of the genre was further cemented when he was invited by The Byrds' manager, Jim Dickson, to attend a Ravi Shankar recording session
at World Pacific Studios
in Los Angeles. Dickson later recalled Crosby's reaction to Shankar's music at the session: "When he saw Ravi Shankar, it blew him away. He was all excited. He gets hyper from things like that. It was fun to turn him on to stuff."
Crosby became a vocal advocate of Indian music and Shankar in particular, often dropping the musician's name in contemporary interviews. During meetings with The Beatles
in 1965, Crosby's enthusiasm for Shankar's music began to rub off on the Fab Four and in particular George Harrison
, who was enthralled by Crosby's descriptions of Indian scales
and the sitar. In his autobiography Long Time Gone, Crosby recalled these meetings with The Beatles and his influence on their subsequent exploration of Indian music: "there are people that tell me I turned him [Harrison] on to Indian music. I know I was turning everybody I met on to Ravi Shankar because I thought that Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane
were the two greatest melodic creators on the planet and I think I was probably right."
Crosby's bandmates in The Byrds bore the brunt of his effusive enthusiasm for Indian music and were regularly exposed to Shankar's recordings as a consequence. During the band's November 1965 U.S. tour, Crosby brought a cassette
recording of one of Shankar's albums along to alleviate the boredom of traveling from show to show and the music was on constant rotation on the tour bus. The influence of Shankar's music on the band, and in particular on lead guitar
ist Jim McGuinn
, would later find full expression in the music of "Why".
Studios in Los Angeles on December 22, 1965 but Columbia Records
refused to release these recordings because they had not been made at a Columbia-owned studio. Originally, Crosby's lyrics for "Why" were a commentary on his mother's dominance during his adolescence and began with the line "Keep saying no to me since I was a baby." Both Jim Dickson and the engineer
at the recording session, Dave Hassinger, expressed concern over the suitability of these lyrics. It was McGuinn who eventually solved the problem by suggesting that the lyrics be altered to "Keep saying no to her", thus making the song a commentary on a girl whose mother restricted her independence. Talking to The Byrds' biographer Johnny Rogan
in 1989, Dickson recalled the events surrounding this lyric change: "When I heard the lyric, I thought it was atrocious. One word changed the whole thing and McGuinn thought it up. It was an inspired thought in a crisis." However, Crosby has disputed this version of events, claiming sole authorship of the song and maintaining that the song's lyrics were written entirely by him and were complete in their finished form prior to the December 22, 1965 session. The RCA recording of "Why" remained unreleased for more than twenty years and was finally issued on the 1987 archival album, Never Before
. It was also included on the 1996 Columbia/Legacy
CD reissue of the band's Fifth Dimension
album.
At the insistence of Columbia Records, both "Why" and "Eight Miles High" were re-recorded at Columbia Studios, Hollywood on January 24 and 25, 1966, under the watchful eye of producer
Allen Stanton, and it was these recordings that were included on the single. Musically, "Why" is highlighted by McGuinn's whining guitar sound and Chris Hillman
's gulping bass guitar
playing. The verses have a vaguely Motownesque feel to them, recalling "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave
" by Martha and the Vandellas
, but the instrumental break features a raga-flavored lead guitar
solo by McGuinn that lasts almost a full minute. Such an explicit juxtaposition of rhythm and blues
and Indian modal improvisation was wholly without precedent in popular music
at the time. While the song broke new ground in rock music
with its Indian influences, it didn't actually feature the sound of a sitar. Instead, the song features raga-influenced scales played on McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker
guitar
, which was run through a custom-made device designed to emulate the sound of a sitar. McGuinn explained this device in a 1977 interview: "We used this special gadget I had made. It was an amplifier
from a Philips portable record player and a two-and-a-half inch loudspeaker from a walkie-talkie
placed in a wooden cigar box which ran on batteries, and it had such a tremendous sustain that it sounded very much like a sitar."
Following its release on the B-side of the "Eight Miles High" single, Crosby chose to revive the song during recording sessions for The Byrds' fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday. Exactly why Crosby insisted on resurrecting the song when there was other, newer original material in reserve has never been adequately explained by the band themselves. However, the band's roadie
Jimmi Seiter
has stated in an interview that the song was re-recorded because the band were unhappy with the previously released version and because another Crosby-penned song was required in order for the guitarist to have an equal share of writing credits on the album. The group re-recorded the song between December 5 and December 8, 1966, with Gary Usher
in the producer's chair. Although the song's Indian influences were still present in the re-recorded version, they were somewhat watered down when compared to the original B-side recording.
and #24 on the UK Singles Chart
. The song was released for a second time, in a completely different version, as part of The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album on February 6, 1967. Along with "Eight Miles High", the song's use of Indian musical modes
was immediately influential on the emerging genre of psychedelic rock. In addition, promotional press material for the single was responsible for the naming of the musical subgenre raga rock, a term which was used to describe the song's blend of western rock music
and Indian ragas. Many reviews of the single made use of the phrase but it was journalist Sally Kempton, in her review of the single for The Village Voice
, who used the term "raga rock" in print for the very first time.
Although contemporary reviews for the single naturally focused on the A-side
, Cash Box singled out the B-side for special praise, stating "'Why' is a pulsating tale concerning lack of personal communication between a couple who are going steady." Additionally, Richard Goldstein in his review of the Younger Than Yesterday album in The Village Voice described "Why" as "a solid hard-rocker." More recently, author Peter Lavezzoli, in his book The Dawn of Indian music in the West has commented that while The Beatles, The Yardbirds
and The Kinks
had all used sitars or Indian-style drones as instrumental decoration in their songs, "Why", and to a lesser extent "Eight Miles High", were "the first example[s] of pop songs that were specifically conceived as vehicles for extended [Indian] modal improvisation." Upon the release of "Eight Miles High" and "Why", Indian-influenced, modal improvisation became open territory in rock music and The Byrds found themselves at the forefront of the burgeoning psychedelic and raga rock movements.
In 1967 "Why" was covered
by the British psychedelic
band Tomorrow
but their version of the song was not released until its inclusion on the 1998 compilation album
50 Minute Technicolor Dream
. The song was also recorded as part of a medley
with another Byrds' song, "Time Between", by The Mock Turtles
for the 1989 Byrds' tribute album
, Time Between – A Tribute to The Byrds.
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
by the American rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, written by Jim McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
and David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
and first released as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of the band's "Eight Miles High
Eight Miles High
"Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby and first released as a single on March 14, 1966 . The single managed to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 30 of the UK Singles Chart...
" single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in March 1966. The song was re-recorded in December 1966 and released for a second time as part of the band's Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday is the fourth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP...
album. Born from Crosby's fondness for the music of Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
, the song was an attempt to assimilate traditional Indian music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
into a rock and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
format. However, rather than actually using Indian instruments on the song, the band instead used McGuinn's raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
-flavored guitar playing to emulate the sound of the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
. "Why", along with "Eight Miles High", was influential in developing the musical styles of psychedelic rock
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
and raga rock
Raga rock
Raga rock is a term used to describe rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and tabla...
.
Conception
The song was written predominantly by David Crosby in late 1965 and was largely inspired by his love of the Indian classical musicIndian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
of Ravi Shankar. Crosby's affection for Indian raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
s stemmed from his friendship with the session guitarist
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
Eric Hord, who would often play in a style approximating the drone-like qualities of traditional Indian music. Crosby's love of the genre was further cemented when he was invited by The Byrds' manager, Jim Dickson, to attend a Ravi Shankar recording session
Studio recording
The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.-Studio cast recordings:...
at World Pacific Studios
Pacific Jazz Records
Pacific Jazz Records was a Los Angeles-based record label best known for releasing cool jazz or West coast jazz. It was founded by Richard Bock and drummer Roy Harte in 1952....
in Los Angeles. Dickson later recalled Crosby's reaction to Shankar's music at the session: "When he saw Ravi Shankar, it blew him away. He was all excited. He gets hyper from things like that. It was fun to turn him on to stuff."
Crosby became a vocal advocate of Indian music and Shankar in particular, often dropping the musician's name in contemporary interviews. During meetings with The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
in 1965, Crosby's enthusiasm for Shankar's music began to rub off on the Fab Four and in particular George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, who was enthralled by Crosby's descriptions of Indian scales
Musical scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...
and the sitar. In his autobiography Long Time Gone, Crosby recalled these meetings with The Beatles and his influence on their subsequent exploration of Indian music: "there are people that tell me I turned him [Harrison] on to Indian music. I know I was turning everybody I met on to Ravi Shankar because I thought that Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
were the two greatest melodic creators on the planet and I think I was probably right."
Crosby's bandmates in The Byrds bore the brunt of his effusive enthusiasm for Indian music and were regularly exposed to Shankar's recordings as a consequence. During the band's November 1965 U.S. tour, Crosby brought a cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
recording of one of Shankar's albums along to alleviate the boredom of traveling from show to show and the music was on constant rotation on the tour bus. The influence of Shankar's music on the band, and in particular on lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
ist Jim McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, would later find full expression in the music of "Why".
Music
A studio recording of "Why" (along with "Eight Miles High") was originally attempted at RCARCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
Studios in Los Angeles on December 22, 1965 but Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
refused to release these recordings because they had not been made at a Columbia-owned studio. Originally, Crosby's lyrics for "Why" were a commentary on his mother's dominance during his adolescence and began with the line "Keep saying no to me since I was a baby." Both Jim Dickson and the engineer
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
at the recording session, Dave Hassinger, expressed concern over the suitability of these lyrics. It was McGuinn who eventually solved the problem by suggesting that the lyrics be altered to "Keep saying no to her", thus making the song a commentary on a girl whose mother restricted her independence. Talking to The Byrds' biographer Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan is an author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He has written influential biographies of The Byrds, The Smiths and Van Morrison. His writing is characterised by "an almost neurotic attention to detail", epic length and a sometimes hostile...
in 1989, Dickson recalled the events surrounding this lyric change: "When I heard the lyric, I thought it was atrocious. One word changed the whole thing and McGuinn thought it up. It was an inspired thought in a crisis." However, Crosby has disputed this version of events, claiming sole authorship of the song and maintaining that the song's lyrics were written entirely by him and were complete in their finished form prior to the December 22, 1965 session. The RCA recording of "Why" remained unreleased for more than twenty years and was finally issued on the 1987 archival album, Never Before
Never Before (album)
Never Before is a compilation album by the American rock band The Byrds, consisting of previously unreleased outtakes, alternate versions, and rarities. It was initially released by Re-Flyte Records in December 1987 and was subsequently reissued on CD in 1989, with an additional seven bonus tracks...
. It was also included on the 1996 Columbia/Legacy
Legacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 by CBS Records under the leadership of Jerry Shulman, Richard Bauer, Gary Pacheco and Amy Herot to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated...
CD reissue of the band's Fifth Dimension
Fifth Dimension (album)
Fifth Dimension is the third album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1966 on Columbia Records . Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band's principal songwriter Gene Clark...
album.
At the insistence of Columbia Records, both "Why" and "Eight Miles High" were re-recorded at Columbia Studios, Hollywood on January 24 and 25, 1966, under the watchful eye of producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Allen Stanton, and it was these recordings that were included on the single. Musically, "Why" is highlighted by McGuinn's whining guitar sound and Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
's gulping bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
playing. The verses have a vaguely Motownesque feel to them, recalling "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave
(Love is Like a) Heat Wave
" Heat Wave" is a 1963 hit single penned by the Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting team and made popular by Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. It was originally released in July 1963, on the Motown subsidiary label Gordy, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Hot...
" by Martha and the Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963–1967...
, but the instrumental break features a raga-flavored lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
solo by McGuinn that lasts almost a full minute. Such an explicit juxtaposition of rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and Indian modal improvisation was wholly without precedent in popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
at the time. While the song broke new ground in rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
with its Indian influences, it didn't actually feature the sound of a sitar. Instead, the song features raga-influenced scales played on McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, which was run through a custom-made device designed to emulate the sound of a sitar. McGuinn explained this device in a 1977 interview: "We used this special gadget I had made. It was an amplifier
Audio amplifier
An audio amplifier is an electronic amplifier that amplifies low-power audio signals to a level suitable for driving loudspeakers and is the final stage in a typical audio playback chain.The preceding stages in such a chain are low power audio amplifiers which perform tasks like pre-amplification,...
from a Philips portable record player and a two-and-a-half inch loudspeaker from a walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
placed in a wooden cigar box which ran on batteries, and it had such a tremendous sustain that it sounded very much like a sitar."
Following its release on the B-side of the "Eight Miles High" single, Crosby chose to revive the song during recording sessions for The Byrds' fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday. Exactly why Crosby insisted on resurrecting the song when there was other, newer original material in reserve has never been adequately explained by the band themselves. However, the band's roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
Jimmi Seiter
Jimmi Seiter
Jimmi Seiter has worked as a musician, tour manager, artist manager, music producer, sound designer, stage producer and architect....
has stated in an interview that the song was re-recorded because the band were unhappy with the previously released version and because another Crosby-penned song was required in order for the guitarist to have an equal share of writing credits on the album. The group re-recorded the song between December 5 and December 8, 1966, with Gary Usher
Gary Usher
Gary Usher was an American surf rock musician, songwriter, and record producer.-Biography:Usher's early life was spent in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended Norcross Grammar School with his sister, Sandra, who was in the same class and was likely his twin. Gary was kiddingly called "Chicken Feed"...
in the producer's chair. Although the song's Indian influences were still present in the re-recorded version, they were somewhat watered down when compared to the original B-side recording.
Release and reception
"Why" was released as the B-side of "Eight Miles High" on March 14, 1966 in the U.S. and May 29, 1966 in the UK. The single reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and #24 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. The song was released for a second time, in a completely different version, as part of The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album on February 6, 1967. Along with "Eight Miles High", the song's use of Indian musical modes
Musical mode
In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
was immediately influential on the emerging genre of psychedelic rock. In addition, promotional press material for the single was responsible for the naming of the musical subgenre raga rock, a term which was used to describe the song's blend of western rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and Indian ragas. Many reviews of the single made use of the phrase but it was journalist Sally Kempton, in her review of the single for The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, who used the term "raga rock" in print for the very first time.
Although contemporary reviews for the single naturally focused on the A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, Cash Box singled out the B-side for special praise, stating "'Why' is a pulsating tale concerning lack of personal communication between a couple who are going steady." Additionally, Richard Goldstein in his review of the Younger Than Yesterday album in The Village Voice described "Why" as "a solid hard-rocker." More recently, author Peter Lavezzoli, in his book The Dawn of Indian music in the West has commented that while The Beatles, The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
and The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
had all used sitars or Indian-style drones as instrumental decoration in their songs, "Why", and to a lesser extent "Eight Miles High", were "the first example[s] of pop songs that were specifically conceived as vehicles for extended [Indian] modal improvisation." Upon the release of "Eight Miles High" and "Why", Indian-influenced, modal improvisation became open territory in rock music and The Byrds found themselves at the forefront of the burgeoning psychedelic and raga rock movements.
In 1967 "Why" was covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by the British psychedelic
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band Tomorrow
Tomorrow (band)
Tomorrow were a 1960s psychedelic rock band. Despite critical acclaim and support from DJ John Peel who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" radio show, the band was not a great success in commercial terms. They were among the first psychedelic bands in England along with Pink Floyd and Soft...
but their version of the song was not released until its inclusion on the 1998 compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
50 Minute Technicolor Dream
50 Minute Technicolor Dream
50 Minute Technicolor Dream is a compilation of mostly previously unreleased recordings by Tomorrow. Tracks 1-2 are unused demos for the film Blowup....
. The song was also recorded as part of a medley
Medley (music)
In music, a medley is a piece composed from parts of existing pieces, usually three, played one after another, sometimes overlapping. They are common in popular music, and most medleys are songs rather than instrumental. A medley which is a remixed series is called a megamix, often done with tracks...
with another Byrds' song, "Time Between", by The Mock Turtles
The Mock Turtles
The Mock Turtles are a Manchester based indie rock band, formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester in 1985, who enjoyed some success in the early 1990s...
for the 1989 Byrds' tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
, Time Between – A Tribute to The Byrds.