The Byrds - The Bells of Rhymney

[SpeegBJ]

Gene Clark: Hot. D. Crosby: Cute McGuinn: not so. 1965 I was at Ciro's in L.A. as they premiered this tune, and all the others from their first album. As a group of 17 year old females, who saw many, many groups on Sunset Strip: let me tell you...the first time the audience saw and heard the Byrds we all fell for them. TV shows back then set up tons of bands on one show...technology not evolved to avoid lipsynching. It's music history and it's OK!

[willowNmeadow3392]

This songs okay wish the screaming fan would shut the FUCK UP! It reminds me of someone making a blunt or just chilling around and being mellow ~_~

[BlankUberEverybody]

Could Jim McGuinn affected a creepier stage personna? I dont think at this stage of his career he could have.

[rvisual]

You have to understand that lip synched performances and fake dubbed in screaming was part of state of the art entertainment in the sixties. We just didn't get it, or didn't mind too much. Watching pop stars on TV is always about getting manipulated by the media. No big deal, just commenting.

[professordumbledorf]

Love me some Byrds !!!

[IanHunedoara8]

The recorded version in "Best Hits" is somewhat more speeded up.

[skydogz1]

Cool.

[JosephHuntington]

Thank God for mining disasters.

[Franzko787]

Chris Hillman and Michael Clark were the coolest Byrds. Crosby has his fat boy poncho on. He looks more deranged than usual - sort of like the fat Manson family member known as "Roy."

[hanaippon]

***** great band!*****

[franhorton007]

Thanks for this. Man, it is great.....

[reefbismuth]

The folk rock gods, and playing such a cool song.

[MrRonnieG]

McGuinn has been playing that 360-12 Rickenbacker 12 string electric forever. That gutiar created the signature sound of the Byrds from '65 until it all ended in the early 70's with Graham Parsons taking the group into a brief period of rockabilly.

[fugitiveinkblot]

@scotfreak ...thats a shock, huh?

[scotfreak]

crosby is high is fuck

[scotfreak]

david is tripping balls

[coolanddark]

Im screaming just like all them girls! Screaming because this song is so great and not for the fellers on stage like they are.

[kateyh4138]

if only they could have pronounced it properly. It's not RIMNEY. IT'S RUMNEY

NEVER MIND SONG STILL DOES JUSTICE TO THIS LOVELY PIECE OF POETRY.

[scotfreak]

@kateyh4138 they changed the pronunciation later, in fact i dont think they ever stuck with a pronunciation lol

[BeeHappya]

Great video

[surfric]

Most inappropriate audience reaction ever.

[dlewis231z]

I believe the girls' screams were overdubbed because they don't seem to be responding to what's happening in the song. Live screams are usually concentrated at the intro, during the dramatic or flashy parts, and at the end, rather than sprinkled evenly throughout.

[fugitiveinkblot]

@dlewis231z not in the Beatlemania (Byrdmania, Monkeemania) days... it was just one long sustained scream

[dlewis231z]

@fugitiveinkblot Yes, there was continuous, non-stop screaming during some Monkees/Beatles/Byrds shows but the volume level and nature of the screaming depended on what was happening and what kind of song was being performed. The screams typically get louder when the song ends, for example. That's why it's unfair to castigate the girls for inappropriate screaming during The Bells of Rhymney. I believe the screams are a clumsy canned overdub.

[ejectorerector]

im not liking the extreme closeups.

[neal1960]

@Gyphia

I would have thought that permission would not have been necessary since George's riff did not have the same sequence of notes, but was merely based on the one in McGuinn's song.

[kerrgal]

Is their a video version online of this song without the screaming audience?

[fr8liner]

I saw the Byrds in '65 or '66 headlining a show at the Trade Mart in Dallas, playing by then as a quartet. Also on were the Dillards, the Sir Douglas Quintet, and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. The Byrds did "He Was A Friend Of Mine" about JFK. Wonder if they knew the President was headed to the Trade Mart when he was shot? My girl was on my shoulders - when Mitch Ryder reached down and touched her hand she peed on me. I decided then to be a musician. And to make her stand from then on.

[BarrosSerrano]

I play this song for the public whenever I can... mines continue to collapse in West Virginia every few years... nothing has changed.

BRAVI! Pete Seeger and Roger McGuinn!!!

[fr8liner]

George Harrison was a McGuinn fan. He told Roger (Jim) he lifted the intro for If I Needed Someone from I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better.

[neal1960]

@fr8liner I think I heard an interview where George said he based his riff in "If I Needed Someone" on the riff in "Bells of Rhymney". Or maybe it was McGuinn who said that.

[amerikanprincess]

@neal1960 Yes, George did base "If I Needed Someone" on this song. He wrote it after the Beatles attended a Byrds recording session in L.A. He sent an advance copy to the Byrds saying "This is for Jim." Jim was the real first name of Roger McGuinn, which he went by back then. (Roger says he picked up a 12-string Rickenbacker because George was playing one on tour. Funny that his was the band that became associated with them.)

[QueenBeatlesWings]

@amerikanprincess The Beatles later did become good friends with The Byrds, and Roger McGuinn even played on one of George Harrison's solo albums

[CleanLineFilms]

immortal classic

[1964GuitarCovers]

i think rogor sounds a bit like goerge harrison haha.

[WhoDoYouHaveToScrew]

You can't be a Byrd if youre afraid to fly

[QueenBeatlesWings]

I think this song inspired George Harrison's song "If I needed Someone"

[marinman39]

My first view since I saw this the first time on the original broadcast 45 years ago! I bought my first electric bass a few weeks later so i could learn Byrds bass parts..Now I remember why I was so inspired , Hillman's line is so solid, great counterpoint to the 12 string lead. Primitive recording, but these guys could flat-out play and sing. I play the bass almost every day all these years later, worked my way through college playing it, thanks guys.

[zitozentinel]

It's actually a rebel song about miners and the estranged encroachment of a caste system...this is slightly befor unions or the formation there of....I can go on but please anyone correct me if im wrong.

[oggmagog]

Back to the" Ricky"I'm fascinated by that guitar.I wonder what happened to it and where it's at today? Probably under someones bed collecting dust haha I've priced new ones and they are outrageous So, I wonder what that one would be worth? Stay cool and thanks for your polite response.

[oggmagog]

I would give my left one for that beautiful white Rickenbacher !what year do think that guitar is?

[ruffdraft07]

This song may have to be your proper intro to the group rather than the just-as-good 'Tambourine Man' this song actually, in my opinion, points the way forward to what is to come.

[ZoneIII]

Great stuff and great old memories of one of my all-time favorite groups. Thanks for posting.

[sunnskyy]

Haunting.

Dylan covered Bells of Rhymney in the basement with the Band guys. Anyone with the bootleg out there? Please upload it here...mine is on casette and I'm a Luddite when it comes to techie stuff. They have fangs, they have teeth... friggin' mine owners.

[ruffdraft07]

I'm just asking that you just look into it a bit further...but does it matter? This is all good music!!!

[ruffdraft07]

...about the Byrds "inventing" psychedelia...well guys it's a little off...even the band will say that it was discovered by accident ...At the same time there were the 13th Floor Elevators, the Yardbirds, the Kinks , the Hollies, Country Joe and the Fish and the Beatles early dabbles into it...get a time-lines and investigate this around 1966...I was proven wrong when I backed the Byrds on this 'invention'....

[mistermousterian]

@ruffdraft07  and it's been open to reinvention ever since

[WhoDoYouHaveToScrew]

Best song by this group - profound too. It's amazing that they could come out with something this trippy and mantra-like when the Beatles were still doing (good) stuff like 'Help'.

The Byrds almosgt single-handedly invented psychadelia (with Dylan's help of course).

[rocksinger45]

Hey Folks,

One of my favorite Byrds song since I first heard it way back in the 60's I always wondered what it was all about and thanks to you people I have a better idea. RS45

[iamkwk]

The words were written by Welsh poet (and erstwhile coal miner) Idris Davies in 1926 in response to the failed 1926 general strike by the miners in Wales and England. While there were lots of mining disasters in Wales, there were none in 1926. in fact, I believe that from 1921 to 1937 there were no mining disasters in that part of Wales. This is a great song. Too bad those empty headed girls couldn't see(or hear) the importance of this song.

[iamkwk]

@iamkwk We just had a mine disaster in West Virginia last week. The words still have meaning. Change the town names to those around the mine and see how appropriate this lament is.

[Vesnicie]

@iamkwk Speaking as an empty-headed girl, I would just like to point out to you the importance of Gene Clark's lips, cheekbones and eyes.

[ilovedatasoong]

@Vesnicie You have no idea how much I can relate to your comment! Gene Clark is just......amaizing!!!

[BlankUberEverybody]

@iamkwk I doubt this was taped in front of a live audience--the screams/crowd sounds are canned to liven up the lipsynced performance of this studio recorded album cut.

[Tony2581]

How strange to hear girls screaming throughout a powerful song about a mining disaster...

[noahwayne]

Listened to loads of Byrds today and they all sound the same - Tempo, Rhythm, guitar sounds, etc just different words. This just sounds like Blessed by Simon and Garfunkel same chords and melody just about.

[AstralPlane1951]

I think youre a little confused. The song doesnt sound just like Blessed by Simon and Garfunkel. Blessed sound just like the Bells of Rhymney written by Pete Seeger in 1959.

[timjmoran]

wow.. what a dark and vaguely creep thing the cameraman does when he swoops over the band out to Mcguinn in the shadows..

with his lil' weird glasses on . I wonder if this might be live, as the ending is different from the album version.Their vocals were SO awesome...

Great vid, in any case.

[jemmarough]

The song is actually a poem about a mining disaster that happened in a villiage called RHYMNEY pronounced RUMNEE

[Morgteck]

The crazy young girls in those rock audiences CAME to the shows to scream. The band could have sung anything...the phone book...Hamlet's soliloquy...a shopping list...and those idiot girls would have screamed all the way through it. The Byrds picked a good one with Bells of Rhymney. It suited their style well. The folk audience was utterly unlike the rock audience in the early 60s. Folk audiences listened with rapt attention to every word. Rock audiences came to scream and go berserk.

[lago4]

.why are there girls shouting all the time? it doesn't sound like a song that would drive girls wild....besides, none of the band members seem to react to it the least bit.

[lago4]

I take it these guys were a major influence on the Beatles?

[ghramsey]

The Beatles came first. Jim McGuinne's Rickenbacker 360 was purchased because he saw George Harrison using one in A Hard Day's Night.

[lago4]

i know...i was just joshing. seems like the beatles came up with their own style first, and all the rest of the 60's bands were carbon copies, image wise

[swans1997]

not the Kinks.

[swans1997]

nor the Velvet Underground, nor, Captain Beefheart, to name a couple.

[IBeGodly]

I love the hair of the gents back then ;)

Great stuff. Great band.

[spoiledbigtime]

Gene was the man!

[Radz117]

Did they write this or is it a cover?

[RicardosRealm]

This was originally a poem by the Welsh poet Idris Davies that was set to music by American folk singer Pete Seeger. The Byrd's version is an electrified cover of Seeger's song.

[myfrenchybuster]

cover

[GeorgeHarrisonLuver]

The Byrds are my second favorite band, they're so amazing. luv them!

Roger and Gene were so handsome! <3

[henrynevins]

The later Byrds with Rodger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons and Skip Batten was the best live Byrds band ever. It was those performances with Clarence White's excellence as a guitarist which took the Byrds to a higher level and developed the new Country Rock sound. I had seen them play several times, plus was fortunate to speak with Clarence White at length. Part of that new Byrds sound was his idea for the B-bender which Gene Parsons invented and built into Clarence's Fender Telecaster

[789pequignot]

great song

[coolanddark]

Haunting, surreal, and yet strangely uplifting.

[mosel74]

i'm from near rhymney. and they don't say it correctly

[artboy55]

mosel174: there's so much your missing.

[mosel74]

like what?

[swans1997]

Mcguinn, said that was pointed out to them during a performance, while on the Byrd's first U.K. tour ha ha. Rest assured, he says it correctly now!

[weee0willie]

Roger Mcguinn - Rockin Out!

[98jvstratcat]

One of my all time favorite songs from the Byrds,,inspired me to play electric 12-string that I bought at age 16....still have it and still love this music

[8h6ed]

great video thanks for putting it on

[watchinshadows]

This really sounds like early R.E.M. around 84' 85'

[aleecat75]

First heard this song in high school mid 60s. Played it hundreds of times in my semi pro band. Then years later touring Wales with a pro band our van passed the sign for Rhymney and the other towns in this song and I got a huge grin on my face. I was actually there!

[dandeexxxx]

I believe the song is about a Welsh mining disaster. Is a great song!

[travisrlel]

Weird. This sounds quite live, but McGuinn's Rickenbacker doesn't look plugged in. Go figure.

[homonculus9]

Recorded earlier the same day during the rehearsal.

[travisrlel]

thanks

[aleecat75]

The track is pre-recorded, the vocals are live.

[doofus0123]

i hate when they do this. why do they do this? CHEAP. well, but they still sound good.

[fntime]

The song is not better live. It was on their

first album, and it great! I don't think, this

does justice to the song!

[skinnyskaller]

fantastic proto-proto-psychedelic folk rock classic by the Byrds!

[celloprofundo]

Crosby says " I saw a deer in my head-lights that looks just like this!'

[zitozentinel]

this song is relevant

[passionateaboutmusic]

STONED!!!!!

[crispian2005]

GREAT DRUM SOUND...real hollow!

[crispian2005]

THEY LOOK SOOOOO STONED....

[MrFrosty]

Why cant people fucking say my home town right

RHYMNEY !

[mosel74]

where you living in rhymney butty?

[McDJohnny]

david crosby with short hair and no 'stache is soo weird

[789pequignot]

great song

[stratman2617]

This song is titled The Bells of Rhymney on the album.

[Byrds1967]

The Byrds rule!

[stratman2617]

Sorry guys, but the song is titled "The Bells of Rhymney" on the album. It may be pronounced another way but who cares...I don't.

[hiram0ulysses]

I saw Roger in concert last October. He stated that when he was performing in Wales a few years ago, the locals said that the proper pronuncation is "Rum-ney". So he sang the entire song that way.

[3tangle3]

@hiram0ulysses although its rhum-ney in english with h pronounced just before the r

[LTF6161]

That would be Rhymney, Wales. Not Italy.

[bookumdannofive0]

Dear Viewer: This song is actually entitled "The Bells of Rimini" which is in in Rimini, Italy.

Dan K., Grafton, Ma.

[bookumdannofive0]

Dear Viewer: Check the Byrds Album or Lyrics book, it might actually be entitled "The Bells of Rhymney" after all. Dan K., Grafton, Ma.

[gibb253]

Nice joke, but how do you explain the other references to Wales in the song, e.g. the Bells of Rhondda, Newport and Cardiff, boyo?