The Byrds-"I Knew I'd Want You"-5/8/65

[MsFitzzzz]

See the Searchers on Ed Sullivan show.. They could not reproduce their single Needles and Pins... The Byrds sound much better!

[ronfowlermusic]

RIP, Gene.

[voidforpurpose]

"Nights In White Satn" is a complete rip-off of this.

[ChrisCurtisFan]

Fortunately, The Searchers invented the sound of high harmonies, 12 string guitars. :-)

[madelefant05]

This reminds me of Knights in White Satin

[49kasey]

They were altogether a very seminal rock group. Gene Clarke was the most special part of it. If you can find his album "No Other", buy it! It should have been an absolute smash but apparently it wasn't promoted properly.

[BigStar303]

@49kasey  I agree totally with everything you say...but you should spell Gene's name correctly. ;) No worries, mate...I'm just smiling at the memory of the magazines of the day, who could never seem to get Gene Clark/Michael Clarke down correctly!

[49kasey]

@BigStar303 Ahhh! My mistake, why did I do that? Then again, I always assumed they were brothers! I didn't own their albums but had them on reel to reel tape so... But this is a great video, even though a lip synch. Having go-go dancers is a riot! I especially like the intro, I was like, "What's that? Something psychedelic?" And the camera zoomed back and it was a cymbal. Very cool.

[TheBabyboomkidof53]

crosby's voice just sores high over the others so beautifully. their hamonies as a group with the combination of gene's writing and mcguinn's rickenbacker 12 string guitar playing makes them I-con's of the time period. and still viable in their timelessness.

[ejectorerector]

what the fuck was happening at the end???!

[red88mj]

It was 1966 i think when i heard this song for the first time as the flip side of Mr.Tambourine Man and from that moment i knew there was more than top 40 songs. Gene opened my eyes (ears). I still listen to his music almost daily. His voice and style is unique.

[LetsNotBeL7]

Bellissimo!

[ejectorerector]

roger looks liek a fucking mom here!!!

[bluegrassreb]

LOVE IT! LOVE THE BYRDS!!

[imthefrogman]

CSNY

[psychosurfer69]

Gene Clark was a genius. This is one of my favourate melodies ever.

[shaneh1983]

awsome song

[shanehenning26]

great song

[garymichael1950]

Is that the set for Shivaree??

[BS1965able]

a great song

[gdosic]

Beautiful song.

My fav from " Mr. Tambourine Man Album."

[belladonna1482]

Long live Gene & Michael, we'll never forget you!!!

[huskyjerk]

Really, really good stuff !

[DoofsterDan]

Yeah, the beginning sounds just like opening strains of "Nights In White Satin." Justin Hayward wrote most of the MB's hits.

[Matildamothers]

People call them the American Beatles at the time because they openly admitted they went from being a folk band to to a folk-rock because of the Beatles. They even purchased all the instruments the Beatles were playing at the time. Of course the influence was there but the Byrds were not copy-cats.

[philipearlwilliams]

i think the Sullivan show was the only one where it was live.

ive seen the beatles lip sync to their records . and seen John making faces where he should have been "faking it".

anyway . just my 2 cents .

i love the byrds . always have, always will !!

[MrSandpebbles]

It 't s all, for me; about McQuinn. Elston & Pulaski.. Chi Town cold flats & avenues. I'm warmed by the sounds too.

[spoiledbigtime]

Gene was the man! He is still love by his "mutual" home towns of Bonner Springs, Kansas and Mendocino, California. The real deal.

[timjmoran]

MAN..McD220.. you said it ..STUNNing..

there is something SO timeless and great about this tune, and much of the Byrds 1st 4 or 5 records.. the harmonies..

PERRRfect... Crosby's place in rock & roll history is guarranteed simply on the basis

of his harmony singing here... plus the

GREAT playing of McGuinn... just magic.

[gamoonbat]

Gene and Michael did not die young because they experimented with mind altering drugs. They both drank way too much alcohol and pickled their liver and digestive organs.

[trilcesita82]

que nostalgia...

[jojoguitar]

For those of us who came of age in the 1960's this claws at the heart strings. Glad Roger, Chris, Michael and Crosby survived it. Deeply missing Gene Clark. When you fly so high its hard when you touch down. You can feel that yearning in this song.

[Rickowner]

Michael didn't make it...

[jojoguitar]

So true Rickowner, thanks. Quel dommage. Everybody check out Michael Clarke's letter. He wanted you to read it.

[filipenis96]

@jojoguitar

I think Mike died in 93?

[KIDAmnesiacBends]

they experimented before the beatles? i thinm so

[Wisegeorge]

Wow, I had PreFlyte as soon as it came out but I never knew this was on a TV show before that. Well, it really wasn't until YouTube. It never played in my town.

[GeoStratocaster]

One of the first songs I ever learned the chords to play on guitar. A truly magical number.

[98jvstratcat]

Me too....

[IDLERACER]

This song was originally on the B-side of the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single, which came out a couple of months before the album. It features McGuinn on 12-string and Clark, Mcguinn & Crosby on vocals, but all the other instruments were actually played by wrecking crew musicians. When it came time to record the rest of the songs on that 1st album, the group insisted on playing all the instruments themselves, and did a bang-up job for a group of guys who had only been together a short time.

[fourfingershuffel]

P.S - Jimmy's Hair Rocks, LoL

[fourfingershuffel]

Im Brittish but have no affinity for the Beatles, their early work in particular lacked sophistication. as far as Brit bands go i prefer the Stones but my first love will always be Dylan and The BYRDS!!! Peace \0/

[mysaug]

what happened to similar raw footage of Eight Miles High that is no longer on U Tube? This was there best song and one of the best 60's songs of all.

[johnrunion]

wow! great! i have never seen this clip before. gene clark was such an astonishing song writer. this gives me chills! :)

[gamoonbat]

Oh yeah!

[ktscarlett63]

I agree that the Byrds were not the American Beatles -- no one was.

Thanks so much for posting this footage -- can't beleive it's here! This is my favourite Byrds' song, harmonies that make you shiver.

[AstralPlane1951]

Most of the Byrds hits were covers of other peoples songs. As a huge Byrds fan myself my opinion is that the Byrds were not the American Beatles. The Beatles had no equals for 10 years. They were the best ,and still are, considered the worlds greatest musical group of all timesand I have to concur. When one refers to John, Paul, George and Ringos music it is not called rock, blues, pop or any other moniker. It is called, and known as, Beatle music. Enough said..

[bolivianex]

Try the kinks

[stalbot46]

Since 1965 this has stood out as my fave Byrds ballad. Brillliant harmonies never again captured at such an harmonic altitude by the Byrds....wow

[bixbyglaser]

To say that the Byrds were the American Beatles is a vast understatement-and then some. They, along with CSNY, bring harmony to new levels unheard of. The fact that David Crosby was in both bands isn't coincidence concerning harmonic greatness. Him, plus McGuinn, Hillman and Clark create a nothing less than chilling beauty when their voices mix. Rock on!

[peoplecan1965]

outstanding Gene song.

[sewerdad]

to paulfbest pull your head out of your ass this song is great and it has nothing to do with the moody blues they did not do it the melody is similar but not the same

[Artealee]

Thanks for posting this. Great song

[Heuristic05]

Thanks, a great video!

[FRIZZ14]

it always gives me a good feeling when i listen to a lot of the byrds music. timeless and it gets ya right here, ya know

[IDLERACER]

That's Teri Garr at 1:17

You can tell, she's not used to dancing to a waltz, so she just sways back and forth and claps her hands instead.

[rocknrollphilip]

the beach boys, with their unique harmony structure, are my favorite band, but, the byrds, who i'm also a big fan of, of capable of moving me to tears with THEIR harmonies, which are so beautifully mournful. thanks for the treat!

[RossM3838]

Thats to the credit of Gene Clark who was fearless enough to use unusual time signatures and minor keys. It takes only 2 notes and you know its a Gene Clark song.  Gene's solo albums are even more so.

[YOUENARYEN]

Above all, thank you for this rare and brilliant introduction !

[mcd220]

Your most welcome. :-)

Christian

[darrinbaker00]

I like the Moody Blues as much as the next guy, but Justin Hayward totally ripped this song off when he wrote "Nights in White Satin." TOTALLY.

[mcd220]

No doubt; same key, same chords, same time signature. Even mentioned it in the liners notes!! :-)

Christian

[paulfbest]

YES!! when i first clicked on the video,.,,I thought IT WAS Nights In White Satin!!???,,WTF?? Its the byrds!! Totally stolen,,,but hey this is a crappy song of the great Byrds,,, the MB's took the song to a TOTALLY HIGHER LEVEL... SO stolen ? Yes, but INFINITE improvement by the MB's.. NIWS is one of the greatest musical love poems in rock history.

[chambaa]

This song existed long before the moody blues song.

[gibb253]

Nights in White Satin was released on 10 November 1967, thats more than 2 years after this. So who copied whom then????

[Eesgrampa]

no hes saying the MB's stole the music ... but hes wrong about the tune ... its written by Gene Clark, one of the great songwriters of the times ... its a great Byrds tune ... but does anyone remember who wrote any of the MB tunes ...

[violetjm]

@Eesgrampa - Yes, a lot of us remember who wrote the Moody Blues songs: Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, Mike Pinder, and even Graeme Edge wrote a few. Justin Hayward's been writing beautiful songs for over forty years. I think the Moody Blues and the Byrds are both wonderful bands, and I've been listening to both for four decades.

[Eesgrampa]

touche ... i was responding to another post and probly half potted at the time ... i'm a fan of the Moody Blues too ... Go Now is amazing plus the Nights In White Satin album is fine too ... just think the Byrds and their many offshoots brought a lot to the table ... esp Gene Clark

[violetjm]

@Eesgrampa - I checked my Byrds CDs to see who wrote what. The World Turns All Around Her and Here Without You, two of my favorite Byrds songs, were both written by Gene Clark. Oh, man, I'd love to see a performance of those two songs! Anything else I should look for by him? I didn't know any of the Byrds history that mcd220 posted, very cool.

[frizzlefrap]

@violetjm ... excellent songs, aren't they?

[violetjm]

@frizzlefrap - Yes, I have always loved those songs, and after Eesgranpa recommended Gene Clark to me, I became a fan. Took me a long time to discover him. (Just a few decades.) Songs like "Gypsy Rider," "Full Circle Song," "For a Spanish Guitar," and "One in a Hundred." I didn't know about these gems. He was an amazing writer and singer. Now I understand why people rave about him.

[gamoonbat]

Breathe deep the gathering gloom!

[manluvsthe60s]

@darrinbaker00 you hit the nail on the head. same melody as nights!!! Love the moody blues though

[tfmuch]

Gene's performance is pretty amazing here - the way he drops his head. It still communicates across the years. It makes McGuinn look even more of a geek.

[gamoonbat]

Gene was not much of a performer, really. I thought McGuinn was kind of hogging the stage here.

[tfmuch]

To say he was miming and trying to look sincere, it was pretty original. People didn't do things like that on TV.

[gamoonbat]

He always was sincere. He probably would have been a great actor if someone had gotten him the right script.

[philipearlwilliams]

i believe back then . all performances were lip sync'd , thats just the way it was.

the show Where The Action Is, a dick clark production . was all lip sync'd . his other show American Bandstand . also lip sync'd .

nothing wrong with that . the bands were lip sync-ing to their own recordings.

[wrightylew]

Crosby makes this song. His harmony on it is something else.

[mcd220]

No doubt. :-)

Christian

[marcotukoff]

this is gorgeous, thanxs from brazil!!!

[spoiledbigtime]

I love Gene Clark, what a look and voice!

[captainfairfield]

Without a doubt, one of the prettiest songs to come out of the 60's. The Byrds were head and shoulders above most other groups of their day.

[byrdsss]

My new favorite Byrds song.

[mcrenshaw]

love it....