According to some music experts, Bob Dylan was invited to listen to a band practice of today´s group. They played «Mr. Tambourine Man» and some other of his songs arranged by McGuinn and Dylan hardly recognized them. When it was revealed he muttered: “Oh! but if you can even dance with them!” . It is assumed that this meeting was strongly related to Bob Dylan’s decision to become a rock musician with a band behind him. A month after «Mr.Tambourine man» reached number 1, Dylan released «Like a rolling stone». And the story goes on from there.
McGuinn said: “Bob Dylan was the guru and we were the students”. However the relationship between them is not so simple; in the song “You ain’t goin’ nowhere” Dylan sings “Pick up your money/ and pack up your tent McGuinn/ You ain’t goin’ nowhere” (Greatest Hits Vol. 2 version).
[Information extracted from text from the back cover of the album «The Byrds Greatest Hits» (1967) collected by Diego A. Manrique]
Here are a couple of covers by The Byrds, a band quite specialized in this issue, given the long list of Bob Dylan songs that they have versioned. Enjoy!
One song a day keeps the doctor away 