Byrds Quotes & Sayings

And then she'll know the things I learned
That really have no value in the end she will surely know
I wasn't born to follow — The Byrds

Or maybe his reclusiveness was a decisive marketing strategy-if you disappear, people are more interested in your work. You become a legend while you're still alive. Crouching behind a stonewall, or the post under a house ... people are kneeling down to find you. — Naomi Shihab Nye

Chris Hillman (of the Byrds) recounts ... 'What happened to the Buffulo Springfield at the Whisky was similar to what happened to us at Ciro's ... everybody wanted to be there. It became the place to be ... a great gig.' — Johnny Rogan

The less I speak to the actors, the better. And I always hire great people, and I don't want to impose my pre-conceived notions on them. They know how to play it. — Woody Allen

There is the theory ... that you live in two places: You either live in fear, or you live in love. — Michael Keaton

If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that when the truth comes and knocks on our door, we won't want to let it in. — Thich Nhat Hanh

I remember that first week at the Whisky and the gigs we (The Buffalo Springfield) did with the Byrds, We could really smoke ! That band never got on record as bad, and as hard as we were. Live we sounded like the Rolling Stones ... — Stephen Stills

When The Byrds started country-rock, we had no idea there would be such a thing. We were just trying to honor the music. We started listening to country radio. We went to Nudie's and got cowboy clothes. — Roger McGuinn

The original Byrds were very much Beatles-influenced, and then we gradually got our own sound. We started mixing things together more. — Roger McGuinn

And now, at dusk, outside my window, the trees shake their heads like disco dancers in the strobe lights of nightlife long ago. — Martin Amis

These pages are not my confession; they're my definition. And I feel, as I begin to write it, that I can write it with some semblance of truth. — Fernando Pessoa

I just got into it like a lot of people through the rock 'n' roll bands in the late '60s that turned to country music, like The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, but particularly through The Byrds because of Gram Parsons, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman (with their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo). They kind of introduced English kids to Merle Haggard and George Jones and the Louvins (brothers Charlie and Ira). — Elvis Costello

The Byrds weren't rock n' roll guys. We were kinda like your Seekers ... folkies who took it a step further. — Chris Hillman

I would do a Byrds tour or a Byrds record in a minute. I miss that band now. I've tried to convince Roger over and over to do it, but he's not interested. Music isn't something you can legislate into being. — David Crosby

Folk-rock hasn't changed much over the decades since the Byrds started it. — Steve Forbert

He blesses us so we can be different. — Craig Groeschel

You don't see a lot of difference between the Gin Blossoms and the Byrds. — Steve Forbert

The Byrds flew off the fallout shelter, eight miles high and falling fast. — Don McLean

Keep saying no to her,
Since she was a baby.
Keep saying no to her,
Not even maybe.

from "Why?" by the Byrds — David Crosby

I loved playing the stuff we did in the Byrds. It was a good band. I was lucky to be in it. — Chris Hillman

We are only constrained by the boundaries of our imagination — David Moffett

I'm happy with the Byrds as a good memory. — Roger McGuinn

The Rascals are something else. They're up there with the Beatles, and Stones and Byrds. That level of musicality. They have a real chemistry. It is like magic. — Steven Van Zandt

I am very proud of the fact that many workers in my Gau, numerous former Communists and Social Democrats were won over by us and became local group leaders and Party functionaries. — Fritz Sauckel

I rode the buses in L.A. until I was in my early 30s, and there's something about driving or riding through L.A. after sundown, when the Utopian city goes into hiding and another city comes out, more Doors and less Byrds. — Steve Erickson

I was a lucky kid. You could have got 10 kids to be in The Byrds who were better than I was. — Chris Hillman

I think what makes the Byrds stand up all these years is the basis in folk music. Folk music, being a timeless art form, is the foundation of the Byrds. We were all from a folk background. We considered ourselves folk singers even when we strapped on electric instruments and dabbled in different things. — Roger McGuinn

Do you want to tell the truth, or do you want to tell a story? — Robert Charles Wilson

I'd like to be remembered as a keeper of the flame who kept traditional music alive, because I've been doing that twice as long as I was in the Byrds. — Roger McGuinn

I really dig The Byrds. I think they are the most underrated - in their original form - pop group. — Bruce Johnston

I started buying records in the '80s. I listened to everything new wave, disco, funk synth-pop, rock, but in my house we were listening to bossa nova, tango, and folk. — Juan Campodonico

Before I joined The Beach Boys, I was working at Columbia Records as a producer, and saw The Byrds come in and do their first overdub before Terry even met them. — Bruce Johnston

I've always been down-to-earth about money. — Chynna Phillips

We have forensic psychiatrists who try to draw a line between those who are sick and those who are criminal, and they bend and twist the truth to make it fit into their world of theoretical models. — Jo Nesbo

Take just one well-known event: The Beatles' 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. This has been depicted with astonishing regularity as a pivotal cultural moment; in fact an entire movie -- I Wanna Hold Your Hand -- was built around it. And that Sullivan episode was indeed a major event in popular culture. But did you know that in 1961, 26 million people watched a CBS live broadcast of the first performance of a new symphony by classical composer Aaron Copland? Moreover, with all the attention that sixties rock groups receive, it may come as a surprise to learn that My Fair Lady was Columbia Records' biggest-selling album before the 1970s, beating out those of sixties icons Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and The Byrds. — Jonathan Leaf