Roger McGuinn is an American musician best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the Byrds and also for his solo career. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1936, McGuinn was raised in and around Washington, D.C., and learned to play guitar by listening to country artists on the radio. While attending high school he started a band called The Nazz and played guitar in a band called Danny & The Juniors. He enrolled at the University of Maryland in 1951 where he began to sing and play guitar with jazz musicians such as Dave Brubeck and Urbie Green
After graduating from college in 1955, he joined the Little Prince Band, an instrumental group that featured Jimi Hendrix on lead guitar. In 1958 McGuinn joined a popular R&B vocal group called The Paragons. In 1960 the group recorded their only hit record "The Three Bells" which was a moderate success on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart at number 74.
After leaving The Paragons in 1961, McGuinn joined The Elgins, a band that included future members of The Byrds, Roger McGuinn (lead vocals), Gene Clark (guitar), Chris Hillman (guitar), David Crosby (vocals) and Michael Clarke (bass). During that time they recorded several singles for Columbia Records including "It Turns Me Inside Out" which made the Top 50 in the UK Singles Chart in 1961. In 1962 they began recording material for their first album with Mr.
Tambourine Man which was released in 1963 and eventually went gold in the UK. The album peaked at number 19 on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tape chart in 1963. In early 1965 McGuinn decided to leave The Elgins and form a new band with former members from The Byrds, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, Michael Clarke and David Crosby that became known as The Byrds.
They released several albums including Sweetheart Of The Rodeo which peaked at number 10 on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tape charts in 1968; Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde; Younger Than Yesterday; You Can't Have It; Wheels Are Rollin"; What Good Am I?; Notorious Byrd Brothers; Notorious Byrd Brothers II; Younger Than Yesterday (reissued); Sleeps With Angels; God Only Knows; Gunpowder And Lead; If I Were A Carpenter; I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better Now; Night After Night After Night; True Love Will Find You In
I got into computers back in the early '80s, so it was a natural progression of learning about e-mail in the mid-'80s and getting into the Internet when it opened up in the early '90s.Roger McGuinn
But in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there.Roger McGuinn
