Maggie's Farm

I heard the very first airing of the Byrds' cut. The deejay had been hyping it all morning.

I hated it.

Two years later, I was wearing Jim McGuinn granny glasses in a rock band playing Byrds songs.

Who knew?

As far as the accompanying article goes, I'd just disagree with one thing:

"Dylan claims that despite popular belief, this was not about drugs"

I don't remember anyone at the time thinking it was about drugs. It's one of those classic cases of some ivory tower academic analyzing the lyrics under a microscope and saying, "Look! It says 'take me on a trip'! The song must be about drugs!"

With the Beatles, it was 'A Day In The Life' and the line, "I'd love to turn you on." Banned throughout England for that one line.

Back to the Byrds, all it took was the word "high" in 'Eight Miles High', a song about a Lear jet ride, to get it banned in Salt Lake City.

Offhand, I'd guess that 90% of all "drug songs" were so labeled simply because they had a drug reference in them, like the above. As far as actually singing about drugs, how much can one say?


Speaking strictly as a musician, it looks like it would get kind of boring after a while.