You’ll find that it’s stranger than knownĪnd there’s that drum roll again, which will spend the rest of the song as a spirit guide, only appearing when it is absolutely necessary to make sure the entire song stays together after McGuinn’s guitar continually threatens to rip a hole in the fabric of the universe. I love Chris Hillman’s ominous bassline, and how Jim McGuinn’s guitar comes in playing the main theme, and then almost instantly devolves (but really heightens) into an insane mess of Coltraney Shankarisms for a few seconds until setting up that opening phrase:Īnd then, for an instant, the entire universe stops, until Michael Clarke’s drum roll snaps it back into existence. I love how got banned for being about drugs when it’s so clearly about flying to London and how it inspired Husker Du to not just create the greatest cover version in rock history, but write a sequel (”Dead Set on Destruction”) where they’re stuck in London forever. I love that it’s the last Byrds song that Gene Clark had a hand in (talk about passing the torch!), and that for whatever punchline David Crosby later became, he at the very least co-wrote this. That’s right: I love “Eight Miles High” even more than “What Goes On” or “I Can See For Miles and Miles” or “Visions of Johanna” or “She Said She Said,” “Jumping Jack Flash.” There isn’t anything I don’t love about “Eight Miles High” Ladies and Gentlemens, welcome to my favorite song from the 1960s.