It was heading up the charts in the States until that tip sheet. Everybody was getting crazy about marijuana use, so we were immediately branded. Was Eight Miles High actually about drugs? Hillman insists otherwise: “I stand as witness,” the bassist says, “it was never about that. ‘In our opinion, this record implies encouragement and/or approval of the use of marijuana or LSD.’Īs a result, the single was banned in Houston, Baltimore and Washington, and stalled at its No.14 Billboard peak. ‘We have dropped Eight Miles High from our recommended playlist,’ the report sniffed. On this occasion, its tone was one of spluttering outrage. Bill Gavin’s Record Report, a weekly ‘tip sheet’ that prescribed what stations should play, was a familiar sight among industry insiders. In April 1966, an innocuous sheet of paper landed on the desk of every radio programmer and disc jockey in America. We tried to slip in the RCA version as the take from Columbia, but we got caught doing that.” Asked whether it’s better, Hillman muses: “I’m not sure. The band were crushed to discover that their contract with CBS stipulated that the track could not be released because it had been cut at a non-Columbia studio.įor better or worse, Eight Miles High was promptly re-recorded with Allen Stanton producing.
The Byrds originally recorded Eight Miles High at RCA’s Victor Studios, with Jim Dickson producing and Dave Hassinger as engineer. It was also around the time of Eight Days A Week, so that was another hook.” But Gene said eight miles sounds better than six, and it did sound more poetic. Forty-two thousand feet – or about eight miles high – is the altitude reserved for military aircraft. “We started it as Six Miles High,” guitarist Roger McGuinn recalls, “because that’s the approximate altitude that commercial airlines fly. That same flight also prompted the song’s title.
#EIGHT MILES HIGH VIDEO MOD#
The reference to ‘ signs in the street that say where you’re going’ was revealed as a dig at the random placing of street signs around the English capital, while ‘nowhere is there warmth to be found among those losing their ground’ was a nod to the hostility they encountered from The Birds, a British mod group who accused the band of stealing their name. When The Byrds’ Eight Miles High was released in December 1965, it took little delving to identify the ‘rain-grey town, known for its sound’ as the London that Clark had observed from the plane.
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