Fifth Dimension |
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Released: July 18, 1966 Peak: 24 US, 27 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: folk rock |
Tracks:
Total Running Time: 38:26 1996 CD reissue bonus tracks:
The Players:
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Rating: 3.881 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings) Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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The Beginnings of Psychedelic RockOnly three albums in and the Byrds were redefining themselves, moving from the pioneering folk-rock of their first two albums to the more psychedelic feel of their third. Founding member Gene Clark quit the group in early 1966. Since he was the group’s chief songwriter, it forced David Crosby and Roger McGuinn to step up their games. RD“They devised some of the first and best psychedelic rock, often drawing from the influence of Indian raga in the guitar arrangements.” AM The album was celebrated for “McGuinn’s fascination with things spacey and sci-fi” RD such as on 5D (Fifth Dimension) and “the extraordinary Eight Miles High.” RD The latter, “with its astral lyrics, pumping bassline, and fractured guitar solo, was a Top 20 hit, and one of the greatest singles of the '60s.” AM …But Also a Mix of Other GenresThe Byrds, however, didn’t stop at psychedelia. “There are nods to the group’s folk roots and, uncharacteristically, R&B.” RD “The Byrds were now straddling rock ‘n’ roll, folk, jazz, ‘raga’ rock, and country.” RD “A heavy diet of Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane on the tour bus inspired McGuinn’s freeform solos, grounded by Hillman’s rumbling bass and Clarke’s fizzing drums.” RDThe SongsThe album’s “high points were as innovative as any rock music being recorded in 1966. Immaculate folk-rock was still present in their superb arrangements of the traditional songs Wild Mountain Thyme and John Riley.” AM “I Come and Stand at Every Door is an unusual and moving update of a traditional rock tune, with new lyrics pleading for peace in the nuclear age.” AM“McGuinn’s guitar spits fire on the jazz-raga-rock stunner I See You” RD and delivers “the country-esque, whimsical Mr. Spaceman.” RD The mix of genres makes “for an uneven album, true, and it is not without filler.” RD “The R&B instrumental Captain Soul was a throwaway” AM and “Hey Joe not nearly as good as the versions by the Leaves or Jimi Hendrix.” AM The “proto-hippy musings in What’s Happening?!?!” RD are “the earliest example of David Crosby's disagreeably vapid hippie ethos.” AM Here are more details about some of the songs on this album. |
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Eight Miles HighThe Byrds |
Writer(s): Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Gene Clark (see lyrics here) Recorded: Jan. 24-25, 1966 at Columbia Records in Hollywood, California Released: 3/14/1966 (single), Fifth Dimension (1966), Greatest Hits (compilation, 1967), History of the Byrds (compilation, 1973), The Byrds (box set, 1990), 20 Essential Tracks from the Boxed Set (compilation, 1992), The Very Best of (compilation, 1997), The Essential (compilation, 2003), There is a Season (box set, 2006) B-Side: “Why” First Charted: 4/2/1966 Peak: 14 BB, 12 CB, 13 GR, 15 HR, 2 CL, 24 UK, 3 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 9.70 video, 38.56 streaming |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Song:The Byrds’ 1965 cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” got the group “lauded as the harbingers of a whole new genre – folk-rock.” LW With 1966’s “Eight Miles High” they were celebrated for another song “that was also heralded as a groundbreaking event.” LW It is considered “a classic of the counterculture era” WK and “one of the masterpieces of the psychedelic era,” TC even being held up by many critics as “the first bona fide psychedelic rock song.” WKBand member Roger McGuinn said, “this nugget of proto-psychedelia” DT was not about drugs, as everyone assumed, “but in the ‘60s, anything with abstract imagery was automatically considered a psychedelic song.” SJ It was about the band’s impressions of touring in England. He said, “it’s about the altitude of the airplane – eight miles high – and when you land over there, when you touch down, you find culture shock.” SJ The protests didn’t keep radio from banning it for what regarded as “perceived drug connotations in its lyrics.” WK Band members Gene Clark and David Crosby would admit later that the song “was at least partially inspired by their drug use” WK and McGuinn would acknowledge that “high” had a double meaning. SS In addition, “the Byrds’ harmonies were never more ghostly and uplifting,” SS which enhanced the psychedelic effect of the song. “The amazing guitar solo is McGuinn playing live – and alone!” SJ He said, “There’s no overdubs on that; it’s one straightforward guitar part on a twelve-string. The reason it sounds like that is because I was influenced by John Coltrane,” SJ specifically his song “India.” It was McGuinn’s attempt to replicate “the saxophonist’s repetitive line in that song.” SS Music historian Steve Sullivan said McGuinn’s work here was “no doubt in turn also inspiring an up-and-coming virtuoso named Jim Hendrix.” SS |
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5D (Fifth Dimension)The Byrds |
Writer(s): Roger McGuinn Recorded: May 24-25, 1966 at Columbia Records in Hollywood, California Released: 6/13/1966 (single), Fifth Dimension (1966), Greatest Hits (compilation, 1967), History of the Byrds (compilation, 1973), The Byrds (box set, 1990), 20 Essential Tracks from the Boxed Set (compilation, 1992), The Very Best of (compilation, 1997), The Essential (compilation, 2003), There is a Season (box set, 2006) B-Side: “Captain Soul” Peak: 44 BB, 39 CB, 32 HR, 31 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.64 streaming |
About the Song:Like “Eight Miles High,” this was banned by some radio stations in the United States when it was released as a single because its lyrics allegedly promoted drug use. MC-44 Roger McGuinn said “he dropped acid to try to understand the universe better and to inform the song’s theme.” MC-45 However, “he saw it as a spiritual song inspired by Islam, rather than an acid-drenched drug song.” MC-45 “For a pop single in 1966 this was cerebral.” MC-45The song features “an ethereal drone…married to a jig, creating an acid-drenched sea shanty.” MC-44 Roger McGuinn “came up with the waltz-time rhythm that should’ve been too square to work as it was out of place with the era. But it works perfectly, thanks in no small way to his inventive layered guitar and the band’s ravishing harmonies, which perfectly fit the floating music.” MC-44 |
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Mr. SpacemanThe Byrds |
Writer(s): Roger McGuinn Recorded: Apr. 28-29, 1966 and May 3-6, 1966 at Columbia Records in Hollywood, California Released: 9/6/1966 (single), Fifth Dimension (1966), Greatest Hits (compilation, 1967), History of the Byrds (compilation, 1973), The Byrds (box set, 1990), 20 Essential Tracks from the Boxed Set (compilation, 1992), The Very Best of (compilation, 1997), The Essential (compilation, 2003), There is a Season (box set, 2006) B-Side: “What’s Happening?!?!” Peak: 36 BB, 34 CB, 32 GR, 29 HR, 13 CL, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 13.96 streaming |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Song:Roger McGuinn explained the inspiration behind “Mr. Spaceman,” the Byrds’ third single from their album Fifth Dimension: “I was always a science fiction buff. I liked movies like Forbidden Planet and War of the Worlds…I knew that if anyone was out there, FM radio waves would get through the ionosphere and keep travelling in space for maybe thousands of years...or maybe millions of miles…So I thought let’s put something out there that maybe someone would receive. It was sort of a tongue-in-cheek message to outer space. Actually, in a way I got my wish because they used it to wake up the Space Shuttle astronauts.” SJ
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Resources/References:
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First posted 4/7/2008; last updated 10/24/2026. |
