FLASHBACK: Roger McGuinn Performs Live on WMMR

Today (July 13th) is the birthday of Roger McGuinn. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee first rose to prominence with the Byrds in the 1960s as their singer, lead guitarist and primary songwriter. He went on to have a prolific solo career that influenced generations of rock n' roll fans and fellow musicians.

To mark the occasion, we pulled out this flashback from the MMaRchives. This performance and interview took place on April 8^th, 1991 when WMMR lived at corner of 19^th & Walnut streets overlooking Rittenhouse Square.

Pierre Robert was your host of the session. This track begins with Pierre introducing Roger McGuinn, and goes into Roger explaining how the Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" (which was originally written by Bob Dylan) came together, and he seamlessly transitions into playing the song. He explains that the original version was "in kind of a folky 2/4 time which wasn't very good for radio... it was really long." So he slowed down the pace to create the Byrds' single that was released on their debut album of the same name in 1965. Take a listen to his story in the clip below:

Roger played at the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street that night and the next night; these shows were celebrated as "WMMR Birthday Concerts" that year.

Fun fact: During the interview with Pierre, he discussed his friendship with Tom Petty and casually dropped that he sent a fax (!) to Tom's house (!!) from our studios. What a throwback moment!

July 13th marks another rock-related anniversary: the grand spectacle of Live Aid at JFK Stadium in 1985. WMMR was there with Complete Concert Coverage of this amazing day in our city.

For more interviews and pieces of Philly rock history, check out the MMaRchives Podcast.

Bob Dylan: his voice isn't for everyone, but you can't deny his songwriting ability. In his six decades of making music, he's been covered by a huge range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, Heart with Layne Staley, U2, Elvis Presley, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Silversun Pickups, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many more. There's a reason why he recently sold his music publishing for a rumored nine-figure deal.

With that in mind, we thought we'd celebrate his 80th birthday with a list of the best versions of his 80 best songs. So, it's a mix Dylan's versions, and a few of his live performances as well and lots of covers by the aforementioned artists.

And yes, we know that some Dylanologists will be mad that some of the "classics" are missing (we just don't love "Just Like A Woman" or "Mr. Tamborine Man" as much as everyone else). We love some of the material from the second half of his career as much as the music from his more celebrated first half. We love the covers, and we gave them extra points in some cases for introducing his music to younger generations. And with that, let's start with number eighty.