Byrds co-founder and folk rock pioneer Roger McGuinn is 73 today. Here’s the original video of the band performing the 1966 McGuinn-Clark-Crosby composition “Eight Miles High” that featured McGuinn’s Coltrane-inspired improvisation on a twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar, eventually leading to the “jangle rock” style associated with the Byrds and many later acts.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.