The Big Apple Songs: Gunga Din

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Howdy! Today is a day of total confusion for everyone. It’s almost like The Twilight Zone because nothing is what it seems like it should be! That sounds like a good theme for New York City, doesn’t it? Here’s today’s song. Gunga Din - the Byrds Confusion #1: this song is not about the hero of the Rudyard Kipling poem. Confusion #2: this is not the “Eight Miles High” (although this song is set on a DC-8)/“Turn Turn Turn” sounding Byrds. Confusion #3: the “Parsons” who wrote this is not the better-known Parsons of the Byrds, Gram Parsons (his birth name was Ingram Connor), but Gene Parsons. And confusion #4: this song was not in the movie Easy Rider (although the album’s title track was). Now that we’ve cleared all of that up…. This was post-Sweetheart of the Rodeo Byrds, where Roger McGuinn was the only original member of the Byrds left. By 1969, David Crosby was in Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Gene Clark was with Dillard & Clark, and Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons were forming the Flying Burrito Brothers. That early folk-rock sound of the Byrds was generally gone, too, being replaced by the more country sounds that had surfaced on Sweetheart. The great thing about the Byrds is that they had enough personnel changes to be a number of “different” bands, so there’s something for just about anyone in their discography. Lots of Dylan covers (Dylan technically co-wrote “Ballad of Easy Rider,” but demanded that his name be removed from the songwriting credits in the movie and soundtrack album), rock, folk, and country. This leans a little toward the country side, a song about a man writing a letter to a love while taking a cross-country flight from New York to L.A. There’s a little of the Easy Rider counter-culture reference with the mention of having a leather jacket, an item of clothing associated with “hippies” back then. While you may only remember the mid-60s Byrds music, there’s a lot of great music throughout their career to enjoy. Like this song. Gunga Din Written by Gene Parsons Recorded by the Byrds From Ballad of Easy Rider, 1969 NYC LYRICS: It rained in New York City