“So You Want to Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star” is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman and included on their 1967 album, Younger Than Yesterday. The song was released as a single on January 9, 1967 and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The song was inspired by the hype surrounding the creation of The Monkees, whose television series had recently debuted in America and had launched the pre-fabricated band to international fame. The manufactured nature of the group caused Hillman and McGuinn to look upon the current state of the pop world with more than a little cynicism. (More from Wikipedia)
So you want to be a rock ’n’ roll star
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
And take some time and learn how to play
And when your hair’s combed right and your pants fit tight
It’s gonna be all right
So said the Byrds – specifically songwriters Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman – back in 1967, and the formula still works pretty well to this day. The song has been covered many times since, often with altered lyrics, with the version of “So You Want to be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star” by Patti Smith Group in 1979 being perhaps the best known cover.
The lyrics are more than a little cynical – check the next to last line – and the fact is, no one has really discovered the secret formula. “So You Want to be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star” was written in the wake of the creation of The Monkees television show and the Monkees band, who became known by many as the Pre-Fab Four (the Beatles of course being the original Fab Four).
(April 2014)
