So You Want to be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star Patti

“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.  In 1979, “So You Want to Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star” was recorded by The Patti Smith Group and released as the third single from their album Wave.  (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. 

(April 2014)