Editing Roger McGuinn (section)

==Early life==
McGuinn was born and raised in [[Chicago]], Illinois,<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|pages=821/2}}</ref> son of James Joseph McGuinn Jr (b. 1909) and Dorothy Irene (b. 1911), daughter of engineer Louis Heyn.<ref>Who's Who of American Women, Marquis Who's Who, 1973, p. 547</ref><ref>Catalog of Copyright Entries, third series, Library of Congress Copyright Office, 1947, p. 94</ref> His parents worked in journalism and public relations, and during his childhood, they had written a bestseller titled ''Parents Can't Win''. He attended [[the Latin School of Chicago]]. He became interested in music after hearing [[Elvis Presley]]'s "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]" (a song that he frequently covers as a part of his autobiographical live shows), and asked his parents to buy a guitar for him. Around the same time, he was also influenced by country artists and/or groups such as [[Johnny Cash]], [[Carl Perkins]], [[Gene Vincent]] and [[the Everly Brothers]].

In 1957, he enrolled as a student at Chicago's [[Old Town School of Folk Music]],<ref name="ibiblio1">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/mcguinn/McGuinn.html |title=Roger McGuinn |publisher=Ibiblio.org |access-date=March 18, 2011}}</ref> where he learned the five-string [[banjo]] and 12-string guitar.<ref name=":0" /> After graduation, McGuinn performed solo at various [[coffeehouse]]s on the [[folk music]] circuit where he was hired as a [[sideman]] by [[the Limeliters]], [[the Chad Mitchell Trio]], and [[Judy Collins]] and other folk music artists in the same vein. In 1962, after he ended his association with the Chad Mitchell Trio, McGuinn was hired by [[Bobby Darin]] as a backup guitarist and harmony singer. Darin wanted to add a folk roots element to his repertoire because it was a burgeoning musical field. Darin opened T.M. Music in [[New York City]]'s [[Brill Building]], hiring McGuinn as a songwriter for $35 a week. About a year and a half later, Darin became ill and retired from singing.

During 1963, just one year before he co-founded the Byrds in Los Angeles, McGuinn was working as a [[Session musician|studio musician]] in New York, recording with Judy Collins and [[Simon & Garfunkel]]. At the same time, he was hearing about [[the Beatles]] (whose first American appearances would come in February 1964) and wondering how [[Beatlemania]] might affect folk music. When McGuinn saw George Harrison play a 12-string Rickenbacker in the film ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Days Night]]'', it inspired him to buy the same instrument.<ref name=":0" />

By the time [[Doug Weston]] gave him a job at [[The Troubadour (Los Angeles)|The Troubadour]] nightclub in Los Angeles, McGuinn had begun to include Beatles' songs in his act. He gave rock style treatments to traditional folk tunes and thereby caught the attention of another folkie Beatles fan, [[Gene Clark]], who joined forces with McGuinn in July 1964. Together they formed the beginning of what was to become the Byrds.<ref name="ibiblio1" />