>The Byrds should give ALL the credit to the Searchers. Just compare Feel A
>Whole Lot Better with any of the Searchers' first few singles, especially
>their cover of Needles & Pins.

The Searchers accidently invented folk-rock by increasing the treble
contols to
full on their amps to get that classic jangley sound. There isnt a 12 string
guitar on "Needles and Pinza", though they used one later. 

If you have the "Preflyte" CD where the Byrds in 1964 are putting thier sound
together you can clearly hear the Beatles and Searchers borrowings. Its a
shame
that that critics dont feel the Searchers take on "folk rock" isnt as
authentic
as the Byrds because they didnt have Dylan's endorsement. 

The biggest problem with the Searchers was they didnt write much of thier own
materal (though they did come up with a few cool originals like "He's Got No
Love" and "I Pretend Im With You") - drummer Chris Curtis had a great gift for
picking hard to find cover versions and when he left the group in 1966 to try
his own solo carreer they quickly suffered.


Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio