by the Kinks, the Yardbirds and the Beatles had used Indian sounds to complement standard song forms, the Byrds incorporated the improvisational technique typical of Shankar's work and of John Coltrane's jazz interpretations of ragas. In his 1968 Pop Chronicles interview, however, Byrds member Roger McGuinn denied that "Eight Miles High" was raga rock; co-writer David Crosby also dismissed the term. While many listeners assumed that the lead instrument on these and other songs on the Byrds' Fifth Dimension album was a sitar, McGuinn played a Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar throughout, and had customised his guitar amplifier to achieve the sitar-like sound. The term "raga rock" was coined by the Byrds' publicist in press releases for "Eight Miles High" and was first used in print by Sally Kempton of The Village Voice in her report of the band's press conference for the single's release. The press conference was organised by former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor and took place in New York on 28 March, with a sitar symbolically placed in front of the table where the Byrds sat. Kempton wrote dismissively of the event, during which McGuinn and Crosby spoke earnestly of the group's adoption of Indian influences, with the two musicians demonstrating raga techniques on sitar and acoustic guitar, respectively, while their two bandmates appeared bored and instead read magazines. Kempton said that the message was lost on those attending the press conference, namely female reporters from teen magazines and conservative-looking representatives from the music industry. Hit Parader reported on the Byrds demonstrating how "sitar-like sounds" could be played on guitar by tuning the standard E strings down to D; this allowed the guitarist to play in partial open tuning, whereby "the bottom three strings provide the drone sound and the upper strings are bent to play the melody." The term "raga rock" was soon adopted by British music publications such as the New Musical Express and Music Echo, and an early discussion of raga rock appeared in Melody Maker in April. According to Gendron, however, the fusion of Indian and Western sounds continued to be treated with disdain by writers from the American cultural press, who viewed the new subgenre as part of the consolidation of folk rock. Peak popularity and impact In May 1966, the Rolling Stones issued the raga rock single "Paint It Black", which featured a sitar part played by guitarist Brian Jones and became