The Byrds
Encyclopedia
The Byrds were an American rock
band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn
(aka Jim McGuinn) remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973. Although they only managed to attain the huge commercial success of contemporaries like The Beatles
, The Beach Boys
, and The Rolling Stones
for a short period of time (1965–66), The Byrds are today considered by critics to be one of the most influential bands of the 1960s. Initially, they pioneered the musical genre of folk rock
, melding the influence of The Beatles and other British Invasion
bands with contemporary and traditional folk music
. As the 1960s progressed, the band was also influential in originating psychedelic rock
, raga rock
, and country rock
. In addition, the band's signature blend of clear harmony singing
and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker
guitar
has continued to be influential on popular music up to the present day. Among the band's most enduring songs are their cover version
s of Bob Dylan
's "Mr. Tambourine Man
" and Pete Seeger
's "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", along with the self-penned originals, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "Eight Miles High
", "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
", "Ballad of Easy Rider
" and "Chestnut Mare
".
The original five-piece line-up of The Byrds consisted of Jim McGuinn (lead guitar
, vocals
), Gene Clark
(tambourine
, vocals), David Crosby
(rhythm guitar
, vocals), Chris Hillman
(bass guitar
, vocals), and Michael Clarke
(drums
). However, this version of the band was relatively short-lived and by early 1966, Clark had left due to problems associated with anxiety and his increasing isolation within the group. The Byrds continued as a quartet until late 1967, when Crosby and Clarke also departed the band. McGuinn and Hillman decided to recruit new members, including country rock pioneer Gram Parsons
, but by late 1968, Hillman and Parsons had also exited the band. McGuinn, who by this time had changed his name to Roger after a flirtation with the Subud
religion, elected to rebuild the band's membership and between 1968 and 1973, he helmed a new incarnation of The Byrds, featuring guitarist Clarence White
among others. McGuinn disbanded the then current line-up in early 1973, to make way for a reunion of the original quintet. The Byrds' final album was released in March 1973, with the reunited group disbanding soon afterwards.
Several ex-members of the band went on to have successful careers of their own, either as solo artists or as part of groups, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Flying Burrito Brothers
and The Desert Rose Band. In the late 1980s, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke both began touring as The Byrds, prompting a legal challenge from McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman over the rights to the band's name. As a result of this, McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman performed a series of reunion concerts
as The Byrds in 1989 and 1990, and also recorded four new Byrds' songs. In January 1991, The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
, an occasion that saw the five original members performing together for the last time. McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman still remain active but Gene Clark died of a heart attack
in 1991, and Michael Clarke died of liver failure
in 1993.
, Gene Clark
, and David Crosby
came together as a trio. All three musicians had a background rooted in folk music, with each one having worked as a folk singer on the acoustic coffeehouse
circuit during the early 1960s. In addition, they had all served time, independently of each other, as sidemen
in various "collegiate folk" groups: McGuinn with The Limeliters
and the Chad Mitchell Trio
, Clark with The New Christy Minstrels, and Crosby with Les Baxter's Balladeers
. McGuinn had also spent time as a professional songwriter at the Brill Building
in New York City, under the tutelage of Bobby Darin
. By early 1964, McGuinn had become enamored with the music of The Beatles
, and had begun to intersperse his solo folk repertoire with acoustic versions of Beatles' songs. While performing at The Troubadour folk club in Los Angeles, McGuinn was approached by fellow Beatles fan Gene Clark, and the pair soon formed a Peter and Gordon-style duo, playing Beatles' covers
, Beatlesque renditions of traditional folk songs, and some self-penned material. Soon after, David Crosby introduced himself to the duo at The Troubadour and began harmonizing with them on some of their songs. Impressed by the blend of their voices, the three musicians formed a trio and named themselves The Jet Set, a moniker inspired by McGuinn's love of aeronautics.
Crosby introduced McGuinn and Clark to his associate Jim Dickson, who had access to World Pacific Studios
, where he had been recording demos
of Crosby. Sensing the trio's potential, Dickson quickly took on management
duties for the group, while his business partner, Eddie Tickner, became the group's accountant and financial manager. Dickson began utilizing World Pacific Studios to record the trio as they honed their craft and perfected their blend of Beatles pop
and Bob Dylan
-style folk. It was during the rehearsals at World Pacific that the band's folk rock sound—an amalgam of their own Beatles-influenced material, their folk music roots and their Beatlesque covers of contemporary folk songs—began to coalesce. Initially, this blend arose organically, but as rehearsals continued, the band began to actively attempt to bridge the gap between folk music and rock. Demo recordings made by The Jet Set at World Pacific Studios would later be collected on the compilation album
s Preflyte
, In the Beginning
and The Preflyte Sessions.
Drummer
Michael Clarke
was added to The Jet Set in mid-1964. Clarke was recruited largely due to his good looks and Brian Jones-esque
hairstyle, rather than for his musical experience, which was limited to having played conga
s in a semi-professional capacity in and around San Francisco and L.A. Clarke did not even own his own drum kit
and initially had to play on a makeshift setup consisting of cardboard boxes and a tambourine
. As the band continued to rehearse, Dickson arranged a one-off single
deal for the group with Elektra Records
' founder Jac Holzman
. The single, which coupled the band originals "Please Let Me Love You" and "Don't Be Long
", featured McGuinn, Clark, and Crosby, augmented by session musician
s Ray Pohlman on bass
and Earl Palmer
on drums
. In an attempt to cash in on the British Invasion
craze that was dominating the American charts at the time, the band's name was changed for the single release to the suitably British-sounding The Beefeaters. "Please Let Me Love You" was issued by Elektra Records on October 7, 1964, but it failed to chart.
In August 1964, Dickson managed to acquire an acetate disc
of the then-unreleased Bob Dylan song "Mr. Tambourine Man
", which he felt would make an effective cover for The Jet Set. Although the band were initially unimpressed with the song, they began rehearsing it with a rock band arrangement
, changing the time signature
from 2/4 to a rockier 4/4 configuration in the process. In an attempt to bolster the group's confidence in the song, Dickson invited Dylan himself to World Pacific to hear the band perform "Mr. Tambourine Man". Impressed by the group's rendition, Dylan enthusiastically commented "Wow, man! You can dance to that!", and his ringing endorsement erased any lingering doubts that the band had over the song's suitability.
Soon after, inspired by The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night
, the band decided to equip themselves with similar instruments to the Fab Four: a Rickenbacker
twelve-string guitar for McGuinn, a Ludwig
drum kit for Clarke, and a Gretsch
Tennessean guitar for Clark (although Crosby commandeered it soon after, resulting in Clark switching to tambourine
). In October 1964, Dickson recruited mandolin
player Chris Hillman
as The Jet Set's bassist
. Hillman's background was more oriented towards country music
than folk or rock, having been a member of the bluegrass
groups The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers
, The Hillmen
(aka the Golden State Boys), and concurrently with his recruitment into The Jet Set, The Green Grass Group. Through connections that Dickson had with impresario
Benny Shapiro, and with a helpful recommendation from jazz
trumpet
er Miles Davis
, the group signed a recording contract
with Columbia Records
on November 10, 1964. Two weeks later, during a Thanksgiving
dinner at Eddie Tickner's house, The Jet Set decided to rename themselves The Byrds, a moniker that retained the theme of flight and also echoed the deliberate misspelling of "The Beatles".
, "I Knew I'd Want You". Rather than using band members, producer
Terry Melcher
instead hired The Wrecking Crew
, a collection of top session musicians including Hal Blaine
, Larry Knechtel
, Jerry Cole
, and Leon Russell
, who (along with McGuinn on guitar) provided the instrumental backing track over which McGuinn, Crosby and Clark sang. By the time the sessions for their debut album began in March 1965, however, Melcher was satisfied that the band was competent enough to record its own musical backing. However, the use of outside musicians on The Byrds' debut single has given rise to the persistent myth that all of the playing on their debut album was done by session musicians.
While the band waited for "Mr. Tambourine Man" to be released, they began a residency at Ciro's Le Disc
nightclub
on the Sunset Strip
in Hollywood. The band's regular appearances at Ciro's during March and April 1965 allowed them to hone their ensemble
playing, perfect their aloof stage persona, and expand their repertoire. In addition, it was during their residency at the nightclub that the band first began to accrue a dedicated following among L.A.'s youth culture and hip Hollywood fraternity, with scenesters like Kim Fowley
, Peter Fonda
, Jack Nicholson
, Arthur Lee
, and Sonny & Cher
regularly attending the band's performances. On March 26, 1965, the author of the band's forthcoming debut single, Bob Dylan, made an impromptu visit to the club and joined The Byrds on stage for a rendition of Jimmy Reed
's "Baby What You Want Me to Do
". The excitement generated by The Byrds at Ciro's quickly made them a must-see fixture on L.A.'s nightclub scene and resulted in hordes of teenagers filling the sidewalk
s outside the club, desperate to see the band perform. A number of noted music historians and authors, including Richie Unterberger
, Ric Menck, and Peter Buckley, have suggested that the crowds of young Bohemians
and hipsters
that gathered at Ciro's to see The Byrds perform represented the first stirrings of the West Coast
hippie
counterculture
.
Columbia Records eventually released the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single on April 12, 1965. The full, electric rock band treatment that The Byrds and producer Terry Melcher had given the song effectively created the template for the musical subgenre of folk rock
. McGuinn's melodic, jangling twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar playing—which was heavily compressed to produce an extremely bright and sustain
ed tone—was immediately influential and has remained so to the present day. The single also featured another major characteristic of the band's sound: their clear harmony singing
, which usually featured McGuinn and Clark in unison
, with Crosby providing the high harmony. Additionally, Richie Unterberger has noted that the song's abstract lyrics took rock and pop songwriting to new heights; never before had such intellectual and literary wordplay been combined with rock instrumentation by a popular music group.
Within three months "Mr. Tambourine Man" had become the first folk rock smash hit
, reaching number 1 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
chart and the UK Singles Chart
. The single's success initiated the folk rock boom of 1965 and 1966, during which a number of Byrds-influenced acts had hits on the American and British charts. The term "folk rock" was itself coined by the American music press to describe the band's sound in June 1965, at roughly the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man" peaked at #1 in the U.S. The Mr. Tambourine Man
album followed on June 21, 1965, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs
chart and number 7 on the UK Albums Chart
. The album mixed reworkings of folk songs, including Pete Seeger
's musical adaptation of the Idris Davies
' poem "The Bells of Rhymney
", with a number of other Dylan covers and the band's own compositions, the majority of which were written by Gene Clark. In particular, Clark's "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" has gone on to become a rock music standard
, with many critics considering it one of the band's and Clark's best songs. Writing for the Allmusic website, critic Mark Deming has noted that the use of the word "probably" in the song's refrain of "I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone" lends the track a depth of subtext that was unusual for a pop song in the mid-1960s. Upon release, the Mr. Tambourine Man album, like the single of the same name, was influential in popularizing folk rock and served to establish the band as an internationally successful rock act, representing the first effective American challenge to the dominance of The Beatles and the British Invasion.
The Byrds' next single was "All I Really Want to Do", another interpretation of a Dylan song. Despite the success of "Mr. Tambourine Man", The Byrds were reluctant to release another Dylan-penned single, feeling that it was too formulaic, but Columbia Records were insistent, believing that another Dylan cover would result in an instant hit for the group. The Byrds' rendition of "All I Really Want to Do" is noticeably different in structure to Dylan's original: it features an ascending melody
progression in the chorus
and utilizes a completely new melody for one of the song's verses, in order to turn it into a Beatlesque, minor-key
bridge
. Issued on June 14, 1965, while "Mr. Tambourine Man" was still climbing the U.S. charts, the single was rush-released by Columbia in an attempt to bury a rival cover version that Cher
had released simultaneously on Imperial Records
. A chart battle ensued, but The Byrds' rendition stalled at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Cher's version reached number 15. The reverse was true in the UK, however, where The Byrds' version reached number 4, while Cher's peaked at number 9.
Author John Einarson has noted that during this period of their career, The Byrds enjoyed tremendous popularity among teenage pop fans, with their music receiving widespread airplay on Top 40 radio
and their faces adorning countless teen magazine
s. Much was made at the time of The Byrds' unconventional dress sense, with their casual attire strikingly at odds with the prevailing trend for uniformity among contemporary beat
groups. With all five members sporting Beatlesque moptop haircuts, Crosby dressed in a striking green suede cape, and McGuinn wearing a pair of distinctive rectangular "granny glasses", the band exuded Californian cool, while also looking suitably non-conformist. In particular, McGuinn's distinctive rectangular spectacles would go on to become popular among members of the burgeoning hippie counterculture in the United States.
Although McGuinn was widely regarded as The Byrds' leader by this point, the band actually had multiple frontmen, with McGuinn, Clark, Crosby and later Hillman all taking turns to sing lead vocals
in roughly equal measures across the group's repertoire. Despite the dizzying array of personnel changes that the group underwent in later years, this lack of a dedicated lead singer would remain a stylistic trait of The Byrds' music throughout the majority of the band's existence. A further distinctive aspect of The Byrds' image was their unsmiling air of detachment, both on stage and in front of the camera. This natural aloofness was compounded by the large amounts of marijuana
that the band consumed and often resulted in moody and erratic live performances
. Indeed, the contemporary music press was extremely critical of The Byrds' abilities as a live act during the mid-1960s, with the reaction from the British media during the band's August 1965 tour of England being particularly scathing.
This 1965 English tour was largely orchestrated by the group's publicist
Derek Taylor
, in an attempt to capitalize on the number 1 chart success of the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single. Unfortunately, the tour was overhyped from the start, with the band being touted as "America's answer to the Beatles", a label that proved impossible for The Byrds to live up to. During concert performances, a combination of poor sound, group illness, ragged musicianship, and the band's notoriously lackluster stage presence, all combined to alienate audiences and served to provoke a merciless castigating of the band in the British press. However, the tour did enable the band to meet and socialize with a number of top English groups, including The Rolling Stones
and The Beatles. In particular, the band's relationship with The Beatles would prove important for both acts, with the two groups again meeting up in Los Angeles some weeks later, upon The Byrds' return to America. During this period of fraternization, The Beatles were vocal in their support of The Byrds, publicly acknowledging them as creative competitors and naming them as their favorite American group. A number of authors, including Ian MacDonald
, Richie Unterberger, and Bud Scoppa, have noted The Byrds influence on The Beatles' late 1965 album Rubber Soul
, most notably on the songs "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone
", the latter of which utilizes the same guitar riff
as The Byrds' cover of "The Bells of Rhymney".
For their third Columbia single, The Byrds initially intended to release a cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
" (it was even premiered on the Californian radio station KRLA
), but instead they decided to record "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", a Pete Seeger composition with lyrics adapted almost entirely from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. The song was brought to the group by McGuinn, who had previously arranged
it in a chamber-folk style while working on folksinger Judy Collins
' 1963 album, Judy Collins 3
. The Byrds' cover of "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)" was issued on October 1, 1965 and became the band's second U.S. number 1 single, as well as the title track for their second album. The single represented the high-water mark of folk rock as a chart trend and has been described by music historian Richie Unterberger as "folk rock's highest possible grace note." In addition, music critic William Ruhlmann has noted that the song's lyrical message of peace and tolerance struck a nerve with the American record buying public as the Vietnam War
continued to escalate.
The Byrds' second album, Turn! Turn! Turn!
, was released in December 1965 and while it received a mostly positive reception, critical consensus deemed it to be inferior to the band's debut. Nonetheless, it was a commercial success, peaking at number 17 on the U.S. charts and number 11 in the UK. Author Scott Schinder has noted that, along with Mr. Tambourine Man, the Turn! Turn! Turn! album served to establish The Byrds as one of rock music's most important creative forces, on a par with The Beatles, The Beach Boys
and The Rolling Stones. Like their debut, the album comprised a mixture of group originals, folk songs, and Bob Dylan covers, all characterized by the group's clear harmonies and McGuinn's distinctive guitar sound. However, the album featured more of the band's own compositions than its predecessor, with Gene Clark in particular coming to the fore as a songwriter. His songs from this period, including "She Don't Care About Time", "The World Turns All Around Her", and "Set You Free This Time
", are widely regarded by critics as among the best of the folk rock genre. The latter song was even chosen for release as a single in January 1966, but its densely worded lyrics, melancholy melody, and ballad-like tempo contributed to it stalling at number 63 on the Billboard
chart and failing to reach the UK chart altogether.
While The Byrds outwardly seemed to be riding the crest of a wave during the latter-half of 1965, the recording sessions for their second album had not been without tension. One source of conflict was the power struggle that had begun to develop between producer Terry Melcher and the band's manager Jim Dickson, with the latter harboring aspirations to produce the band himself, causing him to be overly critical of Melcher's work. Within a month of Turn! Turn! Turn! being released, Dickson and The Byrds approached Columbia Records and requested that Melcher be replaced, despite the fact that he had successfully steered the band through the recording of two number 1 singles and two hit albums. Any hopes that Dickson had of being allowed to produce the band himself, however, were dashed when Columbia assigned their West Coast head of A&R, Allen Stanton, to the band.
" at RCA
Studios in Hollywood. The song represented a creative leap forward for the band and is often considered the first full-blown psychedelic rock
recording by critics, although other contemporaneous acts, such as Donovan
and The Yardbirds
, were also exploring similar musical territory. The song was also pivotal in transmuting folk rock into the new musical forms of psychedelia and raga rock
. However, Columbia Records refused to release the band's first version of the song because it had been recorded at another record company's studios. As a result, the band were forced to re-record "Eight Miles High" at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles on January 24 and 25, 1966, and it was this re-recorded version that would be released as a single and included on the group's third album.
The song is marked by McGuinn's groundbreaking lead guitar playing, which saw the guitarist attempting to emulate the free form jazz
saxophone
playing of John Coltrane
, and in particular, Coltrane's playing on the song "India" from his Impressions album. "Eight Miles High" also exhibits the influence of the Indian classical music
of Ravi Shankar
in the droning quality of the song's vocal melody and in McGuinn's guitar playing. The song's subtle use of Indian influences resulted in it being labeled as "raga rock" by the music press
, but in fact, it was the single's B-side "Why
" that drew more directly on Indian raga
s. Upon release, "Eight Miles High" was banned by many U.S. radio stations, following allegations made by the broadcasting trade journal the Gavin Report
, that its lyrics advocated recreational drug use. The band and their management strenuously denied these allegations, stating that the song's lyrics actually described an airplane flight to London and the band's subsequent concert tour of England. The relatively modest chart success of "Eight Miles High" (number 14 in the U.S. and number 24 in the UK) has been largely attributed to the broadcasting ban, although the challenging and slightly uncommercial nature of the track is another possible reason for its failure to reach the Top 10.
In February 1966, just prior to the release of "Eight Miles High", Gene Clark left the band. His departure was partly due to his fear of flying
, which made it impossible for him to keep up with The Byrds' itinerary, and partly due to his increasing isolation within the band. Clark, who had witnessed a fatal airplane crash as a youth, had a panic attack
on a plane bound for New York and as a result, he disembarked and refused to take the flight. In effect, Clark's exit from the plane represented his exit from The Byrds, with McGuinn telling him, "If you can't fly, you can't be a Byrd." However, it has become known in the years since the incident that there were other stress-related factors at work, as well as resentment within the band that Gene's songwriting income had made him the wealthiest member of the group. Clark was subsequently signed by Columbia Records as a solo artist and went on to produce a critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful body of work. He died on May 24, 1991, at the age of 46, from heart failure
brought on by a bleeding stomach ulcer
, although years of alcohol abuse
and a heavy cigarette habit
were also contributing factors.
The Byrds' third album, Fifth Dimension
, was released in July 1966. Much of the album's material continued to build on the band's new psychedelic sound, with McGuinn extending his exploration of jazz and raga styles on tracks such as "I See You" and the Crosby-penned "What's Happening?!?!". The album also saw Hillman coming forward as the band's third vocalist, in order to fill the hole in the group's harmonies that Clark's departure had left. The title track, "5D (Fifth Dimension)
", was released as a single ahead of the album and was, like "Eight Miles High" before it, banned by a number of U.S. radio stations for supposedly featuring lyrics that advocated drug use. In addition, the album's front cover artwork featured the first appearance of The Byrds' colorful, psychedelic mosaic
logo, variations of which would subsequently appear on a number of the band's compilation album
s, as well as on their 1967 release, Younger Than Yesterday
. The Fifth Dimension album received a mixed critical reception upon release and was less commercially successful than its predecessors, peaking at number 24 in the U.S. and number 27 in the UK. Band biographer Bud Scoppa has noted that with the album's lackluster chart performance, its lukewarm critical reception, and the high-profile loss of Gene Clark from the group, The Byrds' popularity began to wane at this point and by late 1966, the group had been all but forgotten by the mainstream pop audience. Nonetheless, the band were considered forefathers of the emerging rock underground
, with many of the new L.A. and San Francisco groups of the day, including Love
, Jefferson Airplane
, and the Buffalo Springfield
, publicly naming The Byrds as a primary influence.
The band returned to the studio between November 28 and December 8, 1966 to record their fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday
. With Allen Stanton having recently departed Columbia Records to work for A&M
, the band chose to bring in producer Gary Usher
to help guide them through the album sessions. Usher, who had a wealth of production experience and a love of innovative studio experimentation, would prove invaluable to The Byrds as they entered their most creatively adventurous phase. The first song to be recorded for the album was the McGuinn and Hillman-penned "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
", a satirical and heavily sarcastic jibe at the manufactured nature of groups like The Monkees
. The song features the trumpet
playing of South African musician Hugh Masekela
and as such, marks the first appearance of brass
on a Byrds' recording. "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" was issued as a single in January 1967 and peaked at number 29 in America but failed to chart in the UK. Despite this relatively poor chart showing, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" has become one of The Byrds' best-known songs in the years since its initial release, inspiring cover versions by the likes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
and The Patti Smith Group
amongst others.
Released in February 1967, The Byrds' fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday
, was more varied than its predecessor and saw the band successfully mixing psychedelia with folk rock and country and western
influences. Although it received generally positive reviews upon its release, the album was, to a degree, overlooked by the record-buying public and consequently peaked at number 24 on the Billboard chart and number 37 on the UK Albums Chart. In addition to "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", Younger Than Yesterday also includes the evocative Crosby and McGuinn penned song "Renaissance Fair", a cover of Dylan's "My Back Pages
" (which was later released as a single), and a quartet of Chris Hillman songs, which found the bassist emerging fully formed as an accomplished songwriter. Two of Hillman's country-oriented compositions on the album, "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", can be seen as early indicators of the country rock
direction that the band would pursue on later albums. Younger Than Yesterday also features the jazz-tinged Crosby ballad "Everybody's Been Burned", which critic Thomas Ward has described as "one of the most haunting songs in the Byrds' catalogue, and one of David Crosby's finest compositions."
By mid-1967, Jim McGuinn had changed his first name to Roger, as a result of his interest in the Indonesian religion Subud
, into which he had been initiated in January 1965. The adoption of a new name was common among followers of the religion and served to signify a spiritual rebirth for the participant. Shortly after McGuinn's name change, the band entered the studio to record the Crosby-penned, non-album single "Lady Friend
", which was released on July 13, 1967. The Byrds' biographer Johnny Rogan
has described "Lady Friend" as "a work of great maturity" and "the loudest, fastest and rockiest Byrds' single to date." Regardless of its artistic merits, however, the single stalled at a disappointing number 82 on the Billboard chart, despite the band making a number of high profile television appearances to promote the record. Crosby, who had closely overseen the recording of the song, was bitterly disappointed by the single's lack of success and blamed Gary Usher's mixing
of the song as a factor in its commercial failure.
The poor sales suffered by "Lady Friend" were in stark contrast to the chart success of the band's first compilation album
, The Byrds' Greatest Hits
, which was released on August 7, 1967. Sanctioned by Columbia Records in the wake of the Top 10 success of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
, the album was a critical and commercial triumph, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and giving the band their highest-charting album in America since their 1965 debut, Mr. Tambourine Man. Within a year, the compilation would be certified
gold
by the Recording Industry Association of America
, eventually going platinum
on November 21, 1986, and is today the biggest-selling album in The Byrds' discography.
Prior to the release of The Byrds' Greatest Hits, the band decided to dispense with the services of their co-managers Jim Dickson and Eddie Tickner. The relationship between Dickson and the band had soured over recent months, and he and Tickner's business arrangement with The Byrds was officially dissolved on June 30, 1967. At Crosby's recommendation, Larry Spector was brought in to handle The Byrds' business affairs, with the group electing to manage themselves to a large extent.
Between June and December 1967, The Byrds worked on completing their fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
. The lead single from the album was a cover of the Gerry Goffin
and Carole King
song "Goin' Back
", which was released in October 1967 and peaked at number 89 on the Billboard chart. Despite this lack of commercial success, The Byrds' rendition of "Goin' Back" featured a band performance that author Ric Menck has described as "a beautiful recording", while music critic Richie Unterberger has called it "a magnificent and melodic cover ... that should have been a big hit." The song found The Byrds successfully blending their signature harmonies and chiming 12-string guitar playing with the sound of the pedal steel guitar
for the first time, foreshadowing their extensive use of the instrument on their next album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo
.
Released in January 1968, The Notorious Byrd Brothers album saw the band taking their psychedelic experimentation to its furthest extremes by mixing folk rock, country music, jazz, and psychedelia (often within a single song), while utilizing innovative studio production techniques such as phasing
and flanging
. The album featured contributions from a number of noted session musicians, including bluegrass
guitarist and future Byrd, Clarence White
. White, who had also played on Younger Than Yesterday, contributed country-influenced guitar to the tracks "Natural Harmony", "Wasn't Born to Follow" and "Change Is Now". Upon release, the album was almost universally praised by music critics but it was only moderately successful commercially, particularly in the United States where it peaked at number 47. However, the album's reputation has grown over the years and today it is widely regarded by critics and fans as one of The Byrds' best album releases.
album throughout late 1967, there was increasing tension and acrimony between the members of the group, which eventually resulted in the departures of both Crosby and Clarke. McGuinn and Hillman became increasingly irritated by what they saw as Crosby's overbearing egotism and his attempts to dictate the band's musical direction. In addition, during The Byrds' performance at the Monterey Pop Festival
on June 17, 1967, Crosby gave lengthy in-between-song speeches on controversial subjects, including the JFK assassination
and the benefits of giving LSD
to "all the statesmen and politicians in the world", to the intense annoyance of the other band members. He further irritated his bandmates by performing with rival group Buffalo Springfield
at Monterey, filling in for ex-member Neil Young
. His reputation within the band deteriorated even more following the commercial failure of "Lady Friend", the first Byrds' single to feature a song penned solely by Crosby on its A-side
.
Tensions finally erupted in August 1967, during recording sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers album, when Michael Clarke quit the group over disputes with his bandmates and his dissatisfaction with the material that the songwriting members of the band were providing. Session drummers Jim Gordon
and Hal Blaine
were brought in to temporarily replace Clarke in the studio, although he continued to honor his live concert commitments with the group. Then, in September, Crosby refused to participate in the recording of the Goffin
–King
song "Goin' Back
", considering it to be inferior to his own "Triad
", a controversial song about a ménage à trois
that was in direct competition with "Goin' Back" for a place on the album. Crosby felt that the band should rely on self-penned material for their albums, rather than cover songs by other artists and writers. He would eventually give "Triad" to the San Francisco band Jefferson Airplane
, who included a recording of it on their 1968 album, Crown of Creation
.
Tensions reached a breaking point during October 1967, when McGuinn and Hillman drove to Crosby's home and fired him, stating that they would be better off without him. Crosby subsequently received a cash settlement, with which he bought a sailboat
and soon after, he began working with Stephen Stills
and Graham Nash
in the successful supergroup
Crosby, Stills & Nash. In the years since his exit from The Byrds, Crosby has enjoyed an influential and commercially successful career as a part of Crosby, Stills & Nash (sometimes augmented by Neil Young
), Crosby & Nash
, CPR, and as a solo artist. During the 1980s, he fought against crippling drug addiction
and eventually served a year in prison on drug-related charges. He emerged from jail free of his drug habit and remains musically active up to the present today.
Following Crosby's departure, Gene Clark briefly rejoined the band, but left just three weeks later, after again refusing to board an aircraft while on tour. There is some disagreement among biographers and band historians as to whether Clark actually participated in the recording sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers, but there is evidence to suggest that he sang backing vocals
on the songs "Goin' Back" and "Space Odyssey". Michael Clarke also returned to the band briefly, towards the end of the album sessions, before being informed by McGuinn and Hillman that he was once again an ex-member.
Now reduced to a duo, McGuinn and Hillman elected to hire new band members. Hillman's cousin Kevin Kelley
was quickly recruited as the band's new drummer and the trio
embarked on an early 1968 college tour in support of The Notorious Byrd Brothers. It soon became apparent, however, that recreating the band's studio recordings with a three-piece line-up wasn't going to be possible and so, McGuinn and Hillman, in a fateful decision for their future career direction, hired Gram Parsons
as a keyboard
player, although he quickly moved to guitar. Although Parsons and Kelley were both considered full members of The Byrds, they actually received a salary from McGuinn and Hillman, and did not sign with Columbia Records when The Byrds' recording contract was renewed on February 29, 1968.
began to assert his own musical agenda in which he intended to marry his love of country and western
music with youth culture's passion for rock and in doing so, make country music fashionable for a young audience. He found a kindred spirit in Hillman, who had played mandolin in a number of notable bluegrass
bands before joining The Byrds. In addition, Hillman had also persuaded The Byrds to incorporate subtle country influences into their music in the past, beginning with the song "Satisfied Mind
" on the Turn! Turn! Turn! album. Although McGuinn had some reservations about the band's proposed new direction, Parsons convinced him that a move towards country music could theoretically expand the group's declining audience. Thus, McGuinn was persuaded to change direction and abandon his original concept for the group's next album, which had been to record a history of 20th century American popular music
, and instead explore country rock
.
On March 9, 1968, the band decamped to Columbia's recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee
, with Clarence White in tow, to begin the recording sessions for the Sweetheart of the Rodeo
album. While in Nashville, The Byrds also appeared at the Grand Ole Opry
on March 15, 1968, where they performed the Merle Haggard
song "Sing Me Back Home
" and Parsons' own "Hickory Wind
" (although they were actually scheduled to play a second Haggard song, "Life in Prison"). Being the first group of hippie
"longhairs" ever to play at the venerable country music institution, the band was met with heckling, booing, and mocking calls of "tweet, tweet" from the conservative Opry audience. The band also incurred the wrath of legendary country music DJ Ralph Emery
, when they appeared on his WSM
radio program. Emery mocked the band throughout their interview and made no secret of his dislike for their newly recorded country rock single, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
". Parsons and McGuinn would later write the pointedly sarcastic song "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" about Emery and their appearance on his show. Journalist David Fricke has noted that the reactions of Emery and the Grand Ole Opry audience were indicative of the resistance and hostility that The Byrds' venture into country music provoked from the Nashville old guard.
Following their stay in Nashville, the band returned to Los Angeles and throughout April and May 1968, worked on completing their new country-oriented album. During this period, Parsons attempted to exert a controlling influence over the group by pressuring McGuinn to recruit either JayDee Maness or Sneaky Pete Kleinow
as the band's permanent pedal steel guitar
player. When McGuinn refused, Parsons next began to push for a higher salary, while also demanding that the group's forthcoming album be billed as Gram Parsons and The Byrds. Even Hillman, who had previously been Parsons' biggest supporter in the band, began to grow weary of his forceful demands. Ultimately, Parsons behavior led to a power struggle for control of the group, with McGuinn finding his position as band leader challenged. However, the April 1968 release of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" served to strengthen McGuinn's position as head Byrd, with the guitarist's familiar drawl occupying the lead vocal spot and negligible input from Parsons, despite the single's obvious country leanings.
Parsons' dominance over the band waned still further during post-production for Sweetheart of the Rodeo, when his appearance on the album was contested by music business impresario Lee Hazlewood
, who alleged that the singer was still under contract to his LHI record label
, creating legal complications for Columbia Records. As a result of this, McGuinn and Hillman replaced Parsons' lead vocals on the songs "You Don't Miss Your Water
", "The Christian Life", and "One Hundred Years from Now" before the legal problems could be resolved. However, album producer Gary Usher would later put a different slant on the events surrounding the removal of Parsons' vocals by telling his biographer Stephen J. McParland that the alterations to the album arose out of creative concerns, not legal ones; Usher and the band were both worried that Parsons' contributions were dominating the record
and so, his vocals were excised in an attempt to increase McGuinn and Hillman's presence on the album. In the album's final running order, Parsons is still featured as lead vocalist on the songs "You're Still on My Mind", "Life in Prison", and "Hickory Wind".
With their new album now completed, The Byrds flew to England for an appearance at a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall
on July 7, 1968. Following the concert, just prior to a tour of South Africa, Parsons quit The Byrds on the grounds that he did not want to perform in a racially segregated country (apartheid did not end in South Africa until 1994). Hillman doubted the sincerity of Parsons' gesture, believing that the singer had in fact left the band in order to remain in England with Mick Jagger
and Keith Richards
of The Rolling Stones
, who he had recently befriended. Parsons stayed at Richards' house in West Sussex
immediately after leaving The Byrds, and the pair developed a close friendship over the next few years. After leaving The Byrds, Parsons would go on to produce an influential but commercially unsuccessful body of work, both as a solo artist and with the band The Flying Burrito Brothers
(which also featured Chris Hillman). He died on September 19, 1973, at the age of 26, following an accidental overdose of morphine
and alcohol
in his room at the Joshua Tree Inn.
With Parsons gone from the band and their tour of South Africa due to begin in two days time, The Byrds were forced to draft in their roadie
Carlos Bernal as a substitute rhythm guitar player. The ensuing South African tour was a disaster, with the band finding themselves having to play to segregated audiences—something that they had been assured by promoters
they would not have to do. The under-rehearsed band gave ramshackle performances to audiences that were largely unimpressed with their lack of professionalism and their antagonistic, anti-apartheid stance. The Byrds left South Africa amid a storm of bad publicity and death threats, while the liberal press in the U.S. and the UK attacked the band for undertaking the tour and questioned their political integrity. McGuinn attempted to counter this criticism by asserting that the tour of South Africa had, in some small way, been an attempt to challenge the country's political status quo and protest against apartheid.
After returning to California, The Byrds' released the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album on August 30, 1968, almost eight weeks after Parsons had left the band. It comprised a mixture of country music standards and contemporary country material, along with a country reworking of William Bell
's soul
hit "You Don't Miss Your Water". The album also included the Parsons originals "Hickory Wind" and "One Hundred Years from Now", along with the Bob Dylan-penned songs "Nothing Was Delivered" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", the latter of which had been a moderately successful single. Although it was not the first country rock album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo was the first album widely labeled as country rock to be released by an internationally successful rock act, pre-dating Dylan's Nashville Skyline
by over six months. The first bona fide country rock album overall is often cited as being Parsons' earlier Safe at Home
, which he recorded with his group the International Submarine Band
. Unfortunately, The Byrds' stylistic shift away from psychedelia towards country rock served to alienate much of their counterculture
following, while at the same time, eliciting hostility from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment. As a result, Sweetheart of the Rodeo peaked at number 77 on the U.S. charts and was the least commercially successful Byrds' album to date upon its initial release. Today, however, it is considered a seminal and highly influential album, serving as a blueprint for the entire 1970s country rock movement, the outlaw country
scene, and the alternative country
genre of the 1990s and early 21st century.
Clarence White
as a full-time member of the band in late July 1968. White, who had contributed countrified guitar playing to every Byrds' album since 1967's Younger Than Yesterday, was brought in at Hillman's suggestion as someone who could handle the band's older rock repertoire and their newer country-oriented material. Shortly after his induction into the band, White began to express dissatisfaction with drummer Kevin Kelley and soon persuaded McGuinn and Hillman to replace him with Gene Parsons
(no relation to Gram), who White had previously played with in the country rock band Nashville West
. The McGuinn–Hillman–White–Parsons line-up was together for less than a month before Hillman quit to join Gram Parsons in forming The Flying Burrito Brothers
. Hillman had become increasingly disenchanted with The Byrds since the South African debacle and he was also frustrated by business manager Larry Spector's mishandling of the group's finances. Things came to a head on September 15, 1968, following a band performance at the Rose Bowl
stadium in Pasadena, when Hillman and Spector came to blows backstage. In a fit of rage, Hillman threw down his bass in disgust and walked out of the group. Following his exit, Hillman would have a successful career both as a solo artist and with bands such as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas
, the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band, and The Desert Rose Band. He remains active, releasing albums and touring, often with ex-Desert Rose Band member Herb Pedersen
.
As the only original band member left, McGuinn elected to hire bassist John York
as Hillman's replacement. York had previously been a member of the Sir Douglas Quintet
and had also worked as a session musician with Johnny Rivers
and The Mamas & the Papas
. In October 1968, the new line-up entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to begin recording the Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
album with producer Bob Johnston
. The sessions saw the band juxtaposing their new country rock sound with more psychedelic-oriented material, giving the resulting album a stylistic split personality that was alluded to in its title. In the wake of the recent changes in band personnel, McGuinn decided that it would be too confusing for fans of the group to hear the unfamiliar voices of White, Parsons and York coming forward at this stage, and so they were relegated to singing backing vocals on the album. As a result, Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is unique in The Byrds' back catalogue for being the only album to feature McGuinn singing lead vocals on every track.
The album was released on March 5, 1969 to generally positive reviews but poor U.S. sales; it became the lowest-charting album of The Byrds' career in America, peaking at number 153 on the Billboard album charts. However, the album fared much better in the UK, where it attracted glowing reviews and reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart. A number of tracks on Dr Byrds & Mr. Hyde, including the instrumental
"Nashville West" and the traditional
song "Old Blue", featured the sound of the Parsons and White designed StringBender
(also known as the B-Bender), an invention that allowed White to duplicate the sound of a pedal steel guitar
on his Fender Telecaster
. The distinctive sound of the StringBender would become a defining characteristic of The Byrds' music during White's tenure with the group.
Following the release of Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, the band issued a cover of Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay
" as a non-album single in May 1969, but it failed to reverse the group's ailing commercial fortunes in the U.S. and stalled at number 132. The single caused a minor controversy between The Byrds and their producer Bob Johnston, when he took it upon himself to overdub a female choir
onto the recording prior to its release. It was only after the single was issued that the group became aware of Johnston's tampering, leaving them incensed by what they saw as an embarrassing and incongruous addition to their single. As a result of this incident, the band decided to dispense with Johnston and re-enlisted Terry Melcher
to produce their next LP
(Melcher had produced the band's first two albums back in 1965). Although he was happy to accept the band's invitation to produce their next record
, Melcher insisted that he also be allowed to take on management duties for the group, in order to avoid a repeat of the conflict he had experienced in 1965 with Jim Dickson.
Prior to the release of The Byrds' next studio album, however, the band's former producer Gary Usher managed to acquire a number of demo recordings
from Dickson, dating from the group's 1964 rehearsal sessions at World Pacific Studios. These recordings were subsequently issued as the Preflyte
album on Usher's own Together Records imprint in July 1969. Although the material on Preflyte was five years old at the time of its release, the album actually managed to outperform Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde in America, garnering moderately enthusiastic reviews and peaking at number 84 on the Billboard album chart.
Between June and August 1969, The Byrds worked with Melcher to complete the Ballad Of Easy Rider album. Musically, the album represented a consolidation and streamlining of the band's country rock sound, while its track listing mostly consisted of cover versions and traditional material, with only three self-penned originals appearing on the record. The first single to be released from the album was the title track, which was issued in October 1969 in America and reached number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Composed primarily by McGuinn, with some input from Bob Dylan (although Dylan is not credited as a co-writer), "Ballad of Easy Rider
" was written as the theme tune for the 1969 counterculture
film Easy Rider
. However, The Byrds' rendition of the song does not appear in the film and instead, an acoustic rendition credited to McGuinn alone was used. However, The Byrds' song "Wasn't Born to Follow" from The Notorious Byrd Brothers album was featured in Easy Rider and also included on the Easy Rider soundtrack album in August 1969. The Byrds' association with the film heightened their public profile and when the Ballad of Easy Rider album was released in November 1969, it peaked at number 36 in the U.S. and number 41 in the UK, becoming the band's highest charting album for two years in America. A second single taken from the album, "Jesus Is Just Alright
", was released in December 1969 but it only managed to reach number 97. Despite this lack of commercial success, The Doobie Brothers
' later hit version of "Jesus Is Just Alright" features an arrangement
that was heavily influenced by The Byrds' recording.
Just prior to the release of Ballad of Easy Rider, The Byrds underwent yet another change in personnel when bassist John York was asked to leave the band in September 1969. York had become disenchanted with his role in The Byrds and had voiced his reluctance to perform material that had been written and recorded by the group before he had joined. The rest of the band had begun to doubt his commitment and so, a consensus was reached among the other three members that York should be fired. He was replaced, at the suggestion of Parsons and White, by Skip Battin
, a freelance session musician and one-time member of the duo Skip & Flip
. Battin's recruitment marked the last personnel change to the group for almost three years and as a result, the McGuinn–White–Parsons–Battin line-up became the most stable and longest-lived of any configuration of The Byrds.
The latter-day, post-Sweetheart of the Rodeo version of the band, featuring McGuinn and White's dual lead guitar
work, toured relentlessly between 1969 and 1972 and was regarded by critics and audiences as much more accomplished in concert
than any previous configuration of The Byrds had been. As a result of this, it was decided in early 1970 that the time was right for the group to issue a live album
. However, it was also felt that the band had a sufficient backlog of new compositions to warrant the recording of a new studio album. It was therefore suggested by producer Terry Melcher that the band should release a double album
, featuring one LP
of concert recordings and another LP of new studio material. To help with the editing of the live recordings, the band's ex-manager Jim Dickson, who had been fired by the group in June 1967, was invited back into The Byrds' camp. At around this same time, former business manager Eddie Tickner also returned to the group's employ as a replacement for Larry Spector, who had quit the management business and relocated to Big Sur
.
The two-record (Untitled) album was released by The Byrds on September 14, 1970 to positive reviews and strong sales, with many critics and fans regarding the album as a return to form for the band. Peaking at number 40 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and number 11 in the UK, the album's success continued the upward trend in the band's commercial fortunes and popularity that had begun with the release of the Ballad of Easy Rider album. The live half of (Untitled) included both new material and new renditions of previous hit single
s, including "Mr. Tambourine Man", "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and a 16-minute version of "Eight Miles High", which comprised the whole of one side of the original LP release. Band biographer Johnny Rogan has noted that the inclusion of these newly recorded live versions of older songs served to forge a spiritual and musical link between The Byrds' current line-up and the original mid-1960s incarnation of the band.
The studio recordings featured on (Untitled) mostly consisted of newly written, self-penned material, including a number of songs that had been composed by McGuinn and Broadway theatre
impresario
Jacques Levy
for a planned country rock musical
titled Gene Tryp that the pair were developing. Plans for the musical had fallen through and as a result, McGuinn decided to record some of the material originally intended for the production with The Byrds. Among the Gene Tryp songs included on (Untitled) was "Chestnut Mare
", which had originally been written for a scene in which the musical's eponymous hero attempts to catch and tame a wild horse. The song was excerpted from the album and issued as a single in the U.S. on October 23, 1970, but it only managed to climb to number 121 on the Billboard chart. Nonetheless, the song went on to become a staple of FM radio
programming in America during the 1970s. "Chestnut Mare" did much better in the UK, however, when it was released as a single on January 1, 1971, reaching number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and giving The Byrds their first UK Top 20 hit since their cover of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do" had peaked at number 4 in September 1965.
The Byrds returned to the recording studio with Melcher sporadically between October 1970 and early March 1971, in order to complete the follow-up to (Untitled), which would be released in June 1971 as Byrdmaniax
. Unfortunately, the grueling pace of the band's touring schedule at the time meant that they were not fully prepared for the sessions and as a result, much of the material they recorded was under-developed. Following completion of the album recording sessions, The Byrds once again headed out on tour, leaving Melcher and engineer
Chris Hinshaw to finish mixing
the album in their absence. Controversially, Melcher and Hinshaw elected to bring in arranger
Paul Polena to assist in the overdubbing
of strings
, horns
, and a gospel
choir
onto many of the songs, allegedly without the band's consent. Drummer Gene Parsons recalled in a 1997 interview that when the band heard Melcher's additions they campaigned to have the album remixed and the orchestration removed but Columbia Records refused, citing budget restrictions, and the record was duly pressed
up and released.
In May 1971, just prior to the release of the Byrdmaniax album, The Byrds undertook a sell-out tour of England and Europe, which included a performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London that was released for the first time in 2008 as Live at Royal Albert Hall 1971
. The British and European press were unanimous in their praise of The Byrds' live performances during the tour, reinforcing their reputation as a formidable live act during this period. Over the course of the tour, the band chose to expand their ranks, with roadie
Jimmi Seiter
joining the group on stage to provide additional percussion
as an un-official member. Seiter would continue to sit in with The Byrds during their live performances until August 1971, when he decided to leave the group's employ.
When the Byrdmaniax album was released on June 23, 1971 it was received poorly by most critics and did much to undermine the new-found popularity that The Byrds had enjoyed since the release of Ballad of Easy Rider. The response to the album from the American music press
was particularly scathing, with a review in the August 1971 edition of Rolling Stone
magazine describing The Byrds as "a boring dead group" and memorably dismissing the entire album as "increments of pus". The consensus among most reviewers was that Byrdmaniax was hampered by Melcher's inappropriate orchestration
and by being an album almost totally bereft of The Byrds' signature sound. The band themselves were publicly critical of the album upon its release, with Gene Parsons referring to it as "Melcher's folly". For his part, Melcher later stated that he felt that the band's performances in the studio during the making of Byrdmaniax were lackluster and he therefore employed the orchestration in order to cover up the album's musical shortcomings. Regardless, by the time of the album's release, Melcher had resigned as The Byrds' manager and producer. Despite the band's dissatisfaction with the finished product and its poor critical reception, Byrdmaniax made a respectable showing on the U.S. charts, peaking at number 46. However, the album failed to sell in sufficient quantities to reach the UK charts. Author Christopher Hjort
has noted that in the years since its release, Byrdmaniax has become arguably "the least-liked album in the Byrds catalogue" among the group's fanbase.
The Byrds moved quickly to record a self-produced follow-up to Byrdmaniax, in an attempt to stem the criticism that the album was receiving in the music press and as a reaction to their own dislike of Melcher's overproduction. Johnny Rogan has speculated that The Byrds' decision to produce their next album themselves was an attempt on the band's part to prove that they could do a better job than Melcher had done on their previous record. While in England for an appearance at the Lincoln Folk Festival, The Byrds decamped to CBS Studios in London with engineer Mike Ross and between July 22 and 28, 1971, they recorded an album's worth of new material.
In October 1971, CBS Records in the UK issued The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II
to capitalize on the group's recent appearance at the Lincoln Folk Festival and perhaps as a reaction to the chart failure suffered by Byrdmaniax. Unfortunately, the compilation album also failed to reach the UK charts, while contemporary reviews made note of its misleading and inaccurate title, since among its twelve tracks, only "Chestnut Mare" had been a genuine hit in the United Kingdom. An equivalent compilation wasn't released in the U.S. until November 1972, when The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II
was issued.
On November 17, 1971, less than five months after the release of Byrdmaniax, The Byrds issued their eleventh studio album, Farther Along. The album was met with slightly more enthusiastic reviews than its predecessor but nevertheless, only managed to climb to number 152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, while failing to reach the charts in the United Kingdom altogether. Musically, the album found The Byrds beginning to move away from their country rock sound—although at least half the album still bore a strong country influence—and instead, embrace a style indebted to 1950s rock 'n' roll music
. The Skip Battin and Kim Fowley
penned song "America's Great National Pastime" was taken from the album and released as a single in late November, but it failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. Johnny Rogan has concluded that, ultimately, the rapidity with which The Byrds planned and recorded Farther Along resulted in an album that was just as flawed as Byrdmaniax and as a result, it failed to rehabilitate the band's ailing commercial fortunes or increase their declining audience. The album's title track, sung by White with the rest of the group harmonizing, would later become a poignant and prophetic epitaph for the guitarist when it was sung by ex-Byrd Gram Parsons and the Eagles' Bernie Leadon
at White's funeral in July 1973.
Following the release of Farther Along, The Byrds continued to tour throughout 1972, but no new album or single release was forthcoming. In July of that year, Gene Parsons was fired from the group for a number of reasons, including McGuinn's growing dissatisfaction with his drumming, disagreements that he and McGuinn were having over band members' pay, and his own discontent over the band's lack of morale during this period. Parsons was quickly replaced with L.A. session drummer John Guerin
, who remained with The Byrds until January 1973, when he decided to return to studio work. Although Guerin participated in recording sessions with the band and appeared on stage with them from September 1972, he was never an official member of The Byrds and instead received a standard session musician's wage, while continuing to undertake work for other artists as an in-demand studio player. Three officially released Byrds recordings exist of the McGuinn–White–Battin–Guerin line-up: live versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Roll Over Beethoven
" that were recorded for the soundtrack of the Earl Scruggs
' film Banjoman, and a studio recording of "Bag Full of Money" that was included as a bonus track on the remastered
reissue
of Farther Along in 2000.
Following Guerin's departure, he was temporarily replaced for live performances by session drummer Dennis Dragon. The band underwent a further personnel change following a February 10, 1973 show in Ithaca, New York, when Skip Battin was dismissed by McGuinn, who had capriciously decided that the bassist's playing abilities were no longer of a sufficient standard. McGuinn turned to ex-Byrd Chris Hillman, who at that time was a member of the band Manassas
, and asked him to step in as Battin's replacement for two upcoming shows on February 23 and 24. Hillman agreed to play both concerts for the sum of $2,000 and also brought in Manassas' drummer Joe Lala
to fill the vancant spot behind the drum kit. Following a shambolic, under-rehearsed performance at Passaic, New Jersey on February 24, 1973, McGuinn cancelled the band's remaining concert commitments and disbanded the touring version of The Byrds, in order to make way for a reunion of the original five-piece line-up of the band. Five months later, guitarist Clarence White was killed by a drunk driver on July 14, 1973, while he loaded guitar equipment into the back of a van after a concert appearance in Palmdale, California.
, Gene Clark
, David Crosby
, Chris Hillman
, and Michael Clarke
had taken place as early as July 1971, around the same time as the then current line-up of the band were recording the Farther Along album. Plans for a reunion accelerated in mid-1972, however, when the founder of Asylum Records
, David Geffen
, offered each of the original band members a sizable amount of money to reform and record an album for his label. The reunion actually took place in early October 1972, beginning with a rehearsal at McGuinn's house, where the group began selecting suitable material for a new album. The five original Byrds booked into Wally Heider Studios
in Los Angeles from October 16 until November 15, 1972, recording their first album together in seven years.
Following completion of the album recording sessions, Crosby persuaded McGuinn to dissolve the Columbia version of The Byrds, who were still touring at that time. Crosby had long been vocal regarding his displeasure over McGuinn's decision to recruit new band members following his dismissal from the group in 1967, and had stated in a number of interviews that in his opinion "there were only ever five Byrds." In keeping with the new spirit of reconciliation that the reunion fostered, McGuinn permanently disbanded the Columbia line-up of the group in February 1973.
The reunion album, titled simply Byrds
, was released on March 7, 1973 to mixed reviews and as a result, a planned tour in support of the album failed to materialize. Among the album's shortcomings, critics made note of a lack of sonic unity and the absence of The Byrds' signature jangly guitar sound. Nonetheless, the album managed to climb to number 20 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart and number 31 in the UK. In the United States, the album became the band's highest charting LP of new material since 1965's Turn! Turn! Turn!
, which had also been the last Byrds' album to feature Gene Clark as a full member. Among the tracks included on the album were McGuinn's folk-flavored "Sweet Mary", the Joni Mitchell
cover "For Free", a re-recording of Crosby's song "Laughing" (which had originally appeared on his 1971 solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name
), and a pair of Neil Young
songs. The album also featured the Gene Clark compositions "Changing Heart" and "Full Circle
", the latter of which had provided the reunion album with its working title
and was subsequently released as a single, although it failed to chart.
The negative critical reception that Byrds received in the music press resulted in the band losing faith in the idea of an ongoing series of reunions. In the years following its release, all five band members were openly critical of the album, with the general consensus being that the material included on it was weak and that the recording sessions had been rushed and ill-thought out. In addition, McGuinn and Hillman have both suggested that with the exception of Gene Clark, the songwriting members of the band were reluctant to bring their strongest compositions to the recording sessions, preferring instead to hold those songs back for their own solo projects. In the wake of the reunion, the five original Byrds quietly returned to their own careers, with the June 1973 release of McGuinn's eponymously titled solo album
serving to effectively mark the end of The Byrds.
Following the reunion of 1972/1973, The Byrds remained disbanded throughout the rest of the decade. Roger McGuinn turned his attention to establishing his own career, releasing a series of solo albums between 1973 and 1977, and making a high-profile appearance with Bob Dylan
's Rolling Thunder Revue
. Chris Hillman worked as part of the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band following The Byrds reunion and released a pair of solo albums entitled Slippin' Away and Clear Sailin in 1976 and 1977 respectively. David Crosby returned to the supergroup
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for their 1974 tour and subsequently continued to produce albums with Graham Nash
. He also took part in a 1977 reunion of Crosby, Stills & Nash, which saw the group release their multi-platinum
selling CSN
album. Michael Clarke also found success following The Byrds reunion as the drummer for soft rock
group Firefall
, while Gene Clark returned to his solo career, producing the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums No Other
(1974) and Two Sides to Every Story
(1977). In addition, between 1977 and 1980, McGuinn, Clark and Hillman worked on and off together as a trio, modeled after Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and, to a lesser extent, the Eagles. This supergroup made up of former Byrds was reasonably successful commercially and even managed to score a Top 40 hit with the single "Don't You Write Her Off" in March 1979. The trio toured internationally and recorded the albums McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and City. Clark departed the group in late 1979, resulting in a third and final album being billed as McGuinn-Hillman.
In 1984, Gene Clark approached McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman in an attempt to reform The Byrds in time for the 20th anniversary of the release of the "Mr. Tambourine Man
" single in 1985. None of these three original members were interested in the venture and so Clark instead assembled a motley collection of musicians and friends, including Rick Roberts
, Blondie Chaplin
, Rick Danko
, Richard Manuel
, and the ex-Byrds Michael Clarke and John York
, under the banner of The 20th Anniversary Tribute to The Byrds and began performing on the lucrative nostalgia circuit in early 1985. Unfortunately, a number of unscrupulous concert promoters
began to shorten the band's name to The Byrds in advertisements and promotional material. As the band continued to tour throughout 1985, they eventually decided to shorten their name to The Byrds themselves, prompting McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman to berate the tribute group in interviews, with McGuinn deriding the act as "a cheap show." After the tour wound down in late 1985, Clark returned to his solo career, leaving Michael Clarke to soldier on with a band that was now billed as A Tribute to The Byrds (although again, it was often shortened to The Byrds by promoters). Gene Clark returned to the group following the release of his and Carla Olsen's So Rebellious a Lover album, and the tribute band continued to work on and off from 1987 to 1988. Author Johnny Rogan has noted that most die-hard fans of The Byrds were mortified by the existence of this ersatz version of the group, while Byrds expert Tim Connors has commented that "no chapter in the history of the Byrds caused as much consternation and controversy among fans."
In June 1988, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman appeared at a concert celebrating the reopening of the Ash Grove
folk club in Los Angeles. Although they were billed as solo artists, the three musicians did come together for an on-stage reunion during the show, performing a string of Byrds hits including "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Eight Miles High". Although Clark and Clarke's Byrds tribute group was inactive at the time of this high-profile get-together of McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman, Michael Clarke did mount another tribute tour shortly afterwards, this time featuring former Byrd Skip Battin
and newcomers Terry Jones Rogers and Jerry Sorn, under the banner of The Byrds featuring Michael Clarke. In addition, the drummer also sought to trademark
the name "The Byrds" for his own use.
In retaliation against Clarke's trademark application, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman submitted their own counter-claim to gain ownership of the band's name. McGuinn had actually attempted to trademark The Byrds name himself during the 1970s, in order to prevent its misuse, but his application had been turned down. To strengthen their case, the three musicians announced in December 1988 that they would be performing a series of concerts in January 1989 as The Byrds. Although he was no longer connected with Clarke's tribute act, Gene Clark was not invited to participate in these official Byrds reunion concerts due to residual ill-feeling stemming from his earlier 20th Anniversary Tribute to The Byrds.
The reunion concerts were a resounding success but with Michael Clarke continuing to tour with his Byrds tribute, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman filed a lawsuit against the drummer in the spring of 1989, suing him for allegedly false advertising, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices, as well as seeking a preliminary injunction against Clarke's use of the name. At the court hearing in May 1989, the judge denied the injunction, ruling that McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman had failed to show that they would be irreparably damaged by Clarke's actions. As a result, Clarke gained full legal ownership of the name "The Byrds". In the wake of this ruling, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman dropped their lawsuit, but to demonstrate that they had not wholly surrendered The Byrds name to Clarke, the three musicians appeared under the banner of "The Original Byrds" at a Roy Orbison
tribute concert on February 24, 1990, where they were joined on-stage by Bob Dylan for a rendition of "Mr. Tambourine Man". Later that year, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman entered Treasure Isle Recorders in Nashville to record four new Byrds tracks for inclusion on the forthcoming The Byrds
box set.
On January 16, 1991, the five original members of The Byrds put aside their differences to appear together at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
in New York City
for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
. The ceremony honored the original line-up of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke, while later configurations of the group featuring such key personnel as Gram Parsons
and Clarence White
were quietly passed over. The occasion, which saw the band come together on stage to perform the songs "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", "Mr. Tambourine Man", and "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", represented the first time that all five original Byrds had stood together since 1973. Unfortunately, it would also represent the last time that the five original members were gathered together. Clark died later that year of heart failure
, and on December 19, 1993, Clarke succumbed to liver disease
brought on by alcoholism
.
Following the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman returned to their individual solo careers. However, The Byrds did reunite for a third time on August 8, 2000, to give an impromptu, one-off performance at a tribute concert for Fred Walecki, the owner of a Los Angeles music equipment store who was suffering from throat cancer. Crosby and Hillman were booked to appear at the event separately, but McGuinn, who was not listed on the bill, made a surprise appearance and joined his two former partners on stage. McGuinn introduced the hastily reformed trio with the words, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, The Byrds", as the group launched into renditions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)". According to contemporary press reports, the reunion was an unmitigated success, with the audience giving the band multiple standing ovations and shouting for more as they left the stage.
During the 2000s, two more ex-members of The Byrds died when drummer Kevin Kelley
succumbed of natural causes in 2002 and bassist Skip Battin, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease
, died at his home in 2003. Former members Gene Parsons
and John York
both remain active and continue to perform and record various musical projects. Perhaps the most surprising development in The Byrds' story during the 2000s, however, was the acquisition by David Crosby of the rights to the band's name in 2002. Ownership of the "The Byrds" name had reverted to Clarke's estate upon his death in 1993 and Crosby's purchase served to effectively bring the convoluted battle for control of the group's name to an end.
To date, the Fred Walecki tribute concert appearance in 2000 represents the last time that The Byrds have performed together. However, Hillman and Crosby have both expressed an interest in working with McGuinn again on future Byrds projects, but the lead guitarist and head Byrd remains adamant that he is not interested in another reunion. During an interview with music journalist John Nork, McGuinn replied "absolutely not," when asked if he had any plans to revive The Byrds, explaining, "No, I don't want to do that. I just want to be a solo artist. The Byrds are well documented. I don't think we need anymore from the Byrds."
Since the band's 1960s heyday, the influence of The Byrds on successive generations of rock
and pop
musicians has grown steadily, with acts such as the Eagles, Big Star
, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, R.E.M.
, The Bangles
, The Smiths
, and innumerable alternative rock
bands of the post-punk
era all exhibiting signs of their influence. In his book Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in 60s Hollywood, music historian Domenic Priore attempts to sum up the band's influence by noting, "Few of The Byrds' contemporaries can claim to have made such a subversive impact on popular culture. The band had a much larger, more positive impact on the world at large than any Billboard chart position or album sales or concert attendance figure could possibly measure." In 2004, Rolling Stone
magazine ranked The Byrds at number 45 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Subsequent members
Membership timeline (1964–1973)
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
(aka Jim McGuinn) remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973. Although they only managed to attain the huge commercial success of contemporaries like The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
for a short period of time (1965–66), The Byrds are today considered by critics to be one of the most influential bands of the 1960s. Initially, they pioneered the musical genre of folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
, melding the influence of The Beatles and other British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
bands with contemporary and traditional folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. As the 1960s progressed, the band was also influential in originating psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
, raga rock
Raga rock
Raga rock is a term used to describe rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and tabla...
, and country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
. In addition, the band's signature blend of clear harmony singing
Vocal harmony
Vocal harmony is a style of vocal music in which a consonant note or notes are sung at the same time as a main melody in a predominantly homophonic texture. Vocal harmonies are used in many subgenres of European art music, including Classical choral music and opera and in the popular styles from...
and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
has continued to be influential on popular music up to the present day. Among the band's most enduring songs are their cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
" and Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
's "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", along with the self-penned originals, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "Eight Miles High
Eight Miles High
"Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby and first released as a single on March 14, 1966 . The single managed to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 30 of the UK Singles Chart...
", "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
"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...
", "Ballad of Easy Rider
Ballad of Easy Rider
Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in November 1969 on Columbia Records . The album was named after the song "Ballad of Easy Rider", which had been penned by The Byrds' guitarist and singer, Roger McGuinn , as the theme song for the 1969...
" and "Chestnut Mare
Chestnut Mare
"Chestnut Mare" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy during 1969 for a planned country rock musical named Gene Tryp. The musical was never staged and the song was instead released in September 1970 as part of The Byrds' album...
".
The original five-piece line-up of The Byrds consisted of Jim McGuinn (lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
), Gene Clark
Gene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
(tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, vocals), David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
(rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, vocals), Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
(bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals), and Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (musician)
Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
(drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
). However, this version of the band was relatively short-lived and by early 1966, Clark had left due to problems associated with anxiety and his increasing isolation within the group. The Byrds continued as a quartet until late 1967, when Crosby and Clarke also departed the band. McGuinn and Hillman decided to recruit new members, including country rock pioneer Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
, but by late 1968, Hillman and Parsons had also exited the band. McGuinn, who by this time had changed his name to Roger after a flirtation with the Subud
Subud
Subud is an international spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s as a movement founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. The basis of Subud is a spiritual exercise commonly referred to as the latihan kejiwaan, which was said by Muhammad Subuh to represent guidance from...
religion, elected to rebuild the band's membership and between 1968 and 1973, he helmed a new incarnation of The Byrds, featuring guitarist Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
among others. McGuinn disbanded the then current line-up in early 1973, to make way for a reunion of the original quintet. The Byrds' final album was released in March 1973, with the reunited group disbanding soon afterwards.
Several ex-members of the band went on to have successful careers of their own, either as solo artists or as part of groups, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...
and The Desert Rose Band. In the late 1980s, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke both began touring as The Byrds, prompting a legal challenge from McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman over the rights to the band's name. As a result of this, McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman performed a series of reunion concerts
Rock concert
The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...
as The Byrds in 1989 and 1990, and also recorded four new Byrds' songs. In January 1991, The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
, an occasion that saw the five original members performing together for the last time. McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman still remain active but Gene Clark died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in 1991, and Michael Clarke died of liver failure
Liver failure
Acute liver failure is the appearance of severe complications rapidly after the first signs of liver disease , and indicates that the liver has sustained severe damage . The complications are hepatic encephalopathy and impaired protein synthesis...
in 1993.
Formation (1964)
The nucleus of The Byrds formed in early 1964, when Jim McGuinnRoger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, Gene Clark
Gene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
, and David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
came together as a trio. All three musicians had a background rooted in folk music, with each one having worked as a folk singer on the acoustic coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
circuit during the early 1960s. In addition, they had all served time, independently of each other, as sidemen
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
in various "collegiate folk" groups: McGuinn with The Limeliters
The Limeliters
The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as...
and the Chad Mitchell Trio
Chad Mitchell Trio
The Chad Mitchell Trio were a North American vocal group who became known during the 1960s. They performed folk songs, some of which were traditionally passed down and some of their own compositions. Unlike many fellow folk music groups, none of the trio played instruments...
, Clark with The New Christy Minstrels, and Crosby with Les Baxter's Balladeers
Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
. McGuinn had also spent time as a professional songwriter at the Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...
in New York City, under the tutelage of Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
. By early 1964, McGuinn had become enamored with the music of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, and had begun to intersperse his solo folk repertoire with acoustic versions of Beatles' songs. While performing at The Troubadour folk club in Los Angeles, McGuinn was approached by fellow Beatles fan Gene Clark, and the pair soon formed a Peter and Gordon-style duo, playing Beatles' covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
, Beatlesque renditions of traditional folk songs, and some self-penned material. Soon after, David Crosby introduced himself to the duo at The Troubadour and began harmonizing with them on some of their songs. Impressed by the blend of their voices, the three musicians formed a trio and named themselves The Jet Set, a moniker inspired by McGuinn's love of aeronautics.
Crosby introduced McGuinn and Clark to his associate Jim Dickson, who had access to World Pacific Studios
Pacific Jazz Records
Pacific Jazz Records was a Los Angeles-based record label best known for releasing cool jazz or West coast jazz. It was founded by Richard Bock and drummer Roy Harte in 1952....
, where he had been recording demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of Crosby. Sensing the trio's potential, Dickson quickly took on management
Talent manager
A talent manager, also known as an artist manager or band manager, is an individual or company who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry...
duties for the group, while his business partner, Eddie Tickner, became the group's accountant and financial manager. Dickson began utilizing World Pacific Studios to record the trio as they honed their craft and perfected their blend of Beatles pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
-style folk. It was during the rehearsals at World Pacific that the band's folk rock sound—an amalgam of their own Beatles-influenced material, their folk music roots and their Beatlesque covers of contemporary folk songs—began to coalesce. Initially, this blend arose organically, but as rehearsals continued, the band began to actively attempt to bridge the gap between folk music and rock. Demo recordings made by The Jet Set at World Pacific Studios would later be collected on the compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s Preflyte
Preflyte
Preflyte is a compilation album by the American folk rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1969 on Together Records . The album is a collection of demos recorded by The Byrds at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles during 1964, before the band had signed to Columbia Records...
, In the Beginning
In the Beginning (The Byrds album)
In the Beginning is a compilation album by the American folk rock band The Byrds and was released in August 1988 by Rhino Records. The album consists of demos, some of which were previously unreleased, recorded during 1964 at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles, before the band had secured a...
and The Preflyte Sessions.
Drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (musician)
Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
was added to The Jet Set in mid-1964. Clarke was recruited largely due to his good looks and Brian Jones-esque
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
hairstyle, rather than for his musical experience, which was limited to having played conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
s in a semi-professional capacity in and around San Francisco and L.A. Clarke did not even own his own drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and initially had to play on a makeshift setup consisting of cardboard boxes and a tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
. As the band continued to rehearse, Dickson arranged a one-off single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
deal for the group with Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
' founder Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman was the founder, chief executive officer and head of both Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.-Biography:He founded Elektra Records in his St. John's College dorm room in 1950 and Nonesuch Records in 1964...
. The single, which coupled the band originals "Please Let Me Love You" and "Don't Be Long
It Won't Be Wrong
"It Won't Be Wrong" is a song by the American folk rock band The Byrds, which appeared as the second track on their 1965 album, Turn! Turn! Turn! It was written in 1964 by band member Jim McGuinn and his friend, Harvey Gerst, an acquaintance from McGuinn's days as a folk singer at The Troubadour...
", featured McGuinn, Clark, and Crosby, augmented by session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s Ray Pohlman on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and Earl Palmer
Earl Palmer
Earl Cyril Palmer was an American rock & roll and rhythm and blues drummer, and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. In an attempt to cash in on the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
craze that was dominating the American charts at the time, the band's name was changed for the single release to the suitably British-sounding The Beefeaters. "Please Let Me Love You" was issued by Elektra Records on October 7, 1964, but it failed to chart.
In August 1964, Dickson managed to acquire an acetate disc
Acetate disc
An acetate disc, also known as a test acetate, dubplate , lacquer , transcription disc or instantaneous disc...
of the then-unreleased Bob Dylan song "Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
", which he felt would make an effective cover for The Jet Set. Although the band were initially unimpressed with the song, they began rehearsing it with a rock band arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, changing the time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
from 2/4 to a rockier 4/4 configuration in the process. In an attempt to bolster the group's confidence in the song, Dickson invited Dylan himself to World Pacific to hear the band perform "Mr. Tambourine Man". Impressed by the group's rendition, Dylan enthusiastically commented "Wow, man! You can dance to that!", and his ringing endorsement erased any lingering doubts that the band had over the song's suitability.
Soon after, inspired by The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
, the band decided to equip themselves with similar instruments to the Fab Four: a Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
twelve-string guitar for McGuinn, a Ludwig
Ludwig-Musser
Ludwig-Musser is a drum and percussion instrument manufacturer that is part of the Conn-Selmer division of Steinway Musical Instruments.The first product made by the Ludwig brothers, William and Theobaldner , was a bass drum pedal capable of playing faster beats than was typical of products of the...
drum kit for Clarke, and a Gretsch
Gretsch
The Gretsch Company was founded in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a twenty-seven year old German immigrant recently arrived in the US. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums, until his death in 1895. His son, Fred, moved operations to Brooklyn, New York in 1916...
Tennessean guitar for Clark (although Crosby commandeered it soon after, resulting in Clark switching to tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
). In October 1964, Dickson recruited mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
player Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
as The Jet Set's bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
. Hillman's background was more oriented towards country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
than folk or rock, having been a member of the bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
groups The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers
The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers
The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers were a San Diego-based bluegrass group, perhaps most significant as the band that launched the career of founding Byrds' member, Chris Hillman and founding Eagles' guitarist-songwriter, Bernie Leadon...
, The Hillmen
The Hillmen
The Hillmen were a southern Californian bluegrass group. Formed in 1962, the original line-up of the Golden State Boys consisted of Vern Gosdin on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Rex Gosdin on double bass, Hal Poindexter on guitar, and Don Parmley on banjo...
(aka the Golden State Boys), and concurrently with his recruitment into The Jet Set, The Green Grass Group. Through connections that Dickson had with impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
Benny Shapiro, and with a helpful recommendation from jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, the group signed a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
on November 10, 1964. Two weeks later, during a Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving (United States)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday,...
dinner at Eddie Tickner's house, The Jet Set decided to rename themselves The Byrds, a moniker that retained the theme of flight and also echoed the deliberate misspelling of "The Beatles".
Folk rock (1965–1966)
On January 20, 1965, The Byrds entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to record "Mr. Tambourine Man" for release as their debut single on Columbia. Since the band had not yet completely gelled musically, McGuinn was the only Byrd to play on "Mr. Tambourine Man" and its Gene Clark penned B-sideA-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, "I Knew I'd Want You". Rather than using band members, producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Terry Melcher
Terry Melcher
Terrence P. Melcher was an American musician and record producer, who was instrumental in shaping the sound of American West Coast rock music. His greatest contribution to the culture of the time was producing The Byrds' innovative hits "Mr Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and his...
instead hired The Wrecking Crew
The Wrecking Crew (music)
The Wrecking Crew was a nickname coined by the drummer Hal Blaine after the fact for a group of session musicians in Los Angeles, California, who earned wide acclaim in the 1960s. They backed dozens of popular singers, and were one of the most successful "groups" of studio musicians in music history...
, a collection of top session musicians including Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine is an American drummer and session musician. He is most known for his work with the Wrecking Crew in California. Blaine played on numerous hits by popular groups, including Elvis Presley, John Denver, the Ronettes, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, the Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, and...
, Larry Knechtel
Larry Knechtel
Lawrence William "Larry" Knechtel was an American keyboard player and bassist, best known for his work as a session musician with such artists as Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas, The Partridge Family, The Doors, and Elvis Presley, and as a member of the 1970s...
, Jerry Cole
Jerry Cole
Jerry Cole born Jerald Kolbrack was an American guitarist who recorded under his own name, under various budget album pseudonyms and as an uncredited session musician.-Biography:...
, and Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
, who (along with McGuinn on guitar) provided the instrumental backing track over which McGuinn, Crosby and Clark sang. By the time the sessions for their debut album began in March 1965, however, Melcher was satisfied that the band was competent enough to record its own musical backing. However, the use of outside musicians on The Byrds' debut single has given rise to the persistent myth that all of the playing on their debut album was done by session musicians.
While the band waited for "Mr. Tambourine Man" to be released, they began a residency at Ciro's Le Disc
Ciro's
Ciro's was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip, opened in January 1940, by entrepreneur William Wilkerson. Herman Hover took over management of Ciro's in 1942 until it closed its doors in 1957...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
on the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
in Hollywood. The band's regular appearances at Ciro's during March and April 1965 allowed them to hone their ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
playing, perfect their aloof stage persona, and expand their repertoire. In addition, it was during their residency at the nightclub that the band first began to accrue a dedicated following among L.A.'s youth culture and hip Hollywood fraternity, with scenesters like Kim Fowley
Kim Fowley
Kim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
, Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...
, Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
, Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee (musician)
Arthur Lee was the frontman, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the Los Angeles rock band Love, best known for the critically acclaimed 1967 album, Forever Changes.-Early years:...
, and Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, actors, singers and entertainers made up of husband-and-wife team Sonny and Cher Bono in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector....
regularly attending the band's performances. On March 26, 1965, the author of the band's forthcoming debut single, Bob Dylan, made an impromptu visit to the club and joined The Byrds on stage for a rendition of Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
's "Baby What You Want Me to Do
Baby What You Want Me to Do
"Baby What You Want Me to Do" is a blues song that was written and recorded by Jimmy Reed in 1959...
". The excitement generated by The Byrds at Ciro's quickly made them a must-see fixture on L.A.'s nightclub scene and resulted in hordes of teenagers filling the sidewalk
Sidewalk
A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...
s outside the club, desperate to see the band perform. A number of noted music historians and authors, including Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...
, Ric Menck, and Peter Buckley, have suggested that the crowds of young Bohemians
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
and hipsters
Hipster (1940s subculture)
Hipster, as used in the 1940s, referred to aficionados of jazz, in particular bebop, which became popular in the early 1940s. The hipster adopted the lifestyle of the jazz musician, including some or all of the following: dress, slang, use of cannabis and other drugs, relaxed attitude, sarcastic...
that gathered at Ciro's to see The Byrds perform represented the first stirrings of the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
.
Columbia Records eventually released the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single on April 12, 1965. The full, electric rock band treatment that The Byrds and producer Terry Melcher had given the song effectively created the template for the musical subgenre of folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
. McGuinn's melodic, jangling twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar playing—which was heavily compressed to produce an extremely bright and sustain
Sustain
In music, sustain is a parameter of musical sound over time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound remains before it becomes inaudible, or silent.Additionally, sustain is the third of the four segments in an ADSR envelope...
ed tone—was immediately influential and has remained so to the present day. The single also featured another major characteristic of the band's sound: their clear harmony singing
Vocal harmony
Vocal harmony is a style of vocal music in which a consonant note or notes are sung at the same time as a main melody in a predominantly homophonic texture. Vocal harmonies are used in many subgenres of European art music, including Classical choral music and opera and in the popular styles from...
, which usually featured McGuinn and Clark in unison
Unison
In music, the word unison can be applied in more than one way. In general terms, it may refer to two notes sounding the same pitch, often but not always at the same time; or to the same musical voice being sounded by several voices or instruments together, either at the same pitch or at a distance...
, with Crosby providing the high harmony. Additionally, Richie Unterberger has noted that the song's abstract lyrics took rock and pop songwriting to new heights; never before had such intellectual and literary wordplay been combined with rock instrumentation by a popular music group.
Within three months "Mr. Tambourine Man" had become the first folk rock smash hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, reaching number 1 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart and the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. The single's success initiated the folk rock boom of 1965 and 1966, during which a number of Byrds-influenced acts had hits on the American and British charts. The term "folk rock" was itself coined by the American music press to describe the band's sound in June 1965, at roughly the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man" peaked at #1 in the U.S. The Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man (album)
Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut album by the American folk rock band The Byrds and was released in June 1965 on Columbia Records . The album, along with the single of the same name, established the band as an internationally successful rock act and was also influential in originating the musical...
album followed on June 21, 1965, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart and number 7 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. The album mixed reworkings of folk songs, including Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
's musical adaptation of the Idris Davies
Idris Davies
Idris Davies was a Welsh poet. He was born in Rhymney, near Caerphilly in South Wales, the Welsh-speaking son of colliery chief winderman Evan Davies and his wife Elizabeth Ann. Davies became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English...
' poem "The Bells of Rhymney
The Bells of Rhymney
"The Bells of Rhymney" is a song first recorded by folk singer Pete Seeger, using words written by Welsh poet Idris Davies. The lyrics to the song were drawn from part of Davies' poetic work Gwalia Deserta, which was first published in 1938...
", with a number of other Dylan covers and the band's own compositions, the majority of which were written by Gene Clark. In particular, Clark's "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" has gone on to become a rock music standard
Standard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
, with many critics considering it one of the band's and Clark's best songs. Writing for the Allmusic website, critic Mark Deming has noted that the use of the word "probably" in the song's refrain of "I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone" lends the track a depth of subtext that was unusual for a pop song in the mid-1960s. Upon release, the Mr. Tambourine Man album, like the single of the same name, was influential in popularizing folk rock and served to establish the band as an internationally successful rock act, representing the first effective American challenge to the dominance of The Beatles and the British Invasion.
The Byrds' next single was "All I Really Want to Do", another interpretation of a Dylan song. Despite the success of "Mr. Tambourine Man", The Byrds were reluctant to release another Dylan-penned single, feeling that it was too formulaic, but Columbia Records were insistent, believing that another Dylan cover would result in an instant hit for the group. The Byrds' rendition of "All I Really Want to Do" is noticeably different in structure to Dylan's original: it features an ascending melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
progression in the chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
and utilizes a completely new melody for one of the song's verses, in order to turn it into a Beatlesque, minor-key
Minor scale
A minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
bridge
Bridge (music)
In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...
. Issued on June 14, 1965, while "Mr. Tambourine Man" was still climbing the U.S. charts, the single was rush-released by Columbia in an attempt to bury a rival cover version that Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
had released simultaneously on Imperial Records
Imperial Records
Imperial Records is a United States based label started in 1947 by Lew Chudd and reactivated in 2006 by label owner EMI.- The independent and Liberty Records years :...
. A chart battle ensued, but The Byrds' rendition stalled at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Cher's version reached number 15. The reverse was true in the UK, however, where The Byrds' version reached number 4, while Cher's peaked at number 9.
Author John Einarson has noted that during this period of their career, The Byrds enjoyed tremendous popularity among teenage pop fans, with their music receiving widespread airplay on Top 40 radio
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
and their faces adorning countless teen magazine
Teen magazine
Teen magazines are magazines aimed at female teenage readers. They usually consist of gossip, news, fashion tips and interviews and may include posters, stickers, small samples of cosmetics or other products and inserts. Magazines targeting teenage boys are not often called teen...
s. Much was made at the time of The Byrds' unconventional dress sense, with their casual attire strikingly at odds with the prevailing trend for uniformity among contemporary beat
Beat music
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll, doo wop, skiffle, R&B and soul...
groups. With all five members sporting Beatlesque moptop haircuts, Crosby dressed in a striking green suede cape, and McGuinn wearing a pair of distinctive rectangular "granny glasses", the band exuded Californian cool, while also looking suitably non-conformist. In particular, McGuinn's distinctive rectangular spectacles would go on to become popular among members of the burgeoning hippie counterculture in the United States.
Although McGuinn was widely regarded as The Byrds' leader by this point, the band actually had multiple frontmen, with McGuinn, Clark, Crosby and later Hillman all taking turns to sing lead vocals
Lead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
in roughly equal measures across the group's repertoire. Despite the dizzying array of personnel changes that the group underwent in later years, this lack of a dedicated lead singer would remain a stylistic trait of The Byrds' music throughout the majority of the band's existence. A further distinctive aspect of The Byrds' image was their unsmiling air of detachment, both on stage and in front of the camera. This natural aloofness was compounded by the large amounts of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
that the band consumed and often resulted in moody and erratic live performances
Rock concert
The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...
. Indeed, the contemporary music press was extremely critical of The Byrds' abilities as a live act during the mid-1960s, with the reaction from the British media during the band's August 1965 tour of England being particularly scathing.
This 1965 English tour was largely orchestrated by the group's publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
Derek Taylor
Derek Taylor
Derek Taylor was an English journalist, writer and publicist, best known for his work as press officer for The Beatles...
, in an attempt to capitalize on the number 1 chart success of the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single. Unfortunately, the tour was overhyped from the start, with the band being touted as "America's answer to the Beatles", a label that proved impossible for The Byrds to live up to. During concert performances, a combination of poor sound, group illness, ragged musicianship, and the band's notoriously lackluster stage presence, all combined to alienate audiences and served to provoke a merciless castigating of the band in the British press. However, the tour did enable the band to meet and socialize with a number of top English groups, including The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and The Beatles. In particular, the band's relationship with The Beatles would prove important for both acts, with the two groups again meeting up in Los Angeles some weeks later, upon The Byrds' return to America. During this period of fraternization, The Beatles were vocal in their support of The Byrds, publicly acknowledging them as creative competitors and naming them as their favorite American group. A number of authors, including Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
, Richie Unterberger, and Bud Scoppa, have noted The Byrds influence on The Beatles' late 1965 album Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market...
, most notably on the songs "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone
If I Needed Someone
"If I Needed Someone" is a song written by George Harrison. Versions by The Beatles and by The Hollies appeared simultaneously, both being released in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1965. The Hollies version appeared on a single. Most of the Hollies previous singles had been big top ten hits...
", the latter of which utilizes the same guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
as The Byrds' cover of "The Bells of Rhymney".
For their third Columbia single, The Byrds initially intended to release a cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records . The song was originally recorded on January 15, 1965 with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass...
" (it was even premiered on the Californian radio station KRLA
KRLA
KRLA is a radio station broadcasting a News/Talk format. Licensed to Glendale, California, USA, it serves the Southern California area. The station is currently owned by Salem Communications.- KIEV :...
), but instead they decided to record "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", a Pete Seeger composition with lyrics adapted almost entirely from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. The song was brought to the group by McGuinn, who had previously arranged
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
it in a chamber-folk style while working on folksinger Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
' 1963 album, Judy Collins 3
Judy Collins 3 (Judy Collins album)
Judy Collins #3 is an album by American folk singer Judy Collins released in 1963. It spent 10 weeks on Billboard's Top 150 album charts in 1964, peaking at #126 on May 16.-Track listing:# "Anathea"...
. The Byrds' cover of "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)" was issued on October 1, 1965 and became the band's second U.S. number 1 single, as well as the title track for their second album. The single represented the high-water mark of folk rock as a chart trend and has been described by music historian Richie Unterberger as "folk rock's highest possible grace note." In addition, music critic William Ruhlmann has noted that the song's lyrical message of peace and tolerance struck a nerve with the American record buying public as the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
continued to escalate.
The Byrds' second album, Turn! Turn! Turn!
Turn! Turn! Turn! (album)
Turn! Turn! Turn! is the second album by the folk rock band The Byrds and was released in December 1965 on Columbia Records . Like its predecessor, Mr. Tambourine Man, the album epitomized the folk rock genre and continued the band's successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string...
, was released in December 1965 and while it received a mostly positive reception, critical consensus deemed it to be inferior to the band's debut. Nonetheless, it was a commercial success, peaking at number 17 on the U.S. charts and number 11 in the UK. Author Scott Schinder has noted that, along with Mr. Tambourine Man, the Turn! Turn! Turn! album served to establish The Byrds as one of rock music's most important creative forces, on a par with The Beatles, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
and The Rolling Stones. Like their debut, the album comprised a mixture of group originals, folk songs, and Bob Dylan covers, all characterized by the group's clear harmonies and McGuinn's distinctive guitar sound. However, the album featured more of the band's own compositions than its predecessor, with Gene Clark in particular coming to the fore as a songwriter. His songs from this period, including "She Don't Care About Time", "The World Turns All Around Her", and "Set You Free This Time
Set You Free This Time
"Set You Free This Time" is a song by the American folk rock band The Byrds, written by band member Gene Clark and first released in December 1965 on the group's Turn! Turn! Turn! album. According to Clark, the song was written in just a few hours during The Byrds' 1965 British tour, after a night...
", are widely regarded by critics as among the best of the folk rock genre. The latter song was even chosen for release as a single in January 1966, but its densely worded lyrics, melancholy melody, and ballad-like tempo contributed to it stalling at number 63 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
chart and failing to reach the UK chart altogether.
While The Byrds outwardly seemed to be riding the crest of a wave during the latter-half of 1965, the recording sessions for their second album had not been without tension. One source of conflict was the power struggle that had begun to develop between producer Terry Melcher and the band's manager Jim Dickson, with the latter harboring aspirations to produce the band himself, causing him to be overly critical of Melcher's work. Within a month of Turn! Turn! Turn! being released, Dickson and The Byrds approached Columbia Records and requested that Melcher be replaced, despite the fact that he had successfully steered the band through the recording of two number 1 singles and two hit albums. Any hopes that Dickson had of being allowed to produce the band himself, however, were dashed when Columbia assigned their West Coast head of A&R, Allen Stanton, to the band.
Psychedelia (1965–1967)
On December 22, 1965, The Byrds recorded a new, self-penned composition titled "Eight Miles HighEight Miles High
"Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby and first released as a single on March 14, 1966 . The single managed to reach the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 30 of the UK Singles Chart...
" at RCA
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
Studios in Hollywood. The song represented a creative leap forward for the band and is often considered the first full-blown psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
recording by critics, although other contemporaneous acts, such as Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
, were also exploring similar musical territory. The song was also pivotal in transmuting folk rock into the new musical forms of psychedelia and raga rock
Raga rock
Raga rock is a term used to describe rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and tabla...
. However, Columbia Records refused to release the band's first version of the song because it had been recorded at another record company's studios. As a result, the band were forced to re-record "Eight Miles High" at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles on January 24 and 25, 1966, and it was this re-recorded version that would be released as a single and included on the group's third album.
The song is marked by McGuinn's groundbreaking lead guitar playing, which saw the guitarist attempting to emulate the free form jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
playing of John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, and in particular, Coltrane's playing on the song "India" from his Impressions album. "Eight Miles High" also exhibits the influence of the Indian classical music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
of Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
in the droning quality of the song's vocal melody and in McGuinn's guitar playing. The song's subtle use of Indian influences resulted in it being labeled as "raga rock" by the music press
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
, but in fact, it was the single's B-side "Why
Why (The Byrds song)
"Why" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Jim McGuinn and David Crosby and first released as the B-side of the band's "Eight Miles High" single in March 1966. The song was re-recorded in December 1966 and released for a second time as part of the band's Younger Than Yesterday...
" that drew more directly on Indian raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
s. Upon release, "Eight Miles High" was banned by many U.S. radio stations, following allegations made by the broadcasting trade journal the Gavin Report
Gavin Report
The Gavin Report was a San Francisco-based radio industry trade publication. The publication was founded by radio performer Bill Gavin in 1958. Its Top 40 listings were used for many years by programmers to decide content of programs...
, that its lyrics advocated recreational drug use. The band and their management strenuously denied these allegations, stating that the song's lyrics actually described an airplane flight to London and the band's subsequent concert tour of England. The relatively modest chart success of "Eight Miles High" (number 14 in the U.S. and number 24 in the UK) has been largely attributed to the broadcasting ban, although the challenging and slightly uncommercial nature of the track is another possible reason for its failure to reach the Top 10.
In February 1966, just prior to the release of "Eight Miles High", Gene Clark left the band. His departure was partly due to his fear of flying
Fear of flying
A fear of flying is a fear of being on an airplane , or other flying vehicle, such as a helicopter, while in flight. It is also sometimes referred to as aerophobia, aviatophobia, aviophobia or pteromerhanophobia....
, which made it impossible for him to keep up with The Byrds' itinerary, and partly due to his increasing isolation within the band. Clark, who had witnessed a fatal airplane crash as a youth, had a panic attack
Panic attack
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and subside over the next several hours...
on a plane bound for New York and as a result, he disembarked and refused to take the flight. In effect, Clark's exit from the plane represented his exit from The Byrds, with McGuinn telling him, "If you can't fly, you can't be a Byrd." However, it has become known in the years since the incident that there were other stress-related factors at work, as well as resentment within the band that Gene's songwriting income had made him the wealthiest member of the group. Clark was subsequently signed by Columbia Records as a solo artist and went on to produce a critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful body of work. He died on May 24, 1991, at the age of 46, from heart failure
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
brought on by a bleeding stomach ulcer
Peptic ulcer
A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...
, although years of alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse eventually progresses to alcoholism, a condition in which an individual becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages in order to avoid...
and a heavy cigarette habit
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
were also contributing factors.
The Byrds' third album, Fifth Dimension
Fifth Dimension (album)
Fifth Dimension is the third album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1966 on Columbia Records . Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band's principal songwriter Gene Clark...
, was released in July 1966. Much of the album's material continued to build on the band's new psychedelic sound, with McGuinn extending his exploration of jazz and raga styles on tracks such as "I See You" and the Crosby-penned "What's Happening?!?!". The album also saw Hillman coming forward as the band's third vocalist, in order to fill the hole in the group's harmonies that Clark's departure had left. The title track, "5D (Fifth Dimension)
5D (Fifth Dimension)
"5D " is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by band member Jim McGuinn. It was released as a single on June 13, 1966 and reached #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The song was also included on the band's third album, Fifth Dimension, released...
", was released as a single ahead of the album and was, like "Eight Miles High" before it, banned by a number of U.S. radio stations for supposedly featuring lyrics that advocated drug use. In addition, the album's front cover artwork featured the first appearance of The Byrds' colorful, psychedelic mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
logo, variations of which would subsequently appear on a number of the band's compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s, as well as on their 1967 release, Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday is the fourth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP...
. The Fifth Dimension album received a mixed critical reception upon release and was less commercially successful than its predecessors, peaking at number 24 in the U.S. and number 27 in the UK. Band biographer Bud Scoppa has noted that with the album's lackluster chart performance, its lukewarm critical reception, and the high-profile loss of Gene Clark from the group, The Byrds' popularity began to wane at this point and by late 1966, the group had been all but forgotten by the mainstream pop audience. Nonetheless, the band were considered forefathers of the emerging rock underground
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
, with many of the new L.A. and San Francisco groups of the day, including Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...
, Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, and the Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
, publicly naming The Byrds as a primary influence.
The band returned to the studio between November 28 and December 8, 1966 to record their fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday is the fourth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP...
. With Allen Stanton having recently departed Columbia Records to work for A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, the band chose to bring in producer Gary Usher
Gary Usher
Gary Usher was an American surf rock musician, songwriter, and record producer.-Biography:Usher's early life was spent in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended Norcross Grammar School with his sister, Sandra, who was in the same class and was likely his twin. Gary was kiddingly called "Chicken Feed"...
to help guide them through the album sessions. Usher, who had a wealth of production experience and a love of innovative studio experimentation, would prove invaluable to The Byrds as they entered their most creatively adventurous phase. The first song to be recorded for the album was the McGuinn and Hillman-penned "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
"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...
", a satirical and heavily sarcastic jibe at the manufactured nature of groups like The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
. The song features the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
playing of South African musician Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
and as such, marks the first appearance of brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
on a Byrds' recording. "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" was issued as a single in January 1967 and peaked at number 29 in America but failed to chart in the UK. Despite this relatively poor chart showing, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" has become one of The Byrds' best-known songs in the years since its initial release, inspiring cover versions by the likes of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers are an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida. They were formed in 1976 by Tom Petty , Mike Campbell , Benmont Tench , , Ron Blair and Stan Lynch...
and The Patti Smith Group
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
amongst others.
Released in February 1967, The Byrds' fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday
Younger Than Yesterday is the fourth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP...
, was more varied than its predecessor and saw the band successfully mixing psychedelia with folk rock and country and western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
influences. Although it received generally positive reviews upon its release, the album was, to a degree, overlooked by the record-buying public and consequently peaked at number 24 on the Billboard chart and number 37 on the UK Albums Chart. In addition to "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star", Younger Than Yesterday also includes the evocative Crosby and McGuinn penned song "Renaissance Fair", a cover of Dylan's "My Back Pages
My Back Pages
"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment...
" (which was later released as a single), and a quartet of Chris Hillman songs, which found the bassist emerging fully formed as an accomplished songwriter. Two of Hillman's country-oriented compositions on the album, "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name", can be seen as early indicators of the country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
direction that the band would pursue on later albums. Younger Than Yesterday also features the jazz-tinged Crosby ballad "Everybody's Been Burned", which critic Thomas Ward has described as "one of the most haunting songs in the Byrds' catalogue, and one of David Crosby's finest compositions."
By mid-1967, Jim McGuinn had changed his first name to Roger, as a result of his interest in the Indonesian religion Subud
Subud
Subud is an international spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s as a movement founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. The basis of Subud is a spiritual exercise commonly referred to as the latihan kejiwaan, which was said by Muhammad Subuh to represent guidance from...
, into which he had been initiated in January 1965. The adoption of a new name was common among followers of the religion and served to signify a spiritual rebirth for the participant. Shortly after McGuinn's name change, the band entered the studio to record the Crosby-penned, non-album single "Lady Friend
Lady Friend (song)
"Lady Friend" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by David Crosby and released as a single on July 13, 1967. The single reached #82 on the Billboard Hot 100 but failed to chart in the United Kingdom...
", which was released on July 13, 1967. The Byrds' biographer Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan is an author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He has written influential biographies of The Byrds, The Smiths and Van Morrison. His writing is characterised by "an almost neurotic attention to detail", epic length and a sometimes hostile...
has described "Lady Friend" as "a work of great maturity" and "the loudest, fastest and rockiest Byrds' single to date." Regardless of its artistic merits, however, the single stalled at a disappointing number 82 on the Billboard chart, despite the band making a number of high profile television appearances to promote the record. Crosby, who had closely overseen the recording of the song, was bitterly disappointed by the single's lack of success and blamed Gary Usher's mixing
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
of the song as a factor in its commercial failure.
The poor sales suffered by "Lady Friend" were in stark contrast to the chart success of the band's first compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, The Byrds' Greatest Hits
The Byrds' Greatest Hits
The Byrds' Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in August 1967 on Columbia Records . It is the top-selling album in The Byrds' catalogue and reached #6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart but failed to break into the UK Albums Chart...
, which was released on August 7, 1967. Sanctioned by Columbia Records in the wake of the Top 10 success of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is the eighth album released by Bob Dylan on Columbia Records, original catalogue number KCS 9643. It contains every Top 40 single Dylan enjoyed through 1967. It peaked at #10 on the pop album chart in the United States, and went to #3 on the album chart in the United...
, the album was a critical and commercial triumph, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and giving the band their highest-charting album in America since their 1965 debut, Mr. Tambourine Man. Within a year, the compilation would be certified
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
, eventually going platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
on November 21, 1986, and is today the biggest-selling album in The Byrds' discography.
Prior to the release of The Byrds' Greatest Hits, the band decided to dispense with the services of their co-managers Jim Dickson and Eddie Tickner. The relationship between Dickson and the band had soured over recent months, and he and Tickner's business arrangement with The Byrds was officially dissolved on June 30, 1967. At Crosby's recommendation, Larry Spector was brought in to handle The Byrds' business affairs, with the group electing to manage themselves to a large extent.
Between June and December 1967, The Byrds worked on completing their fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in January 1968 on Columbia Records . Musically, the album represents the pinnacle of The Byrds' psychedelic experimentation, with the band blending together elements of folk rock, psychedelic rock,...
. The lead single from the album was a cover of the Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
and Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
song "Goin' Back
Goin' Back
"Goin' Back" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King in 1966. It describes the loss of innocence that comes with adulthood along with an attempt, on the part of the singer, to recapture that youthful innocence...
", which was released in October 1967 and peaked at number 89 on the Billboard chart. Despite this lack of commercial success, The Byrds' rendition of "Goin' Back" featured a band performance that author Ric Menck has described as "a beautiful recording", while music critic Richie Unterberger has called it "a magnificent and melodic cover ... that should have been a big hit." The song found The Byrds successfully blending their signature harmonies and chiming 12-string guitar playing with the sound of the pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
for the first time, foreshadowing their extensive use of the instrument on their next album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968 on Columbia Records...
.
Released in January 1968, The Notorious Byrd Brothers album saw the band taking their psychedelic experimentation to its furthest extremes by mixing folk rock, country music, jazz, and psychedelia (often within a single song), while utilizing innovative studio production techniques such as phasing
Phasing
In the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...
and flanging
Flanging
Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, with one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and notches are produced in the resultant frequency spectrum,...
. The album featured contributions from a number of noted session musicians, including bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
guitarist and future Byrd, Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
. White, who had also played on Younger Than Yesterday, contributed country-influenced guitar to the tracks "Natural Harmony", "Wasn't Born to Follow" and "Change Is Now". Upon release, the album was almost universally praised by music critics but it was only moderately successful commercially, particularly in the United States where it peaked at number 47. However, the album's reputation has grown over the years and today it is widely regarded by critics and fans as one of The Byrds' best album releases.
Line-up changes (1967–1968)
While the band worked on The Notorious Byrd BrothersThe Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in January 1968 on Columbia Records . Musically, the album represents the pinnacle of The Byrds' psychedelic experimentation, with the band blending together elements of folk rock, psychedelic rock,...
album throughout late 1967, there was increasing tension and acrimony between the members of the group, which eventually resulted in the departures of both Crosby and Clarke. McGuinn and Hillman became increasingly irritated by what they saw as Crosby's overbearing egotism and his attempts to dictate the band's musical direction. In addition, during The Byrds' performance at the Monterey Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
on June 17, 1967, Crosby gave lengthy in-between-song speeches on controversial subjects, including the JFK assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
and the benefits of giving LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
to "all the statesmen and politicians in the world", to the intense annoyance of the other band members. He further irritated his bandmates by performing with rival group Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
at Monterey, filling in for ex-member Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. His reputation within the band deteriorated even more following the commercial failure of "Lady Friend", the first Byrds' single to feature a song penned solely by Crosby on its A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
.
Tensions finally erupted in August 1967, during recording sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers album, when Michael Clarke quit the group over disputes with his bandmates and his dissatisfaction with the material that the songwriting members of the band were providing. Session drummers Jim Gordon
Jim Gordon (musician)
James Beck "Jim" Gordon is an American recording artist, musician and songwriter. The Grammy Award winner was one of the most requested session drummers in the late 1960s and 1970s, recording albums with many well-known musicians of the time, and was the drummer in the blues-rock supergroup Derek...
and Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine is an American drummer and session musician. He is most known for his work with the Wrecking Crew in California. Blaine played on numerous hits by popular groups, including Elvis Presley, John Denver, the Ronettes, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, the Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, and...
were brought in to temporarily replace Clarke in the studio, although he continued to honor his live concert commitments with the group. Then, in September, Crosby refused to participate in the recording of the Goffin
Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
–King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
song "Goin' Back
Goin' Back
"Goin' Back" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King in 1966. It describes the loss of innocence that comes with adulthood along with an attempt, on the part of the singer, to recapture that youthful innocence...
", considering it to be inferior to his own "Triad
Triad (David Crosby song)
"Triad" is a song written by David Crosby in 1967 about a ménage à trois, a subject perfectly in keeping with the "free love" hippie philosophies of the day. The song was written while Crosby was a member of the rock band The Byrds, who were at that time recording their fifth studio album, The...
", a controversial song about a ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
that was in direct competition with "Goin' Back" for a place on the album. Crosby felt that the band should rely on self-penned material for their albums, rather than cover songs by other artists and writers. He would eventually give "Triad" to the San Francisco band Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
, who included a recording of it on their 1968 album, Crown of Creation
Crown of Creation
-Personnel:*Marty Balin – vocals, rhythm guitar*Grace Slick – vocals, piano, organ*Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, electric chicken, vocals*Spencer Dryden – drums, piano, organ, steel balls, vocals...
.
Tensions reached a breaking point during October 1967, when McGuinn and Hillman drove to Crosby's home and fired him, stating that they would be better off without him. Crosby subsequently received a cash settlement, with which he bought a sailboat
Sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...
and soon after, he began working with Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
in the successful supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
Crosby, Stills & Nash. In the years since his exit from The Byrds, Crosby has enjoyed an influential and commercially successful career as a part of Crosby, Stills & Nash (sometimes augmented by Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
), Crosby & Nash
Crosby & Nash
In addition to solo careers and within the larger aggregate of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the musical team of David Crosby and Graham Nash have performed and recorded regularly as a duo, mostly during the 1970s and the 2000s.-History:...
, CPR, and as a solo artist. During the 1980s, he fought against crippling drug addiction
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
and eventually served a year in prison on drug-related charges. He emerged from jail free of his drug habit and remains musically active up to the present today.
Following Crosby's departure, Gene Clark briefly rejoined the band, but left just three weeks later, after again refusing to board an aircraft while on tour. There is some disagreement among biographers and band historians as to whether Clark actually participated in the recording sessions for The Notorious Byrd Brothers, but there is evidence to suggest that he sang backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on the songs "Goin' Back" and "Space Odyssey". Michael Clarke also returned to the band briefly, towards the end of the album sessions, before being informed by McGuinn and Hillman that he was once again an ex-member.
Now reduced to a duo, McGuinn and Hillman elected to hire new band members. Hillman's cousin Kevin Kelley
Kevin Kelley (musician)
Kevin Daniel Kelley was an American drummer, best known for his work with the rock bands The Byrds and the Rising Sons. Kelley also played drums for Fever Tree, although it is unknown whether he was an official member of the group or not...
was quickly recruited as the band's new drummer and the trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
embarked on an early 1968 college tour in support of The Notorious Byrd Brothers. It soon became apparent, however, that recreating the band's studio recordings with a three-piece line-up wasn't going to be possible and so, McGuinn and Hillman, in a fateful decision for their future career direction, hired Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
as a keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
player, although he quickly moved to guitar. Although Parsons and Kelley were both considered full members of The Byrds, they actually received a salary from McGuinn and Hillman, and did not sign with Columbia Records when The Byrds' recording contract was renewed on February 29, 1968.
The Gram Parsons era
Following his induction into the band, Gram ParsonsGram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
began to assert his own musical agenda in which he intended to marry his love of country and western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
music with youth culture's passion for rock and in doing so, make country music fashionable for a young audience. He found a kindred spirit in Hillman, who had played mandolin in a number of notable bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
bands before joining The Byrds. In addition, Hillman had also persuaded The Byrds to incorporate subtle country influences into their music in the past, beginning with the song "Satisfied Mind
A Satisfied Mind
A Satisfied Mind is a compilation of 9 of the 12 songs from the 1962 Capitol album Big Bluegrass Special plus "A Satisfied Mind" which was previously released as flipside of Glen Campbell's 1966 Capitol single "Can’t You See I’m Trying"....
" on the Turn! Turn! Turn! album. Although McGuinn had some reservations about the band's proposed new direction, Parsons convinced him that a move towards country music could theoretically expand the group's declining audience. Thus, McGuinn was persuaded to change direction and abandon his original concept for the group's next album, which had been to record a history of 20th century American popular music
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
, and instead explore country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
.
On March 9, 1968, the band decamped to Columbia's recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, with Clarence White in tow, to begin the recording sessions for the Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968 on Columbia Records...
album. While in Nashville, The Byrds also appeared at the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
on March 15, 1968, where they performed the Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
song "Sing Me Back Home
Sing Me Back Home (song)
"Sing Me Back Home" is a 1967 single written and recorded by Merle Haggard. "Sing Me Back Home" would be Merle Haggard's third number one. The single spent two weeks at number one and a total of seventeen weeks on the country chart...
" and Parsons' own "Hickory Wind
Hickory Wind
"Hickory Wind" is a song written by country rock pioneer Gram Parsons and former International Submarine Band member Bob Buchanan. The song was written on a train ride the pair took from Florida to Los Angeles in early 1968, and first appeared on The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo album. Despite...
" (although they were actually scheduled to play a second Haggard song, "Life in Prison"). Being the first group of hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
"longhairs" ever to play at the venerable country music institution, the band was met with heckling, booing, and mocking calls of "tweet, tweet" from the conservative Opry audience. The band also incurred the wrath of legendary country music DJ Ralph Emery
Ralph Emery
Walter Ralph Emery is a country music disc jockey and television host from Nashville, Tennessee. He gained national fame hosting the syndicated television music series, Pop! Goes the Country, from 1974 to 1980 and the nightly Nashville Network television program, Nashville Now, from 1983 to 1993...
, when they appeared on his WSM
WSM (AM)
WSM is the callsign of a 50,000 watt AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Operating at 650 kHz, its clear channel signal can reach much of North America and various countries, especially late at night...
radio program. Emery mocked the band throughout their interview and made no secret of his dislike for their newly recorded country rock single, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1967 in Woodstock, New York, during the self-imposed exile from public appearances that followed his July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident. A recording of Dylan performing the song was first officially released on the Bob Dylan's Greatest...
". Parsons and McGuinn would later write the pointedly sarcastic song "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" about Emery and their appearance on his show. Journalist David Fricke has noted that the reactions of Emery and the Grand Ole Opry audience were indicative of the resistance and hostility that The Byrds' venture into country music provoked from the Nashville old guard.
Following their stay in Nashville, the band returned to Los Angeles and throughout April and May 1968, worked on completing their new country-oriented album. During this period, Parsons attempted to exert a controlling influence over the group by pressuring McGuinn to recruit either JayDee Maness or Sneaky Pete Kleinow
Sneaky Pete Kleinow
Peter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow was an American country-rock musician, songwriter, and a motion picture special effects artist...
as the band's permanent pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
player. When McGuinn refused, Parsons next began to push for a higher salary, while also demanding that the group's forthcoming album be billed as Gram Parsons and The Byrds. Even Hillman, who had previously been Parsons' biggest supporter in the band, began to grow weary of his forceful demands. Ultimately, Parsons behavior led to a power struggle for control of the group, with McGuinn finding his position as band leader challenged. However, the April 1968 release of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" served to strengthen McGuinn's position as head Byrd, with the guitarist's familiar drawl occupying the lead vocal spot and negligible input from Parsons, despite the single's obvious country leanings.
Parsons' dominance over the band waned still further during post-production for Sweetheart of the Rodeo, when his appearance on the album was contested by music business impresario Lee Hazlewood
Lee Hazlewood
Lee Hazlewood , born Barton Lee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s.Hazlewood had a distinctive baritone voice that added an ominous...
, who alleged that the singer was still under contract to his LHI record label
LHI Records
LHI Records was an American record label founded by Lee Hazlewood. LHI stood for 'Lee Hazlewood Industries'. The label was first distributed by Decca Records then by ABC Records...
, creating legal complications for Columbia Records. As a result of this, McGuinn and Hillman replaced Parsons' lead vocals on the songs "You Don't Miss Your Water
You Don't Miss Your Water
"You Don't Miss Your Water" is a soul song and the debut single written and recorded by American singer William Bell. It was released by Stax Records in 1961...
", "The Christian Life", and "One Hundred Years from Now" before the legal problems could be resolved. However, album producer Gary Usher would later put a different slant on the events surrounding the removal of Parsons' vocals by telling his biographer Stephen J. McParland that the alterations to the album arose out of creative concerns, not legal ones; Usher and the band were both worried that Parsons' contributions were dominating the record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and so, his vocals were excised in an attempt to increase McGuinn and Hillman's presence on the album. In the album's final running order, Parsons is still featured as lead vocalist on the songs "You're Still on My Mind", "Life in Prison", and "Hickory Wind".
With their new album now completed, The Byrds flew to England for an appearance at a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
on July 7, 1968. Following the concert, just prior to a tour of South Africa, Parsons quit The Byrds on the grounds that he did not want to perform in a racially segregated country (apartheid did not end in South Africa until 1994). Hillman doubted the sincerity of Parsons' gesture, believing that the singer had in fact left the band in order to remain in England with Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
and Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, who he had recently befriended. Parsons stayed at Richards' house in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
immediately after leaving The Byrds, and the pair developed a close friendship over the next few years. After leaving The Byrds, Parsons would go on to produce an influential but commercially unsuccessful body of work, both as a solo artist and with the band The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...
(which also featured Chris Hillman). He died on September 19, 1973, at the age of 26, following an accidental overdose of morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
and alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
in his room at the Joshua Tree Inn.
With Parsons gone from the band and their tour of South Africa due to begin in two days time, The Byrds were forced to draft in their roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
Carlos Bernal as a substitute rhythm guitar player. The ensuing South African tour was a disaster, with the band finding themselves having to play to segregated audiences—something that they had been assured by promoters
Tour promoter
Tour promoters are the individuals or companies responsible for organizing a live concert tour or special event performance. The tour promoter makes an offer of employment to a particular artist, usually through the artist’s agent or music manager. The promoter and agent then negotiate the live...
they would not have to do. The under-rehearsed band gave ramshackle performances to audiences that were largely unimpressed with their lack of professionalism and their antagonistic, anti-apartheid stance. The Byrds left South Africa amid a storm of bad publicity and death threats, while the liberal press in the U.S. and the UK attacked the band for undertaking the tour and questioned their political integrity. McGuinn attempted to counter this criticism by asserting that the tour of South Africa had, in some small way, been an attempt to challenge the country's political status quo and protest against apartheid.
After returning to California, The Byrds' released the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album on August 30, 1968, almost eight weeks after Parsons had left the band. It comprised a mixture of country music standards and contemporary country material, along with a country reworking of William Bell
William Bell (singer)
William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter, and one of the architects of the Stax-Volt sound. As a performer, he is probably best known for 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water" ; 1968's "Private Number" ; and 1976's "Tryin' To Love Two", Bell's only US top 40 hit, which also hit #1 on the...
's soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
hit "You Don't Miss Your Water". The album also included the Parsons originals "Hickory Wind" and "One Hundred Years from Now", along with the Bob Dylan-penned songs "Nothing Was Delivered" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", the latter of which had been a moderately successful single. Although it was not the first country rock album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo was the first album widely labeled as country rock to be released by an internationally successful rock act, pre-dating Dylan's Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline
Nashville Skyline is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's ninth studio album, released by Columbia Records in April 1969.The album marked a dramatic departure for Dylan, previously known for his groundbreaking, poetic folk music and rock and roll...
by over six months. The first bona fide country rock album overall is often cited as being Parsons' earlier Safe at Home
Safe at Home
Safe at Home was the 1968 album by The International Submarine Band, led by the 21-year-old Gram Parsons. Featuring four of Parsons' originals surrounded by six covers of classic country and rock and roll music, it helped to forge the country rock movement of the late 1960s and early...
, which he recorded with his group the International Submarine Band
International submarine band
The International Submarine Band was formed by country rock pioneer Gram Parsons while a theology student at Harvard University and John Nuese, a guitar player for local rock group, The Trolls. Nuese is largely credited with having persuaded Parsons to pursue the country-rock sound he would later...
. Unfortunately, The Byrds' stylistic shift away from psychedelia towards country rock served to alienate much of their counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
following, while at the same time, eliciting hostility from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment. As a result, Sweetheart of the Rodeo peaked at number 77 on the U.S. charts and was the least commercially successful Byrds' album to date upon its initial release. Today, however, it is considered a seminal and highly influential album, serving as a blueprint for the entire 1970s country rock movement, the outlaw country
Outlaw country
Outlaw country is a subgenre of country music, most popular during the late 1960s and the 1970s , sometimes referred to as the outlaw movement or simply outlaw music...
scene, and the alternative country
Alternative country
Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...
genre of the 1990s and early 21st century.
The Clarence White era
After Gram Parsons' departure, McGuinn and Hillman decided to recruit noted session guitaristSession musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
as a full-time member of the band in late July 1968. White, who had contributed countrified guitar playing to every Byrds' album since 1967's Younger Than Yesterday, was brought in at Hillman's suggestion as someone who could handle the band's older rock repertoire and their newer country-oriented material. Shortly after his induction into the band, White began to express dissatisfaction with drummer Kevin Kelley and soon persuaded McGuinn and Hillman to replace him with Gene Parsons
Gene Parsons
Gene Victor Parsons is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and innovative engineer, best known for his work with The Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released solo albums and played in bands including Nashville West, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Parsons Green...
(no relation to Gram), who White had previously played with in the country rock band Nashville West
Nashville West
As a session band, Nashville West recorded prolifically, though never under the Nashville West name, backing other artists on Gary S. Paxton's record label. However, in 1976, an album under the name Nashville West was eventually released on the Sierra Records label...
. The McGuinn–Hillman–White–Parsons line-up was together for less than a month before Hillman quit to join Gram Parsons in forming The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...
. Hillman had become increasingly disenchanted with The Byrds since the South African debacle and he was also frustrated by business manager Larry Spector's mishandling of the group's finances. Things came to a head on September 15, 1968, following a band performance at the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
stadium in Pasadena, when Hillman and Spector came to blows backstage. In a fit of rage, Hillman threw down his bass in disgust and walked out of the group. Following his exit, Hillman would have a successful career both as a solo artist and with bands such as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas
Manassas (band)
Manassas was an American rock band, formed by Stephen Stills in 1971. The nucleus of the band had already backed Stills on his July 1971 album, Stephen Stills 2, and in May 1972, the double album, Manassas, was released. Down The Road was released in 1973, but in October of that year the band split...
, the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band, and The Desert Rose Band. He remains active, releasing albums and touring, often with ex-Desert Rose Band member Herb Pedersen
Herb Pedersen
Herb Pedersen is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past forty years including country, bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, folk, folk rock, country rock, and has worked with numerous musicians in many different...
.
As the only original band member left, McGuinn elected to hire bassist John York
John York (musician)
John Foley York is an American bassist and guitarist, born in White Plains, New York on August 3, 1946. He is best known for his work with The Byrds, who he joined in September 1968 as a replacement for the band's original bass player Chris Hillman. He remained with the group until September...
as Hillman's replacement. York had previously been a member of the Sir Douglas Quintet
Sir Douglas Quintet
Sir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their British sounding name, they came out of San Antonio, Texas. Their career was established when they began working with Texas record-producer Huey P. Meaux, after which the band relocated to the West Coast...
and had also worked as a session musician with Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material...
and The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
. In October 1968, the new line-up entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to begin recording the Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is the seventh album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in March 1969 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band juxtaposing simple country rock material with harder-edged psychedelia, giving the album a stylistic split-personality that was alluded to in...
album with producer Bob Johnston
Bob Johnston
Donald William Robert 'Bob' Johnston is a noted American record producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson and many Nashville recording artists, as well as Simon and Garfunkel.-Early days:Johnston was born into a professional musical family...
. The sessions saw the band juxtaposing their new country rock sound with more psychedelic-oriented material, giving the resulting album a stylistic split personality that was alluded to in its title. In the wake of the recent changes in band personnel, McGuinn decided that it would be too confusing for fans of the group to hear the unfamiliar voices of White, Parsons and York coming forward at this stage, and so they were relegated to singing backing vocals on the album. As a result, Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is unique in The Byrds' back catalogue for being the only album to feature McGuinn singing lead vocals on every track.
The album was released on March 5, 1969 to generally positive reviews but poor U.S. sales; it became the lowest-charting album of The Byrds' career in America, peaking at number 153 on the Billboard album charts. However, the album fared much better in the UK, where it attracted glowing reviews and reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart. A number of tracks on Dr Byrds & Mr. Hyde, including the instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
"Nashville West" and the traditional
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
song "Old Blue", featured the sound of the Parsons and White designed StringBender
B-Bender
B-Bender is a guitar accessory that enables a player to mechanically bend the B-string up a whole tone to C-sharp. There are several different designs, but all use levers or pulleys inside or outside the guitar body that are activated by a pull or push of the guitar neck, body, or bridge...
(also known as the B-Bender), an invention that allowed White to duplicate the sound of a pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
on his Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
. The distinctive sound of the StringBender would become a defining characteristic of The Byrds' music during White's tenure with the group.
Following the release of Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, the band issued a cover of Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay
Lay Lady Lay
"Lay Lady Lay" is a song written by Bob Dylan and originally released in 1969 on his Nashville Skyline album. Like many of the tracks on the album, Dylan sings the song in a low croon, rather than in the high nasal singing style associated with his earlier recordings...
" as a non-album single in May 1969, but it failed to reverse the group's ailing commercial fortunes in the U.S. and stalled at number 132. The single caused a minor controversy between The Byrds and their producer Bob Johnston, when he took it upon himself to overdub a female choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
onto the recording prior to its release. It was only after the single was issued that the group became aware of Johnston's tampering, leaving them incensed by what they saw as an embarrassing and incongruous addition to their single. As a result of this incident, the band decided to dispense with Johnston and re-enlisted Terry Melcher
Terry Melcher
Terrence P. Melcher was an American musician and record producer, who was instrumental in shaping the sound of American West Coast rock music. His greatest contribution to the culture of the time was producing The Byrds' innovative hits "Mr Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and his...
to produce their next LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
(Melcher had produced the band's first two albums back in 1965). Although he was happy to accept the band's invitation to produce their next record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, Melcher insisted that he also be allowed to take on management duties for the group, in order to avoid a repeat of the conflict he had experienced in 1965 with Jim Dickson.
Prior to the release of The Byrds' next studio album, however, the band's former producer Gary Usher managed to acquire a number of demo recordings
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
from Dickson, dating from the group's 1964 rehearsal sessions at World Pacific Studios. These recordings were subsequently issued as the Preflyte
Preflyte
Preflyte is a compilation album by the American folk rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1969 on Together Records . The album is a collection of demos recorded by The Byrds at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles during 1964, before the band had signed to Columbia Records...
album on Usher's own Together Records imprint in July 1969. Although the material on Preflyte was five years old at the time of its release, the album actually managed to outperform Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde in America, garnering moderately enthusiastic reviews and peaking at number 84 on the Billboard album chart.
Between June and August 1969, The Byrds worked with Melcher to complete the Ballad Of Easy Rider album. Musically, the album represented a consolidation and streamlining of the band's country rock sound, while its track listing mostly consisted of cover versions and traditional material, with only three self-penned originals appearing on the record. The first single to be released from the album was the title track, which was issued in October 1969 in America and reached number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Composed primarily by McGuinn, with some input from Bob Dylan (although Dylan is not credited as a co-writer), "Ballad of Easy Rider
Ballad of Easy Rider
Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in November 1969 on Columbia Records . The album was named after the song "Ballad of Easy Rider", which had been penned by The Byrds' guitarist and singer, Roger McGuinn , as the theme song for the 1969...
" was written as the theme tune for the 1969 counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
film Easy Rider
Easy Rider
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South with the aim of achieving freedom...
. However, The Byrds' rendition of the song does not appear in the film and instead, an acoustic rendition credited to McGuinn alone was used. However, The Byrds' song "Wasn't Born to Follow" from The Notorious Byrd Brothers album was featured in Easy Rider and also included on the Easy Rider soundtrack album in August 1969. The Byrds' association with the film heightened their public profile and when the Ballad of Easy Rider album was released in November 1969, it peaked at number 36 in the U.S. and number 41 in the UK, becoming the band's highest charting album for two years in America. A second single taken from the album, "Jesus Is Just Alright
Jesus Is Just Alright
"Jesus Is Just Alright" is a gospel song written by Arthur Reid Reynolds and first recorded by Reynolds' own group, The Art Reynolds Singers, on their 1966 album, Tellin' It Like It Is....
", was released in December 1969 but it only managed to reach number 97. Despite this lack of commercial success, The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...
' later hit version of "Jesus Is Just Alright" features an arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
that was heavily influenced by The Byrds' recording.
Just prior to the release of Ballad of Easy Rider, The Byrds underwent yet another change in personnel when bassist John York was asked to leave the band in September 1969. York had become disenchanted with his role in The Byrds and had voiced his reluctance to perform material that had been written and recorded by the group before he had joined. The rest of the band had begun to doubt his commitment and so, a consensus was reached among the other three members that York should be fired. He was replaced, at the suggestion of Parsons and White, by Skip Battin
Skip Battin
Clyde "Skip" Battin was an American singer–songwriter, performer and recording artist. He is best remembered as a member of The Byrds, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Flying Burrito Brothers...
, a freelance session musician and one-time member of the duo Skip & Flip
Skip & Flip
Skip & Flip was a U.S. pop duo, consisting of Skip Battin and Flip aka Gary S...
. Battin's recruitment marked the last personnel change to the group for almost three years and as a result, the McGuinn–White–Parsons–Battin line-up became the most stable and longest-lived of any configuration of The Byrds.
The latter-day, post-Sweetheart of the Rodeo version of the band, featuring McGuinn and White's dual lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
work, toured relentlessly between 1969 and 1972 and was regarded by critics and audiences as much more accomplished in concert
Rock concert
The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...
than any previous configuration of The Byrds had been. As a result of this, it was decided in early 1970 that the time was right for the group to issue a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
. However, it was also felt that the band had a sufficient backlog of new compositions to warrant the recording of a new studio album. It was therefore suggested by producer Terry Melcher that the band should release a double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
, featuring one LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
of concert recordings and another LP of new studio material. To help with the editing of the live recordings, the band's ex-manager Jim Dickson, who had been fired by the group in June 1967, was invited back into The Byrds' camp. At around this same time, former business manager Eddie Tickner also returned to the group's employ as a replacement for Larry Spector, who had quit the management business and relocated to Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...
.
The two-record (Untitled) album was released by The Byrds on September 14, 1970 to positive reviews and strong sales, with many critics and fans regarding the album as a return to form for the band. Peaking at number 40 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and number 11 in the UK, the album's success continued the upward trend in the band's commercial fortunes and popularity that had begun with the release of the Ballad of Easy Rider album. The live half of (Untitled) included both new material and new renditions of previous hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
s, including "Mr. Tambourine Man", "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and a 16-minute version of "Eight Miles High", which comprised the whole of one side of the original LP release. Band biographer Johnny Rogan has noted that the inclusion of these newly recorded live versions of older songs served to forge a spiritual and musical link between The Byrds' current line-up and the original mid-1960s incarnation of the band.
The studio recordings featured on (Untitled) mostly consisted of newly written, self-penned material, including a number of songs that had been composed by McGuinn and Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
Jacques Levy
Jacques Levy
Jacques Levy was an American songwriter, theatre director, and clinical psychologist.Levy was born in New York City in 1935, and attended its City College. He received a doctorate in psychology from Michigan State University. Levy was a trained psychoanalyst, certified by the Menninger Institute...
for a planned country rock musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
titled Gene Tryp that the pair were developing. Plans for the musical had fallen through and as a result, McGuinn decided to record some of the material originally intended for the production with The Byrds. Among the Gene Tryp songs included on (Untitled) was "Chestnut Mare
Chestnut Mare
"Chestnut Mare" is a song by the American rock band The Byrds, written by Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy during 1969 for a planned country rock musical named Gene Tryp. The musical was never staged and the song was instead released in September 1970 as part of The Byrds' album...
", which had originally been written for a scene in which the musical's eponymous hero attempts to catch and tame a wild horse. The song was excerpted from the album and issued as a single in the U.S. on October 23, 1970, but it only managed to climb to number 121 on the Billboard chart. Nonetheless, the song went on to become a staple of FM radio
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
programming in America during the 1970s. "Chestnut Mare" did much better in the UK, however, when it was released as a single on January 1, 1971, reaching number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and giving The Byrds their first UK Top 20 hit since their cover of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do" had peaked at number 4 in September 1965.
The Byrds returned to the recording studio with Melcher sporadically between October 1970 and early March 1971, in order to complete the follow-up to (Untitled), which would be released in June 1971 as Byrdmaniax
Byrdmaniax
Byrdmaniax is the tenth album by the American rock band The Byrds. It was released in June 1971 on Columbia Records at a time of renewed commercial and critical success for the band, due to the positive reception that their two previous albums, Ballad of Easy Rider and , had received...
. Unfortunately, the grueling pace of the band's touring schedule at the time meant that they were not fully prepared for the sessions and as a result, much of the material they recorded was under-developed. Following completion of the album recording sessions, The Byrds once again headed out on tour, leaving Melcher and engineer
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
Chris Hinshaw to finish mixing
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
the album in their absence. Controversially, Melcher and Hinshaw elected to bring in arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
Paul Polena to assist in the overdubbing
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
of strings
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
, horns
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
, and a gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
onto many of the songs, allegedly without the band's consent. Drummer Gene Parsons recalled in a 1997 interview that when the band heard Melcher's additions they campaigned to have the album remixed and the orchestration removed but Columbia Records refused, citing budget restrictions, and the record was duly pressed
Record press
A record press is a machine for manufacturing vinyl records. It is essentially a hydraulic press with a closing force of 100 tons and is fitted with moulds. Labels and a vinyl pattie are placed in the mould cavity while the moulds are being steam-heated with an ideal steam pressure of 140-170psi...
up and released.
In May 1971, just prior to the release of the Byrdmaniax album, The Byrds undertook a sell-out tour of England and Europe, which included a performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London that was released for the first time in 2008 as Live at Royal Albert Hall 1971
Live at Royal Albert Hall 1971
Live at Royal Albert Hall is a live album by the American rock band The Byrds, released in 2008 on Sundazed Records. The album consists of recordings from the band's appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on May 13, 1971...
. The British and European press were unanimous in their praise of The Byrds' live performances during the tour, reinforcing their reputation as a formidable live act during this period. Over the course of the tour, the band chose to expand their ranks, with roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
Jimmi Seiter
Jimmi Seiter
Jimmi Seiter has worked as a musician, tour manager, artist manager, music producer, sound designer, stage producer and architect....
joining the group on stage to provide additional percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
as an un-official member. Seiter would continue to sit in with The Byrds during their live performances until August 1971, when he decided to leave the group's employ.
When the Byrdmaniax album was released on June 23, 1971 it was received poorly by most critics and did much to undermine the new-found popularity that The Byrds had enjoyed since the release of Ballad of Easy Rider. The response to the album from the American music press
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
was particularly scathing, with a review in the August 1971 edition of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine describing The Byrds as "a boring dead group" and memorably dismissing the entire album as "increments of pus". The consensus among most reviewers was that Byrdmaniax was hampered by Melcher's inappropriate orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
and by being an album almost totally bereft of The Byrds' signature sound. The band themselves were publicly critical of the album upon its release, with Gene Parsons referring to it as "Melcher's folly". For his part, Melcher later stated that he felt that the band's performances in the studio during the making of Byrdmaniax were lackluster and he therefore employed the orchestration in order to cover up the album's musical shortcomings. Regardless, by the time of the album's release, Melcher had resigned as The Byrds' manager and producer. Despite the band's dissatisfaction with the finished product and its poor critical reception, Byrdmaniax made a respectable showing on the U.S. charts, peaking at number 46. However, the album failed to sell in sufficient quantities to reach the UK charts. Author Christopher Hjort
Christopher Hjort
Christopher Hjort is a Norwegian typographer andgraphical designer. In 1990, Hjort and three colleagues founded Gazette, which has grown into one of Norway's largest professional companies in the fields of graphical design, web design, modern typography, information, and corporate communication...
has noted that in the years since its release, Byrdmaniax has become arguably "the least-liked album in the Byrds catalogue" among the group's fanbase.
The Byrds moved quickly to record a self-produced follow-up to Byrdmaniax, in an attempt to stem the criticism that the album was receiving in the music press and as a reaction to their own dislike of Melcher's overproduction. Johnny Rogan has speculated that The Byrds' decision to produce their next album themselves was an attempt on the band's part to prove that they could do a better job than Melcher had done on their previous record. While in England for an appearance at the Lincoln Folk Festival, The Byrds decamped to CBS Studios in London with engineer Mike Ross and between July 22 and 28, 1971, they recorded an album's worth of new material.
In October 1971, CBS Records in the UK issued The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II
The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II
The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II is the second greatest hits album by the American rock band The Byrds. It was released in the United Kingdom on October 29, 1971 by CBS Records as a follow-up to the band's first compilation album, The Byrds' Greatest Hits...
to capitalize on the group's recent appearance at the Lincoln Folk Festival and perhaps as a reaction to the chart failure suffered by Byrdmaniax. Unfortunately, the compilation album also failed to reach the UK charts, while contemporary reviews made note of its misleading and inaccurate title, since among its twelve tracks, only "Chestnut Mare" had been a genuine hit in the United Kingdom. An equivalent compilation wasn't released in the U.S. until November 1972, when The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II
The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II
The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II is the third greatest hits album by the American rock band The Byrds, but only the second to be released in the United States, since the earlier The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II had only been issued in the UK. The album was released in the U.S...
was issued.
On November 17, 1971, less than five months after the release of Byrdmaniax, The Byrds issued their eleventh studio album, Farther Along. The album was met with slightly more enthusiastic reviews than its predecessor but nevertheless, only managed to climb to number 152 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, while failing to reach the charts in the United Kingdom altogether. Musically, the album found The Byrds beginning to move away from their country rock sound—although at least half the album still bore a strong country influence—and instead, embrace a style indebted to 1950s rock 'n' roll music
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. The Skip Battin and Kim Fowley
Kim Fowley
Kim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
penned song "America's Great National Pastime" was taken from the album and released as a single in late November, but it failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. Johnny Rogan has concluded that, ultimately, the rapidity with which The Byrds planned and recorded Farther Along resulted in an album that was just as flawed as Byrdmaniax and as a result, it failed to rehabilitate the band's ailing commercial fortunes or increase their declining audience. The album's title track, sung by White with the rest of the group harmonizing, would later become a poignant and prophetic epitaph for the guitarist when it was sung by ex-Byrd Gram Parsons and the Eagles' Bernie Leadon
Bernie Leadon
Bernard Mathew "Bernie" Leadon, III is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of two pioneering and highly influential country rock bands, Dillard & Clark and the Flying Burrito Brothers...
at White's funeral in July 1973.
Following the release of Farther Along, The Byrds continued to tour throughout 1972, but no new album or single release was forthcoming. In July of that year, Gene Parsons was fired from the group for a number of reasons, including McGuinn's growing dissatisfaction with his drumming, disagreements that he and McGuinn were having over band members' pay, and his own discontent over the band's lack of morale during this period. Parsons was quickly replaced with L.A. session drummer John Guerin
John Guerin
John Payne Guerin worked as a drummer, percussionist, and recording artist worldwide.Guerin was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego. As a young drummer he began performing with Buddy DeFranco in 1960...
, who remained with The Byrds until January 1973, when he decided to return to studio work. Although Guerin participated in recording sessions with the band and appeared on stage with them from September 1972, he was never an official member of The Byrds and instead received a standard session musician's wage, while continuing to undertake work for other artists as an in-demand studio player. Three officially released Byrds recordings exist of the McGuinn–White–Battin–Guerin line-up: live versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Roll Over Beethoven
Roll Over Beethoven
"Roll Over Beethoven" is a 1956 hit single by Chuck Berry originally released on Chess Records, with "Drifting Heart" as the B-side. The lyrics of the song mention rock and roll and the desire for rhythm and blues to replace classical music...
" that were recorded for the soundtrack of the Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs is an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music...
' film Banjoman, and a studio recording of "Bag Full of Money" that was included as a bonus track on the remastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
reissue
Reissue
A reissue is the repeated issue of a published work. In common usage, it refers to an album which has been released at least once before and is released again, sometimes with alterations or additions....
of Farther Along in 2000.
Following Guerin's departure, he was temporarily replaced for live performances by session drummer Dennis Dragon. The band underwent a further personnel change following a February 10, 1973 show in Ithaca, New York, when Skip Battin was dismissed by McGuinn, who had capriciously decided that the bassist's playing abilities were no longer of a sufficient standard. McGuinn turned to ex-Byrd Chris Hillman, who at that time was a member of the band Manassas
Manassas (band)
Manassas was an American rock band, formed by Stephen Stills in 1971. The nucleus of the band had already backed Stills on his July 1971 album, Stephen Stills 2, and in May 1972, the double album, Manassas, was released. Down The Road was released in 1973, but in October of that year the band split...
, and asked him to step in as Battin's replacement for two upcoming shows on February 23 and 24. Hillman agreed to play both concerts for the sum of $2,000 and also brought in Manassas' drummer Joe Lala
Joe Lala
Joe Lala is an actor and voice actor, notable for his dubbing of Kun Lan of the video-game Killer7.He also played drums and percussion on 32 gold and 28 platinum albums. His credits include Blues Image, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, and many...
to fill the vancant spot behind the drum kit. Following a shambolic, under-rehearsed performance at Passaic, New Jersey on February 24, 1973, McGuinn cancelled the band's remaining concert commitments and disbanded the touring version of The Byrds, in order to make way for a reunion of the original five-piece line-up of the band. Five months later, guitarist Clarence White was killed by a drunk driver on July 14, 1973, while he loaded guitar equipment into the back of a van after a concert appearance in Palmdale, California.
Reunions (1972–1973; 1989–1991; 2000)
The five original members of The Byrds reunited briefly during late 1972, while McGuinn was still undertaking selected concerts with the Columbia Records version of the group. Discussions regarding a reunion between Roger McGuinnRoger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, Gene Clark
Gene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
, David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
, and Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (musician)
Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
had taken place as early as July 1971, around the same time as the then current line-up of the band were recording the Farther Along album. Plans for a reunion accelerated in mid-1972, however, when the founder of Asylum Records
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label founded in 1971 by David Geffen, and partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked as agents at the William Morris Agency. Founded specifically to provide a record contract for Jackson Browne, the label signed Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell...
, David Geffen
David Geffen
David Geffen is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990...
, offered each of the original band members a sizable amount of money to reform and record an album for his label. The reunion actually took place in early October 1972, beginning with a rehearsal at McGuinn's house, where the group began selecting suitable material for a new album. The five original Byrds booked into Wally Heider Studios
Wally Heider Studios
Wally Heider Studios was a recording studio in San Francisco, California between 1969 and 1980, started by recording engineer and studio owner Wally Heider.-History:...
in Los Angeles from October 16 until November 15, 1972, recording their first album together in seven years.
Following completion of the album recording sessions, Crosby persuaded McGuinn to dissolve the Columbia version of The Byrds, who were still touring at that time. Crosby had long been vocal regarding his displeasure over McGuinn's decision to recruit new band members following his dismissal from the group in 1967, and had stated in a number of interviews that in his opinion "there were only ever five Byrds." In keeping with the new spirit of reconciliation that the reunion fostered, McGuinn permanently disbanded the Columbia line-up of the group in February 1973.
The reunion album, titled simply Byrds
Byrds (album)
Byrds is the twelfth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in March 1973 on Asylum Records . It was recorded as the centerpiece of a reunion between the five original members of The Byrds: Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke...
, was released on March 7, 1973 to mixed reviews and as a result, a planned tour in support of the album failed to materialize. Among the album's shortcomings, critics made note of a lack of sonic unity and the absence of The Byrds' signature jangly guitar sound. Nonetheless, the album managed to climb to number 20 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart and number 31 in the UK. In the United States, the album became the band's highest charting LP of new material since 1965's Turn! Turn! Turn!
Turn! Turn! Turn! (album)
Turn! Turn! Turn! is the second album by the folk rock band The Byrds and was released in December 1965 on Columbia Records . Like its predecessor, Mr. Tambourine Man, the album epitomized the folk rock genre and continued the band's successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string...
, which had also been the last Byrds' album to feature Gene Clark as a full member. Among the tracks included on the album were McGuinn's folk-flavored "Sweet Mary", the Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
cover "For Free", a re-recording of Crosby's song "Laughing" (which had originally appeared on his 1971 solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name
If I Could Only Remember My Name
-External links:*...
), and a pair of Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
songs. The album also featured the Gene Clark compositions "Changing Heart" and "Full Circle
Full Circle Song
"Full Circle Song" is a song written by Gene Clark in 1972 that utilizes an allegorical wheel of fortune motif to comment on the unpredictable nature of fame and fortune. The song originally appeared in January 1973 on Clark's Roadmaster album, which was initially released exclusively in Holland...
", the latter of which had provided the reunion album with its working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
and was subsequently released as a single, although it failed to chart.
The negative critical reception that Byrds received in the music press resulted in the band losing faith in the idea of an ongoing series of reunions. In the years following its release, all five band members were openly critical of the album, with the general consensus being that the material included on it was weak and that the recording sessions had been rushed and ill-thought out. In addition, McGuinn and Hillman have both suggested that with the exception of Gene Clark, the songwriting members of the band were reluctant to bring their strongest compositions to the recording sessions, preferring instead to hold those songs back for their own solo projects. In the wake of the reunion, the five original Byrds quietly returned to their own careers, with the June 1973 release of McGuinn's eponymously titled solo album
Roger McGuinn (album)
Roger McGuinn was Roger McGuinn's first full-length solo album, released in 1973.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy, except where otherwise noted.-Side one:# "I'm So Restless" – 3:05# "My New Woman" – 3:10...
serving to effectively mark the end of The Byrds.
Following the reunion of 1972/1973, The Byrds remained disbanded throughout the rest of the decade. Roger McGuinn turned his attention to establishing his own career, releasing a series of solo albums between 1973 and 1977, and making a high-profile appearance with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Rolling Thunder Revue
Rolling Thunder Revue
The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American shaman Rolling Thunder. Others maintained that tour...
. Chris Hillman worked as part of the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band following The Byrds reunion and released a pair of solo albums entitled Slippin' Away and Clear Sailin in 1976 and 1977 respectively. David Crosby returned to the supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for their 1974 tour and subsequently continued to produce albums with Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
. He also took part in a 1977 reunion of Crosby, Stills & Nash, which saw the group release their multi-platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
selling CSN
CSN (album)
CSN is a Crosby, Stills & Nash album released in 1977, the fifth album by the group, and the first without Neil Young since his entry into the band...
album. Michael Clarke also found success following The Byrds reunion as the drummer for soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
group Firefall
Firefall
Firefall is a rock band that formed in Boulder, Colorado in 1974. It was founded by Rick Roberts, who had been in the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jock Bartley, who had been Tommy Bolin's replacement in Zephyr. The band's biggest hit single, "You Are the Woman", peaked at #9 on the Billboard charts...
, while Gene Clark returned to his solo career, producing the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums No Other
No Other
No Other is the fourth solo studio album by Gene Clark. On release in late 1974 it was a critical and commercial failure; the studio time and cost being seen as excessive and indulgent. The record label, Asylum Records, did not promote the album, and by 1976 had deleted it from their catalog...
(1974) and Two Sides to Every Story
Two Sides to Every Story
Two Sides to Every Story is a 1977 album by American singer-songwriter Gene Clark. The album was Clark's first release since his 1974 album No Other...
(1977). In addition, between 1977 and 1980, McGuinn, Clark and Hillman worked on and off together as a trio, modeled after Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and, to a lesser extent, the Eagles. This supergroup made up of former Byrds was reasonably successful commercially and even managed to score a Top 40 hit with the single "Don't You Write Her Off" in March 1979. The trio toured internationally and recorded the albums McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and City. Clark departed the group in late 1979, resulting in a third and final album being billed as McGuinn-Hillman.
In 1984, Gene Clark approached McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman in an attempt to reform The Byrds in time for the 20th anniversary of the release of the "Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
" single in 1985. None of these three original members were interested in the venture and so Clark instead assembled a motley collection of musicians and friends, including Rick Roberts
Rick Roberts (musician)
Rick Roberts is a country rock and classic rock singer-songwriter who recorded with many influential artists over several genres in the 1970s. He is best known for his work with The Flying Burrito Brothers on their 1971 self-titled album, and as a founding member and lead singer of Firefall from...
, Blondie Chaplin
Blondie Chaplin
Terence William 'Blondie' Chaplin is a musician from Durban, South Africa who first became known to international audiences through his brief stint in the early 1970s as a singer and guitarist for The Beach Boys...
, Rick Danko
Rick Danko
Richard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...
, Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....
, and the ex-Byrds Michael Clarke and John York
John York (musician)
John Foley York is an American bassist and guitarist, born in White Plains, New York on August 3, 1946. He is best known for his work with The Byrds, who he joined in September 1968 as a replacement for the band's original bass player Chris Hillman. He remained with the group until September...
, under the banner of The 20th Anniversary Tribute to The Byrds and began performing on the lucrative nostalgia circuit in early 1985. Unfortunately, a number of unscrupulous concert promoters
Tour promoter
Tour promoters are the individuals or companies responsible for organizing a live concert tour or special event performance. The tour promoter makes an offer of employment to a particular artist, usually through the artist’s agent or music manager. The promoter and agent then negotiate the live...
began to shorten the band's name to The Byrds in advertisements and promotional material. As the band continued to tour throughout 1985, they eventually decided to shorten their name to The Byrds themselves, prompting McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman to berate the tribute group in interviews, with McGuinn deriding the act as "a cheap show." After the tour wound down in late 1985, Clark returned to his solo career, leaving Michael Clarke to soldier on with a band that was now billed as A Tribute to The Byrds (although again, it was often shortened to The Byrds by promoters). Gene Clark returned to the group following the release of his and Carla Olsen's So Rebellious a Lover album, and the tribute band continued to work on and off from 1987 to 1988. Author Johnny Rogan has noted that most die-hard fans of The Byrds were mortified by the existence of this ersatz version of the group, while Byrds expert Tim Connors has commented that "no chapter in the history of the Byrds caused as much consternation and controversy among fans."
In June 1988, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman appeared at a concert celebrating the reopening of the Ash Grove
Ash Grove (music club)
The Ash Grove was a folk music club located at 8162 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, founded in 1958 by Ed Pearl and named after the Welsh folk song, "The Ash Grove."...
folk club in Los Angeles. Although they were billed as solo artists, the three musicians did come together for an on-stage reunion during the show, performing a string of Byrds hits including "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Eight Miles High". Although Clark and Clarke's Byrds tribute group was inactive at the time of this high-profile get-together of McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman, Michael Clarke did mount another tribute tour shortly afterwards, this time featuring former Byrd Skip Battin
Skip Battin
Clyde "Skip" Battin was an American singer–songwriter, performer and recording artist. He is best remembered as a member of The Byrds, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Flying Burrito Brothers...
and newcomers Terry Jones Rogers and Jerry Sorn, under the banner of The Byrds featuring Michael Clarke. In addition, the drummer also sought to trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
the name "The Byrds" for his own use.
In retaliation against Clarke's trademark application, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman submitted their own counter-claim to gain ownership of the band's name. McGuinn had actually attempted to trademark The Byrds name himself during the 1970s, in order to prevent its misuse, but his application had been turned down. To strengthen their case, the three musicians announced in December 1988 that they would be performing a series of concerts in January 1989 as The Byrds. Although he was no longer connected with Clarke's tribute act, Gene Clark was not invited to participate in these official Byrds reunion concerts due to residual ill-feeling stemming from his earlier 20th Anniversary Tribute to The Byrds.
The reunion concerts were a resounding success but with Michael Clarke continuing to tour with his Byrds tribute, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman filed a lawsuit against the drummer in the spring of 1989, suing him for allegedly false advertising, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices, as well as seeking a preliminary injunction against Clarke's use of the name. At the court hearing in May 1989, the judge denied the injunction, ruling that McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman had failed to show that they would be irreparably damaged by Clarke's actions. As a result, Clarke gained full legal ownership of the name "The Byrds". In the wake of this ruling, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman dropped their lawsuit, but to demonstrate that they had not wholly surrendered The Byrds name to Clarke, the three musicians appeared under the banner of "The Original Byrds" at a Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
tribute concert on February 24, 1990, where they were joined on-stage by Bob Dylan for a rendition of "Mr. Tambourine Man". Later that year, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman entered Treasure Isle Recorders in Nashville to record four new Byrds tracks for inclusion on the forthcoming The Byrds
The Byrds (boxed set)
The Byrds is a four-CD box set by the American rock band The Byrds that was released on October 19, 1990 by Columbia/Legacy. The compilation comprises 90 tracks and covers the band's career from 1965 to 1971 in roughly chronological order, but excludes material from their 1973 reunion album...
box set.
On January 16, 1991, the five original members of The Byrds put aside their differences to appear together at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
. The ceremony honored the original line-up of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke, while later configurations of the group featuring such key personnel as Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
and Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
were quietly passed over. The occasion, which saw the band come together on stage to perform the songs "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", "Mr. Tambourine Man", and "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", represented the first time that all five original Byrds had stood together since 1973. Unfortunately, it would also represent the last time that the five original members were gathered together. Clark died later that year of heart failure
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
, and on December 19, 1993, Clarke succumbed to liver disease
Liver failure
Acute liver failure is the appearance of severe complications rapidly after the first signs of liver disease , and indicates that the liver has sustained severe damage . The complications are hepatic encephalopathy and impaired protein synthesis...
brought on by alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
.
Following the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman returned to their individual solo careers. However, The Byrds did reunite for a third time on August 8, 2000, to give an impromptu, one-off performance at a tribute concert for Fred Walecki, the owner of a Los Angeles music equipment store who was suffering from throat cancer. Crosby and Hillman were booked to appear at the event separately, but McGuinn, who was not listed on the bill, made a surprise appearance and joined his two former partners on stage. McGuinn introduced the hastily reformed trio with the words, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, The Byrds", as the group launched into renditions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)". According to contemporary press reports, the reunion was an unmitigated success, with the audience giving the band multiple standing ovations and shouting for more as they left the stage.
During the 2000s, two more ex-members of The Byrds died when drummer Kevin Kelley
Kevin Kelley (musician)
Kevin Daniel Kelley was an American drummer, best known for his work with the rock bands The Byrds and the Rising Sons. Kelley also played drums for Fever Tree, although it is unknown whether he was an official member of the group or not...
succumbed of natural causes in 2002 and bassist Skip Battin, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, died at his home in 2003. Former members Gene Parsons
Gene Parsons
Gene Victor Parsons is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and innovative engineer, best known for his work with The Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released solo albums and played in bands including Nashville West, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Parsons Green...
and John York
John York (musician)
John Foley York is an American bassist and guitarist, born in White Plains, New York on August 3, 1946. He is best known for his work with The Byrds, who he joined in September 1968 as a replacement for the band's original bass player Chris Hillman. He remained with the group until September...
both remain active and continue to perform and record various musical projects. Perhaps the most surprising development in The Byrds' story during the 2000s, however, was the acquisition by David Crosby of the rights to the band's name in 2002. Ownership of the "The Byrds" name had reverted to Clarke's estate upon his death in 1993 and Crosby's purchase served to effectively bring the convoluted battle for control of the group's name to an end.
To date, the Fred Walecki tribute concert appearance in 2000 represents the last time that The Byrds have performed together. However, Hillman and Crosby have both expressed an interest in working with McGuinn again on future Byrds projects, but the lead guitarist and head Byrd remains adamant that he is not interested in another reunion. During an interview with music journalist John Nork, McGuinn replied "absolutely not," when asked if he had any plans to revive The Byrds, explaining, "No, I don't want to do that. I just want to be a solo artist. The Byrds are well documented. I don't think we need anymore from the Byrds."
Since the band's 1960s heyday, the influence of The Byrds on successive generations of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
musicians has grown steadily, with acts such as the Eagles, Big Star
Big Star
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later...
, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, The Bangles
The Bangles
The Bangles are an American all-female band that originated in the early 1980s, scoring several hit singles during the decade.-Formation and early years :...
, The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
, and innumerable alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
bands of the post-punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
era all exhibiting signs of their influence. In his book Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in 60s Hollywood, music historian Domenic Priore attempts to sum up the band's influence by noting, "Few of The Byrds' contemporaries can claim to have made such a subversive impact on popular culture. The band had a much larger, more positive impact on the world at large than any Billboard chart position or album sales or concert attendance figure could possibly measure." In 2004, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine ranked The Byrds at number 45 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Members
Original members- Roger McGuinnRoger McGuinnJames Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, Moog synthesizerMoog modular synthesizerMoog modular synthesizer refers to any of a number of monophonic analog modular synthesizers designed by the late electronic instrument pioneer Dr. Robert Moog and manufactured by R.A Moog Co...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
(1964–1973, 1989–1991, 2000) - Gene ClarkGene ClarkGene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
– tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, guitar, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, vocals (1964–1966, 1967, 1972–1973, 1991) - David CrosbyDavid CrosbyDavid Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
– guitar, vocals (1964–1967, 1972–1973, 1989–1991, 2000) - Michael ClarkeMichael Clarke (musician)Michael Clarke , was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the 1960s rock group The Byrds from 1964 to 1967. He died in 1993, at age 47, from liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.-Biography:Clarke was born Michael James Dick in...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(1964–1967, 1972–1973, 1991) - Chris HillmanChris HillmanChristopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, guitar, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, vocals (1964–1968, 1972–1973, 1989–1991, 2000)
Subsequent members
- Kevin KelleyKevin Kelley (musician)Kevin Daniel Kelley was an American drummer, best known for his work with the rock bands The Byrds and the Rising Sons. Kelley also played drums for Fever Tree, although it is unknown whether he was an official member of the group or not...
- drums (1968) - Gram ParsonsGram ParsonsGram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
– guitar, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, organElectronic organAn electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
, vocals (1968) - Clarence WhiteClarence WhiteClarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
– guitar, mandolin, vocals (1968–1973) - Gene ParsonsGene ParsonsGene Victor Parsons is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and innovative engineer, best known for his work with The Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released solo albums and played in bands including Nashville West, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Parsons Green...
– drums, banjo, harmonica, guitar, vocals (1968–1972) - John YorkJohn York (musician)John Foley York is an American bassist and guitarist, born in White Plains, New York on August 3, 1946. He is best known for his work with The Byrds, who he joined in September 1968 as a replacement for the band's original bass player Chris Hillman. He remained with the group until September...
– bass, vocals (1968–1969) - Skip BattinSkip BattinClyde "Skip" Battin was an American singer–songwriter, performer and recording artist. He is best remembered as a member of The Byrds, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Flying Burrito Brothers...
– bass, vocals (1969–1973)
Membership timeline (1964–1973)
Discography
- Mr. Tambourine ManMr. Tambourine Man (album)Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut album by the American folk rock band The Byrds and was released in June 1965 on Columbia Records . The album, along with the single of the same name, established the band as an internationally successful rock act and was also influential in originating the musical...
- Turn! Turn! Turn!Turn! Turn! Turn! (album)Turn! Turn! Turn! is the second album by the folk rock band The Byrds and was released in December 1965 on Columbia Records . Like its predecessor, Mr. Tambourine Man, the album epitomized the folk rock genre and continued the band's successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-string...
- Fifth DimensionFifth Dimension (album)Fifth Dimension is the third album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1966 on Columbia Records . Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band's principal songwriter Gene Clark...
- Younger Than YesterdayYounger Than YesterdayYounger Than Yesterday is the fourth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in February 1967 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band continuing to integrate elements of psychedelic rock into their music, a process they had begun on their previous LP...
- The Notorious Byrd BrothersThe Notorious Byrd BrothersThe Notorious Byrd Brothers is the fifth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in January 1968 on Columbia Records . Musically, the album represents the pinnacle of The Byrds' psychedelic experimentation, with the band blending together elements of folk rock, psychedelic rock,...
- Sweetheart of the RodeoSweetheart of the RodeoSweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968 on Columbia Records...
- Dr. Byrds & Mr. HydeDr. Byrds & Mr. HydeDr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is the seventh album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in March 1969 on Columbia Records . The album saw the band juxtaposing simple country rock material with harder-edged psychedelia, giving the album a stylistic split-personality that was alluded to in...
- Ballad of Easy Rider
- (Untitled)
- ByrdmaniaxByrdmaniaxByrdmaniax is the tenth album by the American rock band The Byrds. It was released in June 1971 on Columbia Records at a time of renewed commercial and critical success for the band, due to the positive reception that their two previous albums, Ballad of Easy Rider and , had received...
- Farther Along
- ByrdsByrds (album)Byrds is the twelfth album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in March 1973 on Asylum Records . It was recorded as the centerpiece of a reunion between the five original members of The Byrds: Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke...
Further reading
- Rogan, Johnny, The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited, Rogan House, 1998, ISBN 0-95295-401-X
- Hjort, Christopher, So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star: The Byrds Day-By-Day (1965–1973), Jawbone Press, 2008, ISBN 1-90600-215-0.
- Scoppa, Bud, The Byrds, Scholastic Book Services, 1971.
- Einarson, John, Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of the Byrds' Gene Clark, Backbeat Books, 2005, ISBN 0-87930-793-5.
- Menck, Ric, The Notorious Byrd Brothers (33⅓ series), Continuum Books, 2007, ISBN 0-8264-1717-5.
External links
- Roger McGuinn's Official Byrds Homepage
- ByrdWatcher: A Field Guide to the Byrds of Los Angeles Fan site (last updated 1999)
- Byrds Flyght Fan site
- The Byrds on My Space
- The Byrds biography at Rollingstone.com