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Roger McGuinn
McGuinn performing live at TCAN, Natick, MA - April 8, 2011
Background information
Birth name	James Joseph McGuinn III
Born	(1942-07-13) July 13, 1942 (age 69) Chicago, Illinois United States
Genres	Rock, folk rock, folk
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, twelve-string guitar, seven-string guitar, guitar, banjo, mandolin, Moog synthesizer
Years active	1960-present
Labels	Columbia
Associated acts	The Byrds, Chad Mitchell Trio
Website	www.rogermcguinn.com
Notable instruments
Rickenbacker 370/12 Martin HD-7 Martin D12-42RM

James Roger McGuinn (known professionally as Roger McGuinn, previously as Jim McGuinn, and born James Joseph McGuinn III on July 13, 1942)^[1] 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. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with The Byrds.

Early life[link]

McGuinn was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, James and Dorothy, were involved in journalism and public relations, and during his childhood, they had written a bestseller titled Parents Can't Win. He attended The Latin School of Chicago. He became interested in music after hearing Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", and asked his parents to buy him a guitar. (During the early 1980s, he paid tribute to the song that encouraged him to play guitar by including "Heartbreak Hotel" in his autobiographical show). Around the same time, he was also influenced by country artists and/or groups such as Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, and The Everly Brothers.

In 1957, he enrolled as a student at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music,^[2] where he learned the five-string banjo and continued to improve his guitar skills. After graduation, McGuinn performed solo at various coffeehouses on the folk music circuit where he was hired as a sideman by folk music groups in the same vein as the Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and Judy Collins. He also played guitar and sang backup harmonies for Bobby Darin. Soon after, he relocated to the West Coast, eventually Los Angeles, where he eventually met the future members of The Byrds.^[2]

In 1962, after he ended his association with the Chad Mitchell Trio, McGuinn was hired by Darin to be a backup guitarist and harmony singer. (At that approximate time, Darin wanted to add some folk roots to his repertoire because it was a burgeoning musical field.) Unfortunately, about a year and a half after McGuinn began to play guitar and sing with Darin, Darin became ill and retired from singing. Subsequently, Darin opened T.M. Music in New York City's Brill Building, hiring McGuinn as a song writer for $35 a week. During 1963, just one year before he co-founded The Byrds, he was a studio musician in New York City, recording with Judy Collins and Simon & Garfunkel. At the same time, he was hearing of The Beatles (whose first American tour would commence in February 1964), and wondering how Beatlemania might affect folk music. By the time Doug Weston gave McGuinn a job in Southern California, at the The Troubadour (Los Angeles), McGuinn had included Beatles' songs in his act. He gave rock style treatments to traditional folk tunes and thereby caught the attention of another folkie Beatle fan, Gene Clark, who joined forces with McGuinn in July 1964. Together they formed the beginning of what was to become The Byrds.^[2]

The Byrds[link]

During his time with The Byrds, McGuinn developed two innovative and very influential styles of electric guitar playing. The first was "jingle-jangle" – generating ringing arpeggios based on banjo finger picking styles he learned while at the Old Town School – which was influential in the folk rock genre. The second style was a merging of saxophonist John Coltrane's free-jazz atonalities, which hinted at the droning of the sitar – a style of playing, first heard on The Byrds' 1966 single "Eight Miles High", which was influential in psychedelic rock.

McGuinn with The Byrds at a concert held at Washington University in St. Louis

While "tracking" The Byrds' first single, "Mr. Tambourine Man", at Columbia studios, McGuinn discovered an important component of his style. "The 'Ric' [Rickenbacker guitar] by itself is kind of thuddy," he notes. "It doesn't ring. But if you add a compressor, you get that long sustain. To be honest, I found this by accident. The engineer, Ray Gerhardt, would run compressors on everything to protect his precious equipment from loud rock and roll. He compressed the heck out of my 12-string, and it sounded so great we decided to use two tube compressors [likely Teletronix LA-2As] in series, and then go directly into the board. That's how I got my 'jingle-jangle' tone. It's really squashed down, but it jumps out from the radio. With compression, I found I could hold a note for three or four seconds, and sound more like a wind instrument. Later, this led me to emulate John Coltrane's saxophone on "Eight Miles High". Without compression, I couldn't have sustained the riff's first note."^[3]

"I practiced eight hours a day on that 'Ric,'" he continues, "I really worked it. In those days, acoustic 12s had wide necks and thick strings that were spaced pretty far apart, so they were hard to play. But the Rick's slim neck and low action let me explore jazz and blues scales up and down the fretboard, and incorporate more hammer-ons and pull-offs into my solos. I also translated some of my banjo picking techniques to the 12-string. By combining a flat pick with metal finger picks on my middle and ring fingers, I discovered I could instantly switch from fast single-note runs to banjo rolls and get the best of both worlds."^[4]

Another sound that McGuinn developed is made by playing a seven string guitar, featuring a doubled G-string (with the second string tuned an octave higher). The C. F. Martin guitar company has even released a special edition called the HD7 Roger McGuinn Signature Edition, that claims to capture McGuinn's "jingle-jangle" tone which he created with 12 string guitars, while maintaining the ease of playing a 6-string guitar.

The Byrds recorded several albums after Mr. Tambourine Man in 1965. The single, "Turn! Turn! Turn!", written by Pete Seeger with the lyrics drawn from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, was The Byrds' second Number One success in late 1965. In 1969, McGuinn's solo version of the "Ballad Of Easy Rider" appeared in the film Easy Rider, while a full band version was the title track for the album released later that year. 1970's "Untitled" album featured a 16-minute version of The Byrds' 1966 hit "Eight Miles High", with all four members taking extended solos representative of their "jam-band" style of playing during that period.^[5]

After several personnel changes, the group disbanded in 1973, with Chris Hillman playing bass with the band for their final show in February of that year. Notable band members included David Crosby, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Clarence White, Skip Battin and Gram Parsons, all of whom went on to form successful groups. In 1968, McGuinn helped create the groundbreaking Byrds album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, to which many attribute the rise in popularity of country rock. McGuinn originally conceived the album as a blend of rock, jazz and other styles; but Gram Parson's and Chris Hillman's bluegrass-western-country influences came to the forefront. Other artist's albums, and even Byrd songs by Hillman on previous albums showed a strong country influence, but "Sweetheart" was the first fully fledged country rock album.

Post-Byrds[link]

After the break-up of The Byrds, McGuinn released several solo albums throughout the 1970s. He toured with Bob Dylan in 1975 and 1976 as part of Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Revue". In late 1975, he played guitar on the track titled "Ride The Water" on Bo Diddley's The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll all-star album.

In 1978, McGuinn joined fellow ex-Byrds Gene Clark and Chris Hillman to form "McGuinn, Clark and Hillman", and the three together recorded an album with Capitol Records in 1979. The media loved the band and they performed on many TV rock shows, including repeated performances on The Midnight Special, where they played both new material and Byrds hits. "Don't You Write Her Off" reached #33 in April 1979. While some believe that the slick production and disco rhythms didn't flatter the group, and the album had mixed critically and commercial response, it sold enough to generate a follow up. McGuinn, Clark and Hillman's second release was to have been a full group effort entitled "City", but a combination of Clark's unreliability and his dissatisfaction with their musical direction (mostly regarding Ron and Howard Albert's production) resulted in the billing change on their next LP "City" to "Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, featuring Gene Clark". By 1981 Clark had left and the group continued briefly as "McGuinn/Hillman".^{[citation needed]}

In 1987 Roger McGuinn was the opening act for Dylan and Tom Petty. In 1991 he released his comeback solo album, Back from Rio to successful acclaim. It included the hit single "King of the Hill," written by and featuring Petty.

On July 11, 2000, McGuinn testified before in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on downloading music from the Internet that artists do not always receive the royalties that (non-Internet based) record companies state in contracts, and that to date, The Byrds had not received any royalties for their greatest successes, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" – they only received advances, which were split five ways and were just "a few thousand dollars" per band member. He also stated that he was receiving 50 percent royalties from MP3.com.^[6]

McGuinn currently tours as a solo artist.

Folk Den[link]

Roger McGuinn has used the World Wide Web to continue the folk music tradition since November 1995 by recording a different folk song each month on his Folk Den site. The songs are made available from his Web site, and a selection (with guest vocalists) was released on CD as Treasures from the Folk Den, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Traditional Folk Album. In November 2005, McGuinn released a four-CD box set containing one hundred of his favorite songs from the Folk Den.^[7]

Religious faith and name changes[link]

When he originally started with The Byrds, he used the name Jim, which he thought to be too plain. During 1965 McGuinn briefly explored the Subud spiritual association and began to practice the latihan, an exercise in quieting the mind. McGuinn changed his name in 1967 after Subud's founder Bapak told him it would better "vibrate with the universe." Bapak sent Jim the letter "R" and asked him to send back ten names starting with that letter. Owing to a fascination with airplanes, gadgets and science fiction, he sent names like "Rocket", "Retro", "Ramjet", and "Roger", the latter a term used in signalling protocol over two-way radios, military and civil aviation. Roger was the only "real" name in the bunch and Bapak chose it. While using the name Roger professionally from that time on, McGuinn only officially changed his middle name from Joseph to Roger. McGuinn left the Subud spiritual association in 1977, the same year that he met his wife Camilla (they married the next year). Both have become committed Christians since that time.^[8]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Roger McGuinn (1973)
• Peace on You (1974)
• Roger McGuinn & Band (1975)
• Cardiff Rose (1976)
• Thunderbyrd (1977)
• McGuinn, Clark & Hillman (1979) (with Gene Clark and Chris Hillman)
• City (1980) (with Chris Hillman, featuring Gene Clark)
• McGuinn - Hillman (1981) (with Chris Hillman)
• Back from Rio (1991)
• Born to Rock and Roll (1991) (compilation album)
• Live from Mars (1996)
• McGuinn's Folk Den, Volume 1 (MP3.com download and CD) (1999)
• McGuinn's Folk Den, Volume 2 (MP3.com download and CD) (1999)
• McGuinn's Folk Den, Volume 3 (MP3.com download and CD) (1999)
• McGuinn's Folk Den, Volume 4 (MP3.com download and CD) (2000)
• Treasures from the Folk Den (2001)
• In the Spirit of Love (MP3.com download and CD) (2002)
• The Sea: Songs by Roger McGuinn (MP3.com download and CD) (2003)
• Limited Edition (2004)
• Live At The XM Studios 05/27/2004 (download only) (2004)
• The Folk Den Project (2005)
• Live from Spain (2007)
• 22 Timeless Tracks from the Folk Den Project (2008)
• CCD (2011)

McGuinn also appears on the various artists anthology Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander (1994). McGuinn performs a cover version of "Anna". He contributed two tracks, "Banjo Cantata" and "Ramblin' On", to a compilation of banjo pieces released by Davon as Banjo Greats (Volumes 1 & 2), re-issued on CD by Tradition in 1996 as Banjo Jamboree. He has also performed the songs "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and "The Ballad of Easy Rider" which were included on the soundtrack of the film Easy Rider. Another soundtrack that features McGuinn is the 1977 film Ransom. McGuinn performed "Shoot 'Em" which appears on the anthology album Byrd Parts 2, released on Australia's Raven Records label in 2003. McGuinn also appears with Bruce Springsteen on the live download "Magic Tour Highlights (Live)" singing "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Roger McGuinn also did guitar the work in The Beach Boys version of California Dreaming video.

Singles[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Roger McGuinn's blog
• Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour -show 398 (83 minute video) Chats with Michael Jounathon and performs live, taped 5-22-2006
• 2006 Roger McGuinn Interview on Guitars
• Roger McGuinn's Folk Den - An archive of his monthly recordings
• Works by Roger McGuinn at Project Gutenberg
• Roger McGuinn on This WEEK in TECH with Leo Laporte.
• Roger McGuinn interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969).
• 2004 Roger McGuinn Interview w/Pop Matters.com
• State of Mind - Conversation with Roger McGuinn - 2008

The Byrds ( /ˈbɜrdz/) were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[1] 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.^[3] As the 1960s progressed, the band was also influential in originating psychedelic rock, raga rock, and country rock.^[1][4][5] 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.^[1][6] Among the band's most enduring songs are their cover versions 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).^[7] 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.^[8] The Byrds continued as a quartet until late 1967, when Crosby and Clarke also departed the band.^[9] 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.^[1] McGuinn, who by this time had changed his name to Roger after a flirtation with the Subud religion,^[2] 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.^[1] McGuinn disbanded the then current line-up in early 1973, to make way for a reunion of the original quintet.^[10] The Byrds' final album was released in March 1973, with the reunited group disbanding soon afterwards.^[11]

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.^[1] 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.^[12] 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.^[13][14] 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.^[15][16] 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.^[17][18]

History[link]

Formation (1964)[link]

The nucleus of The Byrds formed in early 1964, when Jim McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby came together as a trio.^[20] 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.^[1] 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.^[21][22][23] McGuinn had also spent time as a professional songwriter at the Brill Building in New York City, under the tutelage of Bobby Darin.^[24] 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.^[20] 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.^[1][20][25] Soon after, David Crosby introduced himself to the duo at The Troubadour and began harmonizing with them on some of their songs.^[19] 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.^[19]

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.^[19] 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.^[19][26] 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.^[27][28] 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.^[28] Initially, this blend arose organically, but as rehearsals continued, the band began to actively attempt to bridge the gap between folk music and rock.^[19][29] Demo recordings made by The Jet Set at World Pacific Studios would later be collected on the compilation albums Preflyte, In the Beginning, The Preflyte Sessions and Preflyte Plus.

Drummer Michael Clarke was added to The Jet Set in mid-1964.^[30] 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 congas in a semi-professional capacity in and around San Francisco and L.A.^[31] 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.^[31] As the band continued to rehearse, Dickson arranged a one-off single deal for the group with Elektra Records' founder Jac Holzman.^[8] 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 musicians Ray Pohlman on bass and Earl Palmer on drums.^[8] 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.^[8] "Please Let Me Love You" was issued by Elektra Records on October 7, 1964, but it failed to chart.^[32]

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.^[30][33] 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.^[33][34] 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".^[33] 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.^[33]

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).^[30][35] In October 1964, Dickson recruited mandolin player Chris Hillman as The Jet Set's bassist.^[36] 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.^[20][37] Through connections that Dickson had with impresario Benny Shapiro, and with a helpful recommendation from jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, the group signed a recording contract with Columbia Records on November 10, 1964.^[38] 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".^[38][39]

Folk rock (1965–1966)[link]

On January 20, 1965, The Byrds entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to record "Mr. Tambourine Man" for release as their debut single on Columbia.^[32][40] 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-side, "I Knew I'd Want You".^[38] 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.^[38][41] 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.^[41] 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.^[1]

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.^[42] 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.^[42][43] 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.^[44][45][46] 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".^[42] 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 sidewalks outside the club, desperate to see the band perform.^[42] 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.^[7][43][47]

	Mr. Tambourine Man noicon An excerpt from The Byrds' cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man", highlighting the band's clear harmony singing and Roger McGuinn's jangly, twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar playing.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Columbia Records eventually released the "Mr. Tambourine Man" single on April 12, 1965.^[32] 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.^[48][49] McGuinn's melodic, jangling twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar playing—which was heavily compressed to produce an extremely bright and sustained tone—was immediately influential and has remained so to the present day.^[40][50] 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.^[45][51] 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.^[52]

Within three months "Mr. Tambourine Man" had become the first folk rock smash hit,^[53] reaching number 1 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart.^[54][55] 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.^[52][56] 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.^[57][58] The Mr. Tambourine Man album followed on June 21, 1965,^[32] peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and number 7 on the UK Albums Chart.^[55][59] 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.^[58][60] 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.^[61][62][63] 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.^[64] Upon release, the Mr. Tambourine Man album, like the single of the same name, was influential in popularizing folk rock^[60] 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.^[1][65]

	All I Really Want to Do noicon A sample of The Byrds' recording of "All I Really Want to Do", illustrating the ascending melody progression that the band utilized in the song's refrain.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The Byrds' next single was "All I Really Want to Do", another interpretation of a Dylan song.^[66] 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.^[66] 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.^[67] 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.^[66][68] A chart battle ensued, but The Byrds' rendition stalled at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Cher's version reached number 15.^[68] The reverse was true in the UK, however, where The Byrds' version reached number 4, while Cher's peaked at number 9.^[69]

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 magazines.^[70] 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.^[71] 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.^[71][72][73] In particular, McGuinn's distinctive rectangular spectacles would go on to become popular among members of the burgeoning hippie counterculture in the United States.^[74]

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.^[71][73] This natural aloofness was compounded by the large amounts of marijuana that the band consumed and often resulted in moody and erratic live performances.^[71][75] 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.^[70][76]

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.^[70] 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.^[70] 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.^[70] 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.^[70] 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.^[70] 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.^[77][78] 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,^[79] most notably on the songs "Nowhere Man"^[80] and "If I Needed Someone", the latter of which utilizes the same guitar riff as The Byrds' cover of "The Bells of Rhymney".^[81]

	Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season) noicon An excerpt from The Byrds' recording of "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)", which provided the band with their second U.S. number 1 single and served to cement folk rock as a chart trend.
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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),^[82] 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.^[83][84] 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.^[84] The Byrds' cover of "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season)" was issued on October 1, 1965^[32] and became the band's second U.S. number 1 single, as well as the title track for their second album.^[84] 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."^[85] 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.^[84]

The Byrds' second album, Turn! Turn! Turn!, was released in December 1965^[86] and while it received a mostly positive reception, critical consensus deemed it to be inferior to the band's debut.^[87] Nonetheless, it was a commercial success, peaking at number 17 on the U.S. charts and number 11 in the UK.^[87] 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.^[88] 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.^[89] 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.^[90] 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.^[91][92] 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.^[93][94]

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.^[95] 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.^[95] 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.^[88][95]

Psychedelia (1965–1967)[link]

On December 22, 1965, The Byrds recorded a new, self-penned composition titled "Eight Miles High" at RCA Studios in Hollywood.^[97] The song represented a creative leap forward for the band^[98] 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.^{[99][100][101]} The song was also pivotal in transmuting folk rock into the new musical forms of psychedelia and raga rock.^[102][103] 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.^[104] 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.^[105][106]

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.^[102] "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.^[107][108] 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 ragas.^[102][107]

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.^[109] 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.^[109] 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.^{[102][109][110]}

	Eight Miles High noicon An excerpt from the intro of "Eight Miles High", demonstrating the John Coltrane-influenced, free form guitar playing of Roger McGuinn.
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In February 1966, just prior to the release of "Eight Miles High", Gene Clark left the band.^[111] 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.^[112] 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.^[113] 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."^[112] 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.^[112][113] 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.^[12] 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.^[12][114]

The Byrds' third album, Fifth Dimension, was released in July 1966.^[115] 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?!?!".^[106] 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.^[106] 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.^[116][117] 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 albums, as well as on their 1967 release, Younger Than Yesterday.^[118] The Fifth Dimension album received a mixed critical reception upon release^[117] and was less commercially successful than its predecessors, peaking at number 24 in the U.S. and number 27 in the UK.^[55][59] 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.^[119] 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.^[120]

The band returned to the studio between November 28 and December 8, 1966 to record their fourth album, Younger Than Yesterday.^[121] 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.^[122] 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.^[123][124] 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.^[125] "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.^[126] 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.^[127][128]

	Time Between noicon A sample of the country-influenced Chris Hillman composition "Time Between", which foreshadowed The Byrds' later exploration of the country rock genre.
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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.^[129] 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.^[126][129] 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.^[125][129] 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.^[125] 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."^[130]

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.^[131] The adoption of a new name was common among followers of the religion^[132] 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.^[133] 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."^[131] 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.^[133] Crosby, who had closely overseen the recording of the song,^[134][135] 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.^[131]

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.^[131][136] 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.^[131] Within a year, the compilation would be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America,^[131] eventually going platinum on November 21, 1986, and is today the biggest-selling album in The Byrds' discography.^[136][137]

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.^[133] 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.^[133] At Crosby's recommendation, Larry Spector was brought in to handle The Byrds' business affairs,^[133] with the group electing to manage themselves to a large extent.

	Old John Robertson noicon An excerpt from the song "Old John Robertson", highlighting The Byrds' extensive use of phasing and flanging effects on The Notorious Byrd Brothers album.
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Between June and December 1967, The Byrds worked on completing their fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers.^[121] 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.^[138] 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."^[139][140] 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.^[140][141]

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.^{[142][143][144]} The album featured contributions from a number of noted session musicians, including bluegrass guitarist and future Byrd, Clarence White.^[145] White, who had also played on Younger Than Yesterday,^[142] contributed country-influenced guitar to the tracks "Natural Harmony", "Wasn't Born to Follow" and "Change Is Now".^[121] 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.^[146] 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.^[143][147]

Line-up changes (1967–1968)[link]

While the band worked on The Notorious Byrd Brothers 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.^[142][143] 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.^[131][148] 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.^[149] He further irritated his bandmates by performing with rival group Buffalo Springfield at Monterey, filling in for ex-member Neil Young.^[150] 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.^[131][133]