timeline

The Byrds

The Los Angeles band that put Bob Dylan through a Rickenbacker 12-string, then pushed on into raga rock, psychedelia and country rock, with Roger McGuinn as the only constant.

Origin
Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active
1964-1973, 1989-1991
Genres
folk rock, psychedelic rock, raga rock, country rock, jangle pop
Labels
Columbia, Asylum, Elektra

Los Angeles

The Byrds began in 1964 as a pair in the manner of Peter and Gordon: Jim McGuinn, who later went by Roger, and Gene Clark, who played together at the Troubadour. David Crosby joined and the trio called themselves the Jet Set. Michael Clarke came in on drums in mid-1964, and Chris Hillman, until then a mandolin player, took up bass that October. With manager Jim Dickson they made demos at World Pacific Studios, later issued as Preflyte. They took the name the Byrds around Thanksgiving 1964, the same month they signed to Columbia.

Their first single, Mr. Tambourine Man, a Dylan song with McGuinn on 12-string Rickenbacker, reached number one in the United States and Britain after its April 1965 release. The debut album followed in June. Producer Terry Melcher used session players on the single, but the band played the rest of the album. Turn! Turn! Turn!, a Pete Seeger song taken from Ecclesiastes, gave them a second American number one that December. McGuinn later summed up the sound by saying it was "Dylan meets the Beatles."

Higher

Clark, who feared flying and felt isolated, left in February 1966. Eight Miles High, written about the flight to London, was first cut at RCA, but Columbia would not release a recording made outside its studios, so it was remade in Hollywood. Its guitar solo owed something to John Coltrane, and some American radio stations dropped it over suspected drug references, which the band denied. Fifth Dimension followed in July 1966.

Younger Than Yesterday in February 1967 was the first album made without Clark. Hillman emerged as a writer and singer. So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star, with trumpet by Hugh Masekela, mocked manufactured pop and closed the band's set at the Monterey Pop Festival that June. They also recorded My Back Pages, their last American Top 40 single.

Turmoil and Nashville

The Notorious Byrd Brothers was made between June and December 1967 while the band came apart. Clarke quit during the sessions, Crosby was fired in October, and Clark returned for about three weeks and left again. The record used the Moog synthesizer and, for the first time in the band's work, pedal steel.

Gram Parsons joined in early 1968 with Kevin Kelley on drums. McGuinn had planned a double album tracing American popular music, but Parsons steered the band toward country, and they recorded in Nashville in March. Sweetheart of the Rodeo was released that August and sold less than any earlier Byrds album. Parsons left in July 1968 before the South Africa tour. Clarence White was hired full time, and Hillman quit in September, joining the Flying Burrito Brothers.

The Clarence White years

McGuinn led a new line-up with White, drummer Gene Parsons and, from September 1969, bassist Skip Battin. Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde, Ballad of Easy Rider and the double album (Untitled) followed. (Untitled) paired live recordings from early 1970, including a 16-minute Eight Miles High, with a studio side that held Chestnut Mare, a British hit. Byrdmaniax and Farther Along followed in 1971.

Gene Parsons was fired in July 1972. The five original members reunited in the studio that autumn for the album Byrds, released on Asylum in March 1973. The White-era band played its last show at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, on 24 February 1973, and McGuinn's solo album that June ended the group. White was killed by a drunk driver in July 1973, and Gram Parsons died that September.

Afterlife

McGuinn, Clark and Hillman toured and recorded as a trio from 1977, with Clark leaving in late 1979. A dispute over the name led to a lawsuit in 1989, and Clarke won the right to use it. In 1990 McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman played as the Original Byrds, with Dylan joining for Mr. Tambourine Man, and recorded four new tracks in Nashville for a box set. On 16 January 1991 the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and all five originals performed together for the last time. Clark died that May, Clarke in 1993 and Crosby in 2023.

The Byrds helped create folk rock, raga and psychedelic rock, and country rock. Rolling Stone placed them 45th on its 2004 list of the greatest artists, and the Eagles, Big Star, Tom Petty, R.E.M., the Bangles and the Smiths are among those they influenced. Johnny Rogan's Timeless Flight Revisited (1998) and Christopher Hjort's So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (2008) cover the story at length.

Members

Records

Songs

Bob Dylan, Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Gram Parsons, Tom Petty

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Fan sites and communities

Sources

  1. The Byrds, Wikipedia
  2. The Byrds discography, Wikipedia
  3. The Byrds, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  4. Roger McGuinn on the Byrds, 1964 to 1967, Grammy.com
  5. The Preflyte Sessions, No Depression
  6. Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds (1965), National Recording Registry essay, Library of Congress