L-R: David Crosby, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn
The Byrds were an American rock music group founded in Los Angeles, California in 1964 by singers and guitarists Jim McGuinn (he later changed his name to Roger McGuinn), Gene Clark, and David Crosby. Bassist Chris Hillman and drummer Michael Clarke joined soon thereafter. The band's manager was Jim Dickson. Always the leader of the group, McGuinn came out of a folk music background, but, inspired by the Beatles, recast the Byrds as a pop-music group, one that is regarded as among the most accomplished, and experimental, of the era.
They achieved fame in 1965 as the first American rock group to challenge the Beatles, interpreting (and making hits out of) Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!." McGuinn's guitar work, heard to great advantage on these two singles, became the group's signature. They also performed their own compositions, and in Gene Clark possessed a major songwriter; his songs include "The World Turns All Around Her," "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" and "Set You Free This Time." The 1966 McGuinn/Crosby/Clark song "Eight Miles High" is regarded as one of the most innovative top-forty singles in the history of popular music. By the time of 1967's Younger Than Yesterday LP and its single "So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star" the Byrds had progressed into one of the most forward-looking pop groups of the time, showing the influence of Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane. Their 1968 The Notorious Byrd Brothers, which featured compositions by the group as well as by Goffin and King, is today regarded as their masterpiece. By this time both Clark and Crosby had left the group, with Hillman and Clarke soon to follow. Gram Parsons joined the group to record another album usually rated as a classic, 1968's Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which featured their ironic, distanced take on the country music of the Louvin Brothers and Merle Haggard, as well as compositions by Parsons and by William Bell.
By 1969 and Ballad of Easy Rider, the group included bassist John York, drummer Gene Parsons and guitarist Clarence White. "Jesus Is Just Alright" from that album was issued as a single, and, in a similar arrangement, became a hit for the Doobie Brothers four years later. The group also recorded an excellent version of Jackson Browne's "Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood" during the Easy Rider sessions, but it remained unreleased for some twenty years. The title track, written by McGuinn and Dylan for the movie Easy Rider, was one of their most affecting performances. In a sign of continuing turmoil within the group, York left in September 1969, replaced by Skip Battin. Clark, Clarke, Crosby, and Hillman all briefly rejoined in late 1972 for the reunion album Byrds before the group was "officially" dissolved by McGuinn, who owned the name, in February 1973.
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