Today in Music (1968): The Byrds The Notorious Byrd Brothers released

The Notorious Byrd Brothers The Byrds

Released: January 3, 1968 Peak: 47 US, 12 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Artificial Energy (Clarke / Hillman/ McGuinn) [2:18] Goin’ Back [3:26] Natural Harmony (Hillman) [2:11] Draft Morning (Crosby / Hillman / McGuinn) [2:42] Wasn’t Born to Follow [2:04] Get to You [2:39] Change Is Now (Hillman / McGuinn) [3:21] (41 CL) Old John Robertson (Hillman / McGuinn) [1:49] Tribal Gathering (Crosby / Hillman) [2:03] Dolphins’ Smile (Crosby / Hillman / McGuinn) [2:00] Space Odyssey (Hippard / Hippard / McGuinn) [3:52] Total Running Time: 28:28 1997 CD reissue bonus tracks: Moog Raga (instrumental) Bound to Fall (instrumental) Triad Goin’ Back (alternate version) Draft Morning (alternate ending) Universal Mind Decoder (instrumental) The Players: Roger McGuinn (vocals, guitar) David Crosby (guitar, vocals) Chris Hillman (bass, vocals) Michael Clarke (drums)

Rating: 4.219 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Quotable: “It’s hard to imagine albums like the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty – or even R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction – existing without this one coming first.” – Marc Fagel, Pop Kulcher Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Another Psychedelic Gem “The Byrds are probably best known for their string of early singles, in which they successfully merged jangly guitars and British Invasion pop with Bob Dylan's (and their own Dylan-influenced) folk songwriting. Their gradual replacement of the simple charms of "Mr. Tambourine Man" with the trippier, psychedelic sound exemplified by hits like "Eight Miles High" met with mixed success; their early albums are great, but some of the more explicitly drug-oriented music is terribly dated.” PK “Oddly enough, their most successfully psychedelic album is Notorious Byrd Brothers, a much less forced and intentionally trippy record (and, as a result, a much more durable piece of music).” PK It is “one of the last great artifacts of Sixties pop.” RD It is “arguably the peak of The Byrds as a studio act” AD and “a true masterpiece.” AD Influences and Influence The Byrds “goof around with classical stuff, mix it with country guitar, and barbershop harmonies and Carnaby Street and El Lay sensibilities, and…even some Coltrane.” JSH “This sort of ‘eclectic’ approach informed many latter-day makers of swirladelic LPs from Rundgren to Scott Miller to Anton in the Brian Jonestown Massacre.” JSH “It’s hard to imagine albums like the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty – or even R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction – existing without this one coming first.” PK Lineup Changes When the Byrds began recording their fifth album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, they consisted of original members Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke. During the sessions, Clarke quit after playing on several songs and Crosby was fired after “countless famous studio arguments and actual fights.” AD McGuinn and Hillman brought in Gene Clark, the other founding member who’d left in early 1966, but he only stayed on board three weeks. McGuinn and Hillman finished the album with session musicians. However, “The tension and competition helped the creative process.” AD The turmoil “wasn’t evident from listening to the results, which showed the group continuing to expand the parameters of their eclecticism while retaining their hallmark guitar jangle and harmonies.” AM With “stupendous” AD assistance from producer Gary Usher, who’d formerly collaborated with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, “they took more chances in the studio.” AM “The assorted studio effects really do add to certain songs here and sound utterly appropriate in every case.” AD The album “somehow comes across as the band’s most focused, coherent record, with Roger McGuinn coming up with some amazing works of mellow beauty.” PK The Songs Most of the songs “show the band at their absolute psychedelic peak.” JSH “Dolphin Smile and Natural Harmony are completely blissed-out blasts of sixties euphoria.” JSH The latter featured horns for “cynical and menacing effect” JSH alongside Hillman’s “evocative” lyrics. AD “The Byrds did not bury the essential strengths of their tunes in effects: Tribal Gathering has some of the band's most effervescent harmonies.” AM “Old John Robertson looks forward to the country-rock that would soon dominate their repertoire.” AM Artificial Energy “includes a delightful little borrow of the vocal phrasing of The Beatles ‘Ticket to Ride’ and is a whole load of fun.” AD It “employs a blaze of trumpets to simulate the buzz of amphetamines.” RD Songs like the “short up-tempo, country-tinged number” AD Wasn’t Born to Follow and Draft Morning “are truly moving Dylan-esque protest songs which don’t sound like protest songs.” PK The latter “is a subtle and effective reflection of the horrors of the Vietnam War.” AM “The way that song unrolls and explodes, is one of the ALL-TIME highpoints o’ the psych sixties experience.” JSH “The production effects including drum-shots, trumpets etc….add dramatic atmosphere.” AD Those two songs, along with Change Is Now, “are among the best and most timeless pieces of headphone-friendly stoner music the late ‘60s has to offer.” PK That song and Get to You “benefit hugely from Gary Usher’s superlative production, and there are wonderful vocals from Roger and Chris.” AD “Washes of Moog synthesizer formed the eerie backdrop for Space Odyssey, and the songs were craftily and unobtrusively linked with segues and fades.” AM That song “closes the whole record on a slightly strange note as had become a Byrds trademark. It works though.” AD Here are more details about some of the songs on this album.

Goin’ Back The Byrds

Writer(s): Gerry Goffin, Carole King Recorded: Oct. 9, 11, and 16, 1967 at Columbia Records in Hollywood, California Released: 10/20/1967 (single), The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968), Greatest Hits Volume II (compilation, 1971), History of the Byrds (compilation, 1973), The Byrds (box set, 1990), 20 Essential Tracks from the Boxed Set (compilation, 1992), The Very Best of (compilation, 1997), The Essential (compilation, 2003), There is a Season (box set, 2006) B-Side: “Change Is Now” Peak: 89 BB, 58 CB, 56 HR, 28 CL, 29 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.89 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote this song in 1966 about “the loss of innocence that comes with adulthood.” WK-GB Dusty Springfield recorded the song that year and took it to the top 10 on the UK charts. The Byrds recorded it the following year. It has also been recorded by Phil Collins, Marianne Faithfull, Nils Lofgren, Freddie Mercury, the Pretenders, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson, and Carole King herself. The Byrds’ version has “a floaty, ethereal feel.” AD It “was a magnificent and melodic cover with the expected tasteful 12-string guitar runs that should have been a big hit.” AM The song features “one of the best harmonies they ever did;” AD McGuinn and Hillman “effectively duplicated the group’s old, three-part harmonies.” AD It also “has a subtle country feel to it; a sound the Byrds would later explore more prominently on the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album.” WK-GB Cash Box said it was a “soft, slow blues ballad…with combined folk and electronic frosting” and “sweet harmony” that “serves up the usual grade-A guitar sound.” WK-GB Session drummer “Jim Gordon comes in towards the end with a fantastic, superbly timed drum roll and the whole thing is an impossible triumph against all odds.” AD The decision to record the song led to tension as David Crosby lacked enthusiasm for what he considered “lightweight fluff, typical of the Brill Building style of songwriting.” WK-GB

Wasn’t Born to Follow The Byrds

Writer(s): Gerry Goffin, Carole King Recorded: 11/30/1967 at Columbia Studios in Hollywood, California Released: 9/26/1969 (single), The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968), Greatest Hits Volume II (compilation, 1971), The Best of the Byrds, Greatest Hits Volume II (compilation, 1972), History of the Byrds (compilation, 1973), The Byrds (box set, 1990), The Very Best of (compilation, 1997), The Essential (compilation, 2003), There is a Season (box set, 2006) B-Side: “Child of the Universe” Peak: 66 HR, 23 CL, 22 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 22.34 streaming About the Song Like “Goin’ Back,” the lead single from The Notorious Byrd Brothers, this was a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. She recorded the song in 1968 with her band The City. The Monkees, the Lemon Pipers, and Dusty Springfield have also recorded the song. The Byrds’ version was featured on The Notorious Byrd Brothers album and in the 1969 film Easy Rider and released as a single that year. The song “underlines the fact that the Byrds pioneered both folk-rock and psychedelia.” RD The lyrics “celebrate the freedom that hippies enjoyed in the late 1960s.” WK-WB Music critic Johnny Rogan said it was an “evocation of pastoral freedom and the implicit desire to escape from the restrictions of conventional society.” WK-WB

Get to You The Byrds

Writer(s): Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman Released: The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968), Greatest Hits Volume II (compilation, 1971) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.07 streaming About the Song “This gorgeous fried, soft rock track has an enigmatic chorus with confusing lyrics” MC-72 which detail a trip to London. Producer “Gary Usher claimed the intro’s enigmatic door-slamming was just a bit of fun rather than an allegorical or cryptic message.” MC-72 There’s some debate over the song’s authorship. There are claims the songs was written by Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark. However, Chris Hillman says he wrote part of the song and doesn’t remember what Gene Clark contributed. MC-72 “Clearly, the group Big Star loved this song, as you can hear its influence on a lot of their music, especially the vocal phrasing.” MC-72

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Richie Unterberger AD Adrian Denning (3/30/2007). “Adrian’s Top 100 Albums, So Far” RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 141. PK Pop Kulcher/Marc Fagel Greatest Rock & Roll Albums of All Time JSH Blastitude (2003). “A Loaded Proposition: Joe S. Harrington Picks the All-Time Top 100 Or…Who Pulled the Trigger?” by Joe S. Harrington MC Andy McArthur (2023). On Track…Every Album, Every Song. Sonicbond Publishing: United Kingdom. WK-GB Wikipedia page for “Goin’ Back” WK-WB Wikipedia page for “Wasn’t Born to Follow” Related DMDB Pages: First posted 11/16/2010; last updated 10/24/2026.