The Byrds ( B21 )

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.

Lineup changes (1967–1968)

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 dismissals of 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.

"They came over and said that they wanted to throw me out. They came zooming up in their Porsches and said that I was impossible to work with and I wasn't very good anyway and they'd do better without me. And frankly, I've been laughing ever since. Fuck 'em. But it hurt like hell. I didn't try to reason with them. I just said, 'it's a shameful waste ... goodbye.'"

—David Crosby talking in 1980 about the day Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman fired him from the Byrds.

Tensions within the band 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.

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