Background
Following the departure of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons from the band, lead guitarist Roger McGuinn and bass player Chris Hillman decided that they needed to find a replacement member in order to meet their forthcoming concert obligations. With an appearance at the Newport Pop Festival looming, McGuinn and Hillman moved quickly to recruit noted session guitarist and longtime Byrd-in-waiting, Clarence White. White, who had played as a session musician on The Byrds' previous three albums, was invited to join the band as a full-time member in July 1968. After the Newport Pop Festival appearance, White began to express dissatisfaction with the band's drummer, Kevin Kelley, and soon persuaded McGuinn and Hillman to replace Kelley with Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram), a friend of White's from their days together in the band Nashville West.
The new McGuinn, Hillman, White and Parsons line-up of the band was together for less than a month before Hillman departed to form The Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons. John York, a session musician who had toured with Johnny Rivers and The Mamas & the Papas, was quickly hired as his replacement on bass. The new band line-up, featuring McGuinn and White's dual guitar work, was regarded by critics and audiences as much more accomplished in concert than any previous configuration of The Byrds had been. Amidst so many changes in band personnel, McGuinn decided that he alone would sing lead vocals on the band's new album, in order to give it a sense of sonic unity. McGuinn felt that it would be too confusing for fans of The Byrds to have the unfamiliar voices of the new members coming forward at this stage and so White, Parsons and York were relegated to backing vocal duties during the recording of the album. Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is therefore the only album in The Byrds' catalogue to feature Roger McGuinn singing lead on every track.
Prior to the recording of the album, The Byrds' record producer, Gary Usher, who had worked on the band's three previous albums, had been fired by Columbia Records for spending too much money on the recording of the Chad & Jeremy album, Of Cabbages and Kings. Faced with the need to find a replacement producer, The Byrds elected to bring in Bob Johnston, who had been Bob Dylan's producer since 1965. Ultimately, the band were unhappy with Johnston's production work on Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde and as a result, it was the only Byrds' album to be produced by him. However, Johnston was employed once more as the band's producer on their May 1969 non-album single, "Lay Lady Lady". He incurred the band's wrath, however, by overdubbing a female choir on to that recording, allegedly without The Byrds' consent. When the single then stalled at #132 on the Billboard charts the band decided that they would not work with Johnston again.
Read more about this topic: Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
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