The American Metaphysical Circus
Byrd went on to release, as Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, The American Metaphysical Circus, in 1969. A very complex record for its time, featuring some of the earliest recorded extensive use of synthesizers in rock music, it was released on the classical-oriented Columbia Masterworks label (the Masterworks catalog of that period also included the soundtrack for the film The Owl and the Pussycat featuring music by the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears). The record rapidly achieved a cult following among listeners of psychedelic rock, sometimes compared to records by groups such as Pink Floyd. Byrd estimated in 2002 in conjunction with a filing in the infamous Napster music copyright case that likely over 100,000 copies of The American Metaphysical Circus had been sold, yet he had never received a penny of royalties from Columbia/CBS/Sony. Its sales were in fact sufficient to keep it in the Masterworks catalog for approximately twenty years, followed by CD (1996) and LP (1999) reissues. Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies never performed live.
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