Dead Byrds

The Byrds were a big deal back in the mid-Sixties. They were “America’s answer to the Beatles.” And they were actually quite good. I know it has been said that only two, Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman, were actually competent musicians. The rest were former folk singers. So, okay, vocal harmony was their strong suit. But unlike most everything else I bought back then, their album 5D still is enjoyable to listen to. They had the Right Stuff. They had the mysterious spiritual vision of the true artist. Or some of them did.

By 2000, only three of five Byrds were still alive. Gene Clark died at 46, basically of alcoholism. Michael Clarke died a couple of years later, also from alcoholism. His liver gave out. David Crosby survives, thanks to a liver transplant in 1994.

Chris Hillman today.

That leaves Jim McGuinn and Chris Hillman. Both still apparently healthy, and both still working musicians, if no longer famous. Both having become devout Christians.

Roger (Jim) McGuinn today.

It may just be coincidence. But I doubt it. There were only three ways out of the Sixties: sellout, suicide, or religion. The same might be said of artists; the same might be said of being depressed or “mentally ill.”