Joseph Byrd, United States of America Bandleader, Dies at 87

Joseph Byrd, the co-founder, composer, and bandleader of the psych-rock outfit United States of America, has died, reports The New York Times. His family confirmed the news in a notice to The Los Angeles Times, stating that Byrd died on November 2 at home in Medford, Oregon. He was 87.

United States of America wrote songs that were equal parts hypnotic and otherworldly, pushing listeners to reconsider what they could take away from music. Although the band only released one album during their brief two-year-long run from 1967 to 1968, United States of America earned not just a cult following, but credit for their traceable impact on the evolution of psych-rock and experimental pop, likely influencing the wave of Krautrock that would follow as well as bands like Stereolab, Broadcast, and Portishead.

As the band’s co-founder alongside vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz, Byrd was an innovator in the psych-rock genre and, beforehand, a driven experimental composer in New York City and Los Angeles. Born on December 19, 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, Byrd was raised in Tucson, Arizona, where he learned how to play accordion and vibraphone, joined a number of pop and country bands, and tried his hand at writing song arrangements. Byrd quickly scaled his way through academics, going from University of Arizona to study composition, to a graduate program at Stanford University, before leaping to University of California, Berkeley. Over the years, Byrd studied under Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and eventually John Cage, the latter of whom spent additional time tutoring him in New York City.

Byrd felt at home in New York City’s flourishing arts scene, debuting his first concert in 1961 in Yoko Ono’s apartment thanks to a hand from La Monte Young. Later that same year, he worked as an assistant to composer Virgil Thomson and, come 1962, performed minimal music compositions during his own recital at Carnegie Hall. Byrd left for Los Angeles in 1963 with his then-girlfriend Dorothy Moskowitz. It was there that he joined the communist party, started a blues band with his new friend Linda Ronstadt, and began producing experimental arts events. Enthralled by the community and organizing shared happenings, Byrd was eager to dream up an even bigger project.

In 1967, Byrd co-created United States of America to see what would happen by combining avant-garde rock music with electronic sound, political radicalism, and performance art. Armed with early synthesizers and an eagerness for tape manipulation, United States of America paraded ahead to push the boundaries of prog-rock and psych-pop in the name of experimentalism. They recorded their first and only album, The United States of America, in December of that year with producer David Rubinson behind the board. Byrd co-wrote the majority of the songs and handled all of the electronic music, electric harpsichord, organ, calliope, piano, and synthesizer. Moskowitz sang lead vocals while Gordon Marron played electric violin and ring modulator, Rand Forbes played fretless electric bass, and Craig Woodson performed drums and percussion.