While recording their fifth album, Byrds guitarist David Crosby was fired and drummer Michael Clarke quit. According to legend, for the album-cover photo, the band erased Crosby's face -- and replaced him with a horse. But despite the internal drama, the Byrds made Notorious a warm, gentle comedown for Sixties children facing up to the morning after the Summer of Love. The sound is melancholic but friendly, blending spacey studio effects and Moog synthesizers with guitars, strings and horns to build the elegiac mood of "Draft Morning" and "Goin' Back" as well as the optimistic surge of "Dolphin's Smile" and "Natural Harmony." (Rolling Stone)
Total album sales: Under 500,000
Peak chart position: 47

The recording sessions for the Byrds' fifth album were conducted in the midst of internal turmoil that found them reduced to a duo by the time the record was completed. That wasn't evident from listening to the results, which showed the group continuing to expand the parameters of their eclecticism, while retaining their hallmark guitar jangle and harmonies. With assistance from producer Gary Usher, they took more chances in the studio, enhancing the spacy quality of tracks like "Natural Harmony" and Goffin-King's "Wasn't Born to Follow" with electronic phasing. Washes of Moog synthesizer formed the eerie backdrop for "Space Odyssey," and the songs were craftily and unobtrusively linked with segues and fades. But the Byrds did not bury the essential strengths of their tunes in effects: "Goin' Back" (also written by Goffin-King) was a magnificent and melodic cover, with the expected tasteful 12-string guitar runs, that should have been a big hit. "Tribal Gathering" has some of the band's most effervescent harmonies; "Draft Morning" is a subtle and effective reflection of the horrors of the Vietnam War; and "Old John Robertson" looks forward to the country-rock that would soon dominate their repertoire. (by Richie Unterberger , AMG)