I believe that many of you wouldn’t be on this page were it not for the recent passing of Joseph Byrd, pioneering and influential composer of electronic rock music. Our names are linked through our association with the United States of America band, self titled album released in 1968.
I learned of Joseph’s passing through his brother.
Joseph and I were partners before we became colleagues in the US of A. We met in 1963, when I was working at RCA Victor, my first job coming out of Barnard college. RCA had a policy of giving free tickets to employees to ‘paper the house’ if one of their artists weren’t selling out. My boss was producer for the lutenist Julian Bream and I found myself seated next a friend of mine, a member of our college cappella group. Her escort was Joseph. Joseph and I sparked and continued seeing each other. He invited me to switch jobs to work at Capitol Records, where we collaborated on The Life Treasury Of Christmas Music (1963), still a favorite of my family this time of year.
Joseph introduced me to a vast variety of musical styles and one of my lasting attachments was to the music of Joseph Spence. Here’s a new piece in Spence style that recounts the US of A band experiences (with lyrics co-written with Tim Lucas.) The outro features Spence himself. I had considered sending it to Joseph, but it wasn’t quite completed until after he passed away. I post it here to commemorate our recovering friendship of recent times.
Though each of us moved on to other sonic pursuits— more albums and later to teaching, the US of A recording is what we are most known for. We were idealistic youths, pushing the envelope of what was socially, and sonically, possible in the late 60s.
Love you both. May Joe find peace!