It’s becoming increasingly obvious, with every passing year and with every passing trend, that The Byrds were just about the greatest rock’n’roll band America ever produced. Sure, I bet lots of other musicians in 1964 were inspired enough after first viewing A Hard Day’s Night to want to throw together their very own guitar gangs. and Yes, from a half-century-plus perspective the bridging of Dylan’s words with the Beatles’ licks and hair-do’s was a hybrid just itching to happen. But it took a pack of visionary crazies like The Byrds to not only pull it off, but actually shove it right up to the top of the charts for all to hear, see, and forever be amazed by. Hard to believe that within a year of that first Beatle movie, Messrs. McGuinn, Clark, Crosby, Hillman and Clarke had the Number One record on the planet with the still contemporary-sounding “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
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Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 