The Byrds: Mr Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Fifth Dimension, Younger Than Yesterday

ROCK HISTORY IS STRIATED BY THE INFLUENCE OF The Byrds. Theirs is one of the great stylistic lineages, forever shadowing those of the Fabs and the Stones. Without them we would never have had Big Star, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, R. E. M., The Stone Roses or Teenage Fanclub – that blissed-out, churningly harmonic, quintessentially white sound which continues to thrive in the age of Britpop. Come to that, we would never have had Dillard And Clark, Crosby, Stills And Nash, The Flying Burrito Brothers and a dozen other folk-country-rock aggregations of the late '60s. "Influential" is the understatement of the epoch.