Mr. Tambourine Man is one of rock's greatest debut albums, with the frail, kindly, and basically anonymous voices weaving together in folkish harmonies to float in the sound, submerging the lyrics in a rush of pure electric energy. 

 Turn! Turn! Turn! was a hasty followup, but the band had plenty of material on hand, going back to the well for more Clark songs. 

 Fifth Dimension is the Byrds' most underrated album. Clark was gone by this point, but the band made up for the holes in the songwriting by turning up the guitars. It's an album of bold, expansive machine-head psychedelia. 

 Younger Than Yesterday is a smoother Byrds, with Chris Hillman bringing a straightforward country influence to "Time Between" and "Have You Seen Her Face." Unfortunately, the songs trail off halfway through. 

 The Notorious Byrd Brothers was Roger McGuinn's attempt to make his own Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper; he missed, but with producer Gary Usher, he came up with a unique and powerful elegy for Sixties idealism. 

 Greatest Hits downplays the band's weirdness, with too many Dylan covers, but still makes an excellent introduction, especially the expanded 1999 edition with the key album tracks "Have You Seen Her Face" and "Set You Free This Time."  

 For Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the Byrds became a totally different band, exploring the new frontier of country rock. New member Gram Parsons was the catalyst, as the band cut back on the electricity to embrace rootsy sounds. 

 Dr. Byrds has "Drug Store Truck Driving Man," a showcase for guitar picker Clarence White.  

 Easy Rider, the best of the later Byrds albums, has the oddly funky long-hair Jesus-freak anthem "Jesus Is Just All Right" and a beautiful reading of Woody Guthrie's "Deportee."  

 For Untitled, Kelly mostly dwells in the slow jams that made 12 Play a classic, but he effortlessly injects them with the electro-tinged sheen of contemporary club music and the trunk-rattling boom of Southern hip-hop.  

 The studio-slick Byrdmaniax continued to show a band in decline. 

 The last gasps: the largely live double album Untitled, the studio-slick Byrdmaniax, the tired Farther Along, the failed reunion Byrds. Preflyte was a collection of pre–Mr. Tambourine Man acousti 

 The last proper studio album, Farther Along is as tired as its immediate predecessors. 

 The last gasps: the largely live double album Untitled, the studio-slick Byrdmaniax, the tired Farther Along, the failed reunion Byrds. Preflyte was a collection of pre–Mr. Tambourine Man acousti 

 In the Beginning has largely different versions of material recorded before the Byrds' official debut album. 

 Never Before delivers many long-unreleased Byrds rarities. 

 The Byrds box set delivers singles, album cuts, and many rarities. (NEEDS REWRITE?) 

 Greatest Hits is a fizzy delight–and a good place for the uninitiated to start.  

 The complete collection of pre-Mr. Tambourine Man recordings, a must for fans, is Sundazed's The Complete Flyte. 

 A second box set, There Is a Season switches out a handful of old rarities for a few new ones.