The Byrds - Lady Friend (live on The Tonight Show, 1967) 

most underrated Byrds song. Crosbys masterpiece.

This recording rebuts the claim that the original Byrds weren't great musicians. A knockout performance of a great song!

The Byrds had no peers when it came to making beautiful music .

This is very interesting, a pretty lively performance in which the band manages to be reasonably coordinated in terms of playing and singing. They were notorious for ragged live performances, but part of that is due to the subtlety and complexity of their sound which is hard to fashion in a live performance.

I remember taping this performance on a tape recorder when it was originally broadcast. Bob Newhart was the guest host that night, and it was obvious that he didn't appreciate or understand the new music that was beginning to take over the air waves ..... but I did ........

The Byrds were only human. This is better than some polished bands.

A pop music masterpiece

Was sky high waiting to see my heros , The Byrds performing live on The Tonight show. But living in Detroit at the time they broke into a news bulletin about the Detroit riots of 1967 just as they started to play and only returned to the show as the lasts notes of this song faded out -------------------- they did the same exact thing , on purpose i'm sure , for their second song . The bulletin was just repeating information that was already known . I have NEVER forgiven those bastards ! Was great to finally hear it on You Tube all these years later , even though it was quite an uneven performance .

I was a diehard Byrds fan and saw them that night.As I remember it, this was the second song of a 2 song set.The tuning was done between songs in order to produce the unique chord sequencing.It took a few nerve racking seconds to accomplish which caused Newhart to comment on the delay.

Magical moment, however raw. These make life worthwhile. Many thanks Higher Power for bringing us the gift.

Wonderful! I remember this program, and Crosby's "We tune because we care." The song knocked me out. For a long time I was frustrated because it was so hard to find the studio recording. I have a sense that I recorded it off the TV onto a little 3" reel to reel recorder we had, but I'm not sure of that, let alone whether the tape survives. But it's great to hear this again.

This is why the internet exists. THANK YOU for whoever preserved this recording, and THANK YOU LZNDCDNZL for uploading it! HOTDAMN.

Wow, it's fantastic that someone preserved this private recording for so long.

Any live Byrds performance is gold. I was in Thailand and quite happy when I learned Crosby had died. I listened to Suite Judy Blue Eyes and cried for about an hour.

RIP David Crosby

I put this version in my playlist with the demo, the mono single and the 1987 remix. Thanks for the upload!

Superb, a masterpiece. Congratulations for post this!

Interesting to hear this live version. Gary Ushers production is SUPERB with a Wall-of-sound of guitars and voices (no drums) and high volume allover. Really unique idea to mix it like that.

When the single came out in 1967, I loved the song but hated the mix. Crosby did too; he called it “mush”, and blamed it on producer Gary Usher. I don’t know about that; I wasn’t there. But Usher was an experienced producer and knew how to make great-sounding records. Crosby reportedly had a lot of control over the final mix, so go figure. Nevertheless, despite the chaotic mix, the power and majesty of the Byrds driving, chiming guitars and soaring vocals still came through. The song has tremendous energy, great motion in the melody, and would have - should have, actually - revived the Byrds’ Top 40 fortunes if Columbia hadn’t essentially abandoned them by that time. Truth be told, the Byrds never recovered from the vicious smear campaign against _Eight Miles High_ by the douche bag DJ who started the lie that it was a “drug song”. Columbia (owned by CBS) was spineless for not defending the Byrds on that one. The fraud campaign succeeded, and the Byrds’ reputation as a mainstream act never recovered. _Lady Friend_ was effectively Crosby’s swan song as a Byrd. Tensions in the band were already near the breaking point, and the commercial failure of _Lady Friend_ pushed everyone over the edge. They fired Crosby, and Mike Clarke was gone soon thereafter. I was sad to see it happen, but their legacy speaks for itself. Their work still influences many other musicians to this day. 😎

This actually sounds like 1967!

Amazing!!

AWESOME!

Thank you.

Neato - only heard this listed as happening, but glad to have the audio, if not video.

Thank you for this

Another wow. Wow.

Superb upload!

So much better than that mess at Monterey Pop.

Good to hear this without the clutter of the orchestration though the band is a bit rough, and the harmonies very dodgy. Great though, and the chiming 12 string is magnificent.

Do you have the SECOND song they sang on Tonight show--Crosby did a beautiful rennaissance fair!!

Thanks buddy

Wow I was searching this for the longest time and this is great. So this episode doesn't exist anymore? I once heard it was on some sort of Tonight show DVD package.

Thanks very much for uploading this great song. So Masakela was also there to do the trumpetparts?

Thank you kindly for recording and preserving this jem. Some joker in the CBS studio must have been using earplugs, when he dubbed those annoying horns which appear on this 8/67 single release of this song. Another major Hack job done to the Byrds, was in early '69, when they cut Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay", and went out to play gigs. Second CBS clown dubbed about thirty Church Choir singers, drowning the efforts of McGuinn to finally followup "My Back Pages", the Gosple single stiffed.

too bad there's no video not even a photo of this.

7/13/67 - Roger McGuinn’s 25th Birthday.

Do you have the SECOND song theydid... Crosby sang (no joke) Renaissance faire!

I saw this on TV.I shall never forget,"We tune because we care" from McGuinn.Johnny Carson was an ass to them.Very condescending,I thought.Best group ever.

Any particular reason they did TWO Crosby songs for something as big as "The Tonight Show"? Crosby also erased McGuinn's guitar track from the single, leaving Jim completely off the song while Crosby refused to appear on either "Goin' Back" or "Don't Make Waves".

Are the other tonight show songs posted on RU-vid?

second only to The Lee Shore

The horns were, at least in part, Crosby's idea.

shame video doesnt exist of this show...or does it?

裸のラリーズみたいだな

Honestly, as nice as this song is, this sounds like a dodgy TV talent quest performance from a wannabe band. But it is still an invaluable artifact that's been preserved. Thanks for taping it.

Who's on harmony alongside Crosby?

I have never heard a single person say they weren’t great musicians. Your making this up for your comment is pretty lame. Even odder is the fact this is one of their worst performances.

It was Roger with the tuning comment. N