Joseph Byrd, leader of psych rock trailblazers The United States Of America, dies aged 87

Joseph Byrd, the composer and leader of the trailblazing psychedelic rock band The United States Of America, has died aged 87.

The news was confirmed by his family in a notice to the Los Angeles Times, which stated that he passed away suddenly on November 2 at his home in Medford, Oregon. No cause of death has been provided.

Byrd was the central architect of the highly influential group, who were formed in Los Angeles in 1967 and were credited with incorporating electronics, musique concrète and experimentation into psych rock.

Their sole album, which was self-titled and released in 1968, made use of early synthesisers and tape manipulation and is representative of the West Coast anti-commercial counterculture movement. It has been referenced by the likes of Stereolab, Julian Cope and Broadcast as a key influence and is remembered for pushing the boundaries of rock music, predicting later developments in experimental composition.

Byrd was born on December 19, 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky and studied with the avant-garde composers John Cage and LaMonte Young. His first live performance was at Yoko Ono’s New York loft and he was part of Cage’s Fluxus movement of radical live performances.

He founded The United States of America with his then-girlfriend Dorothy Moskowitz after relocating from New York to Los Angeles, but they broke up after one record.

Byrd recorded another influential record ‘The American Metaphysical Circus’ in 1969 under the name Joe Byrd And The Field Hippies, and later became a professor of American music at Cal-State Fullerton.

Among his work in later life was the creation of the robot sounds in the 1972 sci-fi classic Silent Running, which were largely credited for inspiring the Star Wars character R2-D2, and he also scored feature films from arthouse directors including Agnes Varda and Robert Altman.

Byrd is survived by his daughter Clarissa, two grandsons and his brother.

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