The Byrds and the Airplane did fly

More Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967

The Byrds play after Moby Grape, and
David Crosby betrays Roger McGuinn for the last time.

Matters came to a head during the three-day Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967, where the Byrds were one of the acts in a line-up that included musical luminaries of the day such as Janis Joplin, the Jefferson Airplane, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix. During the Byrds' set, Crosby prosletyzed about the benefits of LSD and played with an STP sticker prominently displayed on his guitar. Moreover, Crosby prefaced the playing of the song "He Was a Friend of Mine" (McGuinn's tasteful eulogy to John F. Kennedy) by ranting that Kennedy had been shot from several different directions, that witnesses to the assassination had been killed by the conspirators, and that the whole affair had been covered up by the government. The other Byrds were embarrassed because Crosby's controversial pronouncements seemingly spoke for them all, and because his comments resulted in the exclusion of the Byrds from television and film coverage of the festival. As well, the next day Crosby performed as part of Buffalo Springfield without notifying his fellow Byrds in advance, an act the others viewed as one of open defiance and a betrayal of loyalty.

Maybe conspiracy theories on the JFK assassination were the 9/11 conspiracy theories of 40 years ago? I'm surprised that Crosby didn't offer a counterharmony to McGuinn's "from a sixth floor window" line by singing "from a number of different directions by different guns".

This onstage monologue led to David getting fired from the Byrds. They replaced his picture with a horse on the cover of Notorious Byrd Brothers,but at least he managed to escape the shadow government operatives that perpetuated the lone gunman theory!