I hadn’t heard that onhwy61---that’s some guitar power! Duke’s a great player, having recorded and played live with both Dylan and Lucinda Williams, and many others.
I neglected to mention Emitt Rhodes, who was a member of The Palace Guard at 16, and The Merry-Go-Round (hit song "Live", covered by The Bangles) at 17. He put out his fantastic debut solo album in 1970 (which sold well), and two more in the next two years (neither of which did). Unfortunately, he had signed a terrible contract requiring those two follow-up albums be delivered to his record company in six month intervals! When he didn’t deliver them on time, the company sued him for breach of contract, and withheld all future royalties. He had received not a dime in royalties until after "Lullaby" from the first album was used in The Royal Tenenbaums movie in 2002. An Emitt fan who happened to be an attorney filed suit on his behalf.
I remember long ago hearing The Byrds called America’s Beatles. I didn’t see the truth in that statement then, but I do now. Hugely influential Group, and not just with Tom Petty and R.E.M. The individual members (well, four out of five anyway. Drummer Michael Clarke was not much of a musician) possess more talent than any other Group/Band I can think of, save The Band. Unlike the members of The Band (except for Levon Helm, whose last album garnered him a well-deserved Grammy Award), however, the various Byrds made a lot of great music post-Byrds, some of it doing very well commercially, some not.
Jim/Roger McGuinn has made several solo albums, and continues touring for a living. Gene Clark left The Byrds in ’66 and made many albums, though none did very well. David Crosby is of course better known as a member of Crosby, Stills, & Nash (and sometimes Young), as well as a few solo albums and duets with his buddy Graham Nash.
Chris Hillman’s post-Byrds career has been a very fruitful one. I think of Chris as The Byrds’ George Harrison. He brought Gram Parsons into the Group as a replacement for Crosby, then left with Gram in ’68 to start The Flying Burrito Brothers. When that Band ended after two albums, Gram put out a couple of highly influential solo albums, developed a close relationship with Keith Richards and heroin, and died of an overdose. Fortunately for us he brought Emmylou Harris to our attention before doing so. Chris made a few great Bluegrass albums for the Sugar Hill label (audiophile quality recordings, original LP pressings readily available at better record stores), was a member of The Souther/Hillman/Furay (Richie, from Buffalo Springfield) Band, and then The Desert Rose Band, who were Country stars in the 90’s. He and DRB member Herb Pedersen have made several albums together as well. All great music by Chris, the best body of work by any of The Byrds imo.
When Chris and Gram left The Byrds, Roger brought in Clarence White, an astoundingly great and influential guitarist (as player of the B-Bender Telecaster, invented by drummer Gene Parsons---no relation, replacement for Mike Clarke in The Byrds). Clarence had been a professional musician from an early age, as member of the Bluegrass Group The Kentucky Colonels. He had also done a lot of session work, recording with The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, Randy Newman, Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie, even The Monkees! While loading his guitar into the van after a Byrds show he was hit by a car, and died. What a drag.
I can’t think of another Group/Band with so many members going on to do so much after their original entry into the music business.