The Byrds were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole consistent member. Although their time as one of the most popular groups in the world only lasted for a short period in the mid-1960s, the Byrds are considered by critics to be among the most influential rock acts of their era. Their signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly 12-string Rickenbacker guitar was "absorbed into the vocabulary of rock" and has continued to be influential.

Initially, the Byrds pioneered the musical genre of folk rock as a popular format in 1965, by melding the influence of the Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary and traditional folk music on their first and second albums and the hit singles "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "Mr. Tambourine Man". As the 1960s progressed, the band was influential in originating psychedelic rock.

The Name:  The Byrds were called the Jet Set when they first got together in 1964, named by group leader Roger McGuinn, who was fascinated by airplanes and flight.  When they signed to Columbia Records later that year, the band - all hard-core anglophiles*- had become the Beefeaters, after the royal guard in England, in an effort to pass themselves off as British.  They renamed themselves the Byrds on Thanksgiving Day that year, misspelling their name like the Beatle, where they would soon be compared to.  Drummer Michael Clarke recalled: "It was over Thanksgiving dinner, and everything was happening at the moment with the letter B - the Beach Boys, the Beatles.  We decided on Birds and then changed the "I" to a "y". It gave it a bit of flair, I think."

*An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. Wikipedia

Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The Grateful Dead is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psychedelia. The band is famous for their improvisation during their live performances, and have attracted a devoted fan base, known as "Deadheads". According to the musician and writer Lenny Kaye, the music of the Grateful Dead "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." For the range of their influences and the structure of their live performances, Grateful Dead are considered "the pioneering godfathers of the jam band world".

Grateful Dead was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area during the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s. The band's founding members were Jerry Garcia (lead guitar and vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, and vocals), Phil Lesh (bass guitar and vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums).

After Garcia's death in 1995, former members of the band, along with other musicians, toured as The Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and as The Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009. In 2015, the four surviving core members marked the band's 50th anniversary in a series of concerts that were billed as their last performances together.[17] There have also been several spin-offs featuring one or more core members, such as Dead & Company, Furthur, the Rhythm Devils, Phil Lesh and Friends, RatDog, and Billy & the Kids. 

The Name:The Grateful Dead were called the Warlocks, and in November 1965 they were sitting around Phil Lesh's apartment, in Palo Alto, California, considering the fact that there was apporently some other band called the Warlocks and they'd have to come up with a new name.  They came up with various ideas all of which got sillier and sillier, and in the end, literally, God's truth, they picked up the dictionary that was lying there, which was a Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, opened it up, and Jerry Garcia stabbed a finger in and it landed, honest to God, on "Grateful Dead."  The entry was a reference to a motif in folklore specifically explored by Francis Child, a turn-of-the-century British ethnomusicologist who classified ballads.  You know, those sort of English folk ballads.  In the grateful dead motif, a traveler is going along the, finds a body that's not being given a proper burial, resolves the debts of the body, and puts its spirit to rest, as it wereUsually he then encounters a rpresentation of that spirit which helps him in his own quest.They found it, and they looked at each other, from all accounts, and at least three band members said, "No, tat's too intense, that's too heavy, I don't like it." But it's also one of these things that once you get it, how can you not go with it? And obviously served them will.

Country Joe and the Fish was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley, California, in 1965. The band was among the influential groups in the San Francisco music scene during the mid- to late 1960s. Much of the band's music was written by founding members Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton, with lyrics pointedly addressing issues of importance to the counterculture, such as anti-war protests, free love, and recreational drug use. Through a combination of psychedelia and electronic music, the band's sound was marked by innovative guitar melodies and distorted organ-driven instrumentals which were significant to the development of acid rock.

The band self-produced two EPs that drew attention on the underground circuit before signing to Vanguard Records in 1966. Their debut album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, followed in 1967. It contained their only nationally charting single, "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine", and their most experimental arrangements. Their second album, I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die, was released in late 1967; its title track, with its dark humor and satire, became their signature tune and is among the era's most recognizable protest songs. Further success followed, including McDonald's appearance at Woodstock, but the group's lineup underwent changes until its disbandment in 1970. Members of the band continue in the music industry as solo recording artists and sporadically reconvene.

The Name:  Country Joe and the Fish were one of the most political of the Bay Area psychedelic bands.   Gutarist Joe McDonald explains 'In 1965 I was working on a magazine called Rag Baby with a guy named Ed Denson, who owned Takoma Records. We recorded "Fixing to Die Rag- skiffle band, kind of washboard, and washtub bass and stuff....Afterwards, Ed realized that we had to have some label copy and decided that, because he was into folk music and politics, he would call the group that we had assembled and recorded that day Country Mao and the fish.  I asked him why, and he said, "Because Mao Zedong had said that the revolutionaries move through the people like the fish through the sea."  And I said, "Hmm, wow, that's a little bit....dumb."  And he said, "Well Ok, we'll call it Country Joe and the Fish after Joseph Stalin. "I said, "OK, well, country Joe and the Fish sounds at least not as dumb as Country Mao and Fish."  Then it was released, and that was really the beginning of Country Joe and the Fish.