[10] Following the departure of Gram Parsons from the band, lead guitarist Roger McGuinn and bass player Chris Hillman decided that they needed to find a replacement member to meet their forthcoming concert obligations.

[11][12] With an appearance at the Newport Pop Festival looming, McGuinn and Hillman moved quickly to recruit noted session guitarist and longtime Byrd-in-waiting, Clarence White.

[12] White, who had played as a session musician on the Byrds' previous three albums, was invited to join the band as a full-time member in July 1968.

[15][16] John York, a session musician who had toured with Johnny Rivers, the Sir Douglas Quintet, and the Mamas & the Papas, was hired as his replacement on bass.

[10] The new band line-up, featuring McGuinn and White's dual guitar work, was regarded by critics and audiences as much more accomplished in concert than any previous configuration of the Byrds had been.

McGuinn felt that it would be too confusing for fans of the Byrds to have the unfamiliar voices of the new members coming forward at this stage and so White, Parsons and York were relegated to backing vocal duties during the recording of the album.

[4] The October recording sessions also yielded "Bad Night at the Whiskey", a song that would go on to be issued as the A-side of a single two months before the album.

[16][21] Named after a disappointing gig at the Whisky a Go Go and co-written by Joey Richards, a friend of McGuinn's, "Bad Night at the Whiskey" featured allusive lyrics that bore little or no relationship to the song's title.

[20] "Stanley's Song", written by McGuinn and his friend Robert J. Hippard also dates from these sessions, but it was eventually discarded and did not appear in the final track listing for Dr. Byrds & Mr.

[21] Another composition recorded during the October 1968 sessions was the McGuinn and Gram Parsons penned "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man".

[4][16] The song had been written by the pair in London in May 1968, before Parsons' departure from the band, and was inspired by the hostility shown towards the Byrds by legendary Nashville DJ Ralph Emery when they appeared on his WSM radio program.

[4][8] The song's barbed lyric contains a volley of Redneck stereotypes, set to a classic country 3/4 time signature and begins with the couplet, "He's a drug store truck drivin' man/He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan.

"[33] In more recent times, critic Mark Deming has stated in his review for the AllMusic website that the album "proved there was still life left in the Byrds, but also suggested that they hadn't gotten back to full speed yet.

"[10] Andy Gill of Mojo was less generous, describing it as "a patchy album whose title all too aptly suggested the confusion about the group's direction, an uneasy mix of heavyish rock and country stylings."