The American Metaphysical Circus is a landmark psychedelic recording of the late 1960's, largely unparalleled in having remained in print for nearly 20 years. It was recorded by Joseph "Joe" Byrd after his departure from the band The United States Of America, and featured some of the earliest recorded work in rock music utilizing extensive use of synthesizers and vocoder, along with an extended group of West Coast studio musicians he named as Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies. Musical Overview The album is most noted for "The Sub-Sylvian Litanies" which opened Side A. This three part-suite has been described as [LINK: http://archive.salon.com/tech/letters/2002/04/26/joe_byrd/index.html] [1] "an entire acid trip in 11 minutes". Other album highlights include the similarly-oriented "The Elephant At The Door", and the politically-charged "Invisible Man", written for and aimed squarely at President Lyndon B