Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Hi Gene. None that I was able to discover. A lot of Gene's songs were
discarded once the folk-rock direction was set after "Mr. Tambourine
Man" became the hit. A lot of Gene's songs in the Pre-Flyte period were
very derivative of the British Invasion style rather than folk-rock. I
was amazed to hear those 7 pre pre-Flyte songs of Gene's that never
even made the pre-Flyte sessions. The man was prolific! "You Showed Me"
was among the songs the Jet Set trio were performing for friends at
the Troubadour Folk Den back in the summer of '64 so it's got quite a
history but didn't fit in once the group began to develop their
folk-rock style although one contemporary from the Ciro's period claims
they were playing "You Showed Me" during their famous Ciro's stand in
March/April 1965. 
  

    
What I was never able to discover were the songs Gene was writing
between the completion of the Turn! Turn! Turn! album and his departure
from the Byrds. That's a period of a few months and the only recorded
evidence of what he was composing remains "Eight Miles High". "The Day
Walk" ("Never Before") has always been regarded as his last Byrds
session but in fact dates from the Turn! Turn! Turn! session period
(September/October). Given Gene's prolific nature, he must have been
writing during that time. Byrds fans have often speculated on what
Gene's impact might have been on the Fifth Dimension album had he
stayed in the group. The songs he later released on his debut solo
album a year later are believed to have been composed after his
departure from the Byrds. So there is this intriguing gap. The aborted
sessions for Gene Clark & the Group in July 1966 might have contained
some songs held over from the Byrds period but perhaps not given the
fact that Gene might have composed a whole new repertoire for his new
situation (and a few songs that later appeared on his solo debut album
were in the Group's set list). Those session tapes have long since
disappeared, believed to have been thrown out inadvertently in the 80s.
So his immediate post-Byrds months will remain a tantalizing mystery.

Both McGuinn and Crosby felt that Gene might not have been comfortable
heading in the direction the group was going with Fifth Dimension and
later Younger Than Yesterday. As Roger noted, "Gene had that sort of
mature romantic lead kind of thing going. We lost that. I think we
gained some mobility. We were freer to explore different musical
directions because the grounding and the steadiness and anchoring Gene
gave us was sort of a drag on the whole thing. So we gained a dexterity
and flexibility to go flying into doing these other crazy things we
did. He would have gone along with it but he never was really into that
stuff. He had one sort of main thing that he did and that was the
romantic, poetic thing. That was Gene." And David Crosby stated, "We
were able to make at least one really good record without him [Younger
Than Yesterday] and we were able to perform well without him. But we
were better with him." The music world will continue to wonder how the
Byrds might have evolved had the original five members stayed together.
  

    
John, a deeply subjective question.  If you could go back in time and give 
Gene some advice at the moment he was deciding whether or not to quit the 
Byrds, what would it be?
  

    
Good question, Steve. Very thought-provoking. You know, from a purely
selfish perspective I guess, I think I would have advised Gene to try
to work it out with the other four Byrds and find a way to resolve the
conflicts and personality clashes between them and keep it together. If
it meant taking some time away from each then fine. I would have loved
the original five to have stayed together longer. They had the magic.
But hindsight is, of course, 20/20 and it's much easier to be a Monday
morning quarterback (or is that now Tuesday morning because of Monday
night football?).

Clearly, Gene wasn't about to stay nor could he likely have done so
given his inability to deal with the pressures on him by that point.
It's easy to suggest he should have but he was in no state of mind to
do so. He needed guidance, support and help to deal with those
pressures and there was nothing like that at the time. The realities of
the music business dictated that the whirlwind the Byrds were engulfed
in continue. 'If Gene isn't fitting in, jettison him and move on. You
have fans to appease, tours, recordings, photo sessions. No time to
pause and reflect.' Gene was a square peg and the music industry only
had round holes. That regimen ruined many groups at that time. No one
was looking at the long haul or sustaining career growth, or even
willing to deal with someone clearly suffering a mental breakdown. The
reality of 1966 was that Gene had little choice but to bail out.
  

    
Even though Gene felt he had to get out of the Byrds by early 1966 and
believed for a time that he could ultimately escape the Byrds tag and
rise above the group or at least establish himself as an artist on his
own merits, in later years he came to regret his rash decision to quit.
It haunted him the rest of his life.
  

    
This is another hindsight speculation into the Gene Clark/Byrds
situation, but maybe a good compromise would have been to have Gene
write for and record with the band, but not tour with them -- or at
least do any touring involving flying, which probably would have
confined his appearances to California. I think, however, had this even
come up at the time, it would have been considered an unacceptable
solution. Brian Wilson was able to work out such a situation with the
Beach Boys, but that was different as the Beach Boys were much more
dependent upon Wilson creatively than the Byrds were upon any one
member, and would thus be more willing to accommodate him.

Also, I think concerts/TV appearances were considered essential to
maintaining a band's profile, and it would not have been considered
acceptable by the label, management, group, and most of the audience
for the band to be playing live without one of their members -- one of
their more important ones, at that. I was just reading, for instance,
at how Brian Jones missed four shows or so during one of the Rolling
Stones' first US tours, and a lot of the audience actually walked out
at one of them when it was announced at the start that he wouldn't be
appearing. Too, the band was so livid at his absence -- and he was
hospitalized, it wasn't as if he had just walked out without warning --
there was even thought of firing him.

John, there is a very interesting story in the book relating to
Clark's departure. Roger McGuinn has said that when Jim Dickson was
very ill about 25 years ago, he confessed to Roger that "it wasn't
Gene's fear of flying that was the reason for Gene's departure, but
actually Dickson and [Byrds co-manager Eddie] Tickner were grooming him
to become an Elvis Presley solo artist. Dickson told me that, but he
denies it now." You go into this a little more in the book, but could
you speculate on what might have been going on with this?
  

    
I think the Elvis reference was more along the lines of creating a
single solo artist as opposed to another group. In other words,
grooming Gene for solo success like Elvis, not creating an Elvis
Presley out of Gene. There is no doubting that Gene had that
smolderingly intense good looks that would appeal to teenage girls but
he was hardly Elvis material. It was the Elvis reference that rankled
Dickson when I raised Roger's story with him.

Do I think Dickson was looking to launch Gene apart from the Byrds?
Likely. He knew Gene was no longer happy nor comfortable in the group
so why not spin him off on his own? Do I think that's the reason Gene
bailed out on the Byrds? No. If that was, indeed, the scenario then
Dickson and his partner Eddie Tickner would have rushed Gene into the
studio and rush-released a solo single to capitalize on the publicity
surrounding his departure and launched his solo career from that
platform. The fact that they didn't do so and that Gene's debut solo
single appeared in December, a full eight months after his leaving the
group points to flaws in that game plan. But, then again, Dickson might
have been hoping/planning on Gene launching a solo career soon after
the Byrds but discovered the reality that Gene was a psychological mess
incapable of even being in public let along launching a career and,
thus, had to scuttle any big plans.

I never doubted Roger's story but Jim Dickson was vehement in his
protests that this was never the case. However I do think that where
there's smoke, there's fire. It may have been in Dickson's mind in
early 1966. After all, he and Eddie Tickner continued working with Gene
for another year.
  

    
More fascinating thoughts, John.  Fast-forwarding a few years to the
No Other album, a couple of questions:  How much of an impact do you
think Thomas Jefferson Kaye had on the sound and overall feel of that
record?  And while Ea O'Leno had a *glamorous* concept in mind with the
album cover artwork, what are your feelings about that cover --
particularly the back jacket shot -- and how it related (if at all) to
where Gene was in his life/career at that point?
  

    
I have to confess, Dave, that I still find the No Other album cover
unsettling. I remember when No Other was released looking at the cover
at my local record store and hesitating in purchasing it, despite being
a dedicated Gene Clark fan with all his recorded work to that point.
My initial impression was that Gene was going glam rock and was
uncertain of what kind of music to expect. I must admit, No Other did
take some time to connect with me. Stylistically it was far removed
from anything he had released previously and I thought the arrangements
and embellishments swamped Gene's thoughtful songs.

I was fascinated to pick up the UK CD re-release of No Other a couple
of years ago to hear the tracking versions of the songs. For those who
don't know about it, the UK CD has as many bonus tracks as original
tracks and besides an attempt at "Train Leaves Here This Morning" (that
[pales in comparison to the Dillard & Clark original) the bonus tracks
are what is called tracking sessions where the basic backing tracks
were laid down before overdubbing. What you really get to hear is
likely how Gene originally conceived the songs sounding and I must
confess (I'm doing that a lot in this post!) I prefer the tracking
takes to the final versions without the banshee wailing choruses,
screaming electric violin and fuzz guitars. But, then again, I much
prefer Gene in a back-to-basic approach.

There is no doubting that Tommy Kaye had a profound impact in shaping
No Other. It remains a production masterpiece. But, personally, some of
it is a bit too over the top for me. I was startled by the album back
in late 1974 and still feel that way today. What I found fascinating
was interviewing several of the players on the tracking sessions and
their thoughts on working with Gene and those songs. Gene was focused
like a laser beam and on top of his game, no cocaine/cosmic cowboy
nonsense in the studio as is often suggested.

I've had the opportunity to hear a number of the No Other songs
performed by Gene acoustically or with a small ensemble on live tapes
and they only reinforce my feeling that the songs themselves were among
his best and didn't need to be smothered in over-production. Just my
taste, though, and taste is relative.

Gene and Tommy Kaye made a more satisfying effort with their next
project, Two Sides To Every Story, wherein Tommy kept his production
excesses in check. I tend to like that album a bit more than No Other
even though it's a bit uneven (unlike No Other which has a consistency
from start to finish). I think the Two Sides album is highly under
rated, especially when one learns the circumstances in which the songs
were composed and recorded.
  

    
At that point in Gene's life I think he was looking to step into the
big time with No Other finally confirming his talents so he agreed to
the ornate cover. The record label lavished a large sum of money on
that album and Gene and Tommy wanted a cover that matched the grandiose
musical vision on the vinyl, hence that rococco/art deco/30s-meets-70s
glam cover art. And Gene Clark, Mr. Country/folk rock, in women's
clothes and eye makeup?? Yikes! Somebody goofed.
  

    
I love Chris Hillman's assessment of Gene's image on the No Other
sleeve: “Whoever directed him to wear that hideous makeup and drag
queen stuff on the No Other album cover? It was like a guy walking over
the abyss and someone telling him, ‘Go this way.’” 
  

    
Oh, country rock is full of people who look like drag queens.  They just
usually happen to be women.  :)
  

    
John, I'd be really curious to hear your thoughts on the myriad groups
that came out of the Byrdsian nexus, from CSNY to the various
McGuinn/Hillman etc. conjunctions to Manassas to...
  

    
That's a tall order, Steve, but I'll give it a shot. When I was
writing my previous book "Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock" I
toyed with the idea of a pullout or centrefold family tree á la Pete
Frame's Rock Family Trees which I've always loved. But once I began
roughing such a tree out it became so unwieldy and voluminous that it
proved impractical for the book. But a lot of the lines that spread out
across the family tree originated or emanated from the Byrds. In terms
of California folk-rock/country/rock/singer-songwriter music, they are
the granddaddies.

I was a CSN fan right from their debut album in '69. Their harmonies
were astounding and their sound, a rootsy acoustic style, was
refreshing and innovative. In point of fact I've always been more of a
CSN fan than a CSNY fan. I like Neil Young's music, certainly, but I
was less enamoured with the rock edge he brought to CSN, preferring
their innovative self-titled debut album to Deja Vu. The Stills-Young
guitar duels never really appealed to me. I think CSN was in many ways
a logical extension of what David Crosby was doing in the Byrds on
Younger Than Yesterday and Notorious Byrd Brothers (despite his lack of
credit on that album), the lighter sound with jazz leanings and lush,
distinctive harmonies. I think CSN, in the long run, had a much greater
impact than CSNY, although the latter was definitely a more appealing
live act.

I also was a fan of the Flying Burrito Brothers, especially the
writing team of Hillman and Gram Parsons. I think Chris really started
to come into his own in the Burritos by having to step forward and
ultimately accept the reins when Gram foundered. Hillman and Parsons
were able to take traditional country/honky tonk music into a
contemporary rock music context and their goal of attempting to bring
an appreciation for country music to the young masses admirable. They
ultimately succeeded through the various antecedents of the Burritos,
namely the Eagles. But the Burritos were on the cutting edge of what
would become country rock.

Chris's stint with Manassas, despite being Stephen Stills’ right hand
man, really provided him the launching pad for his own success as a
recognized artist in his own right. He and Stephen together were a
strong creative team and the stellar musicians in the group are among
the best players Chris has worked with. Unfortunately his elevation to
name status with the Souther, Hillman, Furay Band was ill-conceived and
short lived. But Chris, nonetheless, emerged as a star in is own right
and has since gone on to acclaim and success on his own terms.

I must confess I wasn't much of a fan of Roger McGuinn's solo albums
(or With Band) following the Byrds. He seemed to lose direction and
spark. Never the best writer in the Byrds, his solo albums only
reinforced that. McGuinn, Clark & Hillman didn't do it for me either.
Too contrived and calculated as well as too contemporary (Byrds disco
dance music??) for me. Give me that Rickenbacker jingle jangle and
Crosby harmonies.

Ironically I really enjoyed Michael Clarke's next stint in the
spotlight with Firefall, although Michael was relatively disposable to
the band's sound. But I thought ex-Burrito Rick Roberts took the
Burritos latter day style in a more commercial direction creating a
body of soft country-influenced 70s pop/rock that remains appealing.
Firefall was kind of like Eagles-lite.

Gram Parsons' two solo albums remain absolute classics of contemporary
country music (not necessarily country rock, a term Gram loathed). He
found the magic formula after faltering with the Burritos. Too bad not
enough people heard that music at the time. Maybe Gram might still be
alive if he had achieved at least a modicum of commercial attention.
Nonetheless his legacy remains in the current alt. country crew today.

Gene, of course, never got to taste the successes or near successes of
his former band mates (ironically even Michael scaled the heights
again with Firefall) and was the odd Byrd out (“Lester Byrd”).
Certainly David Crosby achieved the greatest success surpassing even
the  Byrds in terms of commercial and monetary success. But, as Roger
said to me, the Byrds tag was tough to shake. “The Byrds did cast a big
shadow. Only David Crosby has escaped it, and maybe Chris Hillman with
the Desert Rose Band, I guess. My solo career hasn’t been able to
escape the shadow of the Byrds, and Gene and Michael didn’t either.”

As I’ve stated previously, the Byrds influence continues to be felt
long after the group folded, both in the offshoot bands and in the
artists who have drawn influence from the Byrds and those offshoots.
How many bands have enjoyed that kind of impact?
  

    
Very well put, John, thanks.

I have been a CSN fan ever since wandering into a sandal shop in 1970 or
so and hearing "Guinnevere."  I too believe that CSN was a glorious
continuation (well, mostly glorious) of what Croz was doing with such
gorgeous Byrds tracks as "Everbody's Been Burned" and "It Happens Each
Day" -- in fact, going back to "The Airport Song" on PreFlyte.

The first Manassas album is a frickin' masterpiece, extending many of the 
tropes of Springfield (country-rock, Latin, electric folk) in luminous new 
directions.  And the second album, well, isn't quite as horrible as I felt 
when it was released.

I saw Firefall when I was at Oberlin, and it was a very warm, sweet, 
spirited show.  As America was to CSNY, Firefall was to...  oh never mind.  
;-)

I picked up the first Souther/Hillman/Furay album when it came out, 
listened to it five times, and found it really uninspiring considering the 
talent amassed in that band.  A missed opportunity for sure.

I have liked some of McGuinn's solo stuff -- is that "Folk Den" album any 
good? -- but yeah, none of it strikes me as magnficent, alas.

I did like the Byrds reunion album a lot more than most people -- 
including the band, apparently.
  

    
I'm a little tougher on the Byrds reunion album probably because my
expectations were so high. I anticipated a "Byrds-sounding" album, not
an Asylum Records singer/songwriter album which it is more akin to. It
just doesn't sound like the Byrds. Certainly Gene and David offer the
strongest performances, Roger and Chris the weakest (both admit they
were holding their best songs back in anticipation of solo albums to
spin off the reunion). Everyone involved admitted after the fact that
one of the problems was that they did not play together enough before
the sessions and during the actual recording. Too piecemeal; no unity. 

David Crosby offered an honest assessment of the reunion album
experience to me. “The biggest problem was me. I had by that time been
in and part of the biggest group in the country and I was a raving
success. And I didn’t have the smarts to underplay that. Maybe I did,
but I didn’t do it enough. The way the chemistry works with the Byrds
is that Roger’s gotta be in charge. That’s what has to happen; that’s
how it works. But I had chafed under that before and had wanted a
bigger role and more of a say in how things went. So when we got
together I came to it from that position. I don’t think I was anywhere
near careful enough of their feelings. Actually, we made a much better
record than anyone gave us credit for, but there were mistakes in the
making of it that I made, things that could have been done better.”
  

    
John, what do you think are the best covers of Gene Clark songs,
although there really haven't been all that many?
  

    
Probably the best-known covers are Tom Petty's version of "I'll Feel A
Whole Lot Better" and the Eagles' "Train Leaves Here This Morning". I
guess the Turtles' "You Showed Me" qualifies since Gene co-wrote it.
But you are correct, there have not been a lot of covers of Gene's
songs and I'm probably not the best person to ask. I must admit to
really liking the Full Circle Gene Clark tribute double CD that was
released by US-based Not Lame Records a couple of years ago featuring
many alt/indie artists. It's worth checking out. It's too bad Gene's
songs didn't get covered by other artists, though, songs like "Gypsy
Rider" or "Del Gato". I do like Linda Ronstadt's "She Darked The Sun"
although I think she retitled it "He Darked The Sun". Country Gazette
covered "Tried So Hard" and "Keep On Pushing" and did an okay job of
each. The Burrito's version of "Tried So Hard" is probably better known
than Gene's original version and a favourite of mine as well. Roxy
Music, This Mortal Coil, and Husker Du covered Gene songs but I've not
heard them. 
  

    
Fairport Convention did a good version of "Tried So Hard" in 1968. One
of the reasons it's not well known is that was done for the BBC, not
for a studio release, and wasn't released at the time, though it came
out in the 1980s on their "Heyday" BBC collection (which is still
available on CD, with bonus tracks). I imagine Fairport were among the
few people in the UK who'd heard the first Gene Clark album. That fits
in with their general approach in their early days, though, which was
heavy on a repertoire gathered from obscure US folk-rock records.

There have been quite a few covers of "Eight Miles High" (which was
credited to Clark, Crosby, and McGuinn), including ones by Crowded
House, Golden Earring, East of Eden, the Ventures, Roxy Music, Husker
Du, and Shockabilly. My favorites are the ones by Steve Marcus
(psychedelic proto-jazz-rock on an obscure late-'60s album) and Leo
Kottke.
  

    
Leo Kottke, too, has covered "Eight Miles High."

That's an admirably honest and self-implicating assessment by Croz of
at least some of the reason for the failure of the Byrds' reunion.
Thanks for posting it, John.  
  

    
Whoops! Kottke slip, obviously.
  

    
Thanks Richie and Steve. I think, though, that when artists were
covering "Eight Miles High" they were covering a Byrds song more than a
Gene Clark song. 

It's unfortunate that Gene's song publishers were not hustling his
songs more aggressively. While his reputation with record companies
hampered his own recording career, his songwriting never diminished in
quality and his songs should have been picked up by others to record. I
am surprised, as are others, that Emmylou Harris never recorded one of
Gene's songs. 

I understand that Chris Hillman's new CD, released next month I
believe, includes a version of "Eight Miles High". Carla Olson, Gene's
former singing partner in the 80s, is also among the guests on the
album.
  

    
The John Coltrane influence on "Eight Miles High" is so often
referenced it's become a cliche' in rock-crit writing, but you know, I
can't think of a single cover of the song by a jazz artist. Wouldn't
you love to hear someone like Ornette Coleman, Branford Marsalis or
McCoy Tyner tackle it?  
  

    
I had the opportunity to hear the Coltrane song that influenced
Roger's guitar figure in "Eight Miles High" and it's uncanny just how
much he "borrowed" from it. It's more than a cliched comment in bios (I
thought the same as well until I heard it). And certainly the middle
guitar break is reminiscent of free form jazz soloing, unstructured and
'out there', an avalanche of notes rather than riffs or guitar
patterns. Yes, it would be interesting to hear a real jazzer cover the
song.

I remember quite vividly the first time I heard "Eight Miles High" on
my transistor radio in the spring of 1966 and it's one of those moments
where time stands still and you realize you have no reference or
context for the sounds coming from your radio. From that opening
throbbing bass line to that repeating bass string single note on the
rhythm guitar to McGuinn's siren call lead guitar line I had never
heard anything remotely similar to it. Even "Mr. Tambourine Man" and
"Turn! Turn! Turn!" had a context you could relate to, a basic rock
pattern and instrumentation, verse/chorus. It wasn't alien, although
innovative. But "Eight Miles High"? In the spring of 1966 it was like
music from outer space for a teenage kid in Winnipeg, Canada.
  

    <scribbled by jonsson Tue 3 May 05 01:41>