As big a Byrds fan as I am, I’m surprised I’ve never covered Gene Clark. Recently, I’ve started to listen to more of his solo work. Clark was in the Byrds from 1964 to 1966. He was one of the main songwriters of the band, along with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby. He wrote or co-wrote songs such as I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better, Eight Miles High, She Don’t Care About Time, and more. One of the reasons he quit the band was that he would get physically sick while flying in airplanes.
Aphoristical is one of the few bloggers who talk about him. I can certainly see why now, I went through a lot of his catalog, and it was hard to get it down to one song….so I added two. Great, singing and songwriting. I think he should, at least, get some recognition that past him by during his life. He has Byrds’ jangly music, Americana, Folk, Country, and more.
I listened to his album No Other and was floored… It’s great through and through. I have the Spotify link at the bottom, and here is a link for it on YouTube. No Other was the title track from his 1974 album. I don’t talk about albums much, but I would consider this a masterpiece that wasn’t appreciated in its time but gained cult status years later. He blended rock, folk, country, gospel, and even a touch of funk and psychedelia. Jesse Ed Davis and Danny Kortchmar were on guitar, plus Jim Gordon on drums. The artist Beck has sited this album as a huge inspiration.
The other song, the 1970 song One in a Hundred sounds like The Byrds, and there is good reason for that. This was during Clark’s attempt to form a Byrds reunion with original members. All five original Byrds contributed to the track, making it the first time since 1966 that the original lineup recorded together. The song was unreleased for several years, as the reunion project failed without a label’s support. It was finally released on Gene Clark’s 1973 Dutch-only LP Roadmaster. The Byrds did reunite in 1973 but they didn’t match this song.
No Other
All alone you say that you don’t want no otherSo the Lord is love and love is like no otherIf the falling tide can turn and then recoverAll alone we must be part of one another
All alone you say, the power is perfectionIs the power of peace or merely the connectionTo the God of love that powers the protectionFrom the tide of life that flows in each direction
When the stream of changing daysTurns around in so many waysThen the pilot of the mind must findThe right direction
All alone you say that you don’t want no otherSo the Lord is love and love is like no otherIf the falling tide can turn and then recoverAll alone we must be part of one another
When the stream of changing daysTurns around in so many waysThen the pilot of the mind must findThe right direction
All alone you say that you don’t want no otherAll alone you say that you don’t want no otherAll alone you say that you don’t want no otherAll alone you say that you don’t want no other
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