The Gene Clark Album-by Album Thread

Bowing to popular demand (ie, a couple people have expressed interest) here is the Gene Clark album-by-album thread. More accurately, the recording-by-recording thread, as it will cover unreleased tracks and tracks appearing only on compilations as well as his regular albums. I intend to go in chronological order of recording (not release) since in Clark's case tracks often were not released until years after he'd recorded them.

Gene Clark started with the New Christy Minstrels. I believe he appears on some of their records, but I don't think he's featured prominently on any of them and I haven't heard them anyway. So we'll be starting with the Byrds. But here's film of a concert in which he appears with the NCM. Look for Gene getting a brief solo turn at the 2:00 mark:

 

In early 1964 Gene quit the NCM and around the middle of the year he hooked up with McGuinn and Crosby and formed the Byrds. After acquiring Hillman and Clarke they started rehearsing and recording around the middle of that year.

The Preflyte tracks were recorded in the latter half of 1964, primarily as rehearsals/demos for the newly formed band. Two tracks, "Please Let Me Love You" and "Don't Be Long" were released as a single in October 1964 under the band name "The Beefeaters." The first extensive release of tracks from these sessions was the Preflyte album in 1969. Since then, there's been In the Beginning (1988), The Preflyte Sessions (2001) and Preflyte Plus (2012). It would take a FAR better person than me to sort out all the various different versions and mixes of tracks that appear on these various releases. At any rate, there are seventeen songs that have been released from these recordings, and they are listed below. I've organized them into those written solely by Gene Clark (*), cowritten by Clark (**) and not written by Clark.



1. The Reason Why*
2. She Has A Way*
3. Here Without You*
4. I Knew I’d Want You*
5. Boston*
6. Tomorrow Is A Long Ways Away*
7. For Me Again*
8. You Movin’*

9. You Won’t Have To Cry**
10. You Showed Me**
11. Please Let Me Love You**
12. The Only Girl I Adore**
13. It’s No Use**

14. Don’t Be Long
15. The Airport Song
16. Mr. Tambourine Man
17. The Times They Are A-Changin' (instrumental only)

These recordings are obviously rehearsals, not polished performances. Gene Clark is literally still finding his voice here, as he often sings in a higher register than would become customary for him the following year. He also affects a sorta British accent on some tracks, showing the obvious Beatles influence. For the most part, the Byrds did a good job of selecting the best songs to re-record for their first album. Some of the other songs here are not so great: "You Movin'" has silly lyrics, "Boston" is an attempt at a rocker that doesn't really work, and "The Only Girl I Adore" is a shameless Beatles pastiche. But there are also some very good tracks. "The Reason Why" is my favorite, a prototype Clark song about heartbreak. "For Me Again" is a song the Everlys should have covered... a musically downbeat song with upbeat lyrics that would have been perfect for them. "You Showed Me" has a beautiful melody and of course was a big hit when the Turtles covered it. The lyrics are not the best, which is perhaps why the Byrds never did a proper version of it in 1965.

 

Cool how Gene's voice cuts through the soup in that clip. Looking forward to the thread.

 

You can hear how his voice stood out there, so much character and maturity, in spite of his age.
I believe that's Barry McGuire singing right after Gene's solo.

 

I've always loved You Movin' though it's certainly not deep. But then I thought the Beatles hit their stride with She Loves You and continued at a more or less consistent level after that.

 

Preflyte has some fun moments & I enjoy the energy on display here, but I don't feel that it really measures up to what the band was doing by the time Mr. Tambourine Man was made. I think "You Showed Me" might be my favorite from these sessions.

 

For Me Again is the standout track (of Gene´s) here.

The next year there was a superior and absolutely great version of Here Without You, of course...

 

While the recordings and arrangements are not up to their subsequent standards, I do really enjoy all the tracks except:

Boston
Tomorrow Is A Long Ways Away
Please Let Me Love You
The Only Girl I Adore

 

I agree with "For Me Again." I'm not a big fan of the Preflyte stuff by any means. Maybe it's because I heard the sessions first, but all that repetition of some relatively simple songs bored me silly.

 

For Me Again could easily sit on the MTM album - it's a great track. Airport Song is probably my favourite track in terms of performance - it's very accomplished and again could have sat on that album. You Showed Me is my favourite actual song but it is so frustrating that they never nailed a definitive take of the song. I love the instrumental version on Preflyte Sessions but alas no vocals. Again, this song really should have been on MTM, hell it should of been their first single!

The other songs are fun to hear but don't really stand up to their other work. Gene was clearly very prolific at this point though and could provide a whole albums worth of tracks. Must of been fascinating to be around when Preflyte first came out - anyone remember how it felt hearing this stuff back in 1969?

 

Wow, no love for "The Only Girl I Adore"?

This song has great meaning to me, and has ever since I first found it on the Early L.A. album, which came out on the Together label around the same time as the original Preflyte. (That album, by the way, also featured an alternate version of "You Movin'" that I preferred to the Preflyte version, mostly because of McGuinn's funky 12-string solo, which had much more abandon than anything he played during this era.)

Anyway, I had a band that started in early 1972 — a group of guys that became lifelong friends (we have got together at least once every year since we graduated in 1973 to make music again...we've never missed a year from then to now). This song was one of the first ones we learned, played at gigs and recorded (primitively). I loved it then, and I love it now...I don't care how derivative it may be. To me, I hear the same soul and sincerity shining through it that I hear in so many of Gene's songs. I sing the lower backing harmony, and I can tell you that when the end of the bridge comes, with our Crosby proxy soaring high on "can be real," it's still a transcendent moment for me.

The Preflyte album was huge for us. We also did its arrangements of "Here Without You" (three-part instead of two-part harmony like the MTM version), "She Has a Way" and "I Knew I'd Want You."

I also love "The Reason Why" and the original "You Showed Me" (which I'm doing in my current acoustic duo)...and loved "Tomorrow Is a Long Ways Away" and "Please Let Me Love You" when I heard them for the first time years later on In the Beginning.

And finally, most especially "For Me Again." For 1964, this is just so deep, so beautiful, so unlike anything else of its era.

I love most anything Gene Clark has ever done, but these early gems will always have a special place in my heart.

 

Obviously, they're still learning in the Pre-Flyte era. But it is remarkable how the better material and performances suddenly emerge once they drop mimicking the Beatles.

 

It's cool that you guys were so into that album at the time. I think I would like it a lot more if the Byrds had never recorded anything else. It's got a cool garage-band feel to it, a primitive charm. But I can't help comparing the Preflyte versions to the later Columbia versions, and in every case the 1965 versions are better to me. And on the best songs that weren't remade (like "For Me Again", "You Showed Me" and "The Reason Why") I find myself frustrated that there aren't 1965 remakes. The Byrds are a band that started making records at exactly the right time in their development. Clark's singing is MUCH better, the band is better, everything got better by the start of '65.

 

As a kid, my first Byrds cassette was called Free Flyte. It featured "She Has a Way" and "You Won't Have to Cry" from the Preflyte Sessions. These are my favorite versions of these tracks. It's pretty cool to see that at this point it was pretty much Gene's band. They never should have had to rely on Dylan covers to get their first couple hits.

 

There's no denying the greatness of the Columbia "Here Without You" (one of my favorite songs of all time), but I'm very happy to have the Preflyte version of it with the third harmony part. And the arrangement of "I Knew I'd Want You" is so completely different that it stands on its own merits, apart from the Columbia version.

I really can't use the word "better" when evaluating the Preflyte and Columbia tracks — I would never want to be without any of them. If I would use it at all, it might be to say I prefer the Preflyte "She Has a Way." The Columbia arrangement is interesting, but I think the song is better-served by the simple approach of the earlier version.

EDIT: On second thought, I can use "better" in the direction you want to. The first version of "It Won't Be Wrong" (aka "Don't Be Long") is pretty dire. Thank goodness they figured out the proper guitar harmonies on the opening figure and a more appropriate drum part. And of course, we don't even need to mention the improvement in "Mr. Tambourine Man"!

I love the Preflyte tracks for what they are...a band discovering what it can do together and (I would think) being thrilled with the results as they continued to improve. Yes, they may be "primitive," but I really do love them just the same.

I share your frustration that these songs (and "Tomorrow Is a Long Ways Away") were never revisited. But yes, there is a dramatic improvement in virtually all aspects of The Byrds by the time they were signed to Columbia — except perhaps in Crosby's harmonies, which were outstanding right out of the gate.

 

Thanks for posting that New Christy Mintrels clip. That's the first I've seen, and knowingly heard, Gene in that outfit. Over the years I have bought a few albums, half played them, wondered if that's his blurry face on the cover and rich baritone voice amongst the folk.

I have a few versions of the Pre~Flyte recordings and have always loved them, especially as it a band ~ and a great songwriter such as Gene ~ starting to stretch out their wings. Always liked these ones: You Movin', Boston and pretty much all the Gene originals. To think within a year he was writing stone classics.

 

Derivative as it can be, I love ALL the Preflyte material, from the Jet Set on down. I think the sweet Peter and Gordon-like "The Only Girl I Adore" and "Please Let Me Love You" (overwrought Ian Tyson-style lead vocal and all) are terribly underrated. The latter has an unforgettable bridge ("and when I hold you, I feel-feel so high") contributed by Clark.

I also like "You Movin", especially the one with the proto-"Eight Miles High" (or at least "It's No Use") guitar solo. It's catchy and the words are fine. So there. Even "Boston"'s got a good groove.

 

I like 'Please Let Me Love You' for all the same reasons mentioned by Maggie. Gene's voice has a quaint, almost comically adenoidal quality, that I find charming. Not to mention the fact that he sounds so damn earnest. "We mean it, maaaaaan."

 

Yes, that is one of the many reasons for the appeal of Gene Clark and his songs. There is a depth and sincerity to them, and the way Gene sings them, that will always move me.

 

Thanks for this. It seems almost too obvious to point out, but given subsequent developments, it's significant that Gene is holding a guitar but not playing it here!

 

By the way, has there ever been as dramatic a cool-promotion as Gene moving from the New Christy Minstrels (or David for that matter moving from Les Baxter's Balladeers) to the Byrds?

 

In those cases they were going from successful musical acts to an unknown group trying to get a deal.

Far more dramatic:

Ringo to go from Rory Storm to the just signed Beatles. Or Billy Preston.
Brent Mydland going from Silver to the Grateful Dead.
Vince Welnick going from Todd Rundgren's band to Grateful Dead
Any of the guys joining the Monkees
Daryl Dragon going from touring keyboardist from the Beach Boys to Captain & Tennile with weekly TV show
probably a pretty long list actually

 

Well, you have to emphasize the "cool" part of Maggie's equation.

Clark and Crosby had absolutely no say in terms of musical direction in their previous groups, and no outlet for their own creativity, either singing- or songwriting-wise. I know Randy Sparks ruled with an iron fist in the Minstrels, and I suspect the Balladeers were similarly regimented.

Clark and Crosby were also small cogs in a much bigger wheel with their earlier outfits. In The Byrds, the ratio was one to five (four effectively, as Michael Clarke wasn't a songwriter). As we know, Gene still got shafted in some ways, but nevertheless his chances to put his own vision and voice out there improved "dramatically" once he joined The Byrds.

 

I'm with Mike on "For Me Again." There's something almost regal about that track and the way it expresses what seems to be a pretty deep emotion.
Re "You Won't Have to Cry" - love the MTM version; the backing's got this breezy attitude which matches the sentiment of the lyrics. But there's something about that Preflyte version; maybe it's the rawer, almost garagey vibe, I don't know. But I find the line "Just trust the love in me" stands out at lot more in that context.

 

The big head-scratcher here is how a song with obvious commercial, 'You Showed Me'--a McGuinn-Clark co-write no less--got passed over for proper rerecording & inclusion on MTM.