Gene Clark Solo Albums-album by album & *now* track by track on p. 23*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by lemonade kid, Jan 23, 2018.

  1. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    As I was when I saw him on the cover!
     
  2. Dok

    Dok Senior Member

    No Other is iconic. It reached levels under lysergic observation that were rarely infiltrated. Especially for a 19 year old at the time. An SACD remastered by our host would be the pinnacle! (some might say a 5.1 remix would be the top, I couldn't argue the point as I'm just set up for stereo). :wave:
     
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  3. Strawberry Fields Forever

    Strawberry Fields Forever Well-Known Member

    Location:
    London, England
    share your scepticism. More pertinently, I don’t recall Crosby ever suggesting that Michael Clarke chose those songs. Where’s the source? Always assumed that they were Gene’s choices but even that was based on a vague reference he made about the songs back in the early 70s. Don’t remember anyone ever saying categorically who chose the Neil songs?
     
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  4. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    OK I listened to No Other again today. I can understand Clark fans who think it's overrated, or who like other stuff better, because it's different than any of his other stuff, really. It seems like every song belongs, and other Clark songs seem like they wouldn't belong here; to me it has a kind of unique singularity to it. It really stands as a unified work, and this much more than any of his other albums. It should be said, however, that this is clearly an ex post facto judgment, i.e. if any of the song selections were different I might be saying the same thing...but it feels really cohesive to me, despite the variety of genres that weave through it.

    "Life's Greatest Fool" is an outstanding opener, it's basically a honky tonk song with a smattering of Gene's odd hippie-mystic lyric lines, a synthesis that began I think mostly with the Dillard and Clark albums and is to my mind most successful here. The song is lush sounding, however, and doesn't smack of the barroom; someone upthread connected this album with the Billy Sherrill "countrypolitan" sound, but this sound is a little more earthy than that, I think...however, it's in the ballpark. If the whole album were stuff like this it would be fine with me, although it would be totally different, as only "The True One" joins it in following this blueprint.

    "Silver Raven" is just jaw-droppingly awesome to me; it took me awhile to really discover this song, as it flew by me the first few times I heard it, and it is somehow rather modest in its greatness. This also has a country flavor, but more the old-time folk country that the Byrds (particularly in Gene's era) went in for rather than honky tonk. I always thought this sounded like a familiar folk melody but I've never placed it; although "The Cuckoo" (in some iterations, anyway) is close, I took it for a straight lift (and it may yet prove to be). On the other hand maybe it just sounds so right that it doesn't seem original, I don't know.

    I think it's completely absurd to say the song is "about" his wife's shoes. That may have indeed been what inspired it or occasioned its composition, but going by the text rather than extrinsic evidence, it is absolutely not a song about shoes. Indeed, to me it seems likely he is thinking of a space ship. It seems to be an apocalyptic scenario of some kind but it's not easy to say exactly what it means. But the overall effect of music and lyrics is, as I said, something that strikes me with awe, and I think it's my favorite track on the album.

    The title track is another one that it took me awhile to warm to, but now it is also one of my favorites. It's got some funk to it..."Strength of Strings" on the other hand is the one that first grabbed me when I discovered the album. The beginning piece of the verses sounds melodically a little bit like "Cowgirl in the Sand," which Clark covered around this time, as others have pointed out; the title phrase is lifted from Dylan ("Lay down your weary tune, lay down/Lay down the song you strum/And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings"). It's kind of an interesting glimpse at the creative process, when the seams are showing in places like this. I don't know if either one of those is conscious (and the first one is arguable, I guess). I don't know exactly what the "cosmic range" is, but it is nevertheless evocative; "The Cosmic Rangers" could be a band name.

    "From A Silver Phial" is sometimes my favorite song on here. The lyrics are really kind of inscrutable. There is clearly an alchemy theme going on; what I always ponder is exactly who or what "she" is meant to be. If she is an allegory, at least on one level, I'm not entirely sure of what. Is she the base material left over from the alchemical process, as a kind of representative of earthiness and the body, or something? It's hard to start speculating without floundering. In any case she seems to be a sympathetic character who exalts her "master" (the alchemist, I guess?). Although she is of base stuff ("refuse") she elevates what she touches, making her master's "lower self worthwhile" in the process...

    "Some Misunderstanding" is rather moving in its grandeur...It takes a little commitment, it's not really apt background music...unlike "The True One," which is a jaunty return to the basic sound and style of "Life's Greatest Fool." I wish he did more country stuff in this vein, as it happens right now I'm listening to "Lonely Saturday" and what a great track that is, too. Finally, "Lady of the North" is one of the greatest of his songs, and I think it took me the longest to realize how great it really is (I think the album is a little longer than my drive to work, which probably has something to do with this). It's a major piece and ends a really astounding album on a very high level. There is no bad song here, and I don't think there is a mediocre one; I don't know what the consensus is about "The True One"-- I really, really love it, but if there's one people don't rate, then for some reason it seems like this may be the one.

    For me, this is an album that deepens and grows with repeated listenings. I liked it OK the first time I heard it, and was starting to love it by the 10th, but by the 20th or so I was really in awe of it. On the other hand maybe this isn't a generalizable statement, it may have as much to do with my sensibilities--if something's really novel it usually takes me, perhaps ironically, getting familiar with it to see how novel it really is. Sometimes I'll be amazed at how unique a song is on the 10th listen, when on the first listen it just sort of blended into the general mundanity.

    This is one of my favorite albums, and my favorite Gene Clark album. It was the first one I listened to, and was so good I went on to get the rest of his stuff, read his biography, etc. What I found in the rest of the Gene Clark catalog was, in many ways, not really like No Other, but I became a fan of all the other stuff too (well, mostly--we'll see how Firebyrd hits me this time through, and some of that McGuinn, Clark & Hillman stuff is horrible!). It also got me listening to the Byrds, as I had always mostly ignored them (aside from "Eight Miles High") before I got into Clark. So it's an album that greatly enriched my life and brought a lot of stuff along in its wake.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2018
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  5. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Also, I think it was 2014 when I first heard No Other, and as far as I know I'd never heard a note of Gene Clark before that (aside from with the Byrds). So I'm a relative newcomer to his work, and consequently still really enthusiastic. I think a lot of people are most impassioned about music they discovered in adolescence but it's really more the opposite with me (I'll be 50 this year so I guess I was 46 when I got this).
     
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  6. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    It can work that way.
    I was a teenager when the original Byrds were in flight ( and they are my favorite 60s American band ) , I was in late adolescence when White Light was released ( and it is my favorite Gene Clark).
    But and this is one huge but, I rate his last studio album with Carla Olson , So Rebellious A Lover, right up there with White Light and it contains probably my favorite Clark song - Gypsy Rider and it had been many,many years upon it's release since my hormones had been in wild flux.
     
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  7. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    I love that album too. Gypsy Rider is one of my favorites too, and his version of "Fair and Tender Ladies" is a masterpiece (whistling and all!).
     
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  8. No Other is certainly an odd album. It remains brilliant but difficult for some folks because it’s neither fish nor fowl. There’s really literally no other quite like it with it’s collision of Gene’s folk-pop sensibility and mainstream pop music of Bacharach- David. A perfect mixture of artist and producer although someone should have kept better tabs on the cost (all the cocaine in the studio, etc.)
     
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  9. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Wonderful overview. My favorite too. I didn't discover it until maybe 15 years ago, and as you said: it gets better and deeper with each listen. I am waiting for that listening moment, that revelatory moment that reaches unheard of heights...

    ...kind of like that final climatic ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey when the space traveler finally reaches Saturn, with those mind blowing special effects and when he ultimately discovers the full meaning of life.

    That's what Gene's no other does for me.
     
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  10. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    Yeah!!! I know what you mean, sometimes the vistas seem limitless...I think I've peaked, though. There was one night about a year ago I collapsed in a puddle of urine and drool in the middle of "Silver Raven," and since then it's leveled off...
     
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  11. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    I guess you could look at "Silver Phial" as an encomium to the mundane, earthly stuff that gets ignored or tossed aside in the quest for spiritual awakening--the sanctity of the profane? If the "master" is an alchemist and she is the stuff left over after the base metal is transmuted; or, if we take alchemy as an allegory of sex, as some have done (Who? Wikipedia would ask), the physicality of the act? This is a little out on a limb and maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, it's a difficult lyric to interpret.
     
  12. Guy E

    Guy E Senior Member

    Location:
    Antalya, Turkey
    Those shows sold out quickly. I was upset that I couldn't get tickets, but I'll sit down with this video sometime this weekend. Thanks.
     
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  13. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    That's Gene...the Zen master. Whatever his inspiration...love that track a lot. A highlight amongst highlights.
     
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  14. indigo_m

    indigo_m @Neon_Brambles

    Location:
    Tipton, MO
    "all the cocaine in the studio" is a myth. Gene was focused and professional and was there for practically every take.
     
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  15. indigo_m

    indigo_m @Neon_Brambles

    Location:
    Tipton, MO
    The Gene Clark Symposium
     
  16. Well it was my understanding that Thomas Jefferson Kaye was the one that was using in the studio as well as some of the studio players. (My memory is kind of vague on this but I thought I read it in the Gene biography). I wasn't referring specifically on Gene using just the common studio budgets being "extended" for drug use, etc.
     
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  17. indigo_m

    indigo_m @Neon_Brambles

    Location:
    Tipton, MO
    I arrived at the No Other party fairly late. I think my mistake was listening to the album in pieces which left me scratching my head at how different the songs are from one another. I feel that the album works much better as a whole, listened to from beginning to end, as intended. It was only then that I "got it" and got it good. It's an incredible album and sonically satisfying. One of those that just gets better with each listen and new discovery. As for the cover and Gene's glam look - it is very tongue-in-cheek. People take it way too seriously. The cover art with its images of old Hollywood silent film stars works perfectly with Gene's swashbuckler glam look which was in vogue at the time. It's not as terrible as some other covers as I've seen from that time. I like it, though admittedly, it does not reflect what is actually on the album (not all album covers do though). It seems most men have more trouble with Gene's glam look than the women do. Kudos to Gene for being confident enough in his masculinity to pull that off! The other myth that has always irked me is the "cocaine fueled" studio sessions. That just isn't true. The songs were formed from Gene looking at ocean views over a long period of time. Studio musicians Lee Sklar, Michael Utley and others were seasoned professionals who said that Gene was there for just about every take and was not high on drugs. An album of that caliber can't be made while being in a cocaine haze folks. As for "Silver Raven" being about his wife's shoes, again that's nonsense. Like most poets, Gene just liked the imagery and used it in the song. Gene has said in an interview that the two albums that he was listening to at this time were Stevie Wonder's Inner Visions and the Rolling Stones Goat's Head Soup. If you're familiar with these albums you can see how they influenced the songs on No Other. You can read an interview with Gene from 1977 called Gene Clark: Both Sides Up - by Paul Kendall, Zigzag Magazine, June 1977 in the Archives on my Gene Clark website. He discusses No Other and how it was written. I think you'll find it interesting. The interview was done by Paul Kendall who made the documentary film "The Byrd Who Flew Alone, The Triumphs and Tragedy of Gene Clark".
     
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  18. indigo_m

    indigo_m @Neon_Brambles

    Location:
    Tipton, MO
    The budget given by Geffen was approved ahead of the sessions. The money was used for studio musicians and session time, not drugs.
     
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  19. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Thank you! I hate to see this myth put forward once again. This was a drug-free session, start to finish -- totally serious musical environment...
    even if to us No Other is the ultimate mind blowing trip! You don't create genius stuff like this on drugs, man!
     
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  20. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    And the story that Geffen was totally freaked and pissed there were only 8 tracks submitted is crazy. He had other artists albums with just eight track albums around the same time, and that couldn't have been the real issue--even if that is what he said.

    Wasn't there some kind of a riff be tween the two at a club when Gene was a bit drunk? Or am I thinking of Arthur Lee? Anyway, whatever reason that Geffen decided not to back Gene for a nationwide promotion tour, or push the album as it should have been was devastating for Gene.
     
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  21. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Yeah. I would agree about the silver go-go boots not being what the song was about, but her dancing in those boots may have been something that made his mind soar...not the boots, folks. The soaring nature does imply outer space, soaring...
     
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  22. Clarkophile

    Clarkophile Through the Morning, Through the Night

    Location:
    Oakville, ON
    David Geffen has denied that the often-repeated restaurant story ever happened.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2018
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  23. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Besides which, there was a ninth track recorded anyway. Sure, it was a remake, but I doubt anyone would have cared about that if there truly was concern that eight songs were insufficient.
     
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  24. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    And then there is their version of Deportee.
    Simply heartbreaking to me ( being of Hispanic heritage , my grandfather who raised me was one of those "illegal alien invaders" who ruined his body building the railroads and learned English on his own from the dictionary) .............this song resonates deep within me and the rendition on So Rebellious A Lover is both beautiful and incredibly sad.
     
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  25. indigo_m

    indigo_m @Neon_Brambles

    Location:
    Tipton, MO
    Supposedly Gene saw Geffen at a restaurant and went after him physically for letting No Other twist in the wind. Personally I've always felt that there's something missing to the Geffen story. I don't buy it that he was pissed at only 8 songs and no "marketable" single. Geffen spent just as much on Bobby Neuwirth's crap album. Something's wrong with this picture...
     
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