No Other - Gene Clark

Re. Vangelis keyboard break in "Lady of the North" -- that's what's so great! It's 1974! Vangelis was just learning how to grow his mustache back then!

I like N on 60s / 80s.

The booklet thing is mysterious to me. My key booklet was Reynolds' Smiths. I don't get Ewing's post - is it a parody?

I think N is kind of wrong about Lost Classics. I don't know More Specials or Don't Stand Me Down. And Tim H possibly doesn't know Don't Get Weird On Me Babe.

So - there are many knowledges. I have said before what may or may not be true: there is no consensus, at least not one that everyone belongs to.

This book(let) sounds great, as does the idea of ten years ago.

I read about this record in The Guinness Book of Rock'n'Roll Obscurities a few years ago, which paid special attention to his velevt loons on the back cover, and have been waiting to hear it ever since, hence my disappointment. I bought the White Light AKA Gene Clark reissue a few months ago and didn't listen to it much, but I listened to it the other day and thought it was great, which restored my faith in excessive record buying. Perhaps No Other will grow on me too. This thread will certainly help me enjoy the album, because every time I hear I will think of you lot fingering your free booklet ten years ago. But not even that will help me enjoy the line, "we all need a fix at times like this".

I don't know whether it's a coincidence or not, but I was a bit disappointed by Don't Stand Me Down too, although I thought the sleevenotes were great. What did Hungry Beat say? I like that song where he witters on about going for a walk with his girlfriend and the 'I Love You' one. I think I'll eventually like all of it. I like More Specials.

Thank you for your contributions.

record i bought thx to book: Presence
records in book i meant to get but still haven't: soft boys, beefheart

I have only ever wanted to re-listen to 2 songs, 'Strength of Strings' & 'Some Misunderstanding' and those not very often at that.

I think I must be some kind of pervert - when I bought a CD of The Byrds 'Untitled' I must have played the live bits about 15 times in a row.

Peter, maybe you could enjoy the fact that Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks is on it?

(That's a made-up name, isn't it?)

I think anyway - it was 10 years ago. Someone who's still got the book can perhaps correct me.

"Mooro"! Good to hear from you... Could you recommend me a good Allman Brothers' LP - I bought one a while back (Brothers and sisters) and I thought it was a bit rubbish.

car crash - everyone's in DEEP PAIN for one reason or another - you can hear it in the music, maaan

(writer = mat snow? or matt black, summat like that.)

Keith: 'Brothers & Sisters' is pooh because both Duane & Berry had died in road accidents by then, thus robbing the band of the majority of its talent. (Sadly I never got to see them until this period.) I would go for 1971's 'Live At The Fillmore East' of which I have 3 versions, 1992's CD issue 'The Fillmore Concerts' collecting up tracks issued on other albums to clock in a few seconds short of a mighty 2 and a quarter hours of twin howling Les Paul/twin drummer bliss. The tones Duane extracts from his guitar during the nearly 34 minutes jam (OK, there's a lot of bollocks drum solo) on Donovan's 'There Is A Mountain' are sublime.

Well for me it was one of the first record's I got where I learned to stop being an uptight jerk and love the 80's (again)

There's a terrific midprice A+M CD that collects the two Dillard and Clark albs on one CD - the first D+C rec, 'Fantastic Expedition', is in particular a v. superfine country-rock rec, and contains my single fave Gene Clark song, "Why Not Your Baby", a stone classic

No Other did improve a bit on second listen.

that's the dealbreaker right there

Apparently Gene did enough songs for a 2-lp set. Have they been wiped??

Don't think they ever made it to the recording stage.

Does Gene only seem to be better than Gram Parsons because of Parsons fatigue brought on by his over-adoring fans? Or is he actually better? Will Gene fans eventually make us tire of him too?

There was that great quote during the early days of the Byrds, someone complaining that Clark hadn't written a song for while, when they still depended on him, and Crosby says something like "oh don't worry, that girl he's seeing will split and he'll write something."

(PS / Nothing against O.Nate - I've met him, he's fine.)

this is indeed the best album of all time

I've been listening to it a lot recently. Feel like Teenage Fanclub's whole catalog flows out of the way he sings "reality" on "The True One."

and i firmly believe vangelis ripped the chariots of fire theme from one piano lick in “lady of the north”

"Lady of the North" has one of the best song/album endings I can think of. Perfection.

I adore this record but stand by my assertion (that I’d completely forgotten I’d made) in the review I did for Stylus in 2003 that it doesn’t really include his best compositions.

Clark’s career is a complete fucking travesty. I just posted on another thread about how jazz pianist Keith Jarrett’s stroke was sad but that he’d recorded and released every whim for a single label over 50 years. Meanwhile, Gene Clark has, like, two proper records, one of which was released on an “artist’s label,” forced to be cut down to a single album and not promoted.

I’d have gone after Geffen too.

Echoes/W Gosdin Bros is pretty much a proper album, No Other and White Light are as well. Two Sides to Every Story and I'd argue the Dillard and Clark albums should also count.

"Roadmaster" is not a proper album but is great.

Wikipedia says the rumour about No Other originally being a double album has been debunked.

My takeaway from the John Einarson biography of Clark was that, when he had to struggle and persevere, he would discipline himself and take care of both his health and his music. It was when he had success that both spiralled out of control. The book basically says that the sudden influx of royalties from Tom Petty's cover of I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better killed him.

Love this album and bought the big box set, but got impatient waiting for it to arrive and so downloaded all the tracks, so never opened it. Feels a little silly...

it's def 'no other' season

had this and 'I want to see the bright lights tonight' on repeat lately

More than half of Clark's solo discography is collaborations, duets and shared billings. I have no doubt that Clark himself was responsible for some of that -- as noted, that Einarson biography suggests he really couldn't handle success, so it's probably not a coincidence that his releases, for various reasons, didn't really put him out front. But it's still a total bummer that his talent was hidden, buried or subjugated on so many of his releases.

I've probably made this comparison elsewhere on ILM, but here's an example of what he was writing:

https://youtu.be/TGZwfdm-1N0

And here's what actually came out:

https://youtu.be/yMg4exR2ypU

Wow, never heard that McGuinn, Clark & Hillman stuff. Thats a pretty stunning side by side comparison.

As well as collaborators watering down songs that did get released, it's also bewildering how many good songs he apparently just discarded. The Gene Clark Sings For You album of late 60s demos probably was not releasable at the time, but it's strange that he just walked away from those songs (presumably because he'd written a new batch), never to return to them. Maybe it's better than having 1979 disco versions of those songs, though.

You can slather Gene in as much disco yacht rock pop vibes as you want but he still shines through

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igqn8iSH4lc

I read a volume (and a half) of those giant Byrds books but I can't remember...why not bill McGuinn Clark & Hillman as The Byrds?

The late 70s were a time when many "legacy" acts wanted to keep an arm's length from their past, especially if their popularity had dwindled since 1966. "We're not doing that anymore, we're doing this!" (cue funky guitars)

Also, though McGuinn owned the name, they might not have wanted to antagonize Crosby.

I doubt any of them had any qualms about antagonizing David Crosby.

Crosby was the only one who had been on any kind of a hit record in the previous five years, at least. They may have wanted to save the Byrds brand for a "complete" reunion.

Alternately, the 1973 reunion was such a critical and commercial washout that no-one thought that calling a new project "The Byrds" was any kind of enticement for record buyers.

Not to mention McGuinn made plenty of post-original lineup Byrds albums that were all commercial failures. They may have simply viewed the name as toxic to success.

The real missed opportunity was for the 1990 box – all five original members were still alive but they only got Mcguinn, Hillman and Crosby to record new stuff – IIRC bc no one wanted to deal with Gene or Mike.

You can slather Gene in as much disco yacht rock pop vibes as you want but he still shines through

Did the box set situation have something to do with Clark and/or Clarke touring and billing themselves as The Byrds at certain shows?

This is often the best album in the world ever. I've bought a bunch of other Gene albums since getting to know this one. His other stuff is great, but this is an off the scale mind blowing amazing album.