"Strength of Strings" was my first exposure to Clark, on a mixtape that also had my first tastes of Can, Autechre, Julian Cope, Dusty Springfield, Laika, Pentangle, A.R. Kane and Nick Drake, plus great Diana Ross and T. Rex deep cuts. So I really associate that song and later that album with having my mind blown repeatedly.
― Trussrippers WILL be persecuted! (WmC), Monday, 11 November 2019 17:38 (four years ago) link
I first learned of him thru the (inferior) This Mortal Coil cover. those records were my gateway to a ton of great stuff.
― Simon H., Monday, 11 November 2019 17:49 (four years ago) link
The remaster makes a huge difference, way more than I thought.
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 11 November 2019 21:08 (four years ago) link
Fuck me this album. I'd never heard of it until I bought it last week. Everything told me classic. And I can't get over how great it is. It's like an acid trip of crescendo after crescendo.
― Duke, Sunday, 1 December 2019 21:38 (four years ago) link
I bought the 2-CD version. I'm so smitten I'm considering getting the deluxe box, but I'll probably sober up in a week.
― Duke, Sunday, 1 December 2019 21:39 (four years ago) link
what an album
― omar little, Monday, 2 December 2019 21:50 (four years ago) link
This is so, so great. I'd never heard any of it until a few weeks ago when I picked up the 2xCD reissue, this is fantastic!
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 10 December 2019 22:56 (four years ago) link
I just got the deluxe box, being such a fan I had to have all the sessions plus the book and dvd. The book is great but the film is a bit slight. Not a great deal of actual Gene footage, just some radio interview quotes. Apparently Gene went after Geffen after the latter refused to promote the album, and had to be physically restrained. Pretty much did his career in, sadly enough. (For some reason the altercation is glossed over in the doc.) The two records Gene made with Doug Dillard are the only ones that really come close to this in his solo repertoire, for me at least.
― henry s, Tuesday, 10 December 2019 23:06 (four years ago) link
I meant to say the Dillard & Clark album plus the one with the Gosdin Brothers. Though White Light is up there too.
― henry s, Tuesday, 10 December 2019 23:08 (four years ago) link
Great record, not sure how well known it was before it got reissued on cd about 20 years ago. But has been in print in some form since then, thought even quite widely distributed. Gave it to my brother's girlfriend about 3 years ago in the old cd version.
Think I might just need to get the 2cd version of this release though.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 10 December 2019 23:10 (four years ago) link
Actually looks like Edsel had a vinyl version out in the mid 80s. THink it may have been reviewed in Strange tHings Are Happening if i remember right.& cd version was 17 years ago. Collectors Choice put it out on a pretty quiet sounding cd and were followed shortly after by a louder mastered one with some bonus tracks on another label
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 00:18 (four years ago) link
4 Men With Beards had a vinyl release out -- i'm sure it was atrocious.
― omar little, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 00:20 (four years ago) link
I've had a German label CD of this since the early-90's. It isn't bad but the new remastered thing sounds so much better.
― henry s, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 02:46 (four years ago) link
As someone pointed out upthread the cover version by This Mortal Coil first (re?)alerted people to the existence of this album (in the UK, at least), and that was 1986. The Edsel reissue was 1989. I got it on vinyl - I think it was an original, I can't check because my vinyl's all in storage - but I can't remember what year that was.
― I've Got A Ron Wood Solo Album To Listen To (Tom D.), Wednesday, 11 December 2019 07:18 (four years ago) link
yeah the TMC cover seems pivotal in this album's journey to cult-classic status. I came across this record maybe a dozen years or so ago and resulted in a deep country-rock/Gene Clark dive for me, probably thx to ilx.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 16:34 (four years ago) link
And those indie fans who weren't necessarily aware of TMC might have been turned onto No Other several years later vis a vis David Bennun's review in the Unknown Pleasures paperback (mentioned upthread) that came with a copy of Melody Maker in 1995 (a collection of "lost classics" reviews by the MM writers at the time), and/or the "Gene Clark" song that Teenage Fanclub had on their Thirteen album, a couple years prior in '93.
― henry s, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 17:07 (four years ago) link
Lol what a funny old hippie coot. Isengard called......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hABlMAmIVA0
― buzza, Sunday, 7 June 2020 08:21 (three years ago) link
best album of all time
― i got a homogenic björk wine farmer permabanned (voodoo chili), Saturday, 26 September 2020 01:23 (three years ago) link
B-b-but is it as good as Kind of Blue?
― ABBA O RLY? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 September 2020 01:24 (three years ago) link
yes
― i got a homogenic björk wine farmer permabanned (voodoo chili), Saturday, 26 September 2020 01:28 (three years ago) link
Awesome.
― ABBA O RLY? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 September 2020 01:28 (three years ago) link
i never knew this existed. indie all-star band with members of beach house, grizzly bear, the dude from fleet foxes and the dude from walkmen briefly formed a gene clark cover band and played the album in full. they did a pretty good job!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaF3znVBWe8
― i got a homogenic björk wine farmer permabanned (voodoo chili), Saturday, 26 September 2020 01:36 (three years ago) link
this is indeed the best album of all time
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 26 September 2020 03:30 (three years ago) link
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."
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Saturday, 26 September 2020 04:10 (three years ago) link
and i firmly believe vangelis ripped the chariots of fire theme from one piano lick in “lady of the north”
― i got a homogenic björk wine farmer permabanned (voodoo chili), Saturday, 26 September 2020 12:13 (three years ago) link
"Lady of the North" has one of the best song/album endings I can think of. Perfection.
― henry s, Saturday, 26 September 2020 13:17 (three years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 1 November 2020 13:58 (three years ago) link
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.
― dan selzer, Sunday, 1 November 2020 17:06 (three years ago) link
"Roadmaster" is not a proper album but is great.
― Young Boys of Bernie (Tom D.), Sunday, 1 November 2020 17:15 (three years ago) link
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.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 1 November 2020 20:46 (three years ago) link
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...
― Soundslike, Sunday, 1 November 2020 21:14 (three years ago) link
it's def 'no other' season
had this and 'I want to see the bright lights tonight' on repeat lately
― ||||||||, Sunday, 1 November 2020 21:25 (three years ago) link
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
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 15:09 (three years ago) link
Wow, never heard that McGuinn, Clark & Hillman stuff. Thats a pretty stunning side by side comparison.
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 3 November 2020 15:44 (three years ago) link
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.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 15:52 (three years ago) link
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
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 15:54 (three years ago) link
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?
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 15:55 (three years ago) link
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.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 16:14 (three years ago) link
I doubt any of them had any qualms about antagonizing David Crosby.
― Young Boys of Bernie (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 November 2020 17:50 (three years ago) link
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.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 19:24 (three years ago) link
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.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 3 November 2020 19:59 (three years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 23:10 (three years ago) link
Did the box set situation have something to do with Clark and/or Clarke touring and billing themselves as The Byrds at certain shows?
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 23:34 (three years ago) link
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.
― Duke, Wednesday, 4 November 2020 01:02 (three years ago) link