No Other - Gene Clark

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.