No Other - Gene Clark

Led Zep: Presence
Chic: can't remember
Dexy's: Don't stand me down
Orange Juice: You can't hide your love forever

Can't remember the others. The Chic review contains my favourite piece of rock journalism ever where he goes at the end "I love Chic, I f***ing love Chic".

I seem to recall that review of "The Visitors" pulling the Pitchfork trick of writing about pop music as if it was alternative rock in order to get the alternative rock fans interested.

"Roadrunner": good one, heh. Have any of you heard "So Rebellious A Bunny"? Someone who was in a psychobilly group in the 1980s was recommending it to me the other week.

I don't get the Bunny joke. Maybe it's not a joke.

Is the Gosdin Bros. one any good?

Thanks for reminding me. I ended up buying it because of that write up, despite my doubts about buying an album by someone called 'Todd Rundgren'. The CD skipped so I took it back to the 2nd hand shop I bought it in and exchanged it for 'Something/Anything'. I only wish I had got something/anything else.

I too bought "No Other" on CD (and some others - Todd, Curtis M.) on the strength of that book. Some days I love it, others I wonder why I loved it last time. I must say tho' that I was listening to the bonus tracks in HMV on a listening post earlier this week and getting excited all over again. I think I may need to trade in my old copy for the new edition.

Tim you are funny the way you like 80s jangle but not 60s Byrds jangle. I respect that a lot.

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

The remaster makes a huge difference, way more than I thought.

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.

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.

what an album

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!

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.

I meant to say the Dillard & Clark album plus the one with the Gosdin Brothers. Though White Light is up there too.

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.

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

4 Men With Beards had a vinyl release out -- i'm sure it was atrocious.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lol what a funny old hippie coot. Isengard called......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hABlMAmIVA0

best album of all time

B-b-but is it as good as Kind of Blue?

yes

Awesome.

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

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.