Happy 2019! Here's to another Year of Gene!

Photo of the Month:

The uber-cool Gene Clark photographed by Henry Diltz at the Whisky A-Go-Go, 1966.

News

Omnivore Recordings’ release of  Gene Clark Sings For You was featured in several “Best of 2018” lists, including MOJO magazine, The Vinyl District and Best Classic Bands. Congratulations to Gene and the folks at Omnivore!

We are happy to report that there will be yet another radio special featuring the songs of Gene Clark! A 2-hour special called "Clouds and Dreams" will be airing on UK-based MYSTERY TRAIN RADIO on Tuesday, January 15th from 10pm - Midnight. You can tune in to Mystery Train Radio  HERE.

Last month KAI CLARK did some Gene Clark Tribute shows with some great guests in Melbourne Australia and in San Francisco, CA. Below are some video highlights and photos from those performances. Be on the lookout for some more tribute shows in 2019 to mark the 75th year of Gene's birth!

Polly performed by Kai Clark with Johnny Livewire at the Cherry Bar, Melbourne Australia, 11th Dec 2018

Here Tonight - the 4th Annual Gene Clark Tribute Show at the Chapel in San Francisco CA included some great performances by KAI CLARK, CARLA OLSON, CHRIS ROBINSON and THE GREEN LEAF RUSTLERS and more! (All photos courtesy of JOSH HUVER at Must Have Media, https://www.facebook.com/musthavemedia/.)

Chris Robinson, Barry Sless, Pete Sears, John Molo and Greg Loiacano, AKA the Green Leaf Rustlers, closed the 4th Annual Gene Clark Tribute Show at The Chapel in San Francisco with this hot stepping version of the classic "Elevator Operator" on Saturday, December 22, 2018. (Thanks to Must Have Media for the link and photos from the show. Must Have Media services are available for hire and can be reached at: https://www.facebook.com/musthavemedia and https://www.madalchemy.net.)

New in the Archives

Gene's Gear

"Gene's guitar would have been a Gibson ES-330TDC (dual pickup with cherry finish, without the "C" is the sunburst finish). The ES-330 had single-coil dog ear P-90 pickups.These pickups are somewhat warmer, with less edge and brightness, than Fender single coil pickups, but less warm, with more edge and brightness, than the Gibson double-coil PAF humbucking (or humbucker) pickups found on ES-335, Les Paul, and SG guitars. Although humbuckers boasted great output and less hum, they also had less of the high-end response of the P-90. I wouldn't be surprised if Gene chose it because its close cousin guitar, the Epiphone Casino, was a favorite of the Beatles and is all over their early records."

Photo: The cherry red finish Gibson made its first appearance in 1965. While Gene did not play the guitar on stage with the Byrds during this time, he was photographed with it backstage at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. (THE BYRDS backstage at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, AZ, December 17, 1965. Photo by Tom Franklin.) Gene strums his Gibson while backstage at the Hullaballoo Club, Hollywood, CA, February 13, 1966 (still taken from performance footage from the Collection of Whin Oppice, courtesy of Whin Oppice).

“Some generalizations (though not limitations): ES-330 = bright, aggressive, mid '60s pop; ES-335, Les Paul, SG = warm, thick, sustain, late-mid and late '60s blues-oriented rock. As far as the Casinos, I am sure you know that Gene was a big Beatles fan. When he went to get “his” guitar, he must have known he was getting the same body and pickup setup as the Casinos, and that those guitars would have sounded very similar to the ES-330 he was getting. All three Beatles played Casinos, though they usually seemed to favor the Sunburst finish. John ultimately sanded his down to the natural wood finish before recording the “White Album”, supposedly to improve the sound. Paul and George had their Casinos outfitted with Bigsby vibrato tailpieces, more suited for lead guitar players. Like John, Gene went with the stock stationary tailpiece. I guess Gene wasn't going to be playing leads and vibrating notes!"

The Fab 3 Epiphone Casinos which the Beatles used on numerous recordings, most notably by Paul on "Ticket to Ride", and on Rubber Soul, the sound of which seemed to have had a big influence on Gene's first solo record Gene Clark with The Gosdin Brothers recorded in 1966 and released in early 1967. (McCartney continued to use his 1962 Epiphone Casino on Wings albums and solo albums and still performs with the guitar to this day.)

Gene Clark and The Group perform at the Whisky A-Go-Go, June 17, 1966.

Another appearance by Gene and his Gibson with The Byrds, this time without David Crosby, on the Smothers Brothers TV Show, October, 1967

"I remember when I first saw those Dillard and Clark photos with him playing it live, it surprised me, because I wouldn't have expected them to play electric like that. Even Bernie was playing a Gibson electric, though I think it was probably an ES-335."

The debut of The Dillard and Clark Expedition at The Troubadour, December 1968 and the final appearance of the Gibson guitar.

At some point after 1969, Gene abandoned his Gibson ES-330 in favor of a Martin D-45 acoustic guitar once he settled in the Mendocino area and began the next phase of his solo career. What became of the Gibson is a mystery and Gene was never to be seen with an electric guitar again.

- Our thanks to Don Richmond for his help with this article.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Firebyrd’s fatal first impression

Like Rodney Dangerfield, Gene Clark’s final solo album doesn’t get any respect.  But beyond our subjective takes on the music, how much of that is down to shoddy quality control, beginning with its original incarnation, through its seemingly endless stream of budget-label re-packagings?  by TOM SANDFORD

The general consensus among even his most ardent fans would seem to be that Gene Clark’s 1984 release Firebyrd is the one cringe-worthy moment out of an otherwise distinguished solo career. Firebyrd was viewed as (choose your analogy): the oddball; the nadir; the misfire: the black spot; the bitter disappointment; the weird uncle at the table; the Zellers of Gene Clark albums.

It’s beyond argument that the overall sound of the album betrays its humble budget (notwithstanding contributions of former heavy hitters and Clark standbys like Jim Dickson and Thomas Jefferson Kaye), but that doesn’t necessarily spell doom. Many great albums were recorded on the cheap; many gutless-sounding albums have been given new life through judicious remastering. For me, time has softened the disappointment found in Firebyrd’s sterile, ‘80s sound and uninspired musicianship. Gene’s voice is excellent throughout, and his stirring renditions of “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “If You Could Read My Mind” defy the moribund backing.

You only get one chance to make a first impression

Firebyrd is the album that all fans have had in their collections—not because it’s a must-have or anything, but because it was always so readily available, even at times when more universally celebrated Clark titles proved difficult to find..  So it’s probably not surprising that Firebyrd is the first Gene Clark album I ever owned on CD.  My sister Anne Marie was kind enough to buy it for me (along with Hüsker Dü’s Flip Your Wig) during a trip to New York City, circa 1990.  The list of CDs I’d given her was specific, except that I requested “Any Gene Clark.”  At that time Gene Clark’s music could not be found on CD in London, Ontario. 

But before I’d even played the CD I remember being disappointed by the look of the album.  The font and main graphic looked horribly amateurish; the design looked like something you’d see on a heavy metal fan’s t-shirt.  To be honest, it didn’t occur to me until years later that Firebyrd—from its cover concept to its titular pun on past glories, was nothing more than a shameless attempt to hitch Gene’s wagon to McGuinn’s 1977 effort, Thunderbyrd.

Killing two Byrds with bad album art: Gene Clark's Firebyrd vs. Roger McGuinn's Thunderbyrd.

Later on, when I became familiar with McGuinn’s album, I resented Firebyrd’s feckless thievery even more. There’s no credit for the artwork, so it’s not immediately apparent who’s to blame for the egregious errors within, along with the other tasteless artistic decisions.

Now, at this time I was starved to read anything about Gene, but the hapless booklet (if you can call it that) included in the CD was of no help whatsoever. My creeping sense of dread was exacerbated by the sight of several significant spelling errors—all of which served to further undermine the artistic integrity of the work before a note had been heard.  Astonishingly, Eddie Tickner’s surname is misspelled (“Ticknor”) as is Herb Pedersen’s (“Pederson”). Furthermore, the album’s title appears as one word on the front cover, but as two separate words on the booklet’s back cover (and in quotation marks, for some unknown reason).  In addition, “Mr. Tambourine Man” is listed as “Tambourine Man”, while “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” is casually retitled “Feel a Whole Lot Better”. 

Unforced, non-musical errors such as these, whether the product of laziness, carelessness or otherwise are, for me anyway, ground zero in tracing the reasons for my immediate disdain for the album. 

It almost feels like it’s all been sabotaged from within somehow, as though whoever was behind it didn’t believe in it, or worse yet, simply didn’t care.  There’s no excuse for such casual disrespect for song titles that figured so prominently in Gene Clark’s initial rise to stardom. 

And over the years, in spite of its reputation, Firebyrd has been licensed to budget labels around the world, who exploited Gene’s name, image, and association with the Byrds, and repackaged it in a bizarre series of misleading covers that make use of (sometimes gaudily manipulated) pictures of Gene from the ’66-’67 era. Take, for example, the Hudson Canyon Records ‎(HCR8649) from 1994, which, rather shamelessly goes the extra step of actually capitalizing the “b” in the title to make it “FireByrd.” Quite obviously, this was a transparent effort to lure in unsuspecting Byrds fans who might’ve been fooled into thinking they were buying a Byrds compilation by seeing two titles closely associated with the Byrds (“Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “Tambourine Man”) listed alongside a cover shot dating from Gene’s immediate post-Byrds period.

The good, the bad and the awful: a flock of Firebyrds, plus two Fire Byrds and one Fyrebird.

Then there’s the 2015 release of the album on the unconvincingly named Vinyl Passion label that defiles Gene’s memory by misspelling the title as “Fyrebird” (Ugh). It is heartbreaking to see this indignity committed upon an artist of Gene’s caliber.

If that weren’t confusing enough, Firebyrd was also repackaged as This Byrd Has Flown (and added two more covers to the list!) but that’s another story altogether.

Gene deserves better than this

What I would like to see is a remastered, possibly even remixed—deluxe edition of Firebyrd. Hear me out: A proper remastering could punch up the flaccid playing, and bring new clarity and focus upon Gene’s impeccable voice. Such a project would be a great opportunity to right historical wrongs. Spelling errors and incorrect song titles could be corrected; and new, fully researched, professionally proofread, notes could shed more light on this under-documented portion of Gene’s career. I would gladly offer my services pro bono for such an undertaking, as long as it was given the blessing and guiding hand of the Clark estate. This needs to be a first-class job from top to bottom.

Think of it. There’s no shortage of possible bonus tracks dating from the 1980-1984 period (the BUG demos, the Glass House Tape, etc.). One could create a formidable collection of tracks that could serve to redefine the entire Firebyrd era. A comprehensive, definitive release of Firebyrd might also serve to also discourage future budget-label releases of this material.

We are talking about a rich, vibrant, pivotal portion of Gene’s career that has, unfortunately, been co-opted and treated shabbily by opportunistic hacks out to make a buck off the Clark name and Gene’s Byrds affiliation. This needs to stop. For the good of Gene’s legacy, someone needs to step up and create a package that does right by Gene and the Clark family. Gene’s music deserves to be treated with utmost respect. He did his part. Now it’s up to us.

Our thanks to Tom Sandford for his contribution to Echoes this month. You can read Tom's blog on Gene Clark, 'The Clarkophile', HERE.

In The Plan

• "Who's Who" List of people associated with Gene Clark to be added to the website.

All I Want

• "Backstage Pass" - Did you see Gene perform in concert with the Byrds or solo? Echoes is always looking for recollections from fans who met Gene at a show and maybe even snapped a photo or two. Email: GeneClarkWebsite@gmail.com if you have anything you'd like to share.

• Guest Blog Spot - Do you have a talent for writing? Have you always wanted to write about your favorite Gene Clark album, or share your interpretions of his songs? If you would like to submit an interesting blog piece about Gene Clark for our website, please contact Echoes at GeneClarkWebsite@gmail.com with your pitch, Echoes would love to hear from you!

Echoes would like to wish all of our subscribers and readers a very happy and healthy 2019!

Keep on Clarkin'!