Greetings! It's an exciting time for Gene Clark fans and Echoes has a whole lotta Gene stuff for you in this mammoth issue so grab a cuppa joe or tea, sit back and read on!

Photo of the Month:

This month we have a photo of a pensive-looking Gene Clark taken in 1966 by photographer Henry Diltz. Photos from this session were featured on the cover and lyric sheet insert of the Gene Clark Back Street Mirror Record Store Day EP from Entrée Records (Photo courtesy of John Delgatto).

NEWS

B I G news from Omnivore Recordings! Gene Clark Sings For You is coming June 15! (Echoes sent out the announcement to subscribers with all of the details on 11 April.) This is one of the rarest recordings by Gene from what is arguably the most mysterious period of his career. The album consists of 14 songs, 8 of which were sourced from the "Sings For You" acetate which Gene recorded in 1967. The remaining tracks are previously unreleased demos from the same period. In addition, Omnivore is also releasing The Rose Garden: A Trip Through The Garden on the same day, which contains two Gene Clark-penned songs that the Rose Garden recorded for their one (and only) album. Details for both of these releases can be found here.

Echoes reached out to writer Tom Sandford (aka "The Clarkophile") for some clarification on all of the wonderful Gene Clark music that is being released. So exclusively for Echoes readers, here are Back Street Mirror and Sings For You Explained:

With last month’s Record Store Day release of Entrée/Sierra Records’ Back Street Mirror E.P. and Omnivore’s Gene Clark Sings For You coming up fast on its heels this month, we are seeing an unprecedented influx of previously unreleased material, all sourced the same fruitful period (’66-’67). It’s a great time to be a Gene Clark fan, especially for those who’ve kept the faith over many decades. And while long-term fans may already be familiar with the back-stories of these songs, neophytes might appreciate some assistance in navigating the twists and turns of Gene’s unreleased oeuvre.

Is it all unreleased material?

Side One

1. Back Street Mirror (Available on The Lost Studio Sessions 1964-1982)
2. Don’t Let It Fall Through (Available on The Lost Studio Sessions 1964-1982)
3. Yesterday, Am I Right (Previously unreleased)
   All songs recorded January 1967

Side Two

1. If I Hang Around (Previously unreleased version)
   Recorded in 1966, this is the riveting original demo onto which Chip Douglas later added        overdubs for the song’s release on Byrd Parts 2 in 2003.
2.  She Told Me (Previously unreleased, recorded in 1966)
3. That’s What You Want (Previously unreleased)
   Copyrighted in 1965, when Gene was still a member of the Byrds.

Consequently, some came to believe that it was a fully realized, professionally produced studio album that had been unfairly held back. But while this is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility—especially for Gene—nothing could be further from the truth.

The legend surrounding Sings For You grew, in part, because we know so little about the recordings. And nothing fuels speculation like a good mystery. To date, apart from keyboardist Alex Del Zoppo, none of the other musicians has been identified, although the possibility exists that John Einarson has uncovered new information that will be revealed in his liner notes.

1. On Her Own (Previously unreleased)
2. Past Tense (Previously unreleased)
3. Yesterday, Am I Right (Previously unreleased)
   Alternate arrangement of song included on the Back Street Mirror E.P.
4. Past My Door (Previously unreleased)
   A clip of the song has been available on YouTube for a few years now. It should be noted that the version on YouTube is not the full song; it goes on for another minute.
5. That’s Alright By Me (Previously unreleased)
   The title may be familiar for those who’ve heard the 1968 version recorded with Laramy Smith, included on 1998’s Flying High compilation. The Sings For You version, recorded a few months earlier, has differences in both its arrangement and lyrical content.
6. One Way Road (Previously unreleased)
7. Down On The Pier (Previously unreleased)
8. 7:30 Mode (Previously unreleased)

The remaining material is taken from other demo recordings made by Gene and made available to the Rose Garden, who subsequently recorded two of the songs,‘Long Time’ and ‘Till Today.’ Gene’s performances of this material have never been released before:

9. On Tenth Street

10, Understand Me
(Listed in Johnny Rogan’s book [The Byrds Timeless Flight Revisited - The Sequel] as ‘Understand Me Too’).

11. A Long Time
(commonly known as ‘Long Time’)

12, Big City Girl

13, Doctor Doctor

14. 'Till Today

— Tom Sandford is a Toronto-based writer/editor. Since 2008 he has maintained a blog called The Clarkophile, an appreciation of Gene Clark's songwriting. Clarkophile.blogspot.com

Just In...

Echoes is pleased to bring the news that the first ever Spanish language book about Gene Clark is being published this month! The book, Gene Clark. Vuela hacia el sol (Flies Towards the Sun) was written by ÁLVARO ALONSO. and is being publihed by Lenoir Books. Below is a brief excerpt from the book in English along with a bio on the author.

I can tell you that we talked about the writing of "Set You Free This Time," and he remembered it as a song inspired by a heartbreaking, romantic moment in high school. He was proud of the song's achievement in ballad-melody, but particularly in lyrics, and the form of those lyrics and their beat. He was happy that it has always been my favorite of his compositions, and he played "Sister Moon" for me, saying he wanted to re-dedicate it to me. The cute truth is that he re-dedicated that song to others, too; I didn't mind at all. Yes, I did see him with pencil and yellow legal pad on his lap, as he sat on the couch, leaning way over, and into the writing process with quiet abandon. He was writing lyrics and poetry at that time. But, before you ask, I never kept any personal copies of any of those things. He never gave up on songwriting. I witnessed him singing lyrics into his small tape recorder."

This interview is an original extract from the forthcoming book Gene Clark Vuela hacia el sol from Lenoir Libros. Cover art by Miquel Serratosa.

About the author...

Álvaro Alonso is a teacher, writer and journalist with a Doctorate in Philosophy who lives in Madrid, Spain. He has written the first Spanish-language book about Gene Clark, entitled Gene Clark Vuela hacia el sol (English translation: Flies Towards the Sun), published by Lenoir Ediciones, 2018.

"I've got a five-dollar bill..."

• Those of you who missed out on picking up a copy of Back Street Mirror on Record Store Day take note, Sierra/Entrée Records will be selling the EP on their website in the next few weeks while supplies last. (Echoes sent out details to subscribers on 23 April). Sierra Records is currently having a sale on many of their titles including Gene Clark: The Lost Studio Sessions 1964-1982.  AND be sure to join their mailing list in order to be informed of when the Back Street Mirror EP will be available for purchase. To be added to the Sierra/Entrée Records mailing list, send an email to: mailinglist@sierrarecords.net

• Pre-orders for both Gene Clark Sings For You and A Trip Through the Garden: The Rose Garden Collection can be made on the Omnivore Recordings website. Both albums are scheduled for release on June 15.

We hear...

That Sundazed Music will be issuing White Light on "high definition white vinyl", though the only information we've seen about this release is from this website. 
 

SPECIAL FEATURE

Recently I happened to come across a blog entry by musician TOM STEVENS, formerly of The Long Ryders who had also played with Gene and Carla Olson. Tom kindly granted permission for Echoes to share his blog entry from 2013 about his memories of working with Gene. Tom also happens to be our "5 Questions" interviewee this month. Thank you Tom!

After quickly finding the 45 at the local department store for $.78, I wore it out on my little red record player, while figuring out how to bounce my finger up and down on the guitar fingerboard to play that riff.

Fast-forward to 1984: It's August and I'm at A&M Studios in Hollywood on the old Charlie Chaplin lot with The Long Ryders, recording our first album. I'm a long way from my boyhood home in Elkhart, Indiana. My wife of eight months is very pregnant 60 miles away in Ventura, where her brother is taking his last breaths due to liver failure, having drank himself into an early grave at age 33.

The studio door opens and in walks the man, Gene Clark. Hungover, smiling, gracious, tall, sculpted like a cigar store Indian, carrying quiet dignity through it all.

Gene was to sing on "Ivory Tower," a song on The Long Ryders' first LP Native Sons. Even though I'd joined the band mere months ago, a day like this may not have seemed unusual, but for all of my memories of my younger self sitting by my record player listening to Byrds records.

We all gathered in the control booth with our producer Henry Lewy, listening to Gene sing. There was that beautiful voice I heard so many years ago. But now it was tired and damaged by too much that still rode with him, whether he wanted it to or not. Somebody compared his earliest attempts at getting a take to the vocalisms of Wild Man Fischer. Gene's vocal, doubling a previously-recorded one by Stephen McCarthy, had to be recorded over and over again, but finally we got something that truly added to the song. That quality I recognized years ago was still intact.

And your Byrd can sing...Gene with the Long Ryders (photo Gary Nichamin).

That same month, The Long Ryders were opening for Roger McGuinn, playing two acoustic sets at McCabe's in Santa Monica. Still being part star-struck kid and part archivist, I brought my trusty tape recorder, and sat out in the audience after our first set to hear and record Roger. Sitting directly in front of me in the audience were Gene with Carla Olson, a true and dear woman I'd already known for many years from my days working at Tower Records on the Sunset Strip. On that tape you can hear Gene and Carla singing along from their chairs, and later in the set Gene got up on stage and sang "Chimes of Freedom" and "Bells of Rhymney" with Roger. Gene also joined us backstage before one of our sets, and the picture above shows us on that hot California August evening, all smiles, setlists in hand.

A little later, The Long Ryders were booked to open for Gene's electric band Firebyrd at the Country Club in Reseda, CA. We arrived early in order to do our soundcheck. It is customary for an opening band to wait until the headliner is done with their soundcheck before setting up their equipment for theirs. Gene hadn't arrived, so wait we did. Minutes became hours. Drummer Greg Sowders and I became dutifully impatient and decided to look for Gene. Instinct told us to check the bar across the street. Sure enough, there was Gene with Michael Clarke, his current and past drummer from The Byrds, laughing, drinking, lit up like Christmas trees. Gene greeted us warmly when he saw us. We immediately forgot about trying to hurry him to the soundcheck. Instead, we joined Gene and Michael at the bar for quite a while, until the other two Long Ryders caught up with all of us, on a similar "where are those guys" mission. In good time, we had many laughs, soundcheck was done, and the show went on.

Two and a half years passed. The Long Ryders toured Europe and the States extensively, got signed to Island Records, had a top 40 hit in the UK, saw the press love us, hate us and love us again, and my beautiful baby daughter soon had a handsome baby brother to play with. Everything seemed on its way straight up, and nearly every day continued to be an amazing time in my life. I was home in Burbank in early 1987 between tours when I got a call: "Gene and Carla are doing a show at a venue called At My Place in Santa Monica in March, would you like to play standup bass for them?" The gig was great, doing material from Gene and Carla's new LP So Rebellious a Lover, with Skip Edwards from Desert Rose Band and Dwight Yoakam on piano and Michael Huey from The Classics IV on drums. Before the gig, Gene and I spent some time talking. I told him how "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" had such an impact on me, and he related the story of him hearing The Beatles' "She Loves You" on a jukebox in the basement of a gig he was playing with The New Christy Minstrels, and how it changed him forever.

Not so good for me was the rest of 1987. The Long Ryders were suffering from, among other things, a lack of support by our management and out-and-out sabotage by our record label, resulting in our brotherhood showing intense strain in some very uncomfortable ways. The spring 1987 tour of Europe was a nightmare. Despite a major label "deal," we were broke, and I found myself having to find another source of income so that my growing family could eat and have a roof over their heads. In June of 1987, when the other Long Ryders insisted upon doing a U.S. tour that was expected to lose five figures, I announced that I was leaving the band. I recorded and proudly shopped my new material to the sound of crickets. 1988 came, and early that year, I got a call to do another gig with Gene and Carla at Club Lingerie in Hollywood.

We rehearsed before the gig at Gene's house in Sherman Oaks. His old red Firebird was parked out front, and remnants of recent faux Byrds reunion roadwork were scattered about the house: hotel soaps in the bathroom, rock magazines in various languages. For a guy with more than one hit still in heavy rotation on oldies radio, I was struck by how modestly he lived. Gene had once told me, point blank, that he had put at least one million dollars of coke up his nose. He also made it clear that at the present time in his life, he was looking for a way out of all of that.

The rest of the band gathered in his living room, talking about recent gigs. Gene sat back on his couch, strumming his guitar. Someone asked him about a new song, and he started playing one. There was that big, spooky voice on top of his acoustic guitar. Those demons, some of which we'll never know, came out of Gene like a musical Rembrandt, fully formed and made incredibly beautiful. All this was further intensified by the fact that I was hearing it all unfold within the confines of his living room. Was he improvising? It all struck me as tragic that Gene, still prolific in potential, was able to release so few of his songs in his later years, and that the recordings that did surface tended to sound more like squeaky-clean studio projects rather than the enormously arresting sounds that were now filling the room.

From left: Tom Stevens plays the stand up bass with Carla Olson and Gene Clark (photo Gary Nichamin).

Sometime during the course of those rehearsals, I told Gene I'd left The Long Ryders. Rather than the curious or shocked reaction shots I usually got from that announcement, a great sadness immediately filled his face. At once I realized that this brought back the pain of Gene's ill-fated early exit from The Byrds. He had high hopes of realizing new success with new projects, but sadly, that success eluded him, and Hollywood has never treated perceived has-beens with kindness or sympathy. His look made me sad, too. For both of us.

The Club Lingerie gig was short and to the point, and well received. Talking after the show with Gene and his manager Saul Davis, Gene expressed disappointment that David Crosby had not come to the gig, despite him telling Gene that he would be there. It was during that conversation that I learned that Gene was about to have stomach surgery for some lingering problems that were getting worse. He was trying to get clean then. I knew it was going to be rough, having lost my brother-in-law during those first sessions to similar circumstances. Gene was only 43 at the time, but several lifetimes of hard living and pain showed more and more in his tired eyes and walk. He was tired of the politics of the business he had helped define many years ago with the early success of his music, tired of both substances and sobriety, and tired of the fight.

I never saw Gene again after that night. The summer of 1988 came, and I moved my family to my old home in Indiana to seek an easier, calmer, better life. A year later, Tom Petty's version of "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" was released. Since Petty was a still a hit machine, I was happy thinking that Gene could again enjoy some well-deserved extra revenue. I also hoped that he could stay clean enough to use that money for something other than powder and parties, as he had done in years past.

On Bob Dylan's birthday in 1991, they found him. My mother saw the notice in the newspaper, and asked me if the Gene Clark that died was the same Gene Clark that I had worked with. He was only 46, two years younger than I am now. I wasn't surprised, but the sadness is still there.

​​​​​​

In The Plan

• “Gene Therapy” a Gene Clark podcast – topics & music specific to Gene’s career

• "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!

TOM STEVENS            

During his long musical career, TOM STEVENS has recorded over a dozen albums, both solo and with Magi, The Long Ryders, Danny & Dusty, Chris Cacavas and Junk Yard Love and Jack Waterson. As a solo artist his blistering guitar playing and depth of songwriting speak volumes, both on stage and on Stevens' solo albums.  During his 3-1/2 years as a Long Ryder, Stevens saw the release of three albums (all featuring Stevens-penned songs). Stevens was also a member of the legendary Danny & Dusty, whose album The Lost Weekend made the year-end top ten best albums list in the New York Times. Additionally, he played with Gene Clark of The Byrds-as a stand-up bass player on a few of his last live L.A. performances. For more on Tom Stevens, please visit his website: http://tomstevens.org/.

1. When was the first time you met Gene?
It was August 1984, the Olympic games were in Los Angeles, and The Long Ryders were recording their first LP (Native Sons). Gene walked into A&M Studios on LaBrea in Hollywood and shook all of our hands. He was there to sing on the song "Ivory Tower". Gene was friendly and natural and looked like he could use more sleep.

Our producer Henry Lewy made him comfortable and showed him into the vocal booth. Henry and Gene seemed to know each other, and Henry was very patient as he got levels and Gene warmed up. His voice sounded tired and damaged, but within the hour it shed several layers of grit and emerged as the full if shaky voice that you hear on our record.

2. What is your favorite Gene Clark story/memory?
I detail my first reaction to hearing Gene's voice fill his living room in my earlier piece. It was the same voice I'd heard as a child, but suddenly there were no microphones, speakers, or any other interference between my ears and his devastating voice, fresh from the road, in peak form.

Here's another story. During a rehearsal at Gene's house, some bandmates mentioned that a book written by Michelle Phillips, co-founder of The Mamas & the Papas, had just been released and that Gene was in it. They started teasing him in a good-natured way. He was visibly embarrassed, but grinning broadly from the teasing. Finally, he exploded in laughter, a loud "HAW HAW HAW" that had everyone nearly on the floor laughing along. I still smile when I think of that moment.

3. What do you know about Gene that you would want his fans to know?
Gene was an incredibly prolific songwriter. While warming up before rehearsals, he'd be on the couch, running through new songs that I'd never heard before or since. The songs were in various stages of completion, and a few had the spooky feel of "Here Without You" or "If You're Gone". It seemed that songs were flowing out of Gene faster than they could be taken down in permanent form.

4. Favorite Gene Clark Song/Album?
His songs on the first two Byrds albums (Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn!) plus "Eight Miles High" are my all-time favorites. For later material, I remember being very moved playing "Gypsy Rider" live with Gene, a truly beautiful song.

5. Complete the sentence:
I think Gene Clark should be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of fame because... 
Gene's songwriting defined American mid-60s American rock n roll and pioneered its subgenres like folk-rock and country-rock. Gene was prolific and he continued to write top-notch songs throughout his career.

Echoes would like to wish all the mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day!

Here's a photo of Gene with his mom from the 1980s courtesy of The Clark Family.
So long and keep on Clarkin' until next time!

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