Gene Clark, With the Byrds: 1964-1966

BYRDWATCHER: A Field Guide to the Byrds of Los Angeles

GENE CLARK
With the Byrds: 1964-1966

Gene Clark Discography

Gene Clark Bibliography

Lack of enthusiasm:

The band's low regard for Clark's work can be seen from their LPs. In their Jet Set days, Clark wrote or co-wrote nearly all the group's material -- 12 out of 16 songs on In the Beginning, for example. The first album had five Clark songs, the second only three. And a solid Clark B-side was left off of the second album as well. Clark could not have been encouraged by the move away from his songs.

Income:

Under most recording contracts, both then and now, songwriting royalties are the most lucrative source of income for musicians. Other than those royalties, the band's take is only the money left after the record company has deducted its many expenses and everybody else has taken their cut. Since Clark wrote five songs on the first LP, his income in the band's early days was many times that of the other band members. According to McGuinn, "He was in Ferraris and things and we were still starving."*

To read about the pre-Byrds career of Gene Clark, see Gene Clark, The Early Years: 1957-1964. This Chapter begins with a few words about Clark's role in the band; the story of the Byrds from 1964 to 1966 will be chronicled in detail in the forthcoming Byrds History Section.

Gene Clark and the Byrds

There is a vocal minority of Byrds fans who insist that the band was never as good after Gene Clark's departure. Most fans of the band do appreciate Clark's work in the Byrds and the high quality of his solo output, but unfortunately, Clark's contribution to the band has sometimes been glossed over, ignored, minimized, or even denigrated, in part because his stay was so short. Yet the facts of Clark's tenure show that he was an important part of the band's original lineup.

Clark's singing was a key asset to the early Byrds. His smooth baritone was an appealing lead voice that provided a nice contrast to McGuinn's reedier voice. There was always a hint of melancholy in his leads that brought an undercurrent of sadness to even his uptempo songs. And when he sang in unison with McGuinn, Clark's voice added depth and texture to the vocal mix.

The credits to the first two albums attest to Gene Clark's crucial role as songwriter. Of 23 songs, six are Dylan covers, seven are covers of songs by other writers, and eight are written by Clark. Of those eight, two -- probably the two weakest -- were co-written with McGuinn, who also wrote one other song alone and one with Crosby. Clark was also the primary author of the band's pièce de resistance, "Eight Miles High," one great non-LP B-side ("She Don't Care About Time") and two fine outtakes ("She Has A Way" and "The Day Walk"). Clark's best melodies were tuneful ("I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better") or haunting ("Here Without You"). The subject matter was always love, but Clark brought to his lyrics a complex, Dylan-inspired sensibility not often found in boy/girl songs. (Dylan held Clark's songwriting in high regard, by all accounts.)

In a moving remembrance at the time of Clark's death, Chris Hillman stressed not only his songwriting skill, but also his onstage charisma:

He was the songwriter. He had the "gift" that none of the rest of us had developed yet.... What deep inner part of his soul conjured up songs like "Set You Free," "Feel A Whole Lot Better," "I'm Feelin' Higher," "Eight Miles High"? So many great songs! We learned a lot of songwriting from him and in the process learned a little bit about ourselves.
At one time, he was the power in the Byrds, not McGuinn, not Crosby -- it was Gene who would burst through the stage curtain banging on a tambourine, coming on like a young Prince Valiant. A hero, our savior. Few in the audience could take their eyes off this presence....*

Still, as everyone including Gene Clark has conceded, his stay with the Byrds was troubled. He was a prolific songwriter, but apparently few of his songs were of the quality of the songs that were recorded. As Jim Dickson put it, "Gene could write fifteen to twenty songs a week and you had to find a good one whenever it came along because there were lots of them that you couldn't make heads or tails of. They didn't mean anything. We all knew that. Gene would write a good one at the rate of about one per girlfriend."* This inconsistency may have contributed to a lack of enthusiasm by his colleagues for even some of Clark's better songs. Another reason for their disapproval may have been some resentment of Clark's income -- as chief songwriter, he reaped greater and earlier financial rewards than his bandmates.

All these tensions were dwarfed by another set of problems. The grind of touring wore on Clark, just as it had during his days with the New Christy Minstrels. The hectic schedules and demanding fans were bad enough, but Clark's fear of flying became unbearably intense. To calm his nerves, Clark used alcohol and various controlled substances, with predictably erratic results. Clark's fear of flying, in combination with his intake, led to sweats, paranoid delusions, and screaming fits that grew progressively worse with each flight. In early 1966, these panic attacks culminated in a major episode that has sometimes been described as a nervous breakdown, in which a terrified Clark insisted on getting off an LA-to-New York flight.

Clark had already participated in the January sessions for the "Eight Miles High"/"Why" single, but did not take part in any further sessions for the third LP. Clark, the band, and their management came to a mutual and more-or-less amicable decision that he should go solo, although both Eddie Tickner and David Crosby urged him to stay. In March of '66, the band issued a press release revealing Clark's departure:

He left not because of a row, and not because he was fired. He left because he was tired of the multitude of obligations facing successful rock 'n' roll groups. Tired of the travel, the hotels and the food. Tired of the pursuit of the most relentless autograph hunters, weary of the constant screaming. Bothered by the photographs and interviews, and exhausted by the whole punishing scene.

And so the Byrds achieved another first: first member of a major '60s rock group to to "go solo."

The full story of the Byrds will be chronicled in detail in the forthcoming Byrds History Section; the story of Gene Clark's late '60s solo work is told in the following Chapter, Gene Clark, With the Gosdin Brothers and the Gene Clark Group: 1966-1968.

Notes

He was the songwriter..." Hillman, Full Circle at 7 - 9.

...[O]ne per girlfriend." Rogan, Timeless Flight at 67.

He was in Ferrarris..." Rogan, Timeless Flight at 66.

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This page was last revised on August 15, 1997.

GENE CLARK With the Byrds: 1964-1966

GENE CLARK
With the Byrds: 1964-1966