Gene Clark – This Byrd Has Flown: The Essential Gene Clark

While he certainly wrote a handful of enduring classics as a member of the Byrds, it’s surprising that Gene Clark has never been given the recognition for his solo work that the music so obviously deserves. Between 1966 (the year he quit the Byrds, at the peak of their popularity) and his death on May 24, 1991 — the day Bob Dylan turned 50 — at age 49, Clark recorded eight proper studio albums as a solo artist or with various partners (the Gosdin Brothers, Doug Dillard, Carla Olson). In addition, the British label Demon has released the live album Silhouetted in Light — also featuring Carla Olson, with whom Clark recorded his final studio work, So Rebellious a Lover, in 1986 — and a compilation of outtakes from the early 1970s (Roadmaster) that contains some of the best songs of Clark’s career.

Clark’s solo work is varied, but it shifts and twists between the psychedelic West Coast folk rock of his youth and the dusty desert road music of his later years. His 1974 album No Other is lush and psychedelic (the song “From a Silver Phial” was even covered by the arty British group This Mortal Coil); The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark is ripe with Dillard’s bluegrass influences; and So Rebellious a Lover is a masterpiece of road-weary melancholy and reflection — his voice sad but rippled with warmth, rough around the edges, and seemingly full of a wisdom earned through some 25 years in the music business.

Nine of the 12 tracks on This Byrd Has Flown are from Clark’s 1984 album Firebyrd (they’ve been remastered, though). The other three are previously unreleased extras: “Dixie Flyer,” the J.J. Cale-ish “C’est La Bonne Rue,” and “All I Want” (the last recorded in 1987). The songs and arrangements here are more pop/rock-oriented and production-heavy than most of Clark’s other material — and it’s hardly an “essential” collection of his work, as the title so boldly proclaims. (If you’re going to buy just one Clark album, I’d head for Rebellious, Roadmaster, or The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard and Clark.)

The promising tension that slowly builds in the song “Vanessa,” for instance, is unfortunately interrupted by an obtrusive guitar solo and some overeager background vocalists. And the version here of “Feel a Whole Lot Better” is too loud and shiny — a problem with much of the production throughout.

Still, This Byrd Has Flown is not a bad album by any means — especially for Clark fans — and there are in fact a handful of worthy tracks. It opens with a bright version of Dylan’s “Mr. Tamborine Man” (which Roger McGuinn sang when the Byrds recorded it) that’s more rock than folk in its tone; “Rain Song” has a gray, haunting edge to it; “Dixie Flyer” is lively and a bit dirty behind the ears. And the delicate, pretty, and mesmerizing song “All I Want” is the closest the album has to a true gem.