The Return of Gene Clark

Fifty years ago, the Byrds released Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and former members of the group are celebrating the anniversary in a big way. On Record Store Day in April, Lloyd Green and Jay Dee Maness — whose steel guitars gave the album its iconic sound, especially on the Dylan tune “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” — released a steel guitar version of the album, Journey to the Beginning: A Steel Guitar Tribute to the Byrds. Now, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman are touring to celebrate the album’s anniversary, playing songs from it and telling stories behind them.

Even more exciting than the news of the tour and celebration of the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, though, is the release of an album of never-before-released songs by Gene Clark, the major songwriting force (“I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” “She Don’t Care about Time,” “Set You Free This Time”) of the group’s early years: Gene Clark Sings for You. When Clark left the group in early 1967, he teamed up with the Gosdin Brothers to put out the country-rock Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers. Later in the year, Clark recorded acetates for another album, but they were not released and presumed lost. They were found in the Liberty Records vault in the 1980s and now Onmivore is releasing the album, along with the only album by the folk-rock group The Rose Garden — A Trip through the Garden: The Rose Garden Collection — to whom Clark gave demos. Five of the 14 songs on Gene Clark Sings for You are acetates for The Rose Garden. Hillman once said in an interview that Clark was “the power in the Byrds … he was the songwriter. He had the gift that none of us had developed yet.” Gene Clark Sings for You illustrates that power; Clark reveals the inner part of his soul in these spare tracks as he ranges over a number of musical styles with fearless curiosity.

The album opener, the simple folk-rocker “On Her Own,” features Clark’s cascading guitar picking that blossoms into jangly rhythm guitar chords floating over tambourine and drums. The song’s reminiscent of “Eight Miles High” — especially in the later verses, where the tempo slows a little before picking up the propulsive energy of the early verses of the song. The rhythmic music fits the restlessness of the singer’s search for a free-spirited girl in San Francisco, and it captures the kaleidoscopic color of the city itself. The musically enigmatic “Past Tense” features Alex del Zoppo’s jazzy electric piano, which drives the bridge into a wild musical space before returning to the melody. You can hear the seeds of Robert Hunter’s and Phil Lesh’s “Box of Rain” in the notes of this song. “Yesterday, Am I Right” showcases Clark’s soulful vocals in this meditative take on love and loss. Clark modulates his vocals on “Past My Door,” a song that illustrates Clark’s genius for weaving a musical theme through a number of changes in tempo. Clark expresses the despondent loneliness of the singer — “I’m here/down on the pier/you’re never here/there’s no one but me” — in “”Down on the Pier” in a slow shuffle whose melancholy is emphasized with the strains of a calliope. “7:30 Mode” is a jaunty little country tune, featuring Clark on harmonica, that belies the raggedness of life about which he sings in the song.

Gene Clark Sings for You is a cause for celebration; we get to hear a songwriter working through the intricacies of songs in these tracks and to hear these songs as they’re being born in his mind and in his writing. For many fans of the Byrds, Gene Clark — and not McGuinn, Crosby, Hillman, Parsons — was the force behind the band because of his brilliant songwriting, and his leaving the band was a huge loss for them. Now we get to hear Clark in all his virtuosity on Gene Clark Sings for You.

Track listings:

Gene Clark Sings for You

1. On Her Own
2. Past Tense
3. Yesterday, Am I Right
4. Past My Door
5. That’s Alright by Me
6. One Way Road

7. Down on the Pier
8. 7:30 Mode

The Rose Garden Acetate

9. On Tenth Street
10. Understand Me Too
11. A Long Time

12. Big City Girl

13. Doctor Doctor

The Rose Garden Demo

14. Till Today

All tracks previously unissued