Joe's Book Club 2: Mr. Tambourine Man

Joe_Stax · Joe's Book Club 2: Mr. Tambourine Man

As a teenager, I discovered the Byrds the way I discovered a lot of my early favorites in rock, through singles. I’d randomly buy 45s at yard sales and flea markets, sometimes picking up things that I’d never heard of that caught my eye, or singles that I knew for the group or the hit.

One of the best things about many of these latter records was the flip side. The surprises that could be found on the back of the hits! Sometimes they were just throw aways, or novelties. Sometimes they were junk. But sometimes, they were glorious, and as good as, or better than, the chart hit.

Which brings me to the flip side of the Byrds classic, “Turn, Turn, Turn”. The b side was “She Don’t Care About Time”, which absolutely obsessed me for weeks after I got the records. I’d play it endlessly, rushing over to the record player every two and a half minutes to put the needle back at the start of the song. It just captivated me.

Being young and kind of stupid, it would be a few more years until I made the connection between this song and some other Byrds originals that I also loved, like “The World Turns All Around Her”, “Set You Free This Time” and “Feel A Whole Lot Better”.

That connection? Gene Clark.

Even after I’d figured out the Gene Clark connection, it took a long time to piece together a fragmented history of the man responsible for some of my favorite songs. Aside from the occasional article or interview, there didn’t seem to be much information available about the man. Even when the first Byrds box set came out in the early 90’s, Clark was kind of dismissed as the guy who wrote some songs and then quit the band after two albums.

This information gap is redressed in the new book Mr. Tambourine Man: the Life and Legacy of the Byrds’ Gene Clark by John Einarson (2005, Backbeat Books, paper, 339 pp, $19.95).

It’s quite a story—from folk and country roots through a brief stint with the New Christy Minstrels that landed him in Los Angeles, to the Byrds, the invention of folk rock and nascent psychedelia. Following the Byrds, it’s the beginning of a fitful solo career (eclectic, too—Clark’s first solo album included folk-rock, early country-rock and baroque pop!) and the Dillard & Clark Expedition’s country-rock-bluegrass blend. And that’s just the 1960’s!

In the 70’s, there are more solo albums, most critically acclaimed but poor sellers, a Byrds reunion album (not acclaimed), and the beginning of an era of diminishing returns. Clark found himself getting dropped from labels, there would be a strained reunion and album with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. Personally, this period saw him divorced, and there began an ongoing relationship with drink and drugs.

The 80’s were the hardest of times for Gene Clark. He was at point where he couldn’t get a label to sign him, and by the middle of the decade went on the road with a Byrds tribute act to make ends meet. An album came out on an independent label, only to vanish, but in 1987 there would be one more album, cut with Carla Olson. This lp, So Rebellious a Lover, is a great country-rock record (although I can remember a particularly nasty review in Creem magazine), and could even lay some claim to some influence on the burgeoning alt country scene.

Ill health and a rock lifestyle caught up with Gene Clark in 1991, when, just a few months after the original Byrds reunited for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hole of Fame, he passed away.
John Einarson does a great job telling Clark’s story. His writing style is clean and uncluttered, and quite readable. Einarson interviewed Clark’s family, friends, and associates to bring together a very complete life of the man, not simply focusing on the period that he is best known for. Gene Clark’s voice is heard, too, by way of interviews from throughout his career, much of it previously unpublished.

It’s perhaps an irony of Gene Clark’s life that while a gifted
songwriter, he never had a hit that would establish his reputation in the popular consciousness, resulting in his biography bearing the title of a song he didn’t write. But his legacy is tremendous—he wrote and sang some brilliant songs, and was a key player in the creation of sounds that we take for granted as always having been there—folk rock, psychedelia, and country rock.

My only complaint about the book hinges on the type of thing that appeals to collectors and obsessives—a discography or listing of sessions that Clark played on that would have been nice, and completed this book—a means of knowing which New Christy Minstrels albums he’s on, guest appearances, and the like. But even without, John Einarson has written the definitive biography of an overlooked artist.