"...Time Can Only Heal Its Scars..."
Missouri's Harold Eugene
Clark has already had a huge career prior to his 6th album "No Other"
- originally unleashed on a disinterested world in December 1974.
Stints as a young man with
Bluegrass & Folk singers The New Christy Minstrels, co-founding The Byrds
with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby (he famously penned "I'll Feel A Whole
Lot Better" and co-wrote the classic "Eight Miles High"), a solo
album in 1967 with Country act The Gosdin Brothers, two Country-Rock LPs with
Dillard and Clark in 1968 and 1969 on A&M Records all of which led finally
toward two solo albums - 1971's "Gene Clark" (aka “White Light”) and
1972's "Roadmaster". Influential and well received all of them but
none ever bothered the American Top 100. The problem with his 6th album
"No Other" is that it’s probably his best record - a masterpiece many
say - and the public missed out big time (it barely scraped No. 144 on the
American LP charts).
Which brings us to this
lovely 2003 Warners 'Expanded Edition' CD - a musical winner if ever there was
one. Here are the Silver Phials...
UK released August 2003 -
"No Other" by GENE CLARK on (WSM) Warner Strategic Marketing 8122
73701-2 (Barcode 081227370121) is an 'Remastered & Expanded Edition' CD offering the
full 8-track 1974 album with seven Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks. It plays
out as follows (74:54 minutes):
1. Life's Greatest Fool
2. Silver Raven
3. No Other
4. Strength Of Strings
5. From A Silver Phial
6. Some Misunderstanding
7. The True One
8. Lady Of The North
Tracks 1 to 8 are his 6th
studio album "No Other" - released December 1974 in the USA on Asylum
7E-1016 and February 1975 in the UK on Asylum SYL 9020.
Produced by THOMAS
JEFFERSON KAYE - all songs by Gene Clark except "Lady Of The North"
co-written with Doug Dillard (of Dillard and Clark and The Flying Burrito
Brothers) and "Train Leaves Here This Morning" in the Bonus Tracks -
co-write with Bernie Leadon of The Eagles (this song is on their 1972
"Eagles" debut album also on Asylum Records).
BONUS TRACKS (All Previously
Unreleased):
9. Train Leaves Here This
Morning
10. Life’s Greatest Fool
(Alternate Version)
11. Silver Raven (Alternate
Version)
12. No Other (Alternate
Version)
13. From A Silver Phial
(Alternate Version)
14. Some Misunderstanding
(Alternate Version)
15. Lady Of The North
(Alternate Version)
GENE CLARK - Guitar and
Vocals on all songs
JERRY McGEE - Guitar on all
songs
DANNY KOOTCH - Guitar on
"From A Silver Phial"
JESSE ED DAVIS - Guitar on
"Life's Greatest Fool", "Silver Raven" and "From A
Silver Phial"
STEVE BRUTON - Guitar on
"Life's Greatest Fool" and "Some Misunderstanding"
BUZZY FEITEN - Guitar on
"Strength Of Strings" and "Some Misunderstanding"
CHILL HILLMAN - Mandolin on
"From A Silver Phial"
MICHAEL UTLEY - Keyboards on
all songs
CRAIG DOERGE - Keyboards on
"Strength Of Strings" and "Lady Of The North"
RICHARD GREENE - Violin on
"Strength Of Strings", "Some Misunderstanding" and
"Lady Of The North"
TED MACHELL - Cello on
"Lady Of The North"
BILL CUOMO - Rheem Organ on
"Some Misunderstanding"
LEE SKLAR - Bass on all
songs
RUSS KUNKEL - Drums on all
songs except BUTCH TRUCKS on "The True One" and "No Other"
JOE LALA - Percussion on
"No Other", "Life's Greatest Fool", "From A Silver
Phial" and "The True One
RONNIE BARRON, CINDY BULLENS
and CLAUDIA LENNEAR - Backing Vocals on "Life's Greatest Fool" and
"Silver Raven"
VENETTA FIELDS, CLYDIE KING,
SHIRLEY MATTHEWS and CARLENA WILLIAMS - Backing Vocals on "Life's Greatest
Fool" and "Some Misunderstanding"
TIMOTHY B. SCHMIT (of The
Eagles) - Backing Vocals on "Silver Raven", "No Other",
"Strength Of Strings" and "From A Silver Phial"
Produced for release by RICK
CONRAD - the 12-page booklet has new liner notes from JOHNNY ROGAN – Author of
the acclaimed 1998 Byrds Biography "Timeless Flight Revisited". You
also get lyrics to all the album songs – musician and recording credits –
reissue details – a photo of Clark in his denim shirt and a rare 7" single
European picture sleeve for "Life's Greatest Fool". They've even
repro'd the photo that came with the rare insert which accompanied original
vinyl LPs (I've only ever seen a few of these in my four decades of
collecting). And of course there's those six 'Alternate Versions' of eight
album tracks and the new demo for "Train Leaves Here This Morning" -
a very musical collaboration with Bernie Leadon of the original Eagles line up.
But the big news is a
fabulous new Digiprep Remasters involving names associated with wads of quality
CD reissues - ANDREW SANDOVAL (Kinks and Small Faces) and Rhino's long-standing
Audio Engineer DAN HERSCH. This CD is a joy to listen too – all that classy
instrumentation and that backing group talent brought to the fore. Great stuff...
It opens on a Country-Rock
winner - "Life's Greatest Fool". Asylum UK threw out "Life's
Greatest Fool" with the stunning "From A Silver Phial" on the
flip-side as a lead off 45 in Blighty (Asylum AYM 540) where the album didn't
arrive until early 1975 - but it didn't raise a ripple. It's very Eagles melody
and jaunt complete with Jesse Ed Davis guitar solo may have been the wrong
choice (the B-side was better). "Silver Raven" is beautiful -
acoustic guitars softly caressing his vocals. It's bolstered up by the presence
of the warm backing vocals of future Eagles man Timothy B. Schmidt and the
gorgeous Claudia Lennear rumoured to have "Brown Sugar" by The
Rolling Stones written about her. Things slow to a plinking keyboard intro for
the title song "No Other" which then goes all Prog but it a very cool
way.
Both "Strength Of
Strings" and "From A Silver Phial" show the reach of his
melodies with the sung-chants passages of "Strength Of Strings"
(Jesse Ed Davis on slide) reminding me of David Crosby's "Song With No
Words (Trees With No Leaves)" from his brilliant 1971 album "If I
Could Only Remember My Name". While that's fab - I've always flipped for
"From A Silver Phial" (Lyrics from it tile this review) - a properly
gorgeous song with lyrics of longing like "...not to be a victim...falling
in the darkened rain..." Timothy B. Schmidt once again adds that beautiful
backing vocal as the piano, organ and guitar swirl. We enter into epic
territory with the seven and half minute "Some Misunderstanding" - a badly
timed lover's tiff that has escalated into something that must be put right -
if only our Gene knew how. "The True One" is probably the most
chipper of songs on the album and the most overtly Country. It ends on a lovely
co-write with his old mucker Doug Dillard - "Lady Of The North".
One of the huge prizes on
here is surely "Train Leaving Here This Morning" - a song that dates
back to 1969's "The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard & Clark" LP
on A&M Records. But it became more celebrated as one of the undiscovered
gems on the Eagles 1972 debut. What we get here is five-minutes of keyboards
and guitars that isn't far off the Eagles take - what a find! The six
'Alternate Versions' have been described as 'Demo' versions but they're far
more accomplished and filled out. The Dobro is accentuated on "Life's
Greatest Fool" while the wall of Acoustic Guitars take a more prominent
front stage for "Silver Raven". But my faves are "From A Silver
Phial" and "Lady Of The North" - both beautiful - stripped back
of those vocals with the piano and acoustics to the front. I'm amazed at how
good they are...
Why did the album Gene
Clark's "No Other" fail with such obvious quality on board? At that
time - I recall late 1974 and early 1975 moving into bigger and more grandiose
musical productions - LPs as event - LPs as concepts - the artwork padded out
with two booklets and two posters. Or maybe this kind of tunesmith was ever so
slightly corny for the time. Who bloody knows...
Whatever way you look at it
- this 'Remastered & Expanded' CD reissue is currently less than six smackers
from most online retailers. Now there's one crime I'll take any day of the
week...
