35 years ago: Byrds’ Gene Clark dies at age 46

Without Gene Clark, it’s hard to say whether the Byrds would even exist at all.

A founding member of the ’60s folk-rock band, Clark helped write some of the band’s most famous songs, including “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” “She Don’t Care About Time,” “Set You Free This Time” and “Eight Miles High.”

“Gene was a very prolific writer,” Byrds bassist Chris Hillman later said in a 2000 interview. “So this guy writes five or six songs a week, and three of them were great. They were really, really good!”

Clark first left the Birds in early 1966. Clark had an extreme fear of flying, which made touring difficult and caused tension between the band members. However, he returned briefly in October 1967 to replace the recently fired David Crosby, but just a few weeks later Clark left again.

Gene Clark’s solo works

Clark didn’t quit music all together. The following year, he signed with A&M Records and produced several albums with banjo player Doug Dillard, further cementing Clark’s status as a leader in country rock, a burgeoning musical genre at the time.

He then released a series of solo albums throughout the ’70s, but none of them received much critical or commercial attention in the United States. However, his former bandmates Hillman, Crosby, and even Roger McGuinn contributed some of this music.

read more: When the Byrds reunited for Roy Orbison and performed with Bob Dylan.

“He’s an interesting writer,” Hillman said in 2000. “I mean, this guy didn’t read much, but he just kind of pulled these beautiful poetic phrases out of nowhere. And I asked him where he got this. It was really interesting.”

In fact, in 1977, the three former Byrds formed a new group called McGuinn, Clark & ​​Hillman, which released a self-titled album two years later. Clark wrote four songs about her fear of flying: “Backstage Pass,” “Release Me Girl,” “Feelin’ Higher,” and “Little Mama,” and the album reached No. 39 on the US charts. signboard 200.

Listen to McGuinn, Clark and Hillman’s “Backstage Pass”

For the next several years, Clark’s career remained largely unknown. The “Byrds 20th Anniversary” tour featured Clark and two other former Byrds, Michael Clark and John Yorke, as well as former Flying Burrito Brother Rick Roberts, Beach Boys’ Blondie Chaplin, and former band members Rick Danko and Richard Manuel.

“We’re going back to the simplicity of the early Byrds, and I like that,” Clark said in 1985. “Everyone is pretty happy with what’s happening because it’s being done in a very fair and open way.”

However, his personal life began to suffer, plagued by ulcers, alcoholism, and drug use. In 1989, Tom Petty covered the Byrds’ “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” as his third song. full moon fever The album led to a surge in royalty payments to Clark. But it was too little, too late.

Listen to Tom Petty’s “Feel a Whole Lot Better.”

death of gene clark

“And the poor guy,” Hillman later said, “he just fell apart.”

Despite trying to overcome it, Clark’s alcoholism wreaked havoc on both his body and his ability to keep a job. He eventually passed away on May 24, 1991 at the age of 46. The cause was heart failure due to a bleeding ulcer.

“He had some health issues,” Clark’s manager Saul Davis said. Los Angeles Times Those days. “He was a strong man. Police decided there was no need for a coroner or anything.”

read more: How the Byrds grew with ‘Younger Than Yesterday’

Clark was buried at St. Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery in his hometown of Tipton, Missouri. The inscription on his tombstone reads “No Other.”

“I really loved Gene. He was a good guy,” Crosby told Birds fan site Birdwatcher in 1998.

And he had been warned. They told him that if he drank any more he would commit suicide. And I think he knew that and poured it into the bottle on purpose. And I think that’s very sad. He was a very talented man. And a kind man, a wonderful man. And that’s it. ”