No Gene Clark

Gene Clark’s 1974 masterpiece gets the reappraisal it’s long overdue. On the eve of what would have been American singer-songwriter and Byrds founding member Gene Clark’s 75th birthday comes the reissue of one of his finest works, No Other. Released in 1974 on Asylum Records, a year after the Byrds short- lived reunion, Gene reached for the stars with No Other; a psychedelic rock, folk, country and soul record that famously cost a small fortune to make…

The legendary 1967 Gene Clark recordings. Also includes six additional previously unissued & unknown recordings.

4AD are thrilled to announce the reissue of Gene Clark's 1974 masterpiece No Other - one of the American singer-songwriter and Byrds founding member’s finest works - coming out on November 8th 2019.

The Dillard & Clark duo was Gene Clark’s most artistically successful post-Byrds collaboration, and his best venture into country-rock as well. With Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon playing behind the duo throughout the first album, in many ways it is as much an offshoot of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ work as it is of the Byrds, with more of the Burritos’ feel. The standard of playing and singing on both albums is extremely high, but the nine songs on The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark are more impressive, both as recordings and compositions.

I'm astonished at two things: One, that it's taken me so long to discover this amazing album, and two, that the music on here is so incredibly good. Truly, this was a trailblazing album, fusing country, folk, and bluegrass, and making it palatable for rock audiences. It helped of course that Gene Clark of the Byrds was sitting in with the Dillards, giving this project more street cred for the folkies and rockers. The musical virtuosity on here, the soaring harmonies, and the high quality of the songs, is most impressive.

Clark Datchler is best known as singer/songwriter in the successful 1980s band Johnny Hates Jazz. His most famous songs with the band include the international hits ’Shattered Dreams’, ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Hero’, ‘Turn Back The Clock’ and ‘Heart Of Gold’. ‘Shattered Dreams’ reached #2 in the US and Japan, and went top 5 throughout the rest of the World. It has now been played 3.7 million times on US radio alone. The album ‘Turn Back The Clock’ entered the UK charts at #1 and went triple platinum. To this day, it is regarded as one of the seminal albums of the decade.

On January 12, 1970, 'Time' magazine placed The Band on its cover with the headline, 'The New Sound of Country Rock.' In the taxonomy of popular music, Country Rock was now a thing, a categoryby 1970. There were Country Rock browser bins in some stores, and trade magazines like 'Billboard'routinely classified records as country-rock or country/rock, expecting readers to know what they meant.