Byrds Songs Written or Co-written by Gene Clark

(the option should read "She's the Kind Of Girl", but you know what I mean)

how can i choose!

Feel a Whole Lot Better (I don't know any others except 8mileshigh though!)

i know all of them i think but "Feel a Whole Lot Better" is my favourite

going by the preflyte track listing gene pretty much was the byrds until they recorded tamborine man. and that early stuff was really good. gonna have to do some listening to decide here.

To highlight the wistful melancholy of "If You're Gone", McGuinn and Melcher devised a droning, Gregorian harmony part that sounds uncannily like another instrument and foreshadowed the raga rock experimentation that the band would undertake on their next album.

listening to the track w/o the main vocals just the droning is so spooky and gorgeous

It's highly likely that in '64/5, Clark was the best American songwriter working within a band context whose name wasn't Brian Wilson.

My absolute favourite Byrds songs are all here: "She Don't Care About Time," "You Showed Me," "Here Without You," and "Eight Miles High." (You could add "Wasn't Born to Follow" to that list.) I'll vote for the first, but those four are pretty much dead even.

listening to the track w/o the main vocals just the droning is so spooky and gorgeous

huh, how can you listen to it without the lead vocals? was an alternate version ever released?

heard it on bob brainen's wfmu show ages ago, maybe from a bootleg??

I searched Bob Brainen's playlists on wfmu.org but didn't turn up anything, shame. maybe it was a fan-made remix?

it's easy to miss because it's sort of buried in the mix, but the Byrds used the same droning vocal trick on "Draft Morning" a few years later.

these are the best byrds songs imo <3 gene

The most difficult selection I've made in an ILX poll -- so many top-notch songs. Too much of what makes 'Eight Miles High' is in the instrumental break, which is mostly McGuinn, so I have to go with 'Feel a Whole Lot Better', but I hope 'Here Without You' and 'Set You Free This Time' get some votes.

Clark fans are reminded to not miss the Dillard and Clark records -- I might have gone for 'Out on the Side' if it had been included here.

I think Christgau once called "Waterloo Sunset" "the most beautiful song in the English language." (Odd--he's usually not a big Kinks fan.) I'd feel comfortable making that claim for "She Don't Care About Time."

that's my vote. really nice performance and production in addition to being a great song.

remarkably consistent level of quality across most of these tracks.

some of these are co-writes...?

my 45 of You Showed Me is credited to James Mcguinn/Gene Clark for ex

the threat title makes a point of including co-writes!

voted "she don't care about time" but really there are a good half-dozen at least i could vote for on a different day.

perhaps a stupid question: when did the byrds record "Think I'm Gonna Feel Better"?

ah ok: it was recorded by the byrdmaniax band.

Outtake from the last Clarence white era album, showed up as bonus on remastered version
I think Clarence played in the original recording

Or second to last
Nice gesture by white but his vocals were weak

aside from turn turn turn, what would top a poll of non-clark/dylan byrds songs?

wasn't born to follow or lady friend for me prob

"What's your favorite Skip Battin tune?"

haha

There are a ton of excellent non-Clark/Dylan tunes. Check, for instance, the whole of Notorious Byrd Brothers and most of Younger Than Yesterday--both albums were Chris Hillman's moment in the spotlight.

She Don't Care About Time.

Looks like I'm the only vote for "The world turns all around her".

Can't not vote for "Eight Miles High", "She Don't Care About Time" a more than honourable 2nd.

yeah, I voted "Eight Miles High", but #2 would be "Here Without You" & #3 "She Don't Care About Time"

Set you free this time.
At least, this morning.

Skip Battin's solo record is not that bad, imo.

"Eight Miles High" for sure.

I always forget how talented he was.

The most difficult selection I've made in an ILX poll -- so many top-notch songs. Too much of what makes 'Eight Miles High' is in the instrumental break, which is mostly McGuinn, so I have to go with 'Feel a Whole Lot Better', but I hope 'Here Without You' and 'Set You Free This Time' get some votes.

Your wish is my command: despite being utterly in love with "One in a Hundred," I can't help but go for "Here Without You."

Which, btw, I first heard on Gene Clark's Echoes comp.

I'll give Full Circle Song a vote, even though I've never heard the Byrds version, I'm only familiar with it from Roadmaster.

I'm delighted that Gene Clark gets so much love on ILM. It's one of my favorite things about this site.

> Looks like I'm the only vote for "The world turns all around her"

Will be at least another vote for it, unless one of the few tracks I haven't yet heard surpass it.

Which part of "Eight Miles High" is Clark's contribution? I've always thought it was McGuinn who really knocked that song out.

I think he wrote some of the lyrics, and iirc changed the title from "Six Miles High".

clark and mcguinn together wrote most of the lyrics. crosby contributed "rain grey town" and "in places small faces unbound". and, yes, gene thought "eight" sounded better than "six".

(checking my new copy of rogan's bio)

i'm glad they didn't compromise on "Seven Miles High"

But musically it's kinda McGuinn's baby, isn't it? That's McGuinn doing the gnarly solo, and it was McGuinn who decided to cop the Coltrane/raga sound, right?

contradicting rogan, from wikipedia:

Clark began writing the song's lyrics on November 24, 1965, when he scribbled down some rough ideas for later development, following a discussion with guitarist Brian Jones, prior to The Byrds making a concert appearance supporting The Rolling Stones.[5][18] Over the following days, Clark expanded this fragment into a full poem, eventually setting the words to music and giving them a melody.[5] Clark then showed the song to McGuinn and Crosby, with the former suggesting that the song be arranged to incorporate the influence of Coltrane.[5] Since Clark's death, however, McGuinn has contended that it was he who conceived the initial idea of writing a song about an airplane ride and that he and Crosby both contributed lyrics to Clark's unfinished draft.[5] In his book, Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of The Byrds' Gene Clark, author John Einarson disputes this claim and ponders whether McGuinn's story would be the same were Clark still alive.[5]

i'll feel a whole lot better

i mean 'she's the kind of girl'

I'm a huge fan of both Eight Miles High and I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better but listening to all these songs the one that grabbed me was Set You Free This Time so that's getting my vote.

Never understood why the full band recordings of "She's the Kind of Girl"/"One in a Hundred" weren't used for the Asylum S/T record in '73.

Wow, I'd never picked up on how good 'She Don't Care About Time' was before - I'd clearly slept on the bonus tracks on the Turn! Turn! Turn! CD. I think I'm going to go with 'Here Without You' though.

crosby contributed "rain grey town"

I always heard it as "lame grey town," and loved how Hüsker Dü changed the next line to "not known for its sound."

about 15 songs i'd consider voting for here, but i think i'll throw some love to "here without you."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Going with "You Won't Have To Cry."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR5EKsRiNsE

If Ur Gone

I've always liked "The Day Walk" too, but with so many even better gems in his Byrds-era catalog (and out of it) voted for "The World Turns All Around Her". Besides being a great tune, i like how it's not at all the straightforward love song the title implies.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I Knew I'd Want You wuz robbed.

great turnout

The blank that surprises me is "You Showed Me." I think it's brilliant--love the Turtles' cover, too. (Don't remember Salt-n-Pepa's.)

"You Showed Me" easily makes my top 5. I slightly prefer the early acoustic take over the more polished electrified version on the strength of those wonderfully dispersed and descending vocals on the "we're in love, we two" break. I like the slowed-down Turtles' cover too, though the orchestral swoops are a bit much. That filigree was added by the Turtles' producers, and decades later was sampled by U2 for Pop, which bizarrely resulted in songwriters Clark and McGuinn earning royalties from sales of U2 albums, even though neither of them had anything to do with writing, arranging, or producing the bowed strings that were lifted from the Turtles' rendition.

Where's "It Won't Be Wrong"?

"The Playboy Mansion" is actually a pretty good song by U2. I wasn't expecting that.

"It Won't Be Wrong" was written by Jim McGuinn and Harvey Gerst. It does sound like a Gene Clark composition.

... and Harvey Gerst

Who he?

no idea!

McGuinn has a lot of really random co-write partners across the entire Byrds discography.