My Sincere Thanks to Readers of The Clarkophile
I'm pleased to report that, since the inception of The Clarkophile in 2008, it has currently reached a total of 25,393 visits and 43,379 page views. When I conceived the idea, I remember thinking I would be the only one visiting the site.
Thanks for proving me wrong.
Obviously, Gene Clark is much more popular than many of us (including myself) had ever imagined.
I really appreciate your taking the time to let me know your thoughts about Gene's music.
Thanks for the support and the comments!
Thanks for the support and the comments!
Comments
As we are all lucky enough to know, Gene deserves the attention, care and scrutiny - and so much more besides.
With such songs - such songs! - and his wonderful voice, Gene's reputation can only grow. I do so hope that this will be the case.
I also hope that one day there will be a volume compiling your writing on Gene and his music.
I would be interested to know whether the Clarkophile has noticed changes in Gene's reputation over the years? Or has his status always been that of a (to quote) 'well-kept muso/fanboy secret'. Laughable as it sounds, is he still in need of a 'hit' record?
For now, though: thank you for keeping the flame very much alive.
Thank you for taking the time to write these posts! I find them very informative and stimulating. It is great to see how many other individuals enjoy Gene's work.
Excellent question, as to whether I've seen an increase in Gene's cachet over the years...
All I can say is that during the 80's it was pretty much impossible to find Gene's albums anywhere (where I grew up in London, Ontario, Canada).
In the time after Gene's death, we've seen (or will soon see) the re-release (sometimes multiple times!) of his entire catalogue, at least two excellent compilations (Flying High/American Dreamer) live material (In Concert) and a slew of unreleased gems (If I Hang Around, Only Colombe, Los Angeles, That's Alright By Me etc.).
Many people (including myself) have said that all we need is that one track, that one special song in a film soundtrack to ignite an emotional connection within the masses, and trigger a major reassessment of Gene's oeuvre.
Earlier in my blog I suggested 'All I Want' as an example of a contemporary-sounding song that could do the job, but now I'm more inclined to think that one of Gene's contemplative, White Light-era ballads would also be a suitable candidate.
The possibility exists, of course, that he remains a secret known only to the devoted. If true, I will continue to scream from the mountaintops for as long as I'm physically able that we got it right, and the rest of the world simply got it wrong.
Thanks for the comment!
In terms of the prev. unreleased material that we've seen released since that awful day in May 1991, it would be interesting to make a compilation of such material. I may do that, and post the results here.
Like I've said here and elsewhere, Gene's unreleased songs often bettered the released material of many other more celebrated artists.
two questions:
1.do you know anything about this new "Prefyte Plus" cd; Amazon lists it but it seems to be "backordered"
2.how do we get the huge catalog of unreleased Gene Clark material out? I thought by now we'd see something, we keep hearing about all this material, but no results.
Thanks
All I know about the Preflyte Plus CD is that I've ordered a copy from Amazon.UK and it hasn't shipped yet. I have no idea as to its current status.
If it has stalled, I'm assuming its due to some sort of licensing issue.
There are many factors preventing the release of a career-spanning set of Gene's unreleased material.
First of all, a large portion of the unreleased tracks are in private hands -- a fact which sets in place a typical Clarkian conundrum: The private owners will not consent to release them unless they receive a large payout, and the collapse of the music industry means that no such payout is in the offing. Result: stalemate.
Add to this the fact that Gene never shifted many units while he was alive, and you can start to see why the chances of a posthumous hit emanating from a batch of prev unreleased material is, at best, remote.
Finally, Gene recorded on so many different labels (Columbia, A&M, Asylum, RSO), that it would be next to impossible to get across-the-board agreement on anything.
I haven't gotten mine either. seems like that's happening a lot with these "fringe" Byrds issues.
I'm convinced we'll never see any of the Gene Clark stuff out. As much as we love Gene, he's a niche artist, and as you point out, record companies who would be willing to issue his stuff are small, and don't have large amounts of cash to obtain rights to these things. At some point the private owners have to decide that either they're not going to get a lot of money and let the stuff come out,or it ends up getting lost forever when they die. Listening forums are nice, for what they are, but they don't put product onto our turntables or cd players. As far as the different labels, I'm sure it's a problem, but no insurmountable.Then again, maybe it's wishful thinking on my part..... After many years,Scooter Jennings has finally recognized the value of his father's legacy; maybe Gene's kids will at some point as well, and be more aggressive in pushing for his unreleased music to come out.We can only hope.
Gene and Michelle: what a fabulous looking couple they must have been!
Dear All
I've read all of the above comments and with a heavy heart I have to agree with all of you.
Yes Tom great minds think alike ( fools seldom differ)and All I Want was one song I thought might be covered and be a hit !
Rodeo Rider I know is very commercial but why not a hit ?
It happened for Nick Drake here in the Uk , a career after he was all but forgotten so why not Gene in the states ?
All the people who spoke about Gene in the Einarson Bio said how much Gene was part of their lifes but were going to hang on to the unreleased songsthey had because "it ment so much to them" Huh ! ! ! ! ! !
I wont comment other than to ask "why are you still hanging on to it" Really ? What is the real reason.
Thank you Tom for all your efforts.
Here in the Uk Sid Griffen has done manful work to get Genes music heard. Just wish he'd spend half as much time promoting his own great work but thats another story.
I have plans of my own to promote Genes work but I'll private e-mail regarding that and you can mention it if you feel its appropriate, but safe to say thank you for this blog, it gets bigger every time I visit. Sorry for taking so long to comment Craig citrusrecords@hotmail.co.uk
I agree, Sid has done a lot for Gene's legacy over the years. He also helped me during the writing of my article for Shindig, which I will always remember with sincere gratefulness.
What is your Gene project? Contact me at Clarkophile@gmail.com