Gene Clark in Concert: 1985

Gene Clark Live

Singer-songwriter Gene Clark passed away on May 24, 1991 in Sherman Oaks, California.  The cause of his death was listed as “natural causes” and a bleeding ulcer, but for much of his life he had battled alcohol addiction.

Clark, who was born on November 17, 1944 — was only 46 at the time of his death.  His death came a little more than four months after appearing with The Byrds at the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Gene Clark’s Career

The Missouri-born Clark is worth remembering just for his work as a founding member of The Byrds from 1964-1966 that led to such works as “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” (later covered by Tom Petty), “She Don’t Care About Time,” and “Set You Free This Time.” But there was much more to Clark’s career.

With The Byrds, Clark’s work was at the forefront of folk, country-rock, and psychedelic rock.  For example, Clark was the primary writer of “Eight Miles High.”

Yet, after Clark left The Byrds, reportedly over his fear of flying, he created substantial work as a solo artist and with others, such as with Carla Olson and with banjo player Doug Dillard. Considering his entire body of work, it is easy to see him as one of America’s under-appreciated music gems and understand why he still inspires indie musicians like Fleet Foxes.

Clark only had four major-label solo albums during his lifetime, and he never found widespread success. Rolling Stone magazine never even did an interview with him as a solo artist, although the magazine has heaped much posthumous praise upon the singer-songwriter.

Despite the alcoholism and the demons that Clark battled during many of those those years, he still made great music, including “Spanish Guitar,” which Bob Dylan has praised. His 1974 album No Other has come to be seen as a classic.

Gene Clark Live in New York City in 1985

For a taste of Clark’s post-Byrds work, we are lucky to have this 1985 performance in New York City. The video and audio quality are decent for the time period.

The concert is worth watching for a number of reasons, including the final song.  It is a bittersweet reinterpretation of the Byrds’ reinterpretation of Bob Dylan’s “Tambourine Man.”  Unfortunately, the entire show is no longer available on YouTube, but below is Clark’s performance of the “Full Circle Song.”

Clark’s Ongoing Influence

A documentary about Clark, Byrd Who Flew Alone, was released in 2013.  Unfortunately, it seems to be hard to track down. In other recent news, Sierra Records is releasing a new Gene Clark album of thought-to-be lost recordings on The Lost Studio Sessions 1964-1982.

As noted above, Gene Clark continues to influence a number of musicians today. For example, the Skydiggers recently released an album of Gene Clark songs, Here Without You: The Songs of Gene Clark.

Finally, if you are a fan of Gene Clark, you may want to sign a petition for him to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

What is your favorite Gene Clark song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Chuck Berry’s First Hit: “Maybellene”

    In 1955, a young Chuck Berry recorded “Maybellene” in Chicago and then went back to his construction job until the song got a boost from DJ Alan Freed.

    Maybellene On May 21, 1955, the relatively unknown Chuck Berry recorded “Maybellene” at Chess Records in Chicago. The 29-year-old part-time musician then returned to St. Louis and his construction job, while starting to train for a career as a hairdresser. But soon, through various circumstances, the song began climbing the charts so that Berry could pursue music full time.

    Berry got the opportunity to record “Maybellene” when, during his visit to Chicago, he approached Muddy Waters after a show for an autograph and asked for career advice. Waters suggested Berry go to his label, Chess Records. Berry did.

    Berry met with Leonard Chess at Chess Records and then auditioned, thinking Chess would like his blues music, and in particular his song “Wee Wee Hours.” But Leonard Chess noticed something else in Berry’s music. Chess liked Berry’s R&B version of the traditional country song “Ida Red,” which had been recorded by performers such as Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, who had recorded the song in the 1930s.

    So, Chess recorded Berry’s take on “Ida Red,” although by the time Berry’s song was recorded, the song had new lyrics and a new name: “Maybellene.” Reportedly, Chess thought that Berry’s title of “Ida Mae” sounded too rural, so he found inspiration for the name from a mascara box nearby (changing the spelling of the Maybelline cosmetics to avoid a potential lawsuit).

    With the new name and lyrics, the 2-minute and 18-second song was recorded, although it took 36 takes to get it right. In addition to Berry, the recording featured other musicians who would become legendary in their own right, including Johnnie Johnson on piano and Willie Dixon on bass.

    Less than a year earlier in 1954, Elvis Presley similarly had recorded a Bob Willis song as one of his first recordings for Sun Studios. Presley’s version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” kept the name and the lyrics of the original, while bringing the same rock and roll spirit that Berry brought to his interpretation of “Ida Red.”

    In Berry’s version of his song, he not only added a driving R&B sound, he incorporated youthful energy in his lyrics. The lyrics captured the spirit of the emerging rock and roll music, connecting love and cars. In the song, the singer drives his V8 Ford seeking out his unfaithful girlfriend in her Cadillac Coupe DeVille (“Maybellene, why can’t you be true”).

    As I was motor-vatin’ over the hill,
    I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville;
    A Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road;
    Nothin’ will outrun my V8 Ford.

    But Berry at first did not know what would become of “Maybellene,” which eventually was released in July with “Wee Wee Hours” as a B side. So Berry returned to St Louis.

    In the meantime, Leonard Chess in a marketing move that was not unusual at the time, gave radio DJ Alan Freed co-songwriting credit and one-third of royalties in exchange for promoting the song. In retrospect, the deal seems unfair at the least, but assistance from the legendary DJ did not hurt.

    One night on station WINS in New York, Freed played “Maybellene” for two hours straight. And the great sound of the song sent it to number ten on the pop charts and to number one on the R&B charts.

    “Maybellene” helped launch the career of Chuck Berry, one of the holy creators of rock and roll along with his yellow Gibson ES-350T guitar. Below, Chuck Berry performs “Maybellene” live in 1958.

    Although the song boosted Berry’s popularity, it also led to some hurdles for the young singer-songwriter. Some venues discriminated against Berry when they were surprised to find out the singer was not white. And, Berry had to fight for years to eventually get sole songwriting credit for the song in 1986.

    Berry, of course, persevered with a long career and other hits. But “Maybellene” was a key turning point in the history of rock and roll. “Maybellene” is now listed as the 18th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

    And that is the story behind the song.

    Photo via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Guy Clark: We’ve Got Something to Believe In

    Guy Clark RIP

    Guy Clark, the great singer-songwriter from Texas, passed away May 17, 2016 at the age of 74. It is hard to select a favorite song from his vast catalog of wonderful songs. We have previously written about such songs as “Dublin Blues,” “Out in the Parking Lot,” “Homeless,” “Desperados Waiting For a Train,” and “Stuff That Works.” But I have to say goodbye with the song that first led me to his music, “L.A. Freeway.”

    “L.A. Freeway” is a wonderful song about escape, but not the running-away-from-a-woman escape type of song. It is in the vein of Springsteen’s “Born to Run” about going somewhere new with someone you love. Springsteen’s song captures a young man’s joy of leaving for a new adventure and of leaving behind a “death trap, a suicide rap.” By contrast, Clark’s “L.A. Freeway” is about an older man looking forward to the escape but recognizing the bittersweet feeling of leaving something behind.

    Oh Susanna, don’t you cry, babe;
    Love’s a gift that’s surely handmade;
    We’ve got something to believe in,
    Don’t you think it’s time we’re leaving?

    I hope Clark found that joy he was searching for in the song. He certainly gave us a large catalog of great songs to help us find something to believe in. RIP.

    What is your favorite Guy Clark song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    3 a.m. Albums: Elvis Presley’s “The Jungle Room Sessions”

    Our series “3 a.m. Albums” examines albums that are perfect for those nights when you cannot sleep due to sadness, loneliness, or despair. Today we consider Elvis Presley’s “The Jungle Room Sessions” (and “Way Down in the Jungle Room”) a collection of songs from Presley’s final recording sessions.

    Elvis Last Recording Just for the circumstances surrounding Elvis Presley’s recording of The Jungle Room Sessions (2000), the album constitutes the perfect “3 a.m. album.” The songs on The Jungle Room Sessions come from Presley’s final two studio recording sessions on February 2-7 and on October 29-30, 1976 in the late night and early morning hours. Presley was emotionally and physically drained, no longer wanting to go outside his home at Graceland even as he worked hard to fulfill his obligations for concerts booked by Colonel Tom Parker.

    Because of Presley’s reluctance to leave Graceland, RCA brought a studio to him, setting up recording equipment in Presley’s famed “Jungle Room,” the den at the back of Graceland behind the kitchen. Although the room was not built for recording, Nashville engineer Brian Christian helped figure out how to adapt the room in ways such as draping the walls with heavy blankets to dampen the acoustics. Considering the obstacles, the music that came out of these sessions sounds fantastic.

    The music from these sessions may be found on two similar releases from Sony’s Follow That Dream (FTD) specialty Elvis label.  The Jungle Room Sessions from 2000 features outtakes from the sessions.  FTD later released Way Down in the Jungle Room in 2013 as a two-CD set that includes both the masters and various outtakes. I own and love both of these releases, which are somewhat duplicative, with some differences.  Either one makes for great three a.m. listening.

    The masters from these Jungle Room sessions produced the final two official albums of Elvis’s career: From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977). The Jungle Room Sessions and Way Down in the Jungle Room compile unreleased songs from these recording sessions that according to Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis Presley: A Life in Music, generally started after 9:00 p.m. and went all through the night.  A more recent

    And it is these gems and alternate takes — sometimes stripped down, sometimes featuring false starts and comments by Presley — where Presley through his beautiful voice sacrifices his own anguish to help heal yours. As his weakened body gives his lifeblood to each song, you find a close companion in the night. Allmusic describes the Jungle Room Sessions album as “one of the most revealing and emotionally draining releases ever issued by Elvis. Hear it and weep.”

    The Jungle Room Sessions generally follows the order in which the songs were recorded, beginning with “Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall.” This recording includes some opening conversation by Elvis and two short takes before getting to the complete fifth take of the song. The missteps and chatter draw you into the sessions, so you feel you are sitting with Elvis and the band in the middle of the night in Graceland, or maybe they are with you wherever you are.

    Other songs include a nice take on “The Last Farewell,” “Moody Blue,” “Danny Boy,” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” Another highlight is “She Thinks I Still Care,” a George Jones classic that was written by written by Dickey Lee and Steve Duffy.

    The collection of songs also includes alternate takes on “Hurt,” a song where in Presley’s cries of anguish Greil Marcus found an “apocalyptic attack.” Similarly, Dave Marsh wrote, “If [Presley] felt the way he sounded, the wonder isn’t that he only had a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long.” This alternate take matches that description.

    Finally, the Jungle Room Sessions album ends with the rocking “Fire Down Below.” But you no longer hear Presley on this track, except for a brief clip of Presley singing “America” after the track ends. The instrumental recording for “Fire Down Below” was made for Presley to later add his vocals. But he died before he got the chance to do that.

    “Fire Down Below” is a fitting way to end the album, with the listener missing Presley, wondering what he might have done with the music, a track that sounds more like a sunrise than a 3 a.m. song.

    Check out other albums in our series “3 a.m. Albums.”  The Jungle Room Sessions and Way Down in the Jungle Room appeara on Graceland’s special collector label Follow That Dream and are available through Graceland’s official store.  What is your favorite 3 a.m. album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Ned Miller: The Shy Man Behind “From a Jack to a King”

    From a Jack to a King

    In the first week of May 2016, it was announced that singer-songwriter Ned Miller had passed away at the age of 90 in Medford, Oregon. Miller had written such songs as “Dark Moon,” “Do What You Do Well,” and “Invisible Tears.” But his best-known song was “From a Jack to a King,” which in 1963 went to number six on the Billboard pop chart (and number two on the country chart). The song also was covered by artists like Bobby Darin and Elvis Presley.

    Miller’s version of “From a Jack to a King” was initially released in 1957 and it initially did not do well. But a record company rereleased it in 1962, and for some reason the song about a man’s happiness at finding the right woman caught on the second time.

    But Miller — who was born in Utah as Henry Ned Miller on April 12, 1925 — never enjoyed the limelight. He did little touring to support “From a Jack to a King,” and he often suffered stage fright. He would sometimes ask friends to perform under his name, and he eventually stopped performing altogether because of his shyness. He stopped recording in 1970, relieved to be out of the music business.

    Another popular song that Miller wrote was “Dark Moon,” which has been recorded by Gale Storm, Chris Isaak, and Bing Crosby. Isaac’s version of “Dark Moon” was released in 1993 as a single. The song later appeared on the album Best of Chris Isaak (2006).

    Because of Miller’s preference for avoiding the spotlight, it seems fitting that his death was announced to the public nearly two months after he passed away on March 18, 2016. But we are lucky that for a period this shy man shared a little of himself with us.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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