No Other

Background

In late 1972, Clark was invited to join a reunion of the original Byrds line-up on Asylum Records. The resulting album was a showcase for Clark, who sang on two Neil Young covers and two original songs. By the strength of his contributions to the album, Clark was signed to Asylum as a solo artist by David Geffen.

While preparing to record, Clark briefly joined the backing group of former Byrds colleague Roger McGuinn; the two even shared a home together during the period in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. During an engagement at The Troubadour in Los Angeles with McGuinn, he introduced a song that would remain in his repertoire for the rest of his career, "Silver Raven"; it would be recorded in an arrangement featuring Jesse Ed Davis and L.A. session player Danny Kortchmar on No Other. Of the song's composition, Clark said in a 1976 interview:

Production

Retreating to his coastal home in Mendocino, Clark began to compose songs for his new album for over a year. According to Clark:

Contrary to rumors that many of the album's songs were conceived under the influence of mescaline and other illicit chemicals, Clark's wife Carlie stated in Mr. Tambourine Man: The Story Of the Byrds' Gene Clark that he was sober throughout the Mendocino years and was disinclined to experiment for the sake of his children. Living up to the "hillbilly Shakespeare" moniker accorded him by later band mate John York, the weighty and ponderous nature of most of his lyrics from the period were drawn from his Christian upbringing and discussions regarding Carlos Castaneda, Theosophy and Zen with his wife and friends like David Carradine and Dennis Hopper.

Entering the studio in April 1974, he was paired with producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye, who subsequently would become Clark's collaborator for the next fifteen years. Earlier in the year, Kaye had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in cost overruns on Bob Neuwirth's solo debut, which failed to dent the charts. Kaye continued that pattern with No Other. Most sessions were conducted in Los Angeles and featured the cream of the era's session musicians: Korchmar, keyboardist Craig Doerge, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel of The Section; percussionist Joe Lala, Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band, Jesse Ed Davis, backup vocalists Clydie King, Claudia Lennear, & Venetta Fields, Cindy Bullens and former Byrd Hillman. The plaintive country-folk sounds of White Light and Roadmaster were replaced by intricate vocal harmonies and heavily overdubbed, atypical arrangements in Kaye's "answer to Brian Wilson and Phil Spector as a producer". However, there was a pronounced R&B/funk feel to the title track, which has often been attributed to the presence of Sly Stone at some of the sessions. According to John Einarson's Mr. Tambourine Man, all of the assembled musicians were impressed by Clark's perfectionism and genial, humble attitude.

Initially, Carlie Clark and the children temporarily relocated with him to Los Angeles, in the hope that the family routine of Mendocino could be preserved. However, it was not long before Clark reacquainted himself with L.A.'s party circuit and the latest fashionable drug - cocaine. After his disgusted wife moved the family back to Northern California, Clark established a house with old friend and band mate Doug Dillard in the Hollywood Hills; "Lady of the North", the album's closer, was written by the twosome in a cocaine haze, their final collaboration on a song.

For years rumors circulated that only half of an intended double album had been recorded, with Geffen balking at the excessive cost that would entail. This was corroborated by Clark in a 1976 interview. According to Kaye in Mr. Tambourine Man, 13 or 14 songs had been demoed with acoustic guitar at early sessions but only nine were recorded with a full band. "Train Leaves Here This Morning", a rerecording of a song first released on The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark, was omitted from the final album.

Release

No Other was delivered to Asylum Records in the summer of 1974. Recording costs had ballooned to over $100,000, a considerable investment in a performer who had seen his last Top 40 hit in 1966. Geffen was further dismayed by the dearth of potential hits and the uncommercial nature of the material.

Released in September 1974, No Other reached a disappointing peak of #144 on the charts without any active promotion from the label. It was also a critical failure; the studio time and cost being seen as excessive and indulgent. Further confounding matters was the album's artwork: the front cover was a collage inspired by 1920s Hollywood glamour, while the back featured a photo of the singer with permed hair and clad in full drag, frolicking at the former estate of John Barrymore. A rare fall tour staged by the singer could not salvage the endeavour, and demos for a new album—reportedly a fusion of country rock with R&B, funk, and early disco stylings—were promptly rejected by Asylum. By 1976, No Other had been deleted from the Asylum catalog.

In later years, Clark remained disappointed with the lack of success achieved by No Other, which he deemed to be his masterpiece in several interviews.

In 1991, No Other was issued on CD in its entirety. By the late 1990s, perhaps indirectly because of his death, interest in Clark's catalog had grown to the point where three songs from No Other were included on the double disc compilation entitled Flying High. A 2003 European reissue included "Train Leaves Here This Morning" and several alternate, semi-acoustic renditions while a skeletal version lacking the bonus tracks but containing restored packaging and new liner notes appeared in the United States on Collector's Choice Music.

Gene Clark No Other Band

In 2014, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally of Beach House put together a band for a four-concert tour where they performed the entire album to bring it to a new audience. The band consisted of fellow Baltimore musicians including members of Lower Dens, Wye Oak, Celebration, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and The Walkmen, along with Iain Matthews of Fairport Convention and Plainsong fame.

Personnel