Gene Clark, record business equals bad news. Case in point, this album.
Or masterpiece, you could say. After two brilliant Dillard & Clark
albums, A&M signed Clark to a solo deal. Okay, fair enough -- so far.
In 1972, he delivered perhaps the finest album of his career, Gene Clark,
(also known as White Light). Excellent reviews in all the top magazines,
including Rolling Stone. Guess what? Almost zero sales. Now, here's the
follow up, almost -- if not more -- brilliant. Released only in Holland.
Aside from containing some of Clark's finest tracks like "In a Misty
Morning" and "Full Circle Song," this record contains two
gems recorded with the willing participation of the other original Byrds.
"One in a Hundred" and "She's the Kind of Girl" are
so good that they would have easily stood out on The Byrds box set, had
McGuinn elected to include them. Oh well, the music is still here -- an
example of an artist who couldn't quite get in on with commerce. What
a disaster. The man should be mentioned in the same breath as Neil Young.
Roadmaster is one of the many reasons why.
(by Matthew Greenwald, AMG)
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