Echoes by Gene Clark

Echoes

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Echoes

Features

Audio CD (September 10, 1991)

Original Release Date: 1991

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Sony

Catalog Number: 48523

Reader Reviews
As is at least reasonably well-known, Gene Clark was a founding member of the Byrds. He spent about a year as the band's main songwriter and frontman before leaving to strike out on a solo career. Clark eventually developed into one of best American songwriters to come out of the 60s, though commercial success escaped him. "Echoes" is basically a compilation of Gene Clark's early work, consisting of his solo debut album ("Gene Clark With the Godsin Brothers") bookended by a collection of Byrds songs written by Clark at the beginning, and an unreleased single at the end. Of the six songs recorded with the Byrds, "Set You Free This Time" is first-rate country melancholia, "Here Without You", "I Knew I'd Want You" and "If You're Gone" are more of the same, but duller, and "Boston" and "For Me Again" are pop songs that I'll charitably call "embryonic". As for the single, "The French Girl" is a decent cover of a decent Ian & Sylvia song, while the B-Side "Only Colombe" is ruined by extravagant instrumentation. That leaves the "Gene Clark With the Godsin Brothes" album in the middle, which, if nothing else, demonstrates perfectly why Gene Clark never should have left the Byrds. The stronger tracks on this album would have seriously improved the Byrds' spotty post-Clark albums ("The Fifth Dimension", "Younger Than Yesterday", and "The Notorious Byrd Brothers"), but Gene suffers at least as much from his former bandmates' absence as they did from his. The Godsin Brothers' vocal harmonies are serviceable, but a definite step down from the Byrds's Jim McGuinn and David Crosby. The album also makes it clear that, whatever his skills as a songwriter, Gene at this point in his career had no idea how to arrange a song. This is especially problematic on the album's shorter tracks. You can hear the kernels of potential pop hits on tracks like "Needing Someone", "Couldn't Believe Her", and "Keep on Pushin'", but the arrangements are so spare that they end up sounding like throwaways. Waste of some damn fine melodies. Oh well, at least "Couldn't Believe Her" rocks out pretty effectively. Of the more substantial tracks, "I Found You" is a clunky attempt at fusing folk rock with soul, while "Elevator Operator" is a weak Lennon/McCartney knock-off built around a spectacularly uninspired lyrical metaphor. (You see, this girl has her 'ups and downs' - just like an elevator! Which goes 'up' and 'down'! Get it? Get it?) Fortunately, the remaining four tracks are great. "Echoes" and "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" are little baroque gems - gorgeous melodies, gorgeous lyrical imagery, gorgeous orchestration (by producer Leon Russell). "Tried So Hard" is notable for being a full-fledged country rock song (seriously novel combination in early 1967). And "The Same One" is "I Found You" all over again, but minus the white soul and boringness and plus some Beatles-ish hooks and an atmosphere I'll just describe as "burned out". There is enough good material here to make it a worthwhile buy. However, those who use "Echoes" as an intoduction to Gene Clark's solo work are liable to be disappointed. I'd suggest they start instead with Gene's collaboration with Doug Dillard, "The Fantastic Dillard & Clark Expedition" (recorded only one year after "Gene Clark With the Godsin Brothers", but representing a huge leap in Gene's songwriting abilities), and then move on to his 1974 magnum opus, "No Other".

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