"You Showed Me: The Songs Of Gene Clark" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – featuring The Rose Garden, The Thyme, Linda Ronstadt, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Byrds, Iain Matthews, Starry Eyed & Laughing, Pure Prairie League, Roxy Music, Flamin' Groovies, Juice Newton, This Mortal Coil, Death in Vegas with Paul Weller, Echo In The Canyon with Jakob Dylan and Cat Power, and his son Kai Clark (March 2022 UK Ace Records CD Compilation of Remastered Cover Versions) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Train Leaves This Morning..."

 

True to form for these Various Artists CD compilations, Ace's stab at the mercurial Gene Clark of The Byrds and Dillard & Clark fame has its own bizarre mix of cover-version winners and near-misses - thankfully holding its head up proud more times than shame pushes it south into a droop.

 

Part of Ace's ongoing Songwriter Series and covering a huge time range (1964 to 2019), I've had this generously-packed CD since day of release (it encompasses Country, Country Rock, Bluegrass, Indie and Pop). And while I've been obsessing over the John Barry set "The More Things Change..." and Dusty Springfield's "Dusty Sings Soul" which came out on the same Friday, 25 March 2022 (see separate reviews) - I've found myself going back to this eclectic slightly unloved Country Rock brat and bawler more and more. Time to feel a whole lot better, to the details...

 

UK released Friday, 25 March 2022 - "You Showed Me: The Songs of Gene Clark" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace Records CDTOP 1611 (Barcode 029667104722) is a 21-Track CD Compilation of Remastered Cover Versions that plays out as follows (77:12 minutes):

 

1. You Showed Me - ECHO IN THE CANYON with JAKOB DYLAN and CAT POWER (2019)

2. Feel A Whole Lot Better - JUICE NEWTON (1988)

3. I Knew I'd Want You - THIN WHITE HOPE (1989)

4. She Don't Care About Time - FLAMIN' GROOVIES (1984)

5. Eight Miles High - ROXY MUSIC (1980)

6. Till Today - THE ROSE GARDEN (1968)

7. Echoes - STARRY EYED & LAUGHING (2015)

8. Elevator Operator - VELVET CRUSH (2001)

9. I Found You - THE THYME (1968 recording, issued 2008)

10. So You Say You Lost Your Baby - DEATH IN VEGAS featuring PAUL WELLER (2002)

11. Tried So Hard - THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS (1971)

12. In The Plan - NEW GRASS REVIVAL (1979)

13. Train Leaves Here This Morning - KAI CLARK (2020)

14. He Darked The Sun - LINDA RONSTADT (1970)

15. Kansas City Southern - PURE PRAIRIE LEAGUE

16. Polly - IAIN MATTHEWS (1974)

17. Why Not Your Baby - THE MOTHER HIPS (2011)

18. Full Circle - BYRDS (1973)

19. Silver Raven - THE BAIRD SISTERS (2008)

20. Some Misunderstanding - SOULSAVERS featuring MARK LANEGAN (2009)

21. Strength Of Strings - THIS MORTAL COIL (1985)

 

KRIS NEEDS has been a great writer for some time now, providing quality liner notes for countless mucho-praised reissues - but man oh man - the Kris-ter outdoes himself here. As a self-professed Byrds fanatic, Needs pours on the facts and details in a stunning 28-page booklet - the text aligned with photos of the pertinent albums and CDs and black/whites of our hero both solo and with the spec-festooned Byrds. One of thirteen kids, Harold Eugene of Tipton, Missouri (his real name) is undoubtedly nodding appreciation up there in post-flyte Heaven. 

 

NICK ROBBINS does the masters and they all rock, but then as many are from the 90's onwards, it's hardly surprising that they do. Those 60ts tracks jump and pop but the 80ts cuts are dragged down by that smarmy studio-polish they all seemed to have. To the music...

 

"You Showed Me" opens strongly with a title track done by Echo In The Canyon for their 2019 BMG Records CD album of the same name. Bob's boy Jakob Dylan and Cat Power duet on this discarded early Byrds song written in 1964 that then became a minor hit for The Turtles in 1967. "You Showed Me" has also been covered by Salt 'N' Pepa and The Lightning Seeds while its co-writer Roger McGuinn revisited it too on his "Live From Mars" set in 1996. "You Showed Me" is a lovely song, great Clark melody warming your heart. But then things dip into 'that' 80ts sound for Juice Newton's "I Feel A Whole Lot Better" and I can't help thinking there must have been a better version of this fantastic song somewhere else.

 

I have no time for Thin White Hope's version of "I Knew I'd Want You" or The Flamin' Groovies sounding like a note-for-note Byrds pastiche covers band on their pointless "She Don't Care About Time". Far better is the surprisingly excellent Rose Garden doing "Till Today" (a forgotten 1968 gem) while England's Starry Eyed & Laughing turn in a stunning "Echoes" - a 1974 recording that first appeared in 2015 aping those Byrds-sounding backwards jangling guitars. Velvet Crush do a suitably grungy Rock stab at "Elevator Operator" - gonna have to get along without her now. Paul Weller rocks it out for the very Blind Faith organ-driven "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" where Death In Vegas are joined by strings as well as the Modfather in great form and clearly wanting to respect a songwriter he admires.

 

Clever segue into pure Country Rock with the pedal-steel picking "Tried So Hard" - The Flying Burrito Brothers sounding amazing for a 1971 recording. Updating that sound to the banjo picking of New Grass Revival in 1979, they do a great Eagles circa "One Of These Nights" Country stab at "In The Plan" - beautiful remastered audio too. Pure Prairie League doe a lonesome sound solid for "Kansas City Southern" – fun like The Ozark Mountain Daredevils meets Souther-Furey-Hillman. Can't quite work out (still) in my mind if "Full Cycle" from the poor "Byrds" album of 1973 is good or just acceptable filler that isn't awful - though I can understand why Needs has included its mandolins and harmonies here.

 

But for me the compilation has three out-and-out gems that shine above all the rest – the first is Iain Matthews formerly of Fairport Convention, Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong doing a gorgeous lilting take on "Poly". The compilers could have opted for the cooler Alison Krauss and Robert Plant version on their much-praised "Raising Sand" album from 2017, but instead went for something much older – a 1974 track from Iain Matthews' "Journeys From Gospel Oak" LP on Mooncrest Records that imbibes his take with just the right amount of Gene Clark Country twang to make it go beyond copyist to actually moving. Smart choice.

 

There then comes an extraordinary moment when a near eight-minute Neil Young-type-guitar-grunges the buggery out of everything in sight for "Some Misunderstanding" – Soulsavers featuring Mark Lanegan letting rip. His doped-up dirty vocals ("...you might need a friend at a time like this...") and wild guitar solo playing throughout literally infuses this searching heavy-heavy song with the pain that has always been at its core – capturing the darker side of Gene's demons in a new way.

 

But they are trumped by how own son Kai Clark doing a truly heart-warming take on "Train Leaving Here This Morning" where his New Country Rock vocals and band makes him sound like and tap into his Dad somehow (Ryan Adams and The Cardinals could have done this to the same effect). The tune will be familiar to most of us via the Eagles debut album on Asylum Records in 1972 – "Train Leaves Here This Morning" being one of the lesser-aired LP nuggets on that auspicious start. Kai Clark did this version on his self-published CD album "Silver Raven" in 2019 and I think after this compilation that will be my next port of digital call for Gene Clark-fulfilling-nourishment.

 

"You Showed Me: The Songs Of Gene Clark" is not all brilliant, but then again, in reality, how could it be. Still, Ace Records of the UK and compiler Kris Needs are to be praised for combining The Baird Sisters with Roxy Music and This Mortal Coil and somehow making it gel. And in the end, this Singer-Songwriter tribute CD comp makes me want more of the great man Gene Clark (and I'll be seeking out that Kai Clark set too), so in that respect, a job well done.

 

"There's a train leaving here this morning, I don't know what I might be on..." 

 

Well, maybe seek out this journey's reinterpreted platform and give its sympathetically polished compartments a lonesome whistle on your amped-up rig...because I think the effort (like Ace have clearly made) will pay off...