No Other (1974)

No Other is the fourth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Gene Clark. Released in September 1974, it was largely ignored or lambasted by critics and was a commercial failure; the studio time and cost were seen as excessive and indulgent. The record label, Asylum Records, did not promote the album, and by 1976 had deleted it from their catalog. Clark never recovered from the failure of the album. It has since been positively reappraised.

Just prior to Clark's death in 1991, No Other was reissued in its entirety on CD. In 1993, an Australian CD compilation entitled American Dreamer 1964–1974 included two songs from No Other, while in 1998, a double disc compilation, Flying High, was released with three songs from No Other. Then in the early 2000s, No Other was reissued a second time in its entirety to positive critical reappraisal; publications have referred to it as "a lost masterpiece" and "one of the greatest albums ever made." A highly praised, newly remastered reissue campaign by 4AD was launched on November 8, 2019, with the album reissued as a standard CD, vinyl LP, deluxe double-CD set, and an expansive super deluxe box set with three SACDs, one Blu-ray disc, a silver-colored LP, and commemorative 80-page book.

Background

In late 1972, Clark was invited to join a reunion of the original Byrds line-up on Asylum Records. Although nominally organized and produced by David Crosby, the resulting album evolved into an inadvertent showcase for Clark, who sang lead 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. 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 longtime Clark collaborator Jesse Ed Davis and L.A. session player Danny Kortchmar on No Other. Of the song's composition, Clark said in a 1976 interview: "It actually came about from a news story that was about some satellite, or something, they had discovered. They said they couldn't figure out where it came from. It was beyond our solar system. They were getting signals from it that they said were about 100 years ahead of our technology".

Production

Retreating to his coastal home in Mendocino, Clark began to compose songs for his new album for over a year. Contrary to rumors that many of the album's songs were conceived under the influence of mescaline and other drugs, 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 bandmate John York, the weighty and ponderous nature of most of his lyrics from the period were drawn from his Christian upbringing and discussions regarding the oeuvre of Carlos Castaneda, Theosophy and Zen with his wife and friends, most notably David Carradine and Dennis Hopper.

Clark told Zigzag in 1977 that he was strongly influenced by Stevie Wonder's 1973 album Innervisions and The Rolling Stones' 1973 album Goats Head Soup. He said, "When I was writing No Other I concentrated on those albums a lot, and was very inspired by the direction of them...which is ironic, because Innervisions is a very climbing, spiritual thing, while Goats Head Soup has connotations of the lower forces as well. But somehow the joining of the two gave me a place to go with No Other, and I wanted it to go in a powerful direction". Clark, in a 1984 interview, said, "It was during a time when I felt like I was doing a lot of soul-searching."

Entering the studio in April 1974, he was paired with producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye, who would become Clark's primary artistic 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; guitarist Jesse Ed Davis; noted progressive bluegrass fiddler Richard Greene; former Blues Image percussionist Joe Lala; keyboardist and future Jimmy Buffett bandleader Michael Utley; Allman Brothers Band percussionist Butch Trucks; pedal steel guitarist and longtime Neil Young collaborator Ben Keith; backup vocalists Clydie King, Claudia Lennear, Venetta Fields and Cindy Bullens; and former Byrd Chris Hillman.