Re-release Review: Gene Clark “Back Street Mirror: Revisited”

New version of 2018’s EP release sees the addition of five tracks that previously appeared as part of 2016’s limited edition “The Lost Studio Sessions, 1964 – 1982”.

Gene Clark’s status within, not just Americana music folklore, but popular music per se, has long been cemented in stone. From his role as singer and principle songwriter for The Byrds between 1964 – 1966, the two albums he recorded with Doug Dillard during 1968 & 1969, through to his seminal solo work such as “White Light”(1971), and “No Other”(1974), Clark created a body of work that helped to define an era. Sadly the substance abuse that was to contribute to his untimely death in 1991 at just 46 years old, along with the more personal struggles, such as the fear of both flying and fame, resulted in a legacy of an artist who arguably underachieved, was often misunderstood, and for a time was definitely under-appreciated.

The years since Clark’s passing have seen much of his work re-issued for a new generation to discover, along with numerous compilation albums that have attempted to uncover many of the previously unreleased studio recordings that had been locked away for decades. The most comprehensive of these was “The Lost Studio Sessions: 1964 – 1982”, a collection of rarities from the personal archives of The Byrds’ first manager Jim Dickson first released in 2016 by Sierra Records, with a limited edition that included five additional tracks. Mining this same cache of treasures, the six track EP, “Back Street Mirror”, was released in 2018 to support ‘Record Store Day’. Now the record label ‘Liberation Hall’, have combined the six tracks from the EP, with the five additional tracks from the limited addition version of “The Lost Studio Sessions 1964 – 1982”, to create this collection entitled “Back Street Mirror: Revisited”.

This new album opens with two tracks produced by Dickson a month prior to the release of Clark’s debut solo album with the Gosdin Brothers (a.k.a “Echoes”) in January 1967. ‘Back Street Mirror’, and ‘Don’t Let It Fall Trough’, were to be the A & B sides of a non-album single for Columbia Records who promptly rejected it leaving the tracks to remain unreleased during Clark’s lifetime. The former, and intended A side, mimics Bob Dylan both vocally and lyrically, with the presence of Leon Russell and South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela helping to deliver some lovely baroque touches, while the planned flip side unashamedly mines the gritty soulful Stax sound, complete with a driving horn section.

The following track was almost certainly recorded during August 1967, at Gold Star Studio’s with the aforementioned Masekela now on production duties. ‘Yesterday, I Am Alright’, which this time is credited to the Gene Clark Group, that included Clarence White on guitar, John York on bass and Eddie Hoh on drums, is another Baroque-pop inspired number with Masekela’s jazzy horn arrangement helping to create a sound that draws comparison to that heard on Love’s iconic album “Forever Changes”. Next up ‘She Told Me’, recorded in late 1966 finds Clark alone with his guitar and is clearly just a blueprint awaiting a fuller arrangement, while ‘If I Hang Around’, recorded during the same period feels more complete, as dark as it is sensual, as inviting as it is vague, the stripped back guitar and vocal delivery allowing the heart of the song to breathe.

Not all the tracks available here come from Clark’s post-Byrds output as ‘That’s What You Want’, dates to 1965 while he was still a very active member, though there is no proof that the song was ever presented to, or rejected by, the rest of the band. Opening with some fine harmonica playing the writing style is still indebted to Dylan but its simple lyrical narrative is full of complex layers, telling tales of romantic tension, delivering a song that would not have been out of place on “Turn, Turn, Turn”. Unfortunately the only available version of this track has, over 40 years of neglect, been permanently damaged, however, due to its historical importance it undoubtedly deserves to be included. “Why Can’t I Have Her Back Again”, is possibly the oldest track on this recording, dating back to 1964 and though it clearly draws its inspiration from Paul McCartney’s work with The Beatles during this same period,  it also reveals that, at still only 19 years old, Clark’s rich vibrato, mid-tempo vocal delivery, that would become his trademark sound throughout his career was already fully formed.

The remaining four tracks date from around 1970, during which time Clark was probably at his happiest having married and relocated to an apple Farm, near Mendocino. Jim Dickson was so impressed when he heard ‘One In A Hundred’, and ‘She’s The Kind Of Girl’, that he organised a studio reunion of the original Byrds for a possible single release which alas never materialised with both songs eventually appearing on 1973’s “Roadmaster” album, while an alternative take of the former would appear on Clark’s seminal recording “White Light”, as do the two remaining tracks here, with ‘The Virgin’, and ‘1975’, acting as opening and closing numbers respectively.

Adding the five acoustic numbers to the original EP, has helped elevate “Back Street Mirror: Revisited”, to album status, and thus presumably garnering a greater level of kudos in the process. In truth some of the tracks here are barely more than sketches, blueprints of what could have been, but for those of us that worship at the altar, they are still worthy additions to Clark’s cannon of work. However, for those unfamiliar with the great man’s output, this is clearly not the best place to start, with his contribution to The Byrds’ early albums along with his official releases during the following ten years being a far more fertile period to explore and come to understand why Gene Clark is held in such high esteem by repeated generations.