byrdsongs, vi

The late Gene Clark is, as I mentioned, a tragic sentimentalist and a pop lifer of the very first degree.  Here Without You is his finest song, in my opinion.  It must be tough when the best work of your career comes at its front end.  It certainly seems to have been difficult for Clark.  Though he continued to make and be involved in excellent music after leaving the Byrds for good in 1967, his subsequent work appeared sporadically and his life was apparently pretty rocky.  On Here Without You, we get a glimpse of Clark in all his promise, the romantic dreamer transforming loss and pain into gorgeous music.  The Streets I walk on depress me / The ones that were happy when I was with you…  So much emotional poignancy gets packed into these simple and direct words.  But it’s not just Clark’s words and singing.  The harmonies are also dreamy and flawless. They wash over you and transport you to the top of Laurel Canyon at the last moments of a blood orange dusk.  I spend a lot of time feeling unsatisfied, worried, regretful, alienated, disappointed, alone…etc., but the Byrds make me feel lucky to be a Born Again Angeleno, lucky to be able to partake at least a little bit in the mysteriousness blowing in the dusty desert wind and through the swaying palms…