How good was Clarence White on guitar?
He knocked out this dude purely with awesomeness!
He knocked out this dude purely with awesomeness!
1972 was a bit of a transition year for Clarence White. Even though The Byrds were still a going concern, most of their touring commitments were completed by May. Meanwhile, Roger McGuinn was negotiating an original Byrds reunion, which ultimately proved to be a pointless exercise in brand name shuffling. However, the year began with an impressive "country suite" from the band.
Clarence also appeared on a number of sessions, including his third straight Arlo Guthrie album (Hobo's Lullaby). Here he kicks things off with his usual monster riffage and offers an understated solo from :47-1:01.
Arlo Guthrie - Mapleview (20%) Rag
Clarence White: acoustic lead guitar
Byron Berline: fiddle
Doug Dillard: banjo
Arlo Guthrie or Jim Dickinson (?): piano
Roger Bush: acoustic bass
Jim Keltner: drums
Really though, this track is all about the ensemble, and it features a veritable Mount Rushmore of progressive bluegrass. White, Berline, Dillard, and Bush all helped bridge twang and rock in the late '60s and early '70s and you'd be hard-pressed to find four more significant figures in west coast bluegrass. Add in the mighty Jim Keltner on drums and either Arlo (pictured above) or Jim Dickinson on piano ... it could be either, but my money is on Guthrie ... and you have two minutes of instrumental bliss.
I'M A TRAVELING GUITAR PICKER
Gene Clark - Roadmaster
Roadmaster is a compilation of Gene Clark tracks recorded between 1970 and 1972, with contributions from various Byrds, Burrito Brothers, our old friend Byron Berline, and of course, CW. The most surprising name involved in the sessions is Spooner Oldham, who lends his funky electric piano to the title track. Clarence weaves in and out with atypically bluesy riffs, including a double-tracked guitar solo from 2:39-2:58.
Skip Battin - Ballad Of Dick Clark
The Byrds bassist from 1969-73, "Dick Clark" comes from his 1972 solo debut. Honestly, if Clarence White wasn't shredding all over this song (and album), it would be entirely forgettable. What can I say? As a songwriter, Skip Battin was a hell of a bass player. Sorry Skip fans. If I wanted to hear novelty songs, I wouldn't have given away my Weird Al Yankovic vinyl collection.
LOST MY DRIVIN' WHEEL
Whatever The Byrds' deficiencies as a functioning band, they entered the studio a few times with decent results. Unfortunately, the two songs that were pretty good remained buried in the vaults until 2000, when Farther Along was reissued on CD with bonus tracks.
Byrds - Lost My Drivin' Wheel
Rec date: January 12, 1972
"Drivin' Wheel" is a cover of obscure Canadian folksinger, David Wiffen, whose original, released in 1971, was simply titled, "Driving Wheel." If I had to guess, I'd say that McGuinn got turned onto the song via Tom Rush, who covered the song while opening for The Byrds in '72. Good song, solid arrangement, McGuinn sings with purpose, and Clarence (panned left) is on fire. In fact, it sounds less like The Byrds than it sounds like Dylan's New Morning album or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers covering The Byrds. It also sounds like a song that My Morning Jacket should be covering.
Byrds - Bag Full Of Money
Rec date: August 1972
"I wanna get out of country music. I've always gone through a lot of different bags of music, mostly because I don't want to be classified. I guess I'll always be an experimental folk musician of some sort. (I want to get into) more rock 'n' roll, man, and synthesizer, like, well, back to where we left off at Notorious Byrd Brothers. That's what I want to get into. I know I'm capable of it, it's just I feel that I've been loaded down by people who weren't sympathetic or tolerant of that in me."
Roger McGuinn, Crawdaddy!, 1972
Written by McGuinn and Jacques Levy, "Bag" comes from the last Byrds session to feature McGuinn, White, and Battin. On drums is John Guerin (pictured left), who replaced Gene Parsons in June, and on pedal steel is studio whiz, Buddy Emmons. What's interesting to me is that while McGuinn publicly disavowing his country direction, "Bag" proves that it was a genre for which he was ideally suited. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, his bandmates were doing him a favor by poo-pooing his ridiculous excursions into synth-rock, especially knowing what we know about the synthesizer's impact on '70s rock. Or, does McGuinn feel cheated that he wasn't able to beat Mannheim Steamroller to the punch? And as I've pointed out previously, whose fault is it that he all but stopped writing songs? Battin's songs were mostly terrible, but at least he was trying his best. What was McGuinn's excuse? Oh right, his bandmates "weren't sympathetic or tolerant." That makes sense.
STORIES WE COULD TELL
Everly Brothers - I'm Tired Of Singing My Songs In Las Vegas
"I've been wanting to quit for three years now and it's finally time to just do it. I'm tired of being an Everly Brother. I still like to sing 'Bye Bye Love' sometimes, but I don't want to spend my life doing it. I've got to find something else."
--Don Everly, 1973
Clarence renewed his association with the Everly Brothers for their solid 1972 album, Stories We Could Tell. Here he's panned right, offering up a bevy of sweet bender licks that counterpoint John Sebastian's harmonica riffs, panned left. In fact, Sebastian not only wrote the brilliant title track, but the album was recorded in his living room (pictured below).
L-R: John Sebastian, Paul Rothschild (producer), Phil Everly, Don Everly
"Las Vegas" was written by songwriter, Dennis Linde, but it could've easily been written by either Phil or Don, perfectly summing up their boredom and frustration with the nostalgia circuit, let alone each other. This frustration culminated in their initial break-up about a year later. In fact, it's a very eerie coincidence that their final show took place at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, on Saturday, July 14, 1973. A few hours later and about 90 miles away, Clarence White was killed by a drunken asshole outside of BJ's in Palmdale. To my knowledge, no one else has noted the geographical and historical proximity between the last Everlys gig and the last Clarence gig, but there it is.
Before we move on to 1973, let's revisit the Byrds at their acoustic best. This video claims it's from 1972, but I think it's actually from May 1971. If so, please indulge me.
NEXT TIME: THE TRAGIC DEATH OF A MUSICAL GENIUS
13 comments:
You should write a book on Clearness White. This is great stuff.
Clearness? Thanks for nothing auto-spellchecker. Grumble.
Roger McGuinn once told me that the bonus tracks on the CD version of Farther Along (Lost My Drivin' Wheel, etc...) were not recorded with the Byrds, but with the studio band he had assembled for his solo album.
Brilliant, buddy. Thanks again and again!
Probably the most hirsute Adios Lounge post ever?
Gotta love Mike given us the inside scoop.
Keep bringin' it man.
Yo Aimz, no worries. Clearness was actually Clarence and Roland's little known cousin, who was a master glockenspiel player. Unfortunately, since no one actually likes the glockenspiel, he never had a chance to strut his stuff.
Mike, thanks for the heads up. I read something similar about the lineup on those tracks. However, in the end I deferred to Christopher Hjort's painstakingly researched, So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star: The Byrds Day By Day: 1965-73. He said White, Battin, and Parsons/Guerin played on "Drivin' Wheel" and "Bag," so that's what I went with. That said, McGuinn was recording tracks for his solo album around this time, so it's conceivable that he was conflating the different projects.
Thanks for continuing the continuing saga.Too bad it's about to end.
Have you head the Byrds shows at Wolfgang's Vault?
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/
2 from '70 and 2 from '71 in case you haven't, including the Dutch concert that I bought as a bootleg that year or the next. One of those half inch thick albums for $3 or $5, and the first time I heard Willin'.
If you register, you can read Crawdaddy, which has some Dinky Dawson columns about the his days as a roadie with late era The Byrds.
Man, thanks so much for this series. Have you ever read that the young fellow walking with Clarence in the black and white photo at the top of the entry is David Grier (fantastic flatpicker and all-around guitarist and son of Bluegrass Boy Lamar Grier)?
As always a great job, Lance. The above suggestion about writing a book should be taken seriously.
Gene
Kevin - Thanks for the heads up on Wolfgang's. I've been meaning to join for years, but slacked. Between these Byrds gigs and that recently posted Dylan/Band show from '74, it was a no-brainer to jump in.
Midday - Had no idea that was David Grier, of whom I was only passingly familiar. Very nice. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that his dad played with Monroe at the same time as Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, and Roland White.
Oh, and Gene, I'm moving slowly, but in that direction. I swear it's not laziness!
Great series. Thanks. W.
I believe it was David Grier who was known to sit on the floor in between Tony Rice and Clarence White while they played when he was a kid..bluegrass cosmosis indeed..as always I love this blog.
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