Goodbye, Gene. Hello, more vinyl.

Yesterday The Psychedelic Eskimo and I went to Amoeba. It was a new month and I was eager to blow my self-imposed fifty dollar monthly spending limit. I started five bucks in the hole because I bought a copy of Thin Lizzy's Johnny the Fox in the waning days of March.
Anyway, I got out of Amoeba with two bucks to spare for the rest of April! Dollar bins, here I come!

I picked up four groovy records: Jimmy McGriff's organ jazz soul record, Let's Stay Together; Art Pepper's famous record with the Miles Davis rhythm section, Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (according to Pepper in his autobiography, Straight Life, he was very strung out when the cover photo of him leaning against a tree with his sax was taken); Joe Tex's Soul Country, featuring the jolliest version of "Ode To Billie Joe" you'll ever hear--great groove but kind of missing the point of the lyrics; lastly, Emitt Rhodes's self-titled debut--as someone has likely written, the best Paul McCartney album not made by a person named Paul McCartney. I wanted to buy the new Nick Cave b sides and rarities two-disc set, but I'll have to wait for the merry month of May, I guess.

I only listened to one alphabetical entry today: Gene Clark and Carla Olson's So Rebellious a Lover. Recorded in the last years of Gene's life, it's his last brilliant work. Tell me if anyone in the alt.country, whatever you wanna call it world, has written a better song than "Gypsy Rider."

I've just gotten to the point in the Gene Clark biography, Mr. Tambourine Man, where he is entering his final, grim months. It's agony to read. What a waste, man.
The book's author, John Einarson, has confirmed what I've always believed(and bitched and moaned about, if you recall my entries about this on the other site--home.earthlink.net/~uncorrected): the 1991 Byrds box set is shite! Some of Gene Clark's best songs are ignored in favor of inferior Dylan covers all sung by Roger McGuinn. You'd never know Gene was the original lead singer by listening to this badly compiled set. Chris Hillman and David Crosby were pissed about the set, too. Hillman promises that there will be a better, more representative box set in the future. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Listen to Gene Clark!