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The first week of the new year is coming to an end, but I’m still processing the deluge of music that came my way in 2011. Over the past few months certain albums have consistently found their way into my play pile. In September the reissue label Sundazed released three classic albums by Gene Clark, cofounder of the Byrds. Though I already had copies of two of the albums, I’d only listened to them once or twice over the years, something these new reissues forced me to realize was a mistake. It’s kind of mind-blowing that Clark, who had previously been a member of folk-pop institution New Christy Minstrels, quit the Byrds in early 1966, only 18 months after they formed, by which time they’d already made three classic albums. Clark was exhausted by the demands of burgeoning pop-rock stardom and retreated, not touching his guitar for months.
