I’ve never fully bought into the mythology of Gram Parsons, I prefer to lay my head at the shrine of Gene Clark with LPs like No Other and White Light. Years ago, a friend of mine was working at Neil Young’s ranch and several ’employees’ were discussing the Byrds. Neil walked in, and said “it’s not McGuinn, it ain’t Crosby, the soul of the Byrds was Gene Clark.” Tom Stevens and the Long Ryders understood this in the early 1980’s, long before I did. It took me another ten years.
– Pat Thomas is the author of the recently released work, Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975
