Song of the Day 1/25: Gene Clark, “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”

Editor’s note: I’ve been under the weather — a kidney stone hailstorm — so Nathan Arizona has agreed to handle the Song of the Day for a spell.

Gene Clark was probably the most talented member of one of the most important bands of the 1960s, the Byrds. Though Roger McQuinn, who founded the band with Clark, is better-known to history, Clark wrote most of the early hits and was co-lead singer and the primary stage presence.

“I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”? That’s his. Also “She Don’t Care About Time.” And “Set You Free This Time” and “Eight Miles High.”

But after three years he was out of the band. Problem is, he didn’t like airplanes. He didn’t like dealing with the public, either. Those things don’t help when you’re in a band quickly reaching superstar status.

He kept his career going, but it was what they call star-crossed. He still wasn’t comfortable with the record industry. He made albums but they didn’t get much promotion and they didn’t sell. He joined former bandmates for some non-Byrds albums, but those groups were short-lived. He died in 1991.

By then, critics and other musicians had begun to rave. During the jangle-rock era, R.E.M. covered “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” as did Tom Petty. More recently, members of Fleet Foxes, Beach House, the Walkmen and other bands covered Clark’s album “No Other” in concert. “The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark,” the first of two albums he recorded with Doug Dillard, is now seen as an important forerunner of country-rock. His albums are still around and people are buying them.

Bob Dylan called this song, from Clark’s 1972 LP “White Light,” “something I or anybody else would have been proud to have written.”

This video is from the ’60s show “Hollywood a Go Go,” so it’s groovy and a little rough. But it shows Gene Clark as lead singer on one of his best songs. It also shows what a departure country rock was from the predominant sounds of the times — just watch those go-go dancers trying to figure out what to do.