MR. TAMBOURINE MAN
____________
The Life and Legacy of the Byrds’
Gene Clark

An insightful, in-depth portrait of one of
popular music's seminal yet largely unheralded figures

A new book written by John Einarson

      Mr. Tambourine Man is the story of Gene Clark, a seminal figure in the evolution of popular music. As founding member of one of the sixties most important, influential and respected groups, The Byrds, Clark can rightly lay claim to pioneering several rock music genres, from folk-rock and acid-rock to country-rock. His songwriting with the Byrds and his subsequent acclaim as both a solo artist and member of Dillard & Clark, mark him as one of rock music’s key innovators and visionaries. Yet his troubled history hampered his career at critical junctures creating a checkered output. His legacy remains clouded in mystery, his many accomplishments unheralded.

      This is a cautionary tale of not only the highs of the music industry in the sixties and seventies but of the pitfalls that can trip up an innocent young man. Clark reveled in the acclaim brought on by The Byrds’ enormous success but also succumbed to all the temptations. His inability to come to terms with his own personal demons shadowed him throughout his career, inhibiting what should have been one of music’s greatest contributors. In the end, Clark’s legacy remains intact, his talent revered by a new generation with respect from the previous generation finally forthcoming.

      Told through the personal recollections, insights and reflections of those closest to Gene Clark throughout his life and career, Mr. Tambourine Man offers a rare glimpse behind America’s greatest group, The Byrds, as well as a revealing portrait of life at the center of the sixties and seventies pop maelstrom. Endorsed by the Gene Clark Estate, the book also features rare and previously unseen photos from family and friends.

1966Publicity

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Endorsements for "Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of the Byrds’ Gene Clark"

      "I lived with this man and I worked with him throughout his career, but I never really knew Gene Clark until I read John Einarson’s comprehensive study."
-- Chris Hillman, former Byrds bassist

      "In 1965, Gene Clark was the brightest star in America’s best rock & roll band: the romantic voice and songwriting soul of the Byrds; a quiet, visually dazzling poet at the forefront of the Sixties pop explosion. He was also a fatally troubled visionary who walked away from overnight fame to make his own ravishing, revolutionary music, even as he fell further into darkness. A work of deep research and poignant detail, Mr. Tambourine Man is the full, true story of the Great Lost Byrd and the magic he left behind."
-- David Fricke, Rolling Stone

      "With Mr. Tambourine Man, John Einarson brings Gene Clark out of the shadows and opens new windows into the life and music of one of rock’s most under-valued artists. What emerges is a compelling story that gets to the heart of his creative muse, the challenges he battled and the essence of what drove him in so many different directions. Einarson’s incisive reportage and musical analysis blends perfectly with a fascinating stream of personal anecdotes and reflections from the people that knew Gene best, making this book an absorbing page-turner and a true testament to a man like no other."
-- Dave Zimmer, author, "Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography"

      "An absorbing biography of one of the most enigmatic, influential, and underrated singer-songwriters of the rock era. With his astonishingly comprehensive investigative research, Einarson sheds light on many of the mysteries surrounding one of folk-rock’s founding fathers."
-- Richie Unterberger, author, "Turn! Turn! Turn!: The Folk-Rock Revolution" and "Eight Miles High: Folk Rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock"

      "An insightful glimpse into life after stardom"
-- Entertainment Weekly magazine

      "Thoroughly researched, meticulously executed."
-- Mojo magazine

      "Well worth the cover price."
-- Harp magazine

      "This is a fascinating biography...well-crafted and well worth reading."
-- Winnipeg Free Press, Canada

      "In John Einarson’s Mr. Tambourine Man, the first full biography of Clark, the story is on full, sometimes unseemly, display - and yet his legacy benefits anyway."
-- The Kansas City Star

      "Mr. Tambourine Man is effortlessly engrossing...with impressive attention to detail."
-- Paste magazine

      "I've just had my heart haunted and broken by a rock star biography."
-- Dusted Magazine

      "A fascinating work based on exhaustive research."
-- Sing Out! Magazine

      " Mr. Tambourine Man is as definitive a rock & roll biography as any in recent print."
-- Ugly Things magazine

      "Einarson’s scholarly, meticulously researched bio draws on fresh interviews with family, friends and musicians..."
-- Uncut magazine

      "The book is well-researched."
-- Vintage Guitar magazine

      "Einarson's prose is compassionate - you can almost visualize him shaking his head, sadly - but he avoids being too judgmental."
-- Maverick magazine

      "I would recommend anyone making a serious study of one of the most interesting figures to pass through The Byrds go first and last to John Einarson....a comprehensive and absorbing account."
-- Record Collector magazine

      "Einarson's devastatingly thorough plunge into the life of this gifted artist serves to amplify the exceptional music Clark produced, and also as a primer for the inner workings of the music scene in the '60s and '70s."
-- Pop Culture Press magazine

368 pages with 32 B&W photos. ISBN 0-87930-793-5, First published March 2005.

Signed copies of Mr. Tambourine Man may also be purchased directly from author. Contact John at: jeinarson@mts.net

FirebyrdsGene Clark
Gene ClarkConcert

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      John Einarson is a respected Canadian rock music historian and writer based in Winnipeg. He has written feature articles and reviews for Mojo, Goldmine, Discoveries, Record Collector, Rock Express and Western Report, among others, and is a frequent contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press as features writer, editorialist (Slice Of Life, The View From Here, Summer Flashbacks) and book reviewer. In addition, John has written for television and radio, hosting his own CBC radio series entitled This Time Long Ago that chronicled the Winnipeg music scene, and contributing to several television specials on Canadian rock music history including a CBC tribute to the Guess Who, their Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Burton Cummings: Wheatfield Soul for CBC Winnipeg, and Randy Bachman: Life and Times. He has also written liner notes to several CDs including the Guess Who and Steppenwolf.

      John served as the driving force and inspiration for the Manitoba Museum’s acclaimed exhibit Get Back: A Celebration of Winnipeg Rock ‘n’ Roll and was guest curator for their successful Linda McCartney’s Sixties photo exhibit. He was recently heard on CBC radio Saturday mornings in a regular 28-week series The 45s Cupboard featuring local music of historical interest and is currently hosting a new CBC radio series entitled Made In Manitoba. He is also a contributor to the national CBC radio series 50 Tracks.

      John also wrote a TV documentary on Canadian singer/songwriting legend Buffy Sainte-Marie for Bravo, recently assisted with production of an A&E Biography of Neil Young, and is spearheading the creation of a Canadian Rock ‘n’ Roll Centre to be located in Winnipeg.

John Einarson has published a number of music history books beginning with:

Shakin’ All Over: The Winnipeg Sixties Rock Scene (Hignell, 1987), the first book of its kind to document a local Canadian music scene;

Aurora: The Story of Neil Young and The Squires (Broken Arrow, UK, 1991);

Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (Quarry Press, 1992; Omnibus Press, UK, 1993) written with Neil Young’s cooperation and the definitive biography of Young's early years that has been acknowledged in every book on Neil Young since its publication;

Magic Carpet Ride (Quarry Press, 1994) the story of John Kay and Steppenwolf written in collaboration with founding member John Kay and the basis for the recent VH1 Behind The Music episode on US television as well as the Bravo Canadian TV special Magic Carpet Ride;

American Woman: The Story of The Guess Who (Quarry Press, 1995) the tale of Canada's greatest rock group The Guess Who which is currently in development as a Canadian made for television movie;

A Journey Through the Past (Sonnentanz-Verlag), a Neil Young biography published in Germany (in the German language);

Randy Bachman: Takin’ Care of Business (McArthur & Co, 2000), the authorized biography of Canadian music legend Randy Bachman written in collaboration with Randy and the basis of a CBC TV episode in the popular series Life and Times;

Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock (Cooper Square Press, New York, 2001), the critically-acclaimed chronicle of the colorful late sixties to early seventies southern California country rock scene that spawned the Eagles, Poco, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris;

For What It's Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield (Cooper Square Press, New York, 2004 – 1st edition from Quarry Press, 1997; Rogan House, UK, 1998) written in collaboration with founding member Richie Furay, being turned into a Book On Tape by Mercury / Polygram International and voted one of the top ten best music books of 1998 in the UK;

Made In Manitoba (Great Plains Publications, Winnipeg, March 2005), a celebration of 60 Manitoba recording artists who have achieved national and international acclaim over the past four decades;

Mr. Tambourine Man (Backbeat Books, San Francisco, 2005), the biography of founding Byrd and folk-rock/country-rock pioneer Gene Clark and the first detailed chronicle of the Byrds published in North America, written with the cooperation of the Clark family.

Selected Gene Clark music, available at Amazon.com: