'No Other' & 'White Light'

Gene Clark was one of the founding member of The Byrds. He left the band in 1966 and struck out on a solo career that lasted about one year when he rejoined the Byrds after David Crosby left to go on and do his thing with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.

It wasn't until the early-1970s that Clark found success as a solo artist with White Light and No Other. Both are beautiful country-rock records not unlike what his brethren in The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, CSN&Y, Gram Parsons and the Eagles were doing.

Two very understated and often overlooked albums and certainly and artist that doesn't get the same attention as those other names.

Clark recorded throughout the 1970s and 1980s and went into a lull of activity eventually addressing his substance abuse in the latter decade. As it turns out, it might be pretty hard to get high when you don't have any money.

Tom Petty covered "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better," a Byrds song written by Clark, on his 1989 album Full Moon Fever. The added income from the royalties set Clark back into a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse.

In 1991, his body gave out. He had a heart attack and died at the tender age of 46. A pretty big waste for sure.