Harold Eugene "Gene" Clark

 Harold Eugene "Gene" Clark (November 17, 1944 – May 24, 1991),

Clark was the founding member of the folk rock band the Byrds. He was the Byrds' principal songwriter between 1964 and early 1966, writing most of the band's best-known originals from this period, including "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "She Don't Care About Time", and "Set You Free This Time". Although he did not achieve commercial success as a solo artist, Clark was in the vanguard of popular music during much of his career, prefiguring developments in such disparate subgenres as psychedelic rock, baroque pop, newgrass, country rock, and alternative country. During his career and after his death, Clark's songs have been covered by a number of artists. Iain Matthews was an early promoter of Clark's songs, covering "Polly" on his 1972 album Journeys from Gospel Oak and "Tried So Hard" on his 1974 album Some Days You Eat the Bear. "Tried So Hard" was later covered by Yo la Tengo on Fakebook in 1990. Death in Vegas and Paul Weller covered his song "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" on their 2003 album Scorpio Rising.

In 1993 the Scottish band Teenage Fanclub recorded a tribute entitled "Gene Clark" on their album Thirteen. In 2007, two of his songs were recorded by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant on the T-Bone Burnett–produced Raising Sand: "Polly Come Home" and "Through the Morning, Through the Night. He also participated in reunions with the ‘Byrds' through the years and toured with acoustic instruments in shows with Roger McGuinn. Clark died on May 24, 1991, at the age of 46 from natural causes brought on by a bleeding ulcer. He is buried at Saint Andrews Catholic Cemetery in his hometown of Tipton, Missouri.