No Other - Production

Production

Retreating to his coastal home in Mendocino, Clark began to compose songs for his new album, Analyzing the Material, for over a year. According to Clark:

Contrary to rumors that many of the album's songs were conceived under the influence of mescaline and other illicit chemicals, Clark's wife Carlie stated in Mr. Tambourine Man: The Story Of the Byrds' Gene Clark that he was sober throughout the Mendocino years and was disinclined to experiment for the sake of his children. Living up to the "hillbilly Shakespeare" moniker accorded him by later band mate John York, the weighty and ponderous nature of most of his lyrics from the period were drawn from his Christian upbringing and discussions regarding Carlos Castaneda, Theosophy and Zen with his wife and friends like David Carradine and Dennis Hopper.

Entering the studio in April 1974, Clark was paired with producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye, who subsequently would become a dependable collaborator of the singer for the next fifteen years. This was a foreboding sign for the label, as Kaye had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in cost overruns on Bob Neuwirth's solo debut, which subsequently failed to dent the charts. Most sessions were conducted in Los Angeles and featured the cream of the era's session musicians: Korchmar, keyboardist Craig Doerge, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel, aka 'The Section;' percussionist Joe Lala, Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band, Jesse Ed Davis, backup vocalists Clydie King, Claudia Lennear, & Venetta Fields, and former Byrd Hillman. The plaintive country-folk sounds of White Light and Roadmaster were replaced by intricate vocal harmonies and heavily overdubbed, atypical arrangements in Kaye's "answer to Brian Wilson and Phil Spector as a producer". However, there was a pronounced R&B/funk feel to the title track, which has often been attributed to the presence of Sly Stone at some of the sessions. According to John Einarson's Mr. Tambourine Man, all of the assembled musicians were impressed by Clark's perfectionism and genial, humble attitude.

Initially, Carlie Clark and the children temporarily relocated with him to Los Angeles, in the hope that the family routine of Mendocino could be preserved. However, it was not long before Clark reacquainted himself with L.A.'s party circuit and the latest fashionable drug - cocaine. After his disgusted wife moved the family back to Northern California, Clark established house with old friend and band mate Doug Dillard in the Hollywood Hills; "Lady of the North", a song for Carlie and also the album's closer, was written by the twosome in a cocaine haze, their final collaboration on a song.

For years rumors circulated that only half of an intended double album had been recorded, with Geffen baulking at the excessive cost and eventually pulling out. This was corroborated by Clark in a 1976 interview. According to Kaye in Mr. Tambourine Man, 13 or 14 songs had been demoed with acoustic guitar at early sessions but only nine were recorded with a full band. "Train Leaves Here This Morning", a rerecording of a song first released on The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark, was omitted from the final album.