Pitchfork

Photo by Kathryn Yu

Gene Clark was the original vocalist for the Byrds for two short years during the mid-1960s, during which time he wrote or co-wrote some of the group's biggest hits, including "Eight Miles High", "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "The World Turns All Around Her", and "Set You Free This Time". After leaving the Byrds, he recorded with the Gosdin Brothers and Doug Dillard, launched his own solo career, and toiled below the radar for decades. He died in 1991, at age 46.

"Spanish Guitar", from Clark's 1971 album White Light, is not one of his best-known compositions, nor is it one that would seem to lend itself to the hypermelodic pop chops Peter Morén regularly displays as one third of Peter Bjorn and John. But Morén-- who recorded the track for The World Turns All Around Him: A Tribute to Gene Clark, released in 2006 on Swedish indie Groover Recordings-- does a surprisingly credible job as a folkie, loosening up the tempo and blowing Dylan's harmonica as the Concretes' Daniel Värjö strums a breezy mandolin. As he gently unravels the frayed ends of the melody, Morén sings with a weary resignation, as if the creative impulses that "pulsate from my soul through my brain/ In a Spanish guitar" cannot erase the knowledge that Clark's story ends unhappily.

Stream:> Peter Morén: "Spanish Guitar"
[from The World Turns All Around Him: A Tribute to Gene Clark; out now on Groover]