Song of the Day: It Will (Probably) Make You 'Feel a Whole Lot Better'

From the Byrds, Tom Petty, Rosie Flores, and Dinosaur Jr.

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books and now writer/director of award-winning films. He was also a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy.

From Gene Clark, one of the great underrated writers and singers (see my tribute here). It’s among the best rock ‘n roll tunes ever and should have been a #1 single off the Byrds’ first album but its flip side, “All I Really Want to Do,” quickly eclipsed it. The key lyric, not often noted, is the word “probably.” That qualifier and doubt, rare in rock! PROBABLY will feel “a whole lot better. “ But…maybe not! Genius.

But poor Gene Clark couldn’t win. He was the main Byrds songwriter at the start and so earned a lot more royalties than his mates—and as a former farm boy he didn’t mind spending it on a hot car and other toys. This sparked great resentment within the group and contributed to his tragic exit within two years. And then his solo career never really took off, although No Other is belatedly considered one of best rock albums ever.

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A fine alternate version of the original.

Here’s the group doing it live in rare non-lipsynced 1965 version, though a bit rushed to fit time slot.

Tom Petty’s version had an unfortunate result—Gene Clark had managed to kick booze and drugs for awhile but the unexpected riches from this hit led him back down the path to a sadly early death. Nice job on the cut by Tom but it adds almost nothing, a sure sign of how great the original remains.

This is enjoyable though—the legendary Rosie Flores sings and picks wonderfully, don’t miss (and love her red sneakers).

When Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman toured the entire Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, with a fine band led by Marty Stuart, three or four years ago I saw them do it live (as below) as encore. Thrilling but no one could sing like Gene.

Can it be done grunge? Yes, declared Dinosaur Jr.

Cartoon of the Day

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Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s atomic bomb movie twisted by the White House and Pentagon), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His 2021 film, Atomic Cover-up, drew extraordinary acclaim, and his current one, The First Attack Ads, aired over hundreds of PBS stations this past fall. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.