tom scholz wrote i'll feel a whole lot better.
tom scholz wrote i'll feel a whole lot better.
who wrote i'll feel a whole lot better?
tom scholz
clark wrote or co-wrote many of the byrds' best-known originals from their first three albums, including "i'll feel a whole lot better", "set you free this time", "here without you", "you won't have to cry", "if you're gone", "the world turns all around her", "she don't care about time" and "eight miles high". he initially played rhythm guitar in the band, but relinquished that position to david crosby and became the tambourine and harmonica player. bassist chris hillman noted years later in an interview remembering clark, "at one time, he was the power in the byrds, not mcguinn, not crosby—it was gene who would burst through the stage curtain banging on a tambourine, coming on like a young prince valiant. a hero, our savior. few in the audience could take their eyes off this presence. he "was" the songwriter. he had the 'gift' that none of the rest of us had developed yet... what deep inner part of his soul conjured up songs like 'set you free this time,' 'i'll feel a whole lot better,' 'i'm feelin' higher,' 'eight miles high'? so many great songs! we learned a lot of songwriting from him and in the process learned a little bit about ourselves."
gene clark
deming has also pointed out that the use of the word "probably" in this refrain is key and lends the track a depth of subtext that was unusual for a pop song in the mid-1960s. jim dickson, the byrds' manager, has remarked that this level of subtext was not unusual in clark's songs of the period. said dickson, "there was always something to unravel in those songs, the non-explanation of the complex feeling. for instance, if you remember i'll feel a whole lot better, it doesn't say: "i'll feel a whole lot better", but "i'll "probably" feel a whole lot better." for me, that makes the song. there's a statement followed by a hesitation." dickson would later work as a producer on clark's 1984 album "firebyrd", which featured a re-recorded version of "i'll feel a whole lot better".
i'll feel a whole lot better