By Rick Koster
A half-century is a long time to wait to put out an album.
Sure, it took Guns N’ Roses 15 years to follow “The Spaghetti Incident?” with “Chinese Democracy”; it was 24 years between The Who’s “It’s Hard” and “Endless Wire”; and Journey waited a decade between “Raised on Radio” and Trial by Fire.”
But these examples involve established artists and a cornucopian array of distractions, “retirement,” in-band fighting, rehab stints and other whimsical show biz realities.
Three months ago, though, Jeff Clark officially released A Man of Fortune, a rock opera he started composing in 1973. If this resonates at all, it’s because Clark was writing the material when he was a member of Too Smooth, the legendary Austin rock band whose fans didn’t just anticipate stardom – they regarded it as a foregone conclusion.
Too Smooth’s sonic recipe twirled Lone Star rock, neo-prog dynamics and arrangements, and seemingly effortless vocal hooks delivered in celestial vocal harmony clusters – and it almost became a joke when they’d open for a succession of touring bands at Austin’s iconic 1,500 seat Armadillo World Headquarters – and routinely blow the headliners into hell.
Tucked inside those nightly set lists were some of the songs Clark had prepared for what was then called just Man of Fortune, the narrative of which involved a rock star, Max Million, whose musical dreams had been realized, but a greater wish – to have a son – is dashed by a terminal illness.
Though the musicians in Too Smooth – which included bassist/vocalist Danny Swinney, guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Brian Wooten and drummer/vocalist/songwriter Tommy Holden – were more than willing to work on Man of Fortune, circumstances and developments precluded bringing the project to fruition. For one thing, many of the songs weren’t the sort that would fit inside the energy of a nightclub set. For another, Clark wasn’t finished writing what would ultimately be a 17-song cycle.
“To have the album finished after all this time is wonderful, of course,” Clark says by phone recently from Austin. “At the same time, I look back and think, ‘Where was I for 40-plus years? What happened?”
Well, it’s been a complex ride.
By 1981, various Too Smooth record deals had fallen apart and, one by one, band members had succumbed to despair and pursued other options. Clark carried Too Smooth forward for a while as the sole holdover, but eventually the band splintered. During that time, Clark had never stopped thinking about Man of Fortune, including a period where he was recovering from pneumonia at his parents’ house and, in a burst of inspiration – and against doctor’s orders to not sing – finished the opera’s material.
The tunes range from driving guitar anthems and gentle balladry to neo-Calypso and sophisticated pop – and all have an infectious, polished quality that screams for repeated listening. If the plot of Max Million’s life is familiar in the context of what some in the entertainment biz have called a “Disease of the Week Special,” it’s also true that Clark’s inside musician’s perspective on the trope intriguing on multiple narrative levels.
But though Clark continued to work as a musician, most memorably with Wooten in the popular cover band 14K, there was no outlet or impetus for Man of Fortune. Ultimately, Clark got married, had a family, and had a long run operating his own successful insurance company. He stayed peripherally active with his children’s musical adventures and the occasional – and extremely well attended – Too Smooth reunions. For a time, he and Wooten managed/co-produced a country artist named Annie Ross.
But in 2013 Clark was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the sudden reality of steadily decreasing musical and vocal abilities resonated.
“I realized I had limited opportunities, so if I was ever going to play any last shows, I had to do them pretty quickly,” Clark says.
In 2015, he decided to perform a series of farewell retrospective of his musical career at Threadgill’s – while he could. Billed as “Jeff Clark and Friends,” the shows included a Milky Way of Austin musical stars including Wooten, Mark Miller, Bubble Puppy Christopher Cross, Van Wilks, other Too Smooth alumni and a drummer/vocalist friend of Miller’s named Darin Murphy.
The concerts were very well received and one fan, Sid Hagan, reached out to Clark to ask about “Man of Fortune.” Hagan is a singer/songwriter/producer who first heard Too Smooth in the late ’70s and, over the years, had become a close friend and producer of the band’s two archival CDs, “Still” and “Alive and Kickin’.” Hagan also produced Clark’s solo album “Just Visiting.”
Last week by phone from his home in Virginia, Hagan laughs when he remembers the first time he heard about Man of Fortune. “I said, ‘Rock opera? Really? You have a rock opera?! Where the hell is it? And when are we gonna do something with that?”
With Clark’s farewell shows finished and the implications of Parkinson’s established, Hagan decided to push for finished recorded version of Man of Fortune, though he’s quick to deflect any undue influence. He says, “I’m just one of many that wanted this to happen. Credit Brian and Darin and certainly Jeff. The fact that this actually happened is just amazing. But I’m damned glad it did, and, now, I’ll do anything in my power to rectify the tragedy that Too Smooth didn’t happen the way they should have. That very much includes the opera.”
Indeed. Clark, with that growing level of post-farewell-shows encouragement from friends and musical colleagues, including drummer Cole Newbury and Too Smooth video producer Dean Schanbaum, who’d captured a long-ago and much-treasured live Too Smooth set at the Whiskey Box in Dallas.
Inspired, Clark asked Wooten for help finishing at least a few of the songs from the opera.
“I told Jeff to send me the script so I could read it, and it was great,” Wooten says from his home north of Dallas. “In my head, I was already trying to figure out the musical dynamic that would best serve the story. There were a lot of directions we could have gone in, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the ‘Fortune’ songs we DID do onstage, back in the day with Too Smooth. Two guitars, bass and drums. I told Jeff I thought it would be great to retain that feel because that’s what we remembered and what fans remembered.”
At that point, Clark was cautious and didn’t want to overextend his friends in what would be an arduous project. “I had a specific tune or two I wanted to get done first so I could see if they worked for ME,” Clark said. “I didn’t have any doubts about Brian; I just wanted to be sure the songs were up to snuff.”
When Wooten took the material into his home studio, the work flowed. In addition to his own multi-instrumental skills, Wooten’s colleagues in the Trace Adkins band – all of whom are professional Nashville studio musicians – stepped up as well.
And, since the reality was that Clark no longer had the range or lung power to sing the songs and they thought of Murphy, who’d been a tangential part of the Jeff Clark and Friends shows.
“The first time I’d heard of Darin was when he was kind enough to help out on my swansong performance,” Clark says. “Mark Miller brought him in because we needed some help on drums and background vocals. I said to Mark, ‘I don’t know him.’ Mark just smiled and said, ‘You’ll see.’
“I sure did. It was like, who IS this guy? He knew all the drum parts and could sing these high harmony parts perfectly.”
“I didn’t come from that Austin scene,” says Murphy, who in fact is virtuosic on a variety of instruments, has appeared on Broadway in “Lennon” and worked with a variety of artists including Cross, Todd Rundgren and more. “But they needed a drummer for parts of the shows, and I was intrigued. I listened to a huge amount of Too Smooth music and Jeff’s songs, and I thought, ‘This will be fun. It’s very challenging music with great hooks and great musicianship.’ And the opportunity to enter this different world of excellent musicians – some of whom I DID know and am a big fan of – was too good to pass up.”
With the musical parts in place, and Wooten working from his home studio with back-and-forth digital contributions from Murphy and the other players, the initial two songs happened quickly.
“I couldn’t believe how fast it happened and how great it sounded,” Clark says. “And Brian just immediately said, ‘What’s next? Let’s keep going.’
“With the illness and doctors and treatments, I had plenty of necessary distractions. It was a unique situation, but Brian was gung ho. He’s not just an excellent musician and songwriter, he’s just a terrific engineer, producer and whatever you need – including a terrific human being. I let him take the ball and the magic happened.”
Wooten, working between tours with Adkins and according to the busy schedules of the other musicians, kept up slow but steady progress on Man of Fortune.
“Throughout it all, Jeff was always on my mind,” Wooten says. “Even if his physical skills are diminished, his mind is so sharp. The opera is full of heart and great songs. I was eager to make it h happen, but not without some hesitation.”
Wooten describes the arduous process of Clark trying to physically convey how to play certain chords or infuse certain dynamics. To save time and money, Wooten also learned to play bass and got some help from Swinney. “We made it work,” Wooten says. “Jeff was able to sing one song, ‘Doctor Thompson,’ and it sounds really good. It’s cool he was able to do that. And Darin was a godsend. Everyone was really into the project.
“Jeff’s not independently wealthy but we scraped by and, one day, you know what? I did a few more remixes and looked up and … it was finished.” Wooten laughs. “I was so proud – not just for myself but for Jeff and his wife Theresa. I’m very happy we made this happen. I hope for Jeff’s sake that something happens with it beyond the Too Smooth fan base. It deserves a larger audience.”
“I’m definitely proud of it,” Murphy says. “Jeff has this really cool and distinctive high tenor voice, and it was a challenge to pull that off. But I think the album is an amazing project across the board and for a lot of reasons. The musicianship, the material, the sincerity. It was really only after it was done that I got to spend more time with Jeff. Knowing him and knowing his situation gave me the impetus and desire to do the best I could. The opera is about love, unity, wisdom and harmony, and I think we captured those things.”
“Given today’s short attention spans, experiencing a rock opera in its entirety is a rare and exhilarating journey,” Schanbaum says in a text. “The decades of dedication by Jeff and Brian have paid off with grand narrative, diverse, powerful and emotionally stirring rock tracks. I hope people will take time to truly listen and be transported by this music.”
For copywrite reasons, the title of the record was changed to A Man of Fortune – A Rock Opera Written and Composed by Jeff Clark. And Clark chose to officially credit the recording to Wooten, Murphy and Clark.
“I’m endlessly grateful for the selfless contributions from Brian and Darin,” Clark says. “The opera is finished. It sounds weird to even say that now. And it wouldn’t be finished without them. For that matter, I owe so many. Friendship is amazing. Music is a privilege.”
A Man of Fortune is available through the usual streaming platforms as well as on the Wooten, Murphy and Clark Bandcamp page. More information is available at amanoffortune.com, and Clark says he’s speaking with various production and marketing firms in the hopes for expanded possibilities including print, stage and video.
