Gram Parsons

[chazmo]

I about 3/4 of the way through a book about Gram Parsons. I grew up in So. Calif. in the 60's and listened to a lot of Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, etc. but did not know anything about him at the time. Since then I have heard about how great he was, but can't name a single tune he did. So, I thought I would read up on him. Man, what a wasted life. He didn't leave home in Florida until 18. Dead at 26 of an OD. Did anyone see him perform? The book says that his performances were usually terrible because they did not rehearse and were too high. So, is he famous just because he died young?Was good looking? Or because he hung out with cool people? Frustrating, trying to figure out why he was and is so beloved.

[chopitulas]

Gram is important because of The Flying Burrito Brothers and his subsequent solo albums which are a huge part of the template of the music now called Alt Country. Bands like Wilco are deeply in debt to GP as the guy truly wrote the book on how to combine traditional country music with a rock and roll sensibility. He is not the only guy that did it...The Band and the Big Pink album are also very important, for one...but his vision is probably the most fully realized.

He also brought in elements of Memphis soul, doing the Dan Penn songs like "Dark End Of The Street", which helped show anything is fair game when done right. And he also brought Emmylou Harris to light, arguably the most important female performer in the genre to this day. The Burritos classic 1st album, "The Guilded Palace Of Sin", is easily in my Top Ten of all time.

I did see Gram and the Burritos at Altamont, where they were the only band that day not to suffer violence during their set. Even from where I was, a long way from the stage, it was clear to me he was on LSD. He tried to party with the big boys but just did have the constitution of Keith Richards.

But his importance is less because of the sordid elements of his life, it's really because of his music.

[DougNSharon]

Gram's music is extremely enjoyable in and of itself. His best moments are on Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds, Gilded Palace of Sin by the Burritos, and Grevious Angel, his solo album featuring Emmylou Harris.

Add in the indelible influence he had on the Rolling Stones, (future) Eagles, etc., etc. and you have quite a legacy.

I once interviewed John Dawson of the New Riders and he explained that he started to hatch the idea for that band after seeing a Burrito Brothers gig at the Carousel in '68 or early '69. His verdict: great concept, incredible charisma, but way to sloppy.

Now, having NRPS call you inspirational AND sloppy probably tells you all you need to know about Gram!

[chopitulas]

Yeah, Stones songs like "Sweet Virginia" owe a lot to Gram. Heck, who actually wrote "Wild Horses" is a question as he musta had a hand in that, as well.

There are a couple of nice double CDs out, the first two Flying Burrito Brothers albums on one and Gram's two solo albums on the other. Lots of great music on those... Highly recommended.

[revjimk]

Chazmo
Without all the musicians who were total screwups outside of the music world, there would be very little good American popular music.... Hendrix, Joplin, James Booker, Hank Williams, etc. etc.
Nobody's perfect....
Chopitoulas
You were at Altamont? Must have been quite the experience... glad I went to Woodstock, polar opposite...
Thats one of my gripes about folks who worship the Dead, it was their brilliant idea to hire Hell's Angels as security. How dumb to blame the Stones "satanic vibes"... watch "Gimme Shelter" & you see Mick trying to stop the violence sounding like a pathetic school marm ... satanic, my ass...
rev

[freebo]

revjimk I totally agree with you about Mick at Altamont: I'd always thought of him as kind of a 'tough guy'. He had to be, right? Who could conjure all that darkness if they weren't rough and tough themselves?

Anyway, then I saw him in the context of that film: To me at least, he appeared quite delicate - almost wispy. And yeah, I thought he was 'in over his head' while trying to reign in the violence in front of him...

Now, drifting back to your regulalry scheduled Gram Parsons thread, I believe that yesterday (Nov 5, 2009) would've been Gram's 63rd birthday.

As you were...

[chopitulas]

Yeah, Altamont was every bit as horrific as the film showed. People tend to say it was the end of the hippie era and there actually is truth in that. We Bay Area music fans had quite a run through the late 60's with Bill Graham and the Fillmore and all the great SF bands we could often see playing for free in Golden Gate Park. It was quite a shock to see Marty Balin get punched out by a Hells Angel to start the day...musicians like that were very high on the pedestal.

We all went with the best hopes. A free Rolling Stones concert! Are you kidding?!?!? But the venue was completely desolate, not a tree in sight, out in the middle of nowhere, a place where cars were wrecked and destroyed. Not exactly Golden Gate Park... And it was an unusually cold day. Something about the vibe was not right from the get-go.

Even from far away, the violence that occurred near the stage was palpable. 300,000 people gathered in one place turns into an almost amoebic organism and the effect of the beatings rippled through the crowd. Not a day to be on psychedelics, that's for sure...

And Mick was every bit as fey as he looks in the movie. You felt like he was about to get killed as the Angels lined the stage, his not quite gay persona a polar opposite to their macho postering. It really seemed like it was all they could do to not take him out right there, some junior Angel wanting to earn his stripes by dusting Mick for being so "gay". Things were reduced to the elemental and magnified and, again, even from far away, there was a battle between good and evil going on.

Another problem was the Dead, probably wisely for their sake, decided not to play and the Stones waited til it was dark for dramatic effect. There was a long period with nothing happening waiting for them that exasperated the tension level. The stage was very small and all the energy was concentrated toward it, making for a very tense situation up front with the crowding.

Who exactly is to blame is hard to say. I would assume it was someone like Sam Cutler from the Dead's management rather than the musicians themselves who "hired" the Angels. Sam is English and their version of the Hells Angels are a lot more cartoonish and he might not have really known what he was dealing with with Sonny Barger and the Oakland chapter. I've seen pictures of bikers around the stage at the Stones' Hyde Park show that summer and they seemed like teddy boys or something, into it for the costume. Maybe that was the root of it with Sam, recently hired to work for the Dead.

But The Dead had a relationship with the Angels for some time so who knows. And the Stones, Mick in particular, were courting the satanic at the time, and what transpired was in some sense a manifestation of that. A devilish image is one thing but this was hell on earth.

Back to GP, it was interesting that the Burritos was the only set not marred by violence. They played in the middle of the afternoon and their mellow music kinda washed over the crowd.

40 years ago and I still remember as clear as a bell... There are two sides to every coin and this was definitely the flip side of Bethel Woods.

[revjimk]

Chopitoulas
Thanks for your insight. Lots of history here, going way back to the Angels attacking peace demos, & Kesey & Ginsburg's attempts to "pacify" the Angels with acid.
Acid is funny stuff, no? Gives enlightenment to some, didn't seem to help Manson & his krewe, the other bad ending to the sixties.
I remember an article in Rolling Stone at the time that said lots of folks at Altamont were messed up on downers, too.
rev

[revjimk]

Chop says' "We Bay Area music fans had quite a run through the late 60's with Bill Graham and the Fillmore and all the great SF bands we could often see playing for free in Golden Gate Park. "
Thats fo sho!
I had the pleasure of hitching to Berserkley in early summer '69, made it back east in time for Woodstock. One of the highlights of the summer was a Fillmore show of Ten Years After, Ike & Tina Turner, & The Flock (an insanely good acid rock HORN BAND featuring violinist Jerry Goodman, later of Mahavishnu Orchestra)... tripping of course. A classic example of acid being "funny" was that after the show, we were up till dawn trying to hitch over the bridge back to the East Bay, & my buddy & I killed the whole vibe by arguing all nite over who was better, Ike & Tina or TYA (I
was for Ike &Tina)
didya go?
rev

[revjimk]

Freebo says, "Who could conjure all that darkness if they weren't rough and tough themselves?"
That was a common misconception back in the day, wasn't it? Stones tough guys, Beatles "sensitive"; when actually the Beatles were from working class backgrounds & Stones met at the prestigious London School of Economics... both awesome in their own way, of course.
As the years roll by, I am more & more impressed with the brilliance of Beatles song writing. Many of their songs are so perfect, they seem like they were out there somewhere in the ether waiting to be written. Like "Yesterday".... listen to it once & the immediate reaction is "Of course!"
I made a tape of "Revolver" & "rubber Soul" for my summer drive back east, every song a masterpiece!!!!!
rev

[chopitulas]

Didn't see that show but that's a prime example of how Bill Graham would mix up the bill.

1969 in the Bay Area was just an unbelievable time for music, particularly at The Carousel. I saw Led Zeppelin's first SF appearance there in January, blowing away Country Joe and The Fish with the violin bow and all. Saw The Dead on 3.1.69 during the run that produced "Live Dead", a true life-changer of a show. April brought, in three straight weekends at Winterland, The Band's live debut, Led Zeppelin's first headlining appearance and a monster show with The Dead, The Airplane and Mongo Santamaria.

My high school buddies ended up doing light shows at Fillmore West in 1969 and did a couple classics that summer...one in July (the weekend of the moon landing) where an unknown Joe Cocker was 2nd billed to Country Joe and blew our minds and one in August (the weekend of Woodstock) where CTA played that incredible first Chicago album, 2nd billed to the always great Youngbloods.

We had The Who doing "Tommy" live at Fillmore West in June, with Woody Herman on the bill! They weren't playing for about 1,500 for much longer...

This all kinda led up to the Stones tour that fall, with so much anticipation because they hadn't toured since 1966.

And, for me, Gram's first album with The Burritos was right in the mix. I loved it as much as anything I was listening to.

[20-20]

Who were these "angel" morons...why didn't some of the roadies just whip their butts?

[Lit]

Definitely concur with Chopitulas and Doug: the FBB's first two albums and the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo are essential and seminal to the development of alt-country. The "Nudie" country suits for which Parsons and the FBB are known also became iconic; so much so that Jeff Tweedy from Wilco occasionally dons a Nudie coat in a nod to the influence. I recently re-acquired SOTR on cd, as well as Hot Burritos! The FBB's anthology, which contains their first three albums and some rarities. Highly recommend both.

And iirc Gram lived with the Stones in the south of France during the sessions from which Exile... was ultimately put together, and was credited for much of the influence both on the music and the crazy drug-induced partying that ultimately led Charlie Watts (I think?) to leave for extended periods because he didn't approve of much of what was going on, and as a result he did not play on many tracks on the album.

ETA: Ironic that a thread about Gram "Grievous Angel" Parsons would drift into a discussion of the grief caused by the Hells Angels...

[Gards]

Definitely concur with Chopitulas and Doug: the FBB's first two albums and the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo are essential and seminal to the development of alt-country. The "Nudie" country suits for which Parsons and the FBB are known also became iconic; so much so that Jeff Tweedy from Wilco occasionally dons a Nudie coat in a nod to the influence. I recently re-acquired SOTR on cd, as well as Hot Burritos! The FBB's anthology, which contains their first three albums and some rarities. Highly recommend both.

And iirc Gram lived with the Stones in the south of France during the sessions from which Exile... was ultimately put together, and was credited for much of the influence both on the music and the crazy drug-induced partying that ultimately led Charlie Watts (I think?) to leave for extended periods because he didn't approve of much of what was going on, and as a result he did not play on many tracks on the album.

ETA: Ironic that a thread about Gram "Grievous Angel" Parsons would drift into a discussion of the grief caused by the Hells Angels...

There is an interesting book that I once had about the recording of exile on main street and the influence or other wise that various people had..
From memory Gram was banished from their inner sanctum never to return,and Keith may have burnt him at Michaels request, I think that may have accentuated his downward spiral.
When I eventualy get home,I will find said book and post its name.
RE Hells Angels,once they may have been returned army vets searching for some where to belong.but they soon morphed into deluded safety in numbers. dirty drug dealing IE smack etc bad crime gangs on bikes who have a worldwide network that creates problems wherever it turns up,I have seen this first hand in many parts of the world.
Kudos to legit bikers who like the spirit of the road and the whim to go wherever they feel,but the others need to be targeted just like the mafia and stopped from selling their shit and all the other stolen crap.
Ok I am off my soapbox now,but I have numerous friends who have suffered because of these guys activities.

[festivalgirl]

Hunter Thompson's Hells Angels is classic Hunter.

[20-20]

I believe that would more accurately be "The Hells Angels-A Strange and Terrible Saga".

I contend that the entire Angels mythology is a result of Hunter S. Thompson having been influenced and frightened by some USC football players on Honda 50's who were wearing black slacks, popular at the time, and made famous by Robert Gorden in a song of the same name, heard on Mexican radio by Louis B. Meyer, who saw an opportunity to invent an entire genre of grade "B" movies starring Russ Myers, Billy Jack and some nobody named Brando who was way too fat to have ever ridden on a motorcycle. I know it because I saw some anti-war flick that he had a bit part in.

It's that Left Coast make believe Disney thing all over again.

If the Hells Angels are so dangerous then how come they haven't been elected to Congress yet?

[steeleye]

Yeah, Altamont was every bit as horrific as the film showed. People tend to say it was the end of the hippie era and there actually is truth in that. We Bay Area music fans had quite a run through the late 60's with Bill Graham and the Fillmore and all the great SF bands we could often see playing for free in Golden Gate Park. It was quite a shock to see Marty Balin get punched out by a Hells Angel to start the day...musicians like that were very high on the pedestal.

We all went with the best hopes. A free Rolling Stones concert! Are you kidding?!?!? But the venue was completely desolate, not a tree in sight, out in the middle of nowhere, a place where cars were wrecked and destroyed. Not exactly Golden Gate Park... And it was an unusually cold day. Something about the vibe was not right from the get-go.

Even from far away, the violence that occurred near the stage was palpable. 300,000 people gathered in one place turns into an almost amoebic organism and the effect of the beatings rippled through the crowd. Not a day to be on psychedelics, that's for sure...

And Mick was every bit as fey as he looks in the movie. You felt like he was about to get killed as the Angels lined the stage, his not quite gay persona a polar opposite to their macho postering. It really seemed like it was all they could do to not take him out right there, some junior Angel wanting to earn his stripes by dusting Mick for being so "gay". Things were reduced to the elemental and magnified and, again, even from far away, there was a battle between good and evil going on.

Another problem was the Dead, probably wisely for their sake, decided not to play and the Stones waited til it was dark for dramatic effect. There was a long period with nothing happening waiting for them that exasperated the tension level. The stage was very small and all the energy was concentrated toward it, making for a very tense situation up front with the crowding.

Who exactly is to blame is hard to say. I would assume it was someone like Sam Cutler from the Dead's management rather than the musicians themselves who "hired" the Angels. Sam is English and their version of the Hells Angels are a lot more cartoonish and he might not have really known what he was dealing with with Sonny Barger and the Oakland chapter. I've seen pictures of bikers around the stage at the Stones' Hyde Park show that summer and they seemed like teddy boys or something, into it for the costume. Maybe that was the root of it with Sam, recently hired to work for the Dead.

But The Dead had a relationship with the Angels for some time so who knows. And the Stones, Mick in particular, were courting the satanic at the time, and what transpired was in some sense a manifestation of that. A devilish image is one thing but this was hell on earth.

Back to GP, it was interesting that the Burritos was the only set not marred by violence. They played in the middle of the afternoon and their mellow music kinda washed over the crowd.

40 years ago and I still remember as clear as a bell... There are two sides to every coin and this was definitely the flip side of Bethel Woods.

Thanks for posting that, Chop. Appreciate the first hand perspective.

[Cleophus]

Agreed -- thank you for your insights on that!

[chazmo]

Gram is important because of The Flying Burrito Brothers and his subsequent solo albums which are a huge part of the template of the music now called Alt Country. Bands like Wilco are deeply in debt to GP as the guy truly wrote the book on how to combine traditional country music with a rock and roll sensibility. He is not the only guy that did it...The Band and the Big Pink album are also very important, for one...but his vision is probably the most fully realized.

He also brought in elements of Memphis soul, doing the Dan Penn songs like "Dark End Of The Street", which helped show anything is fair game when done right. And he also brought Emmylou Harris to light, arguably the most important female performer in the genre to this day. The Burritos classic 1st album, "The Guilded Palace Of Sin", is easily in my Top Ten of all time.
(. . .)
But his importance is less because of the sordid elements of his life, it's really because of his music.

Well said. The book I was referring to is "Twenty Thousand Roads", by David Meyer. All in all, a book worth reading. I think he made the same point that you did, but it was interwoven with the sordid drug tales, his family history (father committed suicide, mother drank herself to death, step father vilified by the family probably unfairly) and analysis of each song. So, I lost that thread about his influence on other artists.

The book is exhaustively researched. He seems to have interviewed everyone who was there, including studio musicians, side men and roadies. Their different perspectives are interesting.

And I agree that we should judge artists by their art, and not by their words or their personal lives.

I used to have Sweetheart of the Rodeo. But I don't think I ever heard Gilded Palace or Grievous Angel. I will have to listen to them.

The book makes a pretty good point about Gram teaching Keith all about country music, and playing many of the Exiles songs with them in rehearsals. But the Stones were pretty business savvy and kept him (and others) off the final recordings and song writing credits for financial reasons.

I too was at Altamont - but that's another story for another time.

[sophisticated sissy]

If the Hells Angels are so dangerous then how come they haven't been elected to Congress yet?


The Hell's Angels and other "One-Percenter" motorcycle groups are identified by the F.B.I. as organized crime groups. A very large group of The Pagans were arrested in W. Virginia in the summer of '09. Their "turf wars" are about controlling drug trade in a given area. The Hell's Angels are completely banned by a number of European countries.

[Meters Fan]

I have to disagree here. Gram's work with the Byrds on Sweetheart of the Rodeo was great as was his International Submarine band project. But his solo work is flawed at best. His voice is coked. He covered some good tunes and turned some people on to good country but the real reason he's famous is that his body was burnt at Cap Rock in Joshua Tree.

Yup the bizarre circumstances of his death are far more influential than his work.

[freebo]

Yall know he's buried in Metairie, right?

The 'Garden of Memories' or some such...

Bizarre, indeed.

[Moon]

"Well her heart was full of gladness when she saw those city lights.
She said the prettiest place on Earth was Baltimore at night."

For a alcoholic, drug addicted redneck from Waycross, Georgia; he left a mighty big footprint on American popular music, writing songs recorded by diverse musicians from the Byrds to Aerosmith.

[DougNSharon]

Nice NO tie-in, Freebo!

If memory serves Gram didn't really have much of a link to New Orleans but his step-father did. Skuttle-butt was that he wanted Gram buried in Louisiana to help establish his claim to the Parson family's fruit-growing fortune.

The legend of Gram's death has certainly lived on but wouldn't mean much if the music didn't resonate with other musicians and fans.

[duende]

A friend put Christine's Tune at the end of a CD he made for me of rare Old & In the Way songs. Whew! Sneaky Pete was a wildman - that was a barrier-bustin' pedal steel solo for any era, let alone '69! I was a sucker for the Laurel Canyon country-rock sound, and some of the musicians making it happen are still among my fav's - Chris Hillman, Herb Pederson, Bernie Leadon (RUN C&W! the best!).

btw - the perfect antidote to taking Gram's passing too seriously is the Johnny Knoxville film "Grand Theft Parsons"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338075/. It's just too stupid not to be true!

[jonnygospeltent]

We should get together for a toast at his grave one of these fests.

[chazmo]

. . . anything is fair game when done right.

I was thinking about that statement. I agree. That's one of the reasons I love New Orleans musicians. It doesn't matter if the source is gospel, a show tune, pop, country, whatever. As Louis Armstrong is reputed to have said,"There's only two kinds of music. Good music and bad music."

[chicago_bones]

I saw Gram twice with the Burrito Brothers and twice with Emmylou Harris and the Fallen Angels. The first time with the Burritos hooked me on country rock and the 2nd time they were opening for Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The 2 shows with Emmylou were on consecutive nights and it was amazing to see the 2 of them look into each others' eyes and sing incredible harmonies.

Sure Gram was a screwed up substance abuser, but he was also a visonary and when he was on, he was one of the best performers I've ever seen (and I've seen most everbody in the last 40 years).

[BigDag]

Damn, you people are old! ;)

[jonnygospeltent]

I saw Gram twice with the Burrito Brothers and twice with Emmylou Harris and the Fallen Angels. The first time with the Burritos hooked me on country rock and the 2nd time they were opening for Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The 2 shows with Emmylou were on consecutive nights and it was amazing to see the 2 of them look into each others' eyes and sing incredible harmonies.

Sure Gram was a screwed up substance abuser, but he was also a visonary and when he was on, he was one of the best performers I've ever seen (and I've seen most everbody in the last 40 years).

Where did you see these shows,Bones?Did Gram ever play at Amazing Grace in Evanston?

[Moon]

Damn, you people are old! ;)

Ya goddamn right we are. You got a problem with that punk? Anyway, I'd rather be old than dead.

[marignygreg]

Ya goddamn right we are. You got a problem with that punk? Anyway, I'd rather be old than dead.

"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death".

[chicago_bones]

Where did you see these shows,Bones?Did Gram ever play at Amazing Grace in Evanston?

The Burrito Brothers shows were at the old Kinetic Playground and the Aragon. The two with Emmylou were at the Quiet Knight. Amazinggrace didn't open until around 1973 or 74 - also saw great shows there including Emmylou, Charles Mingus, a double bill of Randy Newman/Ry Cooder, and numerous others.

[The Krewe of Chew]

We just watched a good documentary, "Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel". There are interviews with his family, Keith Richards, Chris Hillman, other musicians he played with or influenced, and Phil Kaufman (who stole the body) plus videos of Gram with the Burritos and Emmylou. Available on Netflix.

[stlbarb]

Damn, you people are old! ;)

that's what i was thinking.