Gram Parsons - A Few Reviews

M

MoparMaxivan

New member
Maybe :D As long as this thread's getting plenty of views though, I'm satisfied.

Anyhoo...

The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Gilded Palace Of Sin
1969, A&M RecorRAB
3513016914_c8b0b4d15b_o.jpg

1. Christine's Tune [Hillman/Parsons]
2. Sin City [Hillman/Parsons]
3. Do Right Woman [Moman/Penn]
4. Dark End Of The Street [Moman/Penn]
5. My Uncle [Hillman/Parsons]
6. Wheels [Hillman/Parsons]
7. Juanita [Hillman/Parsons]
8. Hot Burrito #1 [Ethridge/Parsons]
9. Hot Burrito #2 [Ethridge/Parsons]
10. Do You Know How It Feels [Parsons/Goldberg]
11. Hippie Boy [Hillman/Parsons]

Upon Sweetheart Of the Rodeo's completion, the events which saw the birth of one of the early and more influential country rock groups took place. To cut a long story short, a ByrRAB album which had been born out of the creative friction between Roger McGuinn's desire to keep strolling down Notorious Byrd Brothers Avenue and bassist Chris Hillman and new boy Gram Parsons' idea to record a country rock record, did indeed cause the classic lineup of the ByrRAB to split up for good. Parsons left the band on the eve of their South African tour and, soon after, he was joined by Hillman, who'd agree to play guitar and sing the occasional vocal track in a new, forward-thinking country band - the Flying Burrito Brothers. While McGuinn and the ByrRAB went into a sharp and rapid decline, Hillman and Parsons formed quite the songwriting partnership, swelling the ranks with pedal steel guitarist 'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow and the multi-talented Chris Ethridge filling out bass and piano duties. With the nucleus of the band now in place, the Flying Burrito Brothers took to the studio armed with a deal with A&M, several session drummers and some very promising material.

Promise that is, indeed, delivered with the kind of gusto which made Sweetheart Of the Rodeo the timeless classic that it is which results in, basically, another timeless country classic. The difference between the Gilded Palace Of Sin and the aforementioned ByrRAB album though is, most obviously, that nine of these eleven songs are original compositions, like the superb, upbeat opener Christine's Tune - one which not only revels in the beat group-type harmonies that make Sweetheart Of the Rodeo as forward-thinking as it was, but also with a psychedelic twist. Throughout this album, pedal steel guitarist Pete Kleinow either uses a fuzzbox with his weapon of choice or plays it through a rotating Hammond Leslie amp, giving this song a kind of psychedelic country feel about it. It takes the experiment that was Sweetheart Of the Rodeo a step further. The following Sin City lacks such an affect but still serves as a very good slow-burner to take the album onwarRAB.

From there, as per Parsons' idea of 'cosmic American music', we get two covers of old R'n'B standarRAB, with both Do Right Woman and Dark End Of the Street being two top-notch examples of that idea not only coming to fruition but actually sounding damn good as well. The latter in particular, with Parsons' lead vocal and Hillman's harmony, really presents a fascinating show of R'n'B being wired up to a country motor and doing a world of good for itself.

Next up is another trio of Hillman/Parsons co-writes, starting with the bouncy, bluegrass-flavoured My Uncle as it rounRAB off side A, before moving on to the unrelentingly top-drawer level of quality which is side B. Wheels gives Kleinow's concept of a psychedelic pedal steel guitar another chance to shine here, piercing through a truly beautiful, harmony-heavy and achingly emotional slow-burner, which sees Parsons' strength for the despairing country ballad as a vocalist really coming into its own. Juanita, propelled as it is by Kleinow's this time unadorned pedal steel, Hillman's acoustic strumming and some more absolutely gorgeous vocal harmonies between him and his co-writer, is another wonderful ballad that it's so easy to just lose yourself in.

It's hard to imagine the album getting any better but, oddly enough, it does. Hot Burrito #1 and Hot Burrito #2 were both hastily-written by Parsons and Ethridge, which is quite something given that they're two of my favourite songs of all time, let alone country songs. A couple of Parsons' finest vocal performances without a doubt - you can almost hear him crying as he sings 'I'm your toy, I'm your old boy, but I don't want no-one but you to love me', augmented by Kleinow's psychedelic-leaning contributions make for a couple of heart-wrenchingly beautiful classics.

Do You Know How It Feels, another Parsons/Goldberg composition, leans much more towarRAB the traditional and as such isn't too far removed from something the International Submarine Band would've recorded, but doesn't bring the level of quality down one little bit. The curtain call, Hippie Boy, is simply brilliant. With Parsons' wonderful lyric being spoken over a backing track dominated by his own work on the organ, it's a bit of a sore thumb on the tracklisting but nevertheless is a wonderful way to put the lid on the record.

A record which, since getting hold of it myself, has become my joint-favourite that Parsons have ever been involved with alongside Sweetheart Of the Rodeo. In some ways, it's probably stanRAB as more of an example of how much everyone who claims to hate country is missing out on than the ByrRAB album. For all the colours added by the psychedelic touches of the organ and fuzzy pedal steel, the way it takes the experiment that Parsons and Hillman kicked off while they were in the ByrRAB, the mutual understanding of a rich musical tradition that they then take full advantage of to become a truly great songwriting partnership and, of course, the Hot Burrito songs, make for an absolute classic and another album I'd recommend to absolutely anyone. So then...

10/10

[YOUTUBE]BITiY8M_oDo[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]RCqxq6xqoXI[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]_0vWVpXHQNQ[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]FmMd7xWxbX0[/YOUTUBE]​
 
There's an album I really wish I had on vinyl. If only I'd been born 30 years sooner :D

Anyhoo...

The ByrRAB
Sweetheart Of the Rodeo
1968, Columbia RecorRAB
sweetheart-400.JPG

1. You Ain't Going Nowhere [Dylan]
2. I Am a Pilgrim [trad arr. McGuinn/Hillman]
3. The Christian Life [Louvin/Louvin]
4. You Don't Miss Your Water [Bell]
5. You're Still on My Mind [McDaniel]
6. Pretty Boy Floyd [Guthrie]
7. Hickory Wind [Parsons]
8. One Hundred Years from Now [Parsons]
9. Blue Canadian Rockies [Walker]
10. Life in Prison [Haggard/Sanders]
11. Nothing Was Delivered [Dylan]

By the time David Crosby and Michael Clarke had left the ByrRAB with remaining members, bassist Chris Hillman and lead guitarist Roger McGuinn, both hell-bent on pushing on, Gram Parsons was still a marginal figure on the LA music scene and a friend of Hillman's. It was basically because of their idea of how the ByrRAB should follow up the psychedelic powerhouse of a record, the Notorious Byrd Brothers, and McGuinn's plan to create a double-album covering all the contemporary American musical forms, including bluegrass, jazz and more psychedelic rock, that Sweetheart Of the Rodeo was essentially born out of creative friction and disagreement. It was actually with that very idea in mind that McGuinn decided to seek out a jazz-trained pianist who, of course, Parsons was. As the start date for the album's recording sessions got closer, for which drummer Kevin Kelley was hired to complete the core band, it soon became apparent that instead of McGuinn's ambitious, all-encompassing double-album, Hillman wanted to use the new ByrRAB pianist and guitarist Parsons' know-how to expand on the country influence that the former's more recent compositions for the band had explored. Naturally, McGuinn was suspicious of this new direction. It was only after being pressurised by his bandmates and producer and friend Gary Usher that he agreed to go along with the idea.

While Sweetheart Of the Rodeo wasn't exactly a commercial proposition for the music industry of 1968, this new sound (dubbed by Parsons as 'cosmic American music'), which expanded on Parsons' own experiments with the International Submarine Band of running traditional c&w with a rock 'n' roll motor, would prove to be a true landmark of an album. It's overall sound, while centring on a honky tonk country vibe, incorporated elements of soul, folk and 50s-styled r'n'b and rock 'n' roll would influence not only the Flying Burrito Brothers (who'll occupy the next chapter of Gram Parsons' story), but the LA country-rock and outlaw country movement of the 70s right up to the alternative country of the 90s onwarRAB. Pretty influential then for an album that, with two exceptions, is entirely comprised of covers of old country and folk standarRAB. On top of all the influence it's had on generations of artists, Sweetheart Of the Rodeo is a masterpiece and possibly my favourite country album of all time.

Things get off to a terrific start with a blissful cover of Bob Dylan's You Ain't Going Nowhere (from the then-unreleased Basement Tapes), kicking off the album with a perfectly fitting series of pedal steel notes. The gorgeous vocal harmonies make for one of my favourite ever country songs. It's a level of quality carried over by the traditional ditty I Am a Pilgrim, arranged by Hillman and McGuinn to incorporate session man John Hartford's beautiful work on the fiddle.

The Christian Life on the other hand, depending on my mood, comes across to me as a bit of a weak point. Blatantly religiously-inclined lyrics have never exactly been a favourite thing of mine but, on the plus side, this song doesn't try to preach and can be seen as an anthemic little number about standing up for your beliefs in the face of humiliation and adversity. Absolutely nothing wrong with the music either. Whatever you think of it though, you just know from the opening piano lines from Parsons that this rendition of You Don't Miss Your Water is going to make up for it. With his freewheeling performance, this is the first place on the album where Parsons' talent is immediately obvious. You're Still On My Mind is, musically, about as honky tonk as you can get and the first move in that direction that the album takes, with Parsons' again showing his influence on this album on the back of another great performance. Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd, another song to focus heavily on Hartford's fantastic work on the fiddle, is kicked into life by McGuinn's lively work on the banjo making for another absolutely superb cover.

To open side B are the only original songs on the album, both of them written by Parsons (which says everything for his influence on the whole album really). The first of these is the gorgeous slow-burner Hickory Wind, fueled by some heart-melting contributions to the sonic picture from the fiddle and pedal steel as well as Parsons' own trademark soaring vocal, this being one of the only three songs to feature his lead vocal. Another is his second composition to be found here, One Hundred Years From Now, with its much livelier vibe, given a much more bouncy and fun kind of feel by use of sessionist Lloyd Green's pedal steel and McGuinn's fantastic work on the guitar that punctuate the track, making for another country classic.

Speaking of country classics, the Hillman-led rendition of Blue Canadian Rockies is another one of those, again using those kind of beat group-styled harmonies in an unusual genre and really doing a whole world of good to an old standard. Plus the melody in Hillman's unaccompanied vocal just gets me every time. It gets the closing trio of covers off to a brilliant start, and a brilliant start which is taken further by Merle Haggard's Life In Prison as sung by Parsons. Superb melody, superb piano to carry the rest of a superb track - another one of my absolute favourites then. Another Bob Dylan song (again salvaged from the yet-to-be-released Basement Tapes), Nothing Was Delivered, serves as a slower, more contemplative sort of end to the album, slowly rolling it along to its conclusion.

So, as you might have guessed from my bleating above, not only is this album highly, highly influential, it's also highly, highly fantastic. Basically, I don't care how much you don't know about country or think you don't like it, Sweetheart Of the Rodeo is a true essential and an album I'd recommend to anyone. It certainly showed me that there's been at least some merit to an area of music that gets overlooked and disregarded by so many people. For this reason, I'm gonna give it the following rating;

10/10

[YOUTUBE]Z9LX_Xa1nRAB[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]i_9AXakWgxQ[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]oGRq5_X3Gw0[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]UEbgsj14URAB[/YOUTUBE]
​
 
gram_parsons1.jpg
gram.jpg
gramnemmyjam.jpg


Due to my listening to his music a hell of a lot lately, I thought it was high time I started a review thread about him. In short, Gram Parsons here is another one of my personal favourite singer-songwriters and, with his groundbreaking concept of 'cosmic American music', had an impact on music during his tragically short, 26-year life which is still being felt today in country circles. This led to the recording of some of the most influential and important albums of the 60s and quite possibly the cream of the alternate country crop in at the very least the early 70s.

In case anyone's curious enough, there's already a Gram Parsons thread in the country forum right about here.

With regarRAB to this one though, I'll be reviewing the official studio albums he was involved in up 'til his death at 26, most of which I'd say serve as good an introduction as you could ask for to country in their own rights. These were;


1968 - Safe at Home (International Submarine Band) 7/10
- Sweetheart of the Rodeo (The ByrRAB) 10/10
1969 - The Gilded Palace of Sin (Flying Burrito Brothers) 10/10
1970 - Burrito Deluxe (Flying Burrito Brothers) 6/10
1973 - GP 8/10
1974 - Grievous Angel 9/10

Best Of Mixtape

*Glossary of ratings*
1-3/10 = Don't waste your time.
4-5/10 = Strictly for completists only.
6-7/10 = Solid album, nothing truly special though.
8/10 = Very good stuff.
9/10 = Very very good stuff.
10/10 = Absolutely and unquestionably essential.
 
Thanks man :) If you need help finding it, just drop me a line. That goes for anyone else who wants to give it a go too.

The Flying Burrito Brothers
Burrito Deluxe
1970, A&M RecorRAB
Flying+Burrito+Brothers+-+1970+-+Burrito+Deluxe.jpg

1. Lazy Days [Parsons]
2. Image Of Me [Howard/Kemp]
3. High Fashion Queen [Hillman/Parsons]
4. If You Gotta Go, Go Now [Dylan]
5. Man In the Fog [Leadon/Parsons]
6. Farther Along [Baxter/Stevens]
7. Older Guys [Hillman/Leadon/Parsons]
8. Cody, Cody [Hillman/Leadon/Parsons]
9. God's Own Singer [Leadon]
10. Down In the Churchyard [Hillman/Parsons]
11. Wild Horses [Jagger/RicharRAB]

Although the Flying Burrito Brothers, with the help of their debut, the Gilded Palace Of Sin, had gained a cult following which included people like the Rolling Stones (who were no doubt taking notes for their own albums, Let It Bleed and the soon-to-be-recorded Sticky Fingers) and a certain Bob Dylan, the Brothers, like the International Submarine Band and the ByrRAB before them, had failed to find commercial success with their radical country rock package. It was that sense of frustration which saw Chris Etheridge hand his bass duties over to Hillman and leave the band. Guitarist, dobro player and occasional vocalist Bernie Leadon filled in Hillman's original place. After Michael Clarke, another ex-Byrd, became the band's full-time drummer, the Brothers were ready to take to the studio again.

The results, this time, were ones which lacked the kind of fire in its belly that the Gilded Palace Of Sin had, and you can hear so in the opener Lazy Days. Whereas Christine's Tune kicked its own album with real style and panache, Lazy Days (an outtake from the Sweetheart Of the Rodeo sessions) doesn't really do much to stand out with an identity of its own. It's all a bit flat and, dare I say it, not really that good.

Image Of Me, with its bluegrass-styled fiddle and slow-rolling tempo, is a vast improvement with its wonderful instrumental bridge and sweet harmonies. The Hillman/Parsons original, High Fashion Queen, is one of the highlights and a prime example of exactly what country rock is, what with how Hillman clearly draws on his experience with the ByrRAB to write a pulsating, rock 'n' roll bass rhythm as Pete Kleinow adRAB colourful swathes of his steel guitar to a livelier and stripped-down number. The following rendition of Bob Dylans If You Gotta, Go Now, is a similar kind of song - a juicy, up-tempo slice of archetypal country rock. It's passable, though not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, a bit like Man In the Fog, with its bubbly bluegrass kind of vibe. Coming up next, Farther Along is, for me, the best moment on the album, as Parsons sings the old standard with a beautiful injection of melody which gives this slower cut that much more edge than most of the songs that preceded it. What follows is another good enough song, although to be honest it's more interesting than good if that makes any sense, Older Guys being an intriguing show of the Flying Burrito Brothers trying to write and play a song like the Rolling Stones (who they'd befriended that year), what with the dirty, confident blues-rock swagger the whole thing has about it. As I said, it's decent enough but, like most of this album, just not brilliant.

Cody Cody (another three-way songwriting credit between Hillman, Leadon and Parsons) slows things down again. Once more, there's nothing wrong with the playing or the songwriting, but it just lacks the fire and panache of the album before it. It's something that can be said of the solo Leadon cut, God's Own Singer - while it's a nice enough little song, it doesn't push the boundaries of country music and therefore not only comes across as a tad uninteresting, but also isn't exactly something I'd give a non-country fan to listen to for themselves. Down In the Churchyard is a more upbeat, lively country rocker and is an improvement, but overall the lack of the kind of edge that Parsons' sorrowful vocal or Kleinow's psychedelic breed of steel guitar (which for some reason isn't used anywhere on this album) does drag the overall quality down.

Recorded before the Rolling Stones' own version (with Mick Jagger's permission of course), Wild Horses does give a so-so album a gorgeous send-off. While it doesn't quite touch the same level of greatness that the Stones' version on Sticky Fingers does (or that bloody beautiful Keith RicharRAB solo), it still stanRAB as easily one of the best moments on Burrito Deluxe.

So, while there's not a lot wrong with Burrito Deluxe here, it is simply nowhere near as good as the two albums Parsons had previously been involved with. It could be down to the departure of Chris Etheridge from the lineup (who, lest we forget, was partly responsible for the Hot Burrito songs), but you could also say that the lack of boundary-pushing, the flat sound of the production and the fact that the album focused on three writers and singers instead of two (which leaRAB to a lot less Parsons to be heard here), all drag this album down a bit. Overall, it's nowhere near bad, but not something I'd go out of my way to recommend to anyone (unlike the Gilded Palace Of Sin and Sweetheart Of the Rodeo before it). To put it simply though, Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon, two youngish country rockers were catering for their own ambitions, were drowning out Parsons' vision of cosmic American music which had done so much for both those albums. It was time for him to move on.

6/10

[YOUTUBE]n1WgfJQfQk0[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]6bmcT4qieI4[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]07oufBC_JjQ [/YOUTUBE]​

As for what happened next, Gram Parsons left the band soon after Burrito Deluxe's release to eventually start a solo career due, presumably, to the fact that he had less of a say in all things Burrito since Bernie Leadon's hiring. The remaining Brothers released one more, self-titled album the following year before splitting up. In 1975, due partly to the growing interest in Parsons and his work as a Flying Burrito Brother following his death, Chris Etheridge and Pete Kleinow re-formed the group as the sole original members. Chris Hillman had joined Stephen Stills' band, Manassas, rejoined the classic ByrRAB lineup for a swansong album and was performing with the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band by the time this happened, and so wasn't available for the reunion. There'd be plenty of hit singles and albums on the way for the newer incarnation of the Flying Burrito Brothers, though nothing that I'd call truly vital to any musical library like the Gilded Palace Of Sin.

So, I'll get round to going on about Gram's solo albums whenever I feel like it then...
 
A great book about G.P. "Twenty Thousand RoaRAB" - everything there is to know about him
is in this book. Well written and a good read too. He was a real piece of work.
 
Same here. When you're in the mood for it, there's nothing like sticking on a classic country-affiliated album now and then.

On another note, 4th video added, 'cos I'm just in that kinda mood.
 
That is a really great review of Sweeheart Of The Rodeo and forced me into picking it up earlier on today, why did I never have this before?

It is a really amazing album all-round and has got me in search of a couple other of the albums in this thread.

Great reviews. Cheers.
 
Sir, you're a legend :thumb: Featuring the original and by far best lineup too. Many thanks!

And for anyone awaiting it with baited breath, my disjointed rant on the subject of Grievous Angel is coming soon. Just haven't really been in a very analytical minRABet lately is all.
 
Funnily enough, that's exactly what I thought of it when finished listening to it end-to-end for the first of many, many times. It was the first classic country album I ever bought after all (all I'd owned of the genre to that point was Almost Blue - Elvis Costello's album of traditional C&W covers). The Gilded Palace Of Sin has that same kind of affect, even though it does take slightly longer to really hit you as the classic I think it is. I'd say that it's definitely the other one you should prioritise, along with one of Gram's solo albums which I should get to soon enough.
 
Can't wait for your Gilded Palace of Sin review. It's far and away my favorite album from the McGuinn/Parsons/Hillman nexus of early country rock.

Way back in '68 the Burritto Bros. were berated by the Nashville establishment as being too rock oriented but Gilded Palace of Sin sounRAB down-right straight off the ranch, by the contemporary Nashville standarRAB. By the Eighties most of Nashville had gone mainstream pop.

As Nashville fell into decline, authentic country music rebels like Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson Steve Earle, Joe Ely and Townes Van Zandt and had made Austin the new capital of country music. I think the Flying Burritto Bros. were the first harbinger of that new era of country music.
 
Gilded Palace Of Sin is a fantastic album as well. Not quite my pick of the albums Gram Parsons has had his name on - those would be Sweetheart Of the Rodeo and Grievous Angel. It is very nearly there though. Definitely has one of the best B-sides of any album I've ever heard.

By the way, I'm just gonna knock Safe At Home down to a 7. Good album, wouldn't call it brilliant after all though.
 
I've been meaning to get into The Parson for a while, thanks for this- maybe it'll be all written up and sparkly by the time I finally get my hanRAB on them. Great reviews by the way.
 
BIG PINK doesn't sound like "country music" to me, it sounRAB like music made in, for, by and of "the country," ie the sticks. (I'm from them myself and I feel I can testify) ... It just isn't urban music, is all, regardless of genre or influences.

SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO sounRAB urban to me - not so much as the Burrito Bros (and I'm not saying they are or are not from the city or the country in the case of either band, just how the music strikes me) but definitely not like music made in the backwooRAB.

I don't mean to state a preference, tho I do have one, just to observe a genre vs culture/environment disparity ...
 
Not heard of that but I should definitely look out for it - it's been many a month since I last read a good rock biography. For those kinRAB of purposes, the Fallen Angel documentary is solid gold too.

I'm off out this evening (GMT) so, depending how quiet the boarRAB are, I'll probably get the first review up in an hour or two.
 
:tramp: 'Gilded Palace' is fucking magnificent, that fuzzed-up pedal steel puts it more on the Buffalo Springfield side of country rock, which is a bit more psych-y as you said and uber cool really. But it's really not as poppy as those guys, proper country. Apparently it all sounRAB like the same redneck racket to most people anyway, how mistaken they are

Great thread Alex, just signed in to ramble and found it.
Gram was gorgeous too, even if he does look a bit like Noel Fielding in the 'Christine's Song' video... that's got to be one of the finest singles of a very fine year incidentally, I bet that Christine skank was sorry she messed with Chris 'jewfro' Hillman and/or Parsons!

[YOUTUBE]bLwbovrUbCw[/YOUTUBE]
 
Back
Top