Posted June 26, 200619 yr Gram a country legend By SIMON COSYNS from the-sun.co.uk GRAM PARSONS had dreamed of a beautiful way to go. A crackling funeral pyre in Joshua Tree National Park beneath open, starlit Californian desert skies. What actually happened echoed a line from one of his songs: “Supposed to be a funeral, it’s been a bad, bad day.†On September 19, 1973, a lethal cocktail of methadone and tequila ended Gram’s turbulent life in a seedy motel room. The white kid with a trust fund and a love of black music was just 26. He had gloriously fused country, gospel and rock into what he called “cosmic American musicâ€. In death, his influence is boundless. Parsons had been in The Byrds, albeit briefly, helping mastermind their masterful country trip Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. He had founded The Flying Burrito Brothers, he’d been a dear friend to Keith Richards and the Stones, he’d discovered Emmylou Harris and he’d just made two genius solo albums. At first, Gram’s body was taken to Los Angeles International Airport in preparation for a flight to his home state of Florida. After all, Gram — real name Ingram Cecil Connor III (Parsons was his stepfather’s name) — was the grandson of citrus fruit baron John Snively and deserved a proper family service. Then the truth became a whole lot stranger than fiction. His lousy self-styled “road manager†Phil Kaufman borrowed a hearse, hoodwinked airport officials, snatched the body and returned to the desert. His plan to fulfil the singer’s dream became a sickening botch-up. The coffin was crudely doused in petrol and torched. But the job was only half done. A romantic notion turned to dust. The next day, Gram’s charred remains were discovered — to the horror of his loved ones. Only then did he get a funeral back home. This sad, sad story is told in a gripping, definitive documentary called Gram Parsons — Fallen Angel, out next week on DVD. It coincides with the release of his Complete Reprise Sessions, an essential three-CD compilation of his solo albums GP and Return Of The Grievous Angel, expanded with alternate versions, outtakes and interview snippets. The set gives listeners a chance to hear the work-in-progress of a man at the peak of his songwriting powers, to check out the timeless beauty of She, A Song For You, $1,000 Wedding, Hickory Wind and Brass Buttons all sung in his passionate, fractured tenor. The DVD is an exhaustive account of Gram’s life and features interviews with all the major players, including his family, fellow musicians and Keith Richards. If you asked everyone’s favourite Rolling Stone who were his closest musical soulmates, you can be sure Gram Parsons would be one of the first names on his list. While searching the backrooms of his mind, Keith would probably mention legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, the daddy of country music Hank Williams and prime rock ’n’ roller Chuck Berry — and he certainly wouldn’t forget Gram. He tells the film-makers: “Gram could touch a chord in people. We called it a high lonesome. It’s a certain melancholy. A sort of beautiful pain. He had that to the max. “Gram’s one of those kinda guys you meet and you feel like you’ve known forever. Then you can only find out more about each other. It was immediately like that with him and me. “Then I started to find out his incredible knowledge of music, country music specifically. “We hooked up right away as friends so the next thing, being musicians, was to find out what we knew about music ... what we liked.†Richards talks about their shared “great love†for songwriters like Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote hits for The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and Ray Charles. “We’d talk about songwriting, the construction, what a song’s supposed to do and how do it best.†He mentions Gram’s song Sin City, with its line “On the 31st floor, a gold-plated door, won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain,†and says: “Some of his songs were really starting to intrigue me.†He also spotted the singer’s incredible magnetism. Keith says: “Gram Parsons is the only guy I’ve known that could make every chick in the audience weep, which is a rare quality. I remember being in The Palamino Club in California and hardened, peroxide waitresses, who had been there for yonks, had tears streaming from their eyes while listening to Gram play.†Keith recalls the time when The Flying Burrito Brothers were turned on to a Stones classic: “I’d already written Wild Horses before I’d met Gram and then later he says, ‘Is it all right if I cut it?’ And I say, ‘Yeah’.†The story has oft been told of the Stones’ notorious free concert at Altamont Raceway in 1969, in which Hell’s Angels stabbed and beat to death a young black man in front of the stage during Under My Thumb. But Keith also remembers The Burritos’ performance that fateful day and Gram’s influence on the high-octane scene. “He was up there, a very gentle guy with a very soothing effect on people and he knew it. I think he at least stopped some other heads getting broken. “He had a very commanding presence.†Later, Parsons journeyed to the French chateau where the Stones were recording Exile On Main Street. “He was living in the house. We (the band) were sitting around playing all day, writing two songs a day which we would record in the evening. Gram was always around in the background. He was intimately involved in it, let’s put it that way. “He was seeing what kind of impact the Stones could have on an audience and was definitely soaking it up. He would be asking me about rock ’n’ roll. It was a two-way street.†After France, they drifted apart. (“He was doing his own thing.â€) But Keith remembers being very impressed with Gram’s backing band on the solo albums. “These guys played with Elvis but they also played for him.†And so to the day Gram’s life was cut short by drugs and booze and saw him join the list of stellar rock casualties that included Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones. Keith suggests: “I always figured he’d be around for ages and we could do loads of stuff. I mean we were really only just getting going. “He made that one fatal lapse and it’s such a silly way to go. And he knows it! He changed it (country music) and he never had a hit record.†Gram’s epitaph could come from In My Hour Of Darkness, the last song on the final Gram Parsons album. But he was just a country boy, his simple songs profess And the music he had in him, so very few possess.
June 26, 200619 yr oh yeah the sun on something for the weekend. thought i had read about it recently. for a moment thought it was uncut
June 26, 200619 yr I would recommend Gram Parsons "GP/Grievous Angel" CD to anyone. You should be able to pick the album up cheaply in a HMV sale. His duet of Love Hurts (with Emmylou Harris) is one of the greatest duets of all-time.
June 27, 200619 yr All this publicity is to promote a 3 CD box set. The 2 solo albums with bonus tracks and a whole disc of unreleased stuff. Warner/Rhino's been putting out lots of this stuff lately. Looks good until you get it home and find it's full of identical 'alternate' takes and bootleg quality new material [eg the new issue of John Cale's Helen of Troy]. Subtle hint: listen before you buy.
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