Gram Parsons:Classic or dud?

Whatever all that's supposed to mean.

staggerlee = chris hillman sock

yeah, that's the kind of paragraph you stumble upon years later and realize how completely naive and off the mark you were.

His voice and songs fuckin' break my heart. And that's all that matters to me.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61tWL7qrO5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

^^^ this is really, really great. i think i actually like it better than all the records.

its well mastered too so it sounds really warm and organic, all the albums always felt like they were recorded in a sardine can to me.

"This DJ tried to ask me how it felt to be leading the Progressive Country movement, I told him we played Regressive Country." - emmylou

<33333333333

ohh i didn't know about that, and now i need it.

I've never really dug deep into Parsons catalog but I gotta say that the Hank Williams inversion in Hippie Boy is pretty clever

I didn't hear Sweetheart of the Rodeo until long after I'd gotten familiar with Bakersfield's country scene and it just sounded like half-assed shit to me. maybe I would feel differently about it now.

i much prefer ISB, burrito bros, and solo parsons to sweetheart of the rodeo, unless it's the parson-sung originals. mcguinn isn't convincing on that album, imo

yep. solo parsons > burritos >>> sweetheart.

sweetheart is a totally sweet record

I've never really dug deep into Parsons catalog but I gotta say that the Hank Williams inversion in Hippie Boy is pretty clever

I thought that was a Chris Hillman track?

Got Burrito?

Buritto no 2 vs Rundgren's Hello it's me

Latter may be more smooth but former has the energy

Is "Oh Lord, grant me speed" a reference to speed.....or speed?

That line is from the bible.

i promise that i'm going to go back and read the other 102 posts in this thread, but wtf is up with the first three posts. holy shit, a criticism of G.P. /Grievous Angel that "parsons's voice works much better in tandem with another singer", without even mentioning that those albums were basically duets with emmylou fucking harris?

it's been a very gram parsons weekend. i have been fond of his byrds output for a while now, and knew the 'hot burritos' on the first flying burrito bros, but i had never really set aside a bunch of consecutive time to focus on his albums with the bros and his solo albums. they are so, so good. i love that feeling of hearing a personal instant classic, knowing i'm going to hear these songs a ton of more times.

Early ILX is pretty much ChallopsCity.

That’s the place for you and me

Someone gave me two boxes of albums a few days ago. Only kept about 20, the best thing being a late-'70s reissue of the Early Years compilation (slightly different cover than the original).

Saw the bio Twenty Thousand Roads in The Strand this week, thinking about reading it. Either that or Will Birch’s Nick Lowe bio.

there was a tribute album that came out like 20 years ago that was pretty good, def one of the very few of these trendy bands covering canonical artists comps that I would reach for over and over

“On his head an amphetamine crown”

What would I keep? These.

"How Much I've Lied" is on there twice.

Good -- I can slip "Hippie Boy" in there.

No "Sin City," Alfred?? I couldn't do without all of Gilded Palace, Grievous Angel, parts of several others--thought some of the GP material worked better on that live album Hoos cheers for upthread (the Fallen Angels being pretty much the GP/GA studio band). He had this little, crinkly, quirky voice---a bit teary here, sneery there, but good with the succinct phrasing, occasional Lou Reedy dreams sliding by---think he mostly knew he was better with other voices, especially stepping back just a little, so that less experienced Emmylou had to step up, or sound like it.
This is a handy overview, with his voice mixed back up on the Byrds tracks, before Sony did that, I think:
https://www.discogs.com/Gram-Parsons-Warm-Evenings-Pale-Mornings-Bottled-Blues-1963-1973/release/3275973

Chris Hillman is the voice you hear in Hippie Boy

https://coolspod.com/products/shopcoolpod-3d-custom-gram-parsons-nudie-suit-apparel-v2-1

“Yes you loved me
And you sold my clothes”

that Live 1973 album is such a lovely thing, i listen to it a lot

shit, i don't listen to it enough!

no one has asked for it, and this would convince zero juries of my peers, but i have to give my excuse anyway:

i have his GP and Grievous Angel LPs, along with Notorious Byrd Brothers, and i played the crap out of them. but 1) when i moved i left all my LPs behind except for like 20. GP and Grievous Angel are among the chosen.

But my terrible shame is that I'm not sure I've even heard the Live 1973 album at all. gonna fix that tonight.

*tip of the hat*

it has a lot of warmth imo
and i love that version of “we’ll sweep out the ashes”

Thanks for the rec! Listening now and Lordy Gram struck some kind of gold getting Emmylou for backing vocals.

there’s an alternate reality where the Grateful Dead have Emmylou instead of Donna.

it’s stunning to realize emmylou had only recorded her first album just a few years prior, she’s still so new and young but so incredible already… her harmonies with gram are lightyears above what he’d done w hillman

i mean, apples and oranges really but still

His death was an absolute classic.