Everything about Gram Parsons totally explained
Gram Parsons (
November 5,
1946 –
September 19,
1973) was an
American singer,
songwriter,
guitarist and
pianist. A solo artist as well as a member of the
International Submarine Band,
The Byrds and
The Flying Burrito Brothers, he's best known for a series of recordings that anticipated the so-called
country rock of the 1970s and the
alt-country movement that began around 1990. Parsons described his records as "Cosmic American Music". He died of a
drug overdose at the age of 26. In 2004,
Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #87 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Biography
1946–1968
Parsons was born
Ingram Cecil Connor III in
Winter Haven, Florida, the grandson of
citrus fruit magnate
John A. Snively, with extensive properties both there and in
Waycross, Georgia, where Parsons was raised. A sister, "Little" Avis, soon followed. His father, "Coon Dog" Connor, suffered mood swings and abruptly committed
suicide two days before
Christmas Day 1958. Parsons' mother, Avis, subsequently married Bob Parsons, whose
surname was adopted by young Ingram, the elder Parsons going as far to have new birth certificates drawn up for his stepson and stepdaughter. Henceforth he'd be known as Gram Parsons. Parsons attended the prestigious
Bolles School in
Jacksonville, Florida. For a time, the family found a stability of sorts until Avis rapidly descended into alcoholism, leading to her death from
cirrhosis.
As his family disintegrated around him, Parsons developed strong musical interests, particularly after seeing
Elvis Presley perform in concert in 1957. Five years later, while barely in his teens, he played in
rock and roll cover bands such as the Pacers and the Legends, headlining in clubs owned by his stepfather in the Winter Haven/Polk County area. By the age of 16 he graduated to
folk music, and in 1963 he teamed with his first professional outfit, the Shilos. Heavily influenced by the
Kingston Trio and
the Journeymen,
(External Link
) the band played
hootenannies,
coffee houses and
high school auditoriums. Forays into
New York City's
Greenwich Village included appearances at
The Bitter End.
After the band folded he attended
Harvard University, studying
theology but departing after a semester. Despite being from the
South, he became serious about
country music during his time in
Boston,
Massachusetts after hearing
Merle Haggard for the first time. In
1966, he and others from the Boston folk scene formed
the International Submarine Band. The band relocated to
Los Angeles the following year, and in
1968 released the album
Safe at Home, which contains one of his best-known songs, "Luxury Liner", as well as an early version of "Do You Know How It Feels", which he'd reprise on the first Flying Burrito Brothers album. But Parsons had already moved on to bigger things by the time of the album's release.
1968–1970
By 1968 Parsons had come to the attention of
Chris Hillman of
The Byrds, who, depleted by the firing of
David Crosby and the departure of
Gene Clark, were seeking new members. Originally conceived by band leader
Roger McGuinn as a history of twentieth-century music, beginning with traditional
country, taking in
jazz,
R&B, and
rock, and ending with the most advanced (for the time) form of electronic wizardry,
Sweetheart of the Rodeo was their only album with Parsons. Contrary to what is often claimed, Parsons was never an official member of The Byrds. As
Chris Hillman recalls, "Gram was hired. He wasn't a member of The Byrds, ever — he was on salary" . Nonetheless, as recording plans were made, Parsons (originally hired as a jazz pianist) began to exert a tremendous influence over the group, persuading the other members to leave
Los Angeles and record the album in
Nashville. Along the way McGuinn's original album concept was jettisoned in favor of a fully fledged country and western project, and included Parsons' songs such as "One Hundred Years from Now" and "
Hickory Wind", along with compositions by
Bob Dylan and
Merle Haggard. However, owing to contractual issues, most of Parsons' vocals were removed from the final product. While touring with The Byrds in the summer of 1968, Parsons dropped out of a planned concert in
South Africa, citing opposition to that country's
apartheid policies, upon the persuasion of
Keith Richards. McGuinn and Hillman subsequently fired him from the tour.
During this period Parsons became friendly with
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards of
The Rolling Stones. It has been suggested that Parsons was mostly apolitical and merely took advantage of an opportunity to hang out with his idols, although he did refer to one of the younger African-American butlers in the Connor household as being "like a brother" to him in an interview and didn't seem to exhibit racist behavior. While in England, Parsons developed a close kinship with Richards and reintroduced him to country music. Sitting around for hours, the twosome would play obscure records and trade off on various songs with their guitars. They even traveled together on a few occasions to
Stonehenge (with Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn) in the English countryside of
Wiltshire, where Richards had a house quite near to the ancient site.
Parsons was widely rumored to have been the author of "
Honky Tonk Women" and added credence to this in interviews and in discussions with friends by claiming to have developed the
acoustic guitar and
fiddle dominated arrangement of the song included on
Let It Bleed as "
Country Honk". Nevertheless, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have always claimed that they conceived the traditional country arrangement while on holiday in Brazil in late 1968. As this vacation came on the heels of Parsons' initial visits with the Stones, it could be assumed that he was at least an indirect influence upon this new musical direction. Incidentally, partial authorship for the song has also been attributed to the likes of
Ry Cooder (who introduced Richards to the trademark open five string tunings that would become nearly synonymous with his style) and the disintegrating
Brian Jones.
Returning to Los Angeles, Parsons was soon joined by Hillman (both as rhythm guitarists), and the two formed the
Flying Burrito Brothers with bassist
Chris Ethridge and
pedal steel player
Sneaky Pete Kleinow. Their
1969 album
The Gilded Palace Of Sin was a modernized version of the
Bakersfield style of country music made popular by
Buck Owens, and the band appeared on the album cover wearing
Nudie suits emblazoned with all sorts of hippie accoutrements. Along with the Parsons-Hillman originals "Christine's Tune" and "Hot Burrito #2" were versions of the
soul music classics "
The Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman", the latter featuring David Crosby on high harmony. Most of the songs on the album were composed by Hillman and Parsons in a creatively fertile period when the latter's drug intake noticeably decreased; the atypically pronounced (for Parsons) gospel soul influence likely comes from his frequent jamming with
Delaney and Bonnie and Richards.
Though not a commercial success,
Gilded was acclaimed by
rock critic Robert Christgau as "an ominous, obsessive, tongue-in-cheek country-rock synthesis, absorbing rural and urban, traditional and contemporary, at point of impact." The album was recorded without a permanent drummer, but the group soon added original Byrd
Michael Clarke on drums. Embarking on a cross-country tour via train, as Parsons suffered from periodic bouts of
fear of flying, the group squandered most of their money in a perpetual poker game and received bewildered reactions in most cities. Parsons was frequently indulging in massive quantities of
psilocybin and
cocaine, so his performances were erratic at best, while much of the band's repertoire consisted of vintage
honky tonk and soul standards with few originals. Perhaps the most successful appearance occurred in Philadelphia, where the group opened for the reconstituted Byrds. Midway through their set, Parsons joined the headline act and fronted his former group on renditions "Hickory Wind" and "You Don't Miss Your Water". The other Burritos surfaced with the exception of Clarke, and the joint aggregation played several songs. including "Long Black Veil" and "Goin' Back".
After returning to Los Angeles the group recorded "The Train Song", written during an increasingly infrequent songwriting session on the train and produced by 1950s R&B legends
Larry Williams and
Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Despite a request from the Burritos that the remnants of their publicity budget be diverted to promotion of the single, it also flopped. Ethridge, who lacked total commitment to Parsons' musical vision and often indulged in drugs and drink on a level surpassing the guitarist, departed shortly thereafter. He was replaced by lead guitarist
Bernie Leadon, while Hillman reverted to bass.
By this time, Parsons's own
use of drugs had increased to the extent that new songs were rare and much of his time was diverted to partying with the Stones, who briefly relocated to America in the summer of 1969 to finish their forthcoming
Let It Bleed and prepare for an autumn cross country tour, their first series of regular live engagements since 1967. As they prepared to play the nation's largest sports arenas, the Burritos played to dwindling nightclub audiences; one night Jagger had to literally order Parsons to fulfill an obligation with his group.
The singer's dedication to the Rolling Stones was rewarded when the Burrito Brothers were booked as the opening act of the infamous
Altamont Music Festival. Playing a short set including "Six Days on the Road" and "Bony Moronie", Parsons left on one of the final helicopters and attempted to pick up
Michelle Phillips. "Six Days..." was included in
Gimme Shelter, a documentary of the event.
With mounting debt incurred, A&M hoped to recoup some of their losses by marketing the Burritos as a straight country group. To this end, manager Jim Dickinson instigated a loose session where the band recorded several honky tonk staples from their live act, contemporary pop covers in a countrified vein ("To Love Somebody", "Lodi", "I Shall Be Released", "Honky Tonk Women"), and Larry William's "Bony Moronie". This was soon scrapped in favor of a second album of originals on an extremely reduced budget. Faced with a dearth of new material, most of the material was hastily written in the studio by Leadon, Hillman, and Parsons, with two
Gilded Palace of Sin outtakes thrown into the mix. The resulting album, entitled
Burrito Deluxe, was released in April
1970.
The album is considered less inspired than its predecessor, but it's notable for the Parsons-Hillman-Leadon song "Older Guys" and for its take on Jagger and Richards' "Wild Horses"—the first recording released of this famous song. Parsons was inspired to cover the song after hearing an advance tape of the
Sticky Fingers sent to Kleinow, who was scheduled to overdub a part on the song. Jagger consented to the
cover version, so long as the Flying Burrito Brothers didn't issue it as a single.
Burrito Deluxe, like its predecessor, underperformed commercially but faced the double whammy of being lambasted by critics. Disenchanted with the band, he left the Burritos in mutual agreement with Hillman, at his wits' end after two years of babysitting Parsons. Under his direction, the group recorded two more LPs.
1970–1972
Parsons immediately signed a solo deal with
A&M Records and partnered with producer/scenester
Terry Melcher, who had produced The Byrds'
Mr. Tambourine Man and worked with
The Beach Boys. With a mutual penchant for alcohol, cocaine, and (by this juncture)
heroin, the sessions were unproductive and found the singer in a holding pattern of covering country hits and himself ("Hot Burrito #1"). Eventually losing interest altogether, he checked the master tapes out in 1971. He accompanied the Stones on their 1971 tour in the hope of being signed to the newly formed
Rolling Stones Records, intending to record a duo album with Richards. Moving into Villa Nellcôte with the guitarist during the sessions for
Exile on Main Street, Parsons remained in a consistently incapacitated state and frequently quarreled with his much younger girlfriend, aspiring actress
Gretchen Burrell. Eventually, Parsons was asked to leave by
Anita Pallenberg, Richards' longtime domestic partner. Rumors have persisted that he appears
somewhere on the legendary album, and while Richards concedes that it's very likely he's among the chorus of singers on "Sweet Virginia", nothing has been substantiated to this day. Parsons attempted to rekindle his relationship with the band on their 1972 tour to no avail.
After leaving the Stones' camp, Parsons married in 1971, for the first and only time, to Burrell at his stepfather's New Orleans estate. Allegedly, the relationship was far from stable, with Burrell cutting a needy and jealous figure while Parsons castrated her burgeoning film career. Many of the singer's closest associates and friends claim that Parsons was preparing to commence divorce proceedings at the time of his death; the couple had already separated by this point.
1972–1973
Parsons and Burrell enjoyed the most idyllic time of their relationship, visiting old cohorts like Ian Dunlop and
Family/
Blind Faith/
Traffic member
Ric Grech in England. With the assistance of Grech and one of the bassist's friends,
Hank Wangford a doctor friend who dabbled in country music, Parsons managed to kick his heroin habit once and for all (a treatment suggested by
William Burroughs proved unsuccessful).
He returned to the US for a one-off concert with the Burritos, and at Hillman's instigation went to hear
Emmylou Harris sing in a small club in
Washington, D.C. They became friends and, within a year, he asked her to join him in Los Angeles for another attempt to record his first solo album.
Having gained thirty pounds since his Burrito days from Southern food and excessive alcohol consumption, it came as a surprise to many when Parsons was enthusiastically signed to
Reprise Records by
Mo Ostin in mid-1972.
GP, released in 1973, utilized the guitar-playing of
James Burton (sideman to Elvis Presley and
Ricky Nelson), and featured new songs from a creatively revitalized Parsons such as "Big Mouth Blues" and "Kiss the Children," as well as a superb cover of
Tompall Glaser's "Streets of Baltimore."
Parsons, by now featuring Harris as his duet partner, played dates across the
United States as Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels. Unable to afford the services of the Elvis band for a month, the band featured the talents of obscure Colorado-based rock guitarist
Jock Bartley (soon to skyrocket to fame with
Firefall), veteran Nashville sideman
Neil Flanz on pedal steel,
Kyle Tullis on bass and former
Mountain drummer
N.D. Smart (once described by Canadian folksinger Ian Tyson as "a psychotic
redneck"). The touring party also included Gretchen Parsons—by this point extremely envious of Harris—and Harris' young daughter. Coordinating the spectacle as road manager was
Phil Kaufman, who had served time with
Charles Manson on
Terminal Island in the mid-sixties and first met Parsons while working for the Stones in 1968. Kaufman ensured that the performer stayed away from substance abuse, limiting his alcohol intake during shows and throwing out any drugs smuggled into hotel rooms. At first, the band was under-rehearsed and played poorly, but improved markedly with steady gigging and received rapturous responses at the
Armadillo World Headquarters in
Austin,
Texas and at a filmed concert at Liberty Hall in Houston (with
Neil Young and
Linda Ronstadt sitting in) and
Max's Kansas City in New York City. According to a number of sources, it was Emmylou who forced the band to practice and work up an actual set list. Nevertheless, the tour did absolutely nothing for record sales. While he'd been in the vanguard with The Byrds and the Burrito Brothers, Parsons was now perceived as being too authentic and traditional in an era dominated by the stylings of
The Eagles, whose sound Parsons disdained (although he did maintain cordial relations with Leadon, now an Eagle).
For his next and final album,
1974's
Grievous Angel, he again used Harris and Burton. The record, which was released after his death, received even more enthusiastic reviews than had
GP, and has since attained classic status. Among its most celebrated songs is "$1000 Wedding", a holdover from the Burrito Brothers era which was covered by one of the many groups influenced by Parsons,
the Mekons, and "Brass Buttons", a 1965 opus which addresses his mother's alcoholism. Also included was a new version of "Hickory Wind" and "Ooh Las Vegas", co-written with Grech and dating from the
G.P. sessions. Despite the fact that Parsons only contributed two new songs to the album ("In My Hour of Darkness", "Return of the Grievous Angel"), Parsons was highly enthused with his new sound and seemed to have finally adopted a serious, diligent mindset to his musical career, eschewing most drugs and alcohol during the sessions.
Before recording, Parsons and Harris played a preliminary three show mini tour as the headline act in a Warner Brothers country-rock package. The backing band included Clarence White, Pete Kleinow, and Chris Etheridge. On July 14, 1973, the legendary White was killed by a drunk driver while loading equipment in his car for a concert with the
New Kentucky Colonels. At White's funeral, Parsons and Bernie Leadon launched into an impromptu touching rendition of "Farther Along"; that night, the distraught and drunken musician reportedly informed Phil Kaufman of his final wish: to be
cremated in Joshua Tree. Despite the almost insurmountable setback, Parsons, Harris, and the other musicians decided to continue with plans for a fall tour.
In the summer of 1973 Parsons' Topanga Canyon home burned to the ground, the result of a stray cigarette. Nearly all of his possessions were destroyed with the exception of a guitar and a prized Jaguar automobile. The fire proved to be the last straw in the relationship between Burrell and Parsons, who moved into a spare room in Kaufman's house. While not recording, he frequently hung out and jammed with members of New Jersey-based country rockers
Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends (whose members included
Tony Bennett's sons, Danny and Dae Bennett as well as future
Dylan sideman and member of
the Alpha Band, multi-instrumentalist
David Mansfield) and the
proto-punk Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, who were being managed by Kaufman. Richman credits Parsons with introducing him to acoustic-based music. Parsons is credited as producer on Quacky Duck's only album,
Media Push, released by Warner Bros. in 1974. According to the road manager of Quacky Duck, Parsons was, despite being frequently drunk, a kind soul who provided business and musical guidance to the younger band.
Before formally breaking up with Burrell, Parsons already had a woman waiting in the wings. While recording, he saw a photo of a beautiful woman at a friend's home and was instantly smitten. The woman turned out to be Margaret Fisher, a high school sweetheart of the singer from his Waycross, Georgia days. Like Parsons, Fisher had drifted west and became established in the Bay Area rock scene. A meeting was arranged and the two instantly rekindled their relationship, with Fisher dividing her weeks between Los Angeles and San Francisco at Parsons' expense.
Death
In the late 1960s, Parsons became enamored with
Joshua Tree National Monument. Alone or with friends, he'd disappear in the desert for days, searching for
UFOs while under the influence of
psilocybin or
LSD. After splitting from Burrell, Parsons would frequently spend his weekends in the area with Margaret Fisher and Phil Kaufman. Before his tour was scheduled to commence in October 1973, Parsons decided to go on one more excursion. Accompanying him were Fisher, personal assistant Michael Martin, and Dale McElory, Martin's girlfriend. Less than two days after arriving, Parsons died
September 19,
1973 in
Joshua Tree, California at the age of 26 from a
lethal combination, purportedly of
morphine and
alcohol. According to Fisher in the 2005 biography
Grievous Angel: An Intimate Biography of Gram Parsons, the amount of morphine consumed by Parsons wouldn't be lethal to an addict and thus he'd likely overestimated his tolerance considering his past experience with opiates. Fisher and McElroy were returned to Los Angeles by Kaufman, who dispersed the remnants of Parsons' stash in the desert.
In a story that has taken on legendary stature, Parsons' body disappeared from the
Los Angeles International Airport, where it was being readied to be shipped to Louisiana for burial. Prior to his death, Parson stated that he wanted his body cremated at Joshua Tree and his ashes spread over Cap Rock, a prominent natural feature there. However, Parson's stepfather arranged for a private ceremony back in New Orleans and neglected to invite any of his friends from the music industry. The burned remains were eventually returned to Parsons' stepfather and interred in
New Orleans.
The site of the cremation was marked by a small concrete slab and is presided over by a large rock flake known to
rock climbers as 'The Gram Parsons memorial hand traverse'. The slab has since been removed by the U.S. National Park Service and was relocated to the Joshua Tree Inn which was where he was staying at the time of his death. At the site of the original memorial now are simple rock structures and writings on the rock which the park service sand blasts to remove from time to time.
The song "My Man" which appeared on the
Eagles album "On The Border" was written by fellow Flying Burrito band member
Bernie Leadon as a posthumous tribute to Gram Parsons.
In the 2004 documentary film
Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel (released commercially in 2006), Parsons' family alleged that Kaufman's cremation attempt was little more than a drunken hatchet job, which succeeded only in mutilating roughly 60% of the corpse.
The 2003 film
Grand Theft Parsons stars Johnny Knoxville as
Phil Kaufman and chronicles a fictionalized version of the theft of Parsons' corpse.
The soundtrack of the 2007 film
Cthulhu features the song "
Return of the Grievous Angel", performed by Parsons and
Emmylou Harris.
A petition was begun in May 2007 in an attempt to induct Gram Parsons into the
Country Music Hall of Fame, based on his contribution to the evolution of country music. Backed by many friends and admirers who have signed and left comments from around the world, it's targeting the
Country Music Association (CMA) and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Within four months to the day, it had hit its target of 1,000 signers, with more signing every day, the total nearing 2,000. The petition is intended to be presented to the CMA on the 35th anniversary of Parsons' death in September 2008, although it'll continue to be available to signers until his actual induction into the Hall occurs. (Note: in February 2008, Gram's protégée, Emmylou Harris, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.)
Discography
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