| 29th October 2007 03:16 PM |
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| Mel Belli |
From NYT Sunday Book Review:
Grievous Angel
By GREGORY COWLES
When the singer-songwriter Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose at the age of 26 in 1973, it wasn’t clear he would ever receive the full Robert Johnson treatment: plucked from cult status, hailed as a neglected genius, honored with remasterings, tribute albums and a host of biographies. Parsons wrote some great songs, and he sang them in a sweet, warbly drawl, but he never had a hit record, and in his lifetime no one knew just how to classify him. He lived (and died) like a rock star, but his “cosmic American music” was too country for rock, too folk for country, too psychedelic for folk — he belonged everywhere, and in the end that meant he belonged nowhere.
Now we know he was alt-country all along. In the 1990s under that heading, bands like Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo embraced the American roots sound and championed Parsons as a forebear. Suddenly, his Zelig-like career attracted new attention. A strung-out sidekick of the Byrds and the Rolling Stones, a founding member of the International Submarine Band and the Flying Burrito Brothers, the man who introduced Emmylou Harris to country music, Parsons even stole David Crosby’s girlfriend at one point: the guy had to be good.
And so we’re in the midst of a long Gram Parsons revival. David N. Meyer’s biography is at least the fifth to appear in the last 20 years, and at 559 pages, it’s the heftiest by far. Meyer, a New School film professor whose two previous books were movie guides, has interviewed friends, relatives, band members and hangers-on, and when he couldn’t get major figures on the record, he turned to extensive secondary sources in his effort to sort through the Parsons legend.
The resulting book, “Twenty Thousand Roads,” is like one of Parsons’s live shows: frustratingly sloppy and self-indulgent, but studded with interesting tidbits. Among other things, we learn that Parsons’s guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow was an animator for “Davey and Goliath” and “Gumby,” and that the Burritos once had to wait an hour before playing the Whisky a Go Go because their opening act, a drunken Van Morrison, refused to yield the stage.
Parsons was born in 1946 into a rich but dysfunctional Southern family; his father committed suicide when Gram was 12, and his mother died of alcoholism the day Gram graduated from high school. Although he grew up in Georgia and Florida, Parsons wasn’t turned on to country until he went north to Harvard (where, obsessed with music, he flunked out freshman year), but once he discovered Buck and Merle, he was smitten.
In Meyer’s telling, Parsons was opportunistic, undisciplined and full of himself — a star. Voracity was more his style than virtuosity. Yet his charisma was irresistible. Meyer presents Parsons’s brief sojourn in the Byrds as emblematic: invited to audition, Parsons (“with typical bravado, and in typical denial of how the real world functions”) eagerly ditched his International Submarine Band on the eve of their first album’s release. With the Byrds, he was supposed to be a quiet sideman, filling in on piano or rhythm guitar. But the sheer force of his personality took over, and he persuaded the group to make their next album in Nashville, and to make it country. That album is the seminal “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.”
Parsons quit the Byrds after six months rather than tour South Africa with them. He claimed it was out of opposition to apartheid; but Meyer agrees with earlier biographers that it’s more likely he wanted to keep hanging out with his new best friend Keith Richards. Either way, the move solidified his reputation for unreliability — and for partying.
“Keith sincerely feared Gram was doing an unhealthy amount of heroin,” Meyer writes. “If Keith Richards is running your intervention, you’re in trouble.”
“Twenty Thousand Roads” runs into some trouble of its own. The book repeats itself endlessly and has more begats than the Bible; Meyer feels compelled to trace the musical lineage of everybody who crossed Parsons’s path. He spends pages discussing the student rock group Parsons played with in eighth grade. (“The Pacers,” he gravely concludes, “are remembered as ‘not much of a band.’ ”) In a long digression, he hilariously but needlessly indulges his hatred of the Eagles: “soulless, overrehearsed, antiseptic, schematic, insincere, sentimental ... the most consistently contemptible stadium band in rock.” And he makes a few errors — saying, for instance, that Elvis Costello covered “Hot Burrito #2” on “Almost Blue” when it was actually “Hot Burrito #1.”
Elsewhere, Meyer gives Parsons more credit than he probably deserves, as when he asserts that “Exile on Main Street” was more or less an unofficial Parsons album. “Gram provided inspiration for much of what ended up on the record,” he claims. “He showed Keith the path down which ‘Exile’ travels. ... There’s no proof that Gram directly participated in any songs on ‘Exile,’ but the influence of his taste and philosophy is everywhere.”
Indeed, Meyer suggests Gram was the unacknowledged muse for everyone from the Grateful Dead to the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Parsons was influential, without a doubt, but Meyer leaves little room for the zeitgeist itself. In an era that featured Buffalo Springfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dylan and the Band, artists hardly needed the example of Gram Parsons to dig into rock’s rural roots.
This overreaching is too bad, because Parsons’s story is fascinating enough on its own. What Parsons brought to the party was symbolized by the famous drug-patterned Nudie suit he wore (“a garment of legend,” Meyer writes): decadent glamour, a hard-won honky-tonk spirit and a stoned, emotional vulnerability that found its outlet in songs that will endure even though they never charted. “They’re always going to sound like great records,” Elvis Costello told Parsons’s daughter, Polly Parsons, when she and Jessica Hundley wrote their own biography of Gram two years ago. “They’re never going to go out of style ... because they were never ‘in style’ in a trivial way. They were always pure and they were always honest and in the end, that’s what truly lasts.”
Gregory Cowles is an editor at the Book Review. |
| 29th October 2007 03:18 PM |
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| gypsy |
I've ordered this book, and should get it later this week.
I was really hoping Stanley Booth would do a bio on Gram; and hopefully he still will. |
| 29th October 2007 03:20 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
I like Parsons alot...but I do think he is overrated...even by the musicians who claim his as an influence...he was heading to Eagles land...with Henley and Frey...that's where I saw his music going |
| 29th October 2007 03:52 PM |
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| GimmeExile |
There was a great review in LA Times Book Review yesterday as well. Cover story, actually.
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| 29th October 2007 04:04 PM |
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| Mel Belli |
quote:
GimmeExile wrote:
There was a great review in LA Times Book Review yesterday as well. Cover story, actually.
That was good, too. Thanks. |
| 29th October 2007 04:26 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
“Keith sincerely feared Gram was doing an unhealthy amount of heroin,” Meyer writes. “If Keith Richards is running your intervention, you’re in trouble.”
Any more lines like that and I'm buying this for the humor alone.....
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| 29th October 2007 05:14 PM |
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| BILL PERKS |
quote:
gypsy wrote:
I've ordered this book, and should get it later this week.
I was really hoping Stanley Booth would do a bio on Gram; and hopefully he still will.
SUPPOSEDLY HE IS;HE'S JUST AS SLOW AS STANLEY KUBRICK |
| 29th October 2007 08:40 PM |
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| gypsy |
quote:
BILL PERKS wrote:
SUPPOSEDLY HE IS;HE'S JUST AS SLOW AS STANLEY KUBRICK
I really wish he would write a bio on Parsons. I think he'd be the one who could turn out one that would do Gram justice. The Ben Fong-Torres book was a joke.
However, this Meyer guy must be alright:
>>In a long digression, he hilariously but needlessly indulges his hatred of the Eagles: “soulless, overrehearsed, antiseptic, schematic, insincere, sentimental ... the most consistently contemptible stadium band in rock.”<< |
| 29th October 2007 08:41 PM |
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| gypsy |
quote:
Fiji Joe wrote:
I like Parsons alot...but I do think he is overrated...even by the musicians who claim his as an influence...he was heading to Eagles land...with Henley and Frey...that's where I saw his music going
Bullshit. Which songs? |
| 29th October 2007 09:52 PM |
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| Sid Vicious |
quote:
gypsy wrote:
Bullshit. Which songs?
It's just opinion on where it seemed like it would go, and I def. could see that happening, then again, maybe he would've been more like Neil young. We will never know. Gram never got old. |
| 29th October 2007 09:54 PM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
well there you go
mystery solved: Feej is Sid Vicious |
| 29th October 2007 10:00 PM |
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| Mel Belli |
quote:
stonedinaustralia wrote:
well there you go
mystery solved: Feej is Sid Vicious
Yeah, that was an obvious slip-up, eh? Like that scene in "Mrs. Doubtfire" where Robin Williams turns up as Mrs. Doubtfire rather than Robin Williams. Or something like that. |
| 29th October 2007 10:07 PM |
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| Mel Belli |
quote:
gypsy wrote:
I really wish he would write a bio on Parsons. I think he'd be the one who could turn out one that would do Gram justice. The Ben Fong-Torres book was a joke.
However, this Meyer guy must be alright:
>>In a long digression, he hilariously but needlessly indulges his hatred of the Eagles: “soulless, overrehearsed, antiseptic, schematic, insincere, sentimental ... the most consistently contemptible stadium band in rock.”<<
I am not ashamed to admit that I think "The Disco Strangler" is a cool song. |
| 29th October 2007 10:42 PM |
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| Morrisey Hotel |
quote:
Mel Belli wrote:
Yeah, that was an obvious slip-up, eh? Like that scene in "Mrs. Doubtfire" where Robin Williams turns up as Mrs. Doubtfire rather than Robin Williams. Or something like that.
I thought I was Sid. This sucks more than my music! |
| 29th October 2007 10:47 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
quote:
stonedinaustralia wrote:
well there you go
mystery solved: Feej is Sid Vicious
Nope...keep swinging...Sid's just not pyschotic and is able to follow what I'm trying to say...there's still some people like that around these days |
| 29th October 2007 10:51 PM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
ok what i meant was - you are the poster posting as Sid Viscious
yes? No?
if no - what is up with that reposnse to gypsy??
thanks |
| 29th October 2007 10:55 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
quote:
stonedinaustralia wrote:
ok what i meant was - you are the poster posting as Sid Viscious
yes? No?
if no - what is up with that reposnse to gypsy??
thanks
The answer is no...it ain't me...and I reckon Sid, as I say, is stating my point...The Bakersfield sound...what the Eagles did with it...I can see Gram going that direction with it...I doubt he was gonna stay "cool" forever...Maybe Sid is you...do you deny it?
[Edited by Fiji Joe] |
| 29th October 2007 10:57 PM |
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| Sid Vicious |
quote:
Fiji Joe wrote:
The answer is no...it ain't me...and I reckon Sid, as I say, is stating my point...The Bakersfield sound...what the Eagles did with it...I can see Gram going that direction with it...I doubt he was gonna stay "cool" forever...Maybe Sid is you...do you deny it?
[Edited by Fiji Joe]
Niether of you are Sid, now please be quiet, Nancy is trying to sleep in a pool of blood. |
| 29th October 2007 11:00 PM |
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| Sid Vicious |
If you guys were wondering, had I lived, I would've made Billy Idol look hardcore. I was going to sell out punk rock for a bag of good junk.
Just Imagine Eyes Without A Face meets Tiffany! |
| 29th October 2007 11:00 PM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
oh yea it's not me either - i posted as "Sid" once and he was onto me like flies on cow shit so i let it go
i always thought the odds went like this
Starbuck - at least 50% likely
Altamont and pdog - around 25% each
i must say i never had you in the frame for it |
| 29th October 2007 11:01 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
quote:
Sid Vicious wrote:
Niether of you are Sid, now please be quiet, Nancy is trying to sleep in a pool of blood.
Memo to self...pick up some stick-ups at the grocery store...Sid is starting to stink up the place |
| 29th October 2007 11:03 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
quote:
stonedinaustralia wrote:
oh yea it's not me either - i posted as "Sid" once and he was onto me like flies on cow shit so i let it go
i always thought the odds went like this
Starbuck - at least 50% likely
Altamont and pdog - around 25% each
i must say i never had you in the frame for it
Half this board is aliases...some funny...some creepy...I retired that schtick with Bizarro JB...that's pretty much the pinnacle of aliases |
| 29th October 2007 11:04 PM |
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| pdog |
quote:
stonedinaustralia wrote:
oh yea it's not me either - i posted as "Sid" once and he was onto me like flies on cow shit so i let it go
i always thought the odds went like this
Starbuck - at least 50% likely
Altamont and pdog - around 25% each
i must say i never had you in the frame for it
This might be the first time I've been accused of having an alias. At least that I know of... I'm not very good at it, i'm trying to go in costume on another board, and I'm failing miserably. some people just got it, and some don't... thay'd be me! |
| 29th October 2007 11:04 PM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
the funny thng about you "Sid Vicious" is your impersonation or persona hijacking - or whatever you want to call it - is not really that good (cf George W. Bush/Morrisey Hotel?Dick Cheney - they are genuinely funny - are you them too?)
a bit of a wasted opportunity if you ask me
which makes me think you aren't starbuck or pdog or altamont - they would have done a better job of it - you know,funnier and stuff like that
of course it would hilarious if you are one of those three |
| 29th October 2007 11:05 PM |
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| gypsy |
quote:
Fiji Joe wrote:
Half this board is aliases...some funny...some creepy...I retired that schtick with Bizarro JB...that's pretty much the pinnacle of aliases
Now you just post as your asshole narrow-minded self. Yay! |
| 29th October 2007 11:05 PM |
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| pdog |
quote:
Fiji Joe wrote:
Half this board is aliases...some funny...some creepy...I retired that schtick with Bizarro JB...that's pretty much the pinnacle of aliases
You make a good point, and a good question. Of all the aliases, what are the good ones. If you can even remember them? Bizarro JB was great. You can't follow that easily. |
| 29th October 2007 11:08 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
quote:
gypsy wrote:
Now you just post as your asshole narrow-minded self. Yay!
Oh good lord...could you just shut the fuck up?...Take out your false teeth, put them in the glass, and shut the fuck up...you, your posts....old...real fucking old |
| 29th October 2007 11:08 PM |
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| Sid Vicious |
quote:
stonedinaustralia wrote:
the funny thng about you "Sid Vicious" is your impersonation or persona hijacking - or whatever you want to call it - is not really that good (cf George W. Bush/Morrisey Hotel?Dick Cheney - they are genuinely funny - are you them too?)
a bit of a wasted opportunity if you ask me
which makes me think you aren't starbuck or pdog or altamont - they would have done a better job of it - you know,funnier and stuff like that
of course it would hilarious if you are one of those three
I'm not a funny guy. I'm a junkie. The only thing I ever did funny was nod out in interviews, burn myself with cigarettes, cut myself up, bleed all over the place and kill my girlfried. Not very funny, funny hahaha. I'm also a Liar! |
| 29th October 2007 11:09 PM |
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| pdog |
I thought you tow were getting along...
This sux!
Question above still stand Feej! |
| 29th October 2007 11:14 PM |
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| Fiji Joe |
quote:
pdog wrote:
I thought you tow were getting along...
This sux!
Question above still stand Feej!
I've never put much thought into it...Stones Security, given the context was good...real good |
