FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Gram Parsons – GP
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FOR this Vinyl Corner…
I am spending time with the debut album from the legendary Gram Parsons. GP was released in January 1973. Many might know Parsons as a member of The Byrds. He can be heard on their 1968 album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I really love Parsons’ debut solo album. He tragically died only eight months after the release of GP at the age of twenty-six. If you have not got GP on vinyl, I would recommend you get a copy. It is a beautiful album where Parsons demonstrates his incredible vocals. Although GP failed to reach the Billboard chart, it did receive critical acclaim. Streets of Baltimore and The New Soft Shoe are my two favourite tracks from the album. I don’t think there is a weak or wasted moment from GP. After Parsons was dismissed from the band, Flying Burrito Brothers, he took a new direction for his solo music. As opposed the Soul, Rock and Country mixture of Flying Burrito Brothers, Parsons went for something that was Country-heavy for his solo debut. The Young Folks looked back on GP in 2018. I have highlighted a few interesting sections from their detailed feature:
“By the time he had reached his early twenties, Gram Parsons had already completely revamped the sound of The Byrds with his love of twanged-out Americana and brought a country rock hybrid flavor to the masses as a pioneering member of both the International Submarine Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers. After being asked to leave the latter for his rampant drug use, Parsons was forced to reevaluate his life. Taking what he had learned from his close knit friendship with the Rolling Stones, he was ready to craft his first solo album, unleashing an unfiltered vehicle upon which to display what he had affectionately called “Cosmic American Music.”
While Parsons had birthed the lovechild of honky-tonk and rock and roll, with GP, he gave way to a smoother, more subdued sound. This is thanks in no small part to his blossoming musical partnership with Emmylou Harris, a roots folk singer Parsons was urged to check out by his former bandmates. Together, as seen on this seminal album, the pair would form one of the most cohesive and harmonious musical duos to ever grace the airwaves. Along with a band that included James Burton, the lead guitarist for Elvis Presley, GP drew from both Parsons’s songwriting idols and his inner demons, following a trail of breadcrumbs down to the Delta and crafting a record that is unabashedly American.
Cashing in on the old country music trick of romanticizing heartache, Parsons opens his debut with “Still Feeling Blue,” setting the scene in a smoky dive bar on the outskirts of a working class town. As he exposes turns of phrase and double meanings, he wastes no time demonstrating his abilities as a wordsmith that had gotten him admitted into Harvard. The song is also a deliberate homage to the whiskey-soaked Southern music Parsons was turned onto as a young man, rifling through the history of Americana by highlighting fiddle, pedal steel guitar, and even Alan Munde plucking away on the banjo.
The album comes to a close with “Big Mouth Blues,” another blues rock anthem that brings back the horn section, cranking up both the tempo and the volume. A real toe-tapper, the song calls to mind the fast-paced, bar brawl Americana that Bob Dylan was experimenting with at the same time. It’s a bouncy swamp tune that chronicles an inflated ego getting a smooth talker into trouble: “I wish there was a way that I knew to get even / Way to get a lick in /A ‘bobbin and a’weavin’ / And all the things besides goin’ and a’leavin’.”
In a self-fulfilling twist, Parsons fatally overdosed just eight months after the album’s release. Nevertheless, the legacy took root. Gram Parsons remains one of the most influential figures in the world of music to never find mainstream success. With GP, it’s not difficult to follow the trajectory of where his career was headed, had his life not been cut tragically short. Still, nearly half a century later, musicians and critics alike continue to benefit from the wit and humanity of his brief yet prolific catalog”.
Nearly fifty years after its release, and GP still sounds like nothing else. I think it is dominated by Parsons’ unique voice. One might hear the odd songs from the album on the radio now and then, though I do feel it is under-explored. In their review of the album, this is what AllMusic had to say:
“Given Gram Parsons' habit of taking control of the bands he played with (and his disinclination towards staying with them for very long), it was inevitable that he would eventually strike out on his own, and his first solo album, 1973's G.P., is probably the best realized expression of his musical personality. Working with a crack band of L.A. and Nashville's finest (including James Burton on guitar, Ronnie Tutt on drums, Byron Berline on fiddle, and Glen D. Hardin on piano), he drew from them a sound that merged breezy confidence with deeply felt Southern soul, and he in turn pulled off some of his most subtle and finely detailed vocal performances; "She" and "A Song for You," in particular, are masterful examples of passion finding balance with understatement. Parsons also discovered that rare artist with whom he can be said to have genuinely collaborated (rather than played beside), Emmylou Harris; Gram and Harris' spot-on harmonies and exchanged verses on "We'll Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning" and "That's All It Took" are achingly beautiful and instantly established her as one country music's most gifted vocalists.
On G.P., Parsons' ambitious vision encompassed hard-country weepers, wistful ballads, uptempo dance tunes, and even horn-driven rhythm and blues. He managed to make them all work, both as individual tunes and as a unified whole. If it falls just short of being his greatest work (an honor that goes to the Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin) thanks to a couple songs that are a bit too oblique for their own good ("The New Soft Shoe" may be beautiful, but who knows just what it's supposed to be about), this album remains a haunting reminder of Parsons' talent and influence, and has only gotten better with the passing years”.
If you have not heard GP or wanted to know where to start when it comes to Gram Parsons, I feel that his 1973 solo debut is a good foundation. It is an album brimming with personality where Parsons gives life and something extraordinary to each of the eleven tracks. GP is an album that has received more acclaim and proper love years after it release. It is the case with many albums that they do not get too much attention when they come out. GP is a classic example. It is a shame that the world lost Gram Parsons at such a young age. There is no telling how far he could have gone and what impact he would have made on the music world. GP is a glimpse into his undeniable talent. With one of the greatest voices ever, one cannot help but immerse themselves in GP. It is a brilliant album that is well worth…
OWNING on vinyl.