So while we were running our recent Gram Parsons contest, Rhino was nice enough to send us a review copy of the Fallen Angel DVD and the Complete Reprise Sessions box set. We’ve been writing about Parsons since the very first days of Glorious Noise. Like most music lovers, I go through different phases of music appreciation, and it had been a while since I’d gone on a kick of that real Gram goodness.
What follows, after a brief, subjective history lesson, is a chronological summary of Gram Parson’s recordings.
Two lucky winners will receive great Gram Parsons packages!
One grand prize winner will receive the Complete Reprise Sessions CD box set, the Fallen Angel DVD, a Gram Parsons t-shirt, and a poster. And one runner-up will get the DVD, a t-shirt, and a poster.
Ah yes, the soft, warm flow of GP slipping into your brain and numbing your “bad thoughts.” I know that feeling. I listened to the double CD of GP and Grevious Angel for months on end when I first bought it. It would have been very interesting to see what Gram would have done had he lived longer. Can you imagine the late 70s GP? How “cosmic” would he have gone? What about the 80s? Would he have signed to Geffen records and then lost his mind exploring the muddy two track roads of American music like Neil did? Perhaps that’s what Neil was up to in those weird years. He was looking for cosmic american music with his daliances in traditional country (Old Ways), techno/electronic (Trans), Rockabilly (Shocking Pinks) and Blues (Neil Young and the Blue Notes). Fucking David Geffen was trying to kill Cosmic American Music! David Geffen is the enemy!
I listened to Sweetheart of the Rodeo on my way home from GR (after Brutus) and just smiled and sang real loud all the way. That’s how infectious that music is. It turned a band of over harmonized, hippy-dippies into a band of Louvin Brother, Acuff/Rose lovin’ long hairs hell bent on “taking back” Nashville. Wait until you hear the Blue Ribbon Brothers. It’s on again.
I bought the Flying Burrito Brothers anthology yesterday. What I am going to say now may shock you, but I think that Gram Parsons is *at least* as amazing as Neil Young. Right now, I would rather listen to Gram than Neil. Right now, if I had to pick only one artist to listen to for the rest of my life, I would pick Gram. And I know this for sure: The Burrito Bros. are the best fucking American band of the post-Altamont era. They are the real deal in a way that CSNY could have only dreamed of. GP is no longer a sidestreet on my map of great rock music, he is a fucking freeway. If that guy would have lived a few more years, the world might be an entirely different place. If there is anything more powerful than the Cosmic American philosophy, I don’t know what is. (except maybe Jazz but let’s not go there)
So while we were running our recent Gram Parsons contest, Rhino was nice enough to send us a review copy of the Fallen Angel DVD and the Complete Reprise Sessions box set. We’ve been writing about Parsons since the very first days of Glorious Noise. Like most music lovers, I go through different phases of music appreciation, and it had been a while since I’d gone on a kick of that real Gram goodness.