concertverslag: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

• Geschreven door  redactie Muziek.nl

Opeens ging Eddie Vedder tijdens de razendsnelle gitaarsolo van American Girl door zijn knieën en liet zijn armen nederig richting gitarist Mike Campbell gaan. Het was zomaar een moment van een gedenkwaardige avond, gisteren in de Heineken Music Hall.

De God van de feel good muziek Tom Petty was na 25 jaar weer op Nederlandse bodem met zijn Heartbreakers. De Pearl Jam-zanger die als tiener al meezong met de songs van Petty en morgen en overmorgen in de veel grotere nieuwe Ziggo Dome staat, kwam kijken hoe zijn grote held het er op Nederlandse bodem het er vanaf zou brengen. Eerder tijdens het concert was Vedder al vanuit het schijnbare niets op het podium gesprongen om het magistrale The Waiting te zingen. In de box zat een andere grootheid. Jack White die er vanavond speelt, had eigenlijk ook mee willen doen maar koos door de komst van Vedder voor de luwte maar klapte zijn handen stuk,
Dit was zo avond waar alles klopte. De verwachtingen waren hooggespannen.Tom Petty is een legende in Amerika en supersterren zoals Vedder en White zijn schatplichtig aan de man die al ruim 35 jaar op hoog niveau weet te acteren. Petty maakt ook nu nog altijd prachtige albums en vult in eigen land met gemak de grote arena’s. In Europa waren we dat bijna vergeten. Tot gisteravond dan. Met zijn Heartbreakers bewees de in Florida geboren Petty waarom hij zo’n enorme live-status heeft. Met een uitgebalanceerde set vol verrassingen en een perfect geluid, zette hij vanaf de frivole opener Listen To Her Heart meteen de toon. Al snel werd duidelijk dat hij toch vooral uit ouder werk met zijn Heartbreakers en zijn twee meest succesvolle soloalbums Full Moon Fever en Wildflowers zou putten.
Met vlotte, overzichtelijke deuntjes zoals You Wreck Me, het nog altijd fraai jachtige Here Comes My Girl en de meezinger I Won’t Back Down, ooit ook zo raak vertolkt door Johnny Cash,, werd het bal geopend, Al meteen werd duidelijk wat voor een bizar goede band The Heartbreakers nog altijd is. Met Mike Campbell heeft Petty een gitarist en compositorische rechterhand in huis die niets fout doet. Campbell’s solo’s zijn vaak spaarzaam, soms ook extravert maar altijd raak gedoseerd en perfect klinkend. Samen met de Engelse drummer Steve Ferrone, ooit het kloppend hart van de Average White Band, en de werkelijk subliem spelende toetsenman Benmont Tench, geven zij de songs van Petty warmte, soul en diepgang. Daarbij is ook de stoïcijnse inbreng van de originele Heartbreakers-bassist Ron Blair en de van ondermeer Jackson Browne bekende Multi-instrumentalist en vocalist Scott Thurston van eminent belang. Laatstgenoemde wist bijvoorbeeld in de Traveling Wilburys hit Handle With Care erg dicht naar de stem van Roy Orbison toe te kruipen.

Eddie Vedder en Tom Petty. De verrassing van de avond
Na het nieuwe liedje Good Enough van Petty’s laatste album Mojo, werd voor het eerst het gaspedaal ingetrapt met een wervelende versie van Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well. De onderkoelde en sarcastische stem van Petty leent zich perfect voor dit huzarenstukje van zijn held Peter Green. Niet veel acts komen ermee weg maar hij wel. Het was ook het moment om Vedder aan te kondigen. Waar eerder deze Europese tour als Stevie Winwood in Londen was opgedoken, sprong nu de in houthakkershemd gehulde Pearl Jam-zanger op het podium. Haast verlegen en bedeesd nam hij zijn plaatsje tussen de Heartbreakers in.
De kracht van Petty en de Heartbreakers is dat ze speels gemak en autoriteit een haast ongehoorde dynamiek wegleggen. Country klinkt bij hen als echte country en als er gerockt moet worden, spelen ze elke gerenommeerde hardrockband van het podium. Petty zal zich nooit bezondigen aan haantjesgedrag of groteske gebaren. Een welgemeend ‘thank you’ en wat spaarzaam met een vet zuidelijk accent uitgesproken kwinkslagen, dat was het wel in Amsterdam.
Naar het einde van het concert toe werden de meezingers veelvuldig. Learing To Fly werd in een akoestische jasje gegoten en het oude Refugee van het meesterwerk Damn The Torpedoes blijft een ijzersterke tune. Met het hard kloppende Runnin Down A Dream werd afgesloten, waarna Petty met het onvermijdelijke maar o zo mooi Mary Jane’s Last Dance terugkwam en Vedder nog een keertje als een gelukkig schooljongetje mocht opdraven in American Girl. De vraag of dit een historische avond was is haast een retorische. Petty is een man die niet onder doet voor landgenoten als Bruce Springsteen en Neil Young. Het is goed dat hij eindelijk dat weer eens kwam bewijzen op Nederlandse bodem.
waardering: *****
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: gehoord en gezien, gisteravond in de Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam,

Laatst aangepast op dinsdag, 26 juni 2012 01:29

Vreemde avond met Lou Reed, de beruchtste chagrijn uit de rockgeschiedenis

Door: Menno Pot − 15/06/12, 14:44

© epa. Lou Reed in de HMH

vk recensie Typisch Lou Reed: je tournee een naam geven die een carrièreoverzicht doet vermoeden ('From VU to LULU': van The Velvet Underground tot Reeds samenwerking met Metallica van vorig jaar) en expliciet zeggen dat het een programma van 'favorites and hits' betreft, om vervolgens meer dan de helft van de avond te vullen met werk van LULU, de plaat die je goed lelijk of slecht lelijk kunt vinden, maar in elk geval niet mooi.

• Lou Reed in Heineken Music Hall

  • Oordeel van onze recensent
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  © anp.
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  © anp.

De 70-jarige Reed mag dan onderhand wat stram lopen, voor een vilein knietje in het kruis van zijn publiek is hij nooit te beroerd.

En tóch was het een memorabel avondje in de bijna volle Amsterdamse Music Hall, waar stoelen stonden en de bars dicht bleven, alsof er fragiele akoestische folk op het programma stond.

Krokodil
In plaats daarvan kwam Reed binnen met Brandenburger Gate, met de gezellige openingszin 'I would cut my legs and tits off', waarna de band zich op het nummer wierp als een krokodil vanuit een rietkraag.

Het werkte, zoals wel meer LULU-stukken dankzij Reeds uitstekende, zes man sterke band meeslepender klonken dan de albumversies met Metallica, zelfs het uitgesproken Metallica-achtige The View.

Reed hopte van mooi naar lelijk, joeg zijn gehoor van genot naar ergernis en weer terug, alsof de Music Hall een vijver vol ijsschotsen was. Cremation en het epische Berlin-sluitstuk Sad Song? Prachtig, met die viool. Maar waarom dan weer die ergerlijk stotterende saxofoon in het bij The Velvet Underground zo lekker droge I'm Waiting For The Man?

Inspiratie
De LULU-nummers zijn geen nummers om van te houden, maar juist in die stukken zagen weer eens een echt geïnspireerde Lou Reed, die echt samenspeelde met zijn bandleden, opging in de muziek en vurig zong. Zo kon het gebeuren dat de vier lange LULU-stukken (samen bijna een uur) opwindender waren om live mee te maken dan die plichtmatige uitvoering van Walk On The Wild Side (1972) waar alle seks was uitgewrongen, of die intens verveelde toegift Sweet Jane (1970).

Wat we er ook allemaal over denken: Reed zelf was in zijn nopjes en noemde de namen van al zijn bandleden tot tweemaal toe.

'Dank aan onze geweldige crew, de jongens die het harde werk doen,' vervolgde hij. 'Dank jullie wel voor de ontvangst. We houden van jullie en we hopen snel weer voor jullie te spelen.'

Hij zei het echt, de beruchtste chagrijn uit de rockgeschiedenis. Het was een vreemde avond.

Lou Reed
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam
14 juni

Moby Grape in 1969 in Europe - dates

Moby Grape - Dutch end of the European Tour dates in 1969 (revised by René Demets)

Here they are::
January 31, 1969 Middle Earth Club, London, England Moby Grape, Group Therapy (postponed until February 1)
February 1, 1969 Middle Earth Club, London, England Moby Grape, Jody Grind, Ice
February 4, 1969 Top Gear, BBC Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue, London, England Moby Grape
February 6, 1969 City Hall, Newcastle, England Moby Grape, The Nice (the show overruns and Moby Grape do not play)
February 8, 1969 The Place, Edinburgh, Scotland Moby Grape, Group Therapy
February 9, 1969 Copenhagen, Denmark Moby Grape, Group Therapy
February 10, 1969 Paris, France Moby Grape, Group Therapy
February 12, 1969 Stockholm, Sweden Moby Grape, Group Therapy
February 14, 1969 Mies Bouwman, Dutch Television Show, Netherlands Moby Grape, Group Therapy
February 15, 1969 Rai Congresgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands Moby Grape, Group Therapy
February 16, 1969 De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands Moby Grape, Group Therapy
Does anyone has more details?

OOR’s Indie Top 100: de volledige eindlijst!

07 Juni 2012

Daar is ie dan, de Indie Top 100. Met op 1 de nu al tijdloze debuutsingle van Arctic Monkeys, I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. Het nummer kreeg de meeste stemmen van alle 400 indiesongs die door de redactie van OOR en popjournalisten van Volkskrant, Revu, 3VOOR12 en verschillende Nederlandse indieblogs waren genomineerd.

Zie voor tekst en uitleg bij OOR’s Indie Top 100 OOR 6 (vanaf vandaag in de kiosk). In deze editie ook interviews met indie darlings Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand (op 2 met Take Me Out), Damon Albarn, Maxïmo Park en Deerhunter plus een groot historisch verhaal over de ultieme indieband, The Smiths.
Lezen doe in OOR 6, luisteren doe je hier: OOR's Indie Top 100. Alle 100 indie classics in een handzame Spotify-playlist. Wat wil je nog meer?
De volledige Top 100:
100 VOICST - EVERYDAY I WORK ON THE ROAD(GOODBUSY/PIAS 2008)
99 THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN - JUST LIKE HONEY (BLANCO Y NEGRO 1985)
98 PAVEMENT - GOLD SOUNDZ (MATADOR 1994)
97 GRANDADDY - A.M. 180 (BIG CAT 1997)
96 THE STROKES - MACHU PICCHU (RCA 2011)
95 THE LIBERTINES - TIME FOR HEROES (ROUGH TRADE 2002)
94 THE LIBERTINES - UP THE BRACKET (ROUGH TRADE 2002)
93 THE CHARLATANS - THE ONLY ONE I NOW (SITUATION TWO 1990)
92 NIRVANA - ABOUT A GIRL (SUB POP 1989)
91 BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB EVENING / MORNING (MMM... 2009)
90 BECK - THE NEW POLLUTION (GEFFEN 1995)
89 THE CURE - JUST LIKE HEAVEN (FICTION 1987)
88 BETTIE SERVEERT - KID’S ALLRIGHT (BRINKMAN 1992)
87 PHOENIX – LISZTOMANIA (GLASSNOTE 2009)
86 MY BLOODY VALENTINE - ONLY SHALLOW (CREATION 1991)
85 KAISER CHIEFS – RUBY (B-UNIQUE 2007)
84 INTERPOL - THE HEINRICH MANEUVER (CAPITOL 2007)
83 FRANZ FERDINAND - THIS FIRE (DOMINO 2004)
82 DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - SOUL MEETS BODY (ATLANTIC 2005)
81 BLUR - GIRLS AND BOYS (FOOD 1994)
80 PLACEBO - NANCY BOY (HUT 1997)
79 NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL - HOLLAND, 1945 (BLUE ROSE 1998)
78 BLUR - COFFEE AND TV (FOOD 1999)
77 THE POSTAL SERVICE - SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS (SUB POP 2003)
76 THE MACCABEES - PELICAN (POLYDOR 2011)
75 JOY DIVISION - ATMOSPHERE (FACTORY 1980)
74 JOHAN - DAY IS DONE (EXCELSIOR, 2001)
73 JOHAN - EVERYBODY KNOWS (EXCELSIOR 1996)
72 ALAMO RACE TRACK - BLACK CAT JOHN BROWN (EXCELSIOR 2006)
71 THE KOOKS - SHE MOVES IN HER OWN WAY (VIRGIN 2006)
70 R.E.M. - FALL ON ME (I.R.S. 1986)
69 KAISER CHIEFS - OH MY GOD (B-UNIQUE 2004)
68 FUGAZI - WAITING ROOM (DISCHORD 1989)
67 ARCTIC MONKEYS - A CERTAIN ROMANCE (DOMINO 2005)
66 PAVEMENT - CUT YOUR HAIR (MATADOR 1994)
65 THE STONE ROSES - I WANNA BE ADORED (SILVERTONE 1989)
64 PLACEBO - PURE MORNING (VIRGIN 1998)
63 THE VERVE - THE DRUGS DON’T WORK (HUT 1997)
62 THE KOOKS – NAÏVE (VIRGIN 2006)
61 BEACH HOUSE – NORWAY (SUB POP 2010)
60 THE DANDY WARHOLS - BOHEMIAN LIKE YOU (CAPITOL 2000)
59 THE DRUMS - LET’S GO SURFING (MOSHI MOSHI 2009)
58 SMASHING PUMPKINS - TODAY (VIRGIN 1993)
57 FOO FIGHTERS - LEARN TO FLY (RCA 1999)
56 THE BREEDERS – CANNONBALL (4AD 1993)
55 THE LEMONHEADS – CONFETTI (ATLANTIC 1992)
54 EELS - NOT READY YET (DREAMWORKS 1996)
53 MIDLAKE – ROSCOE (BELLA UNION 2006)
52 ARCTIC MONKEYS - FAKE TALES OF SAN FRANCISCO (DOMINO 2006)
51 THE SMITHS - THIS CHARMING MAN (ROUGH TRADE 1983)
50 SNOW PATROL – RUN (FICTION 2004)
49 dEUS - HOTELLOUNGE (BE THE DEATH OF ME) (BANG! 1994)
48 BLOC PARTY – HELICOPTER (WICHITA 1994)
47 ARCADE FIRE – INTERVENTION (MERGE 2007)
46 SIGUR RÓS - SVEFN-G-ENGLAR (FAT CAT 1999)
45 MOKE - HERE COMES THE SUMMER (PIAS 2007)
44 WILCO - I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART (NONESUCH 2002)
43 MAXÏMO PARK - APPLY SOME PRESSURE (WARP 2005)
42 GRIZZLY BEAR - TWO WEEKS (WARP 2009)
41KAISER CHIEFS - I PREDICT A RIOT (B-UNIQUE 2005)
40 ARCADE FIRE - NO CARS GO (MERGE 2007)
39 THE SMITHS - HOW SOON IS NOW? (ROUGH TRADE 1985)
38 THE SHINS - NEW SLANG (SUB POP 2001)
37 PIXIES - MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN (4AD 1989)
36 THE CURE - BOYS DON’T CRY (FICTION 1979)
35 RADIOHEAD- IDIOTEQUE (PARLOPHONE 2000)
34 PULP - COMMON PEOPLE (ISLAND 1995)
33 MOSS - I APOLOGISE (DEAR SIMON) (EXCELSIOR 2009)
32 BUFFALO TOM - TAILLIGHTS FADE (SITUATION TWO 1992)
31 SPINVIS – BAGAGEDRAGER (EXCELSIOR 2002)
30 RADIOHEAD – CREEP (PARLOPHONE 1992)
29 THE VERVE - BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY (HUT 1997)
28 THE LA’S - THERE SHE GOES (GO DISCS 1988)
27 JOY DIVISION - SHE’S LOST CONTROL (FACTORY 1979)
26 DINOSAUR JR - FREAK SCENE (SST 1988)
25 INTERPOL - OBSTACLE 1 (MATADOR 2002)
24 SMASHING PUMPKINS - CHERUB ROCK (HUT 1993)
23 PIXIES - DEBASER (4AD 1989)
22 THE SMITHS - BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN (ROUGH TRADE 1986)
21 ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS (MERGE 2010)
20 BECK – LOSER (GEFFEN 1993)
19 NIRVANA - COME AS YOU ARE (SUB POP/GEFFEN 1992)
18 BLOC PARTY – BANQUET (WICHITA 2005)
17 THE NATIONAL - BLOODBUZZ OHIO(4AD 2010)
16 RADIOHEAD - KARMA POLICE (PARLOPHONE 1997)
15 RADIOHEAD - STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT) (PARLOPHONE 1995)
14 VAMPIRE WEEKEND - A-PUNK (XL 2008)
13 THE STONE ROSES - FOOLS GOLD (SILVERTONE 1989)
12 NIRVANA - SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT (SUB POP/GEFFEN 1991)
11 SONIC YOUTH - TEEN AGE RIOT (BLAST FIRST 1988)
10 NEW ORDER - BLUE MONDAY (FACTORY 1983)
09 THE SMITHS - THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT (ROUGH TRADE 1986)
08 BLUR - SONG 2 (FOOD 1997)
07 THE WHITE STRIPES - SEVEN NATION ARMY (XL 2003)
06 dEUS - SUDS & SODA (BANG! 1994)
05 EDITORS – MUNICH (KITCHENWARE 2005)
04 THE STROKES - LAST NITE (RCA 2001)
03 JOY DIVISION - LOVE WILL TEAR US APART (FACTORY 1980)
02 FRANZ FERDINAND - TAKE ME OUT (DOMINO 2004)
01 ARCTIC MONKEYS - I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR (DOMINO 2005)

Pieces Of The Sky: The Legacy Of Gram Parsons

Pieces Of The Sky: The Legacy Of Gram Parsons

By Davis Inman May 18th, 2012 at 7:00 am

(Photo: Robert Altman)
Gram Parsons is often credited with the creation of country-rock, and his influence hovers over a huge cross section of songwriters and musicians today – from those who worked with him like Emmylou Harris and Chris Hillman, to modern rock and rollers like Ryan Adams and Jeff Tweedy.
“Every single generation has an amazing legion of young people that are so dedicated to Gram,” says his daughter Polly Parsons, who now runs the Gram Parsons Foundation in her father’s honor.
Maybe part of what attracts us to Gram today is his mysteriousness. There’s very little video footage of him. In one clip, from the Maysles Brothers’ film Gimme Shelter, he’s on stage with The Flying Burrito Brothers at the infamous Altamont concert singing the trucker anthem, “Six Days On The Road.” In another video, a promo shot by A&M Records in 1969 for the Burritos’ first single “Christine’s Tune,” he’s strumming a Telecaster and wearing his famous Nudie suit, looking waifish and feminine.
An enigmatic but dedicated artist, Parsons was on a mission to share a new type of music with the world. “It’s hard to describe how deeply Gram loved his music,” writes Keith Richards in his autobiography, Life. “He had one foot in country and one in rock and roll,” says Emmylou Harris. “I think they were both very real for him because of his upbringing and his generation.”
“I think pure country includes rock and roll. I don’t think you have to call it country-rock,” Parsons once said. “I was brought up in the South. I never knew the difference between gospel music and country music. It was all the same to me.”
*****
“We were rock kids into [R&B] music, or whatever you called it at the time,” says Luke Lewis, who went to high school with Parsons at Jacksonville’s Bolles School, and is now President of Universal Music Nashville. In 1962, while they were at Bolles, Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds In Country & Western was released, and it had a big influence on both of them. “It was probably the first time either of us had a clue about country music.”
Lewis lost touch with Gram after high school, but later founded the revered record label Lost Highway, which has been home to artists like Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, and Johnny Cash.
“We were just kids. I taught him how to surf at Ponte Vedra beach,” remembers Lewis. “Gram was one of those guys who we thought, ‘This guy is gonna be a star.’ You could tell he was gifted and special and was totally dedicated to it. He had whatever ‘it’ is, which is sort of magnetic. He was a reader and had taken piano lessons. He was really musical and literate. And he had tragic stuff happen to him when he was really young.”
******
In 1966, Gram moved to Los Angeles, after dropping out of Harvard, where he’d studied theology. The Los Angeles of the late 1960s that attracted him was already ripe for a fusion of country music and rock and roll.
Al Perkins came to California from Texas in the late ‘60s with a band called Shiloh (whose drummer was future Eagle Don Henley), and would later join The Flying Burrito Brothers. He also played pedal steel on Gram’s two solo records, GP and Grievous Angel.
“Back then, they knew when a longhaired steel guitar player crossed the state line, so I got a few calls from people who were doing this new edgy country,” recalls Perkins. “They weren’t calling it any specific thing but it was a very creative time and it was in the air.”
In a few years, Jerry Garcia would play pedal steel on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Teach Your Children,” and the Grateful Dead would release the country music-indebted Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. Bands like Poco, Country Joe McDonald and The Fish, and Dillard and Clark were also incubating in the country-rock scene.
By July 1967, Gram and his Harvard friend Jon Nuese had begun recording tracks like “Blue Eyes” that would end up on Safe At Home, The International Submarine Band’s debut album (Nuese and Parsons formed the band in 1965). But by the time the album came out in March 1968, Gram had already joined The Byrds.
“My instinct says that he knew he had a lot to do in a very short time,” says Polly Parsons. “I can’t help but think he really had some type of profound knowledge that he wasn’t going to be here for a long time.”
We were spinning our wheels, to use Roger [McGuinn]’s phrase, and here comes Gram,” says Chris Hillman, The Byrds original bassist, who grew up playing bluegrass and folk music, and only became a rock musician after the band plugged in. Hillman invited Parsons to join the band as a replacement for David Crosby, and found an ally in Gram as someone who shared his love of country music. (Click here to read Hillman’s take on several songs he co-wrote with Parsons.)
In 1968, The Byrds went to Columbia Record’s recording studio on Music Row in Nashville to begin work on Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. Gram’s composition “Hickory Wind” would feature country session players like Lloyd Green on pedal steel, and bluegrass legend John Hartford on fiddle. Their appearance at the Grand Ole Opry caused controversy when Parsons decided to sing “Hickory Wind” for his grandmother in the audience, instead of the agreed upon Merle Haggard cover “Sing Me Back Home.”
Lewis, who is now one of the major brokers of country music, overseeing records by artists like George Strait and Sugarland, compares Parson’s version of country then to alt-country today. “I don’t know that he found Nashville a warm and fuzzy place, considering what he was doing.”
What Sweatheart Of The Rodeo did do, according to Hillman, was “open the floodgates to the country-rock genre.”
******
By the fall of 1968, Gram and Hillman had both left the Byrds and were living in a house together in the San Fernando Valley, writing songs for what would become the Burritos’ first album, Gilded Palace Of Sin, which was released in February 1969 on A&M.
“I had two great years with Gram,” says Hillman. “Gram was on top of his game. He was fun to work with. Gram as a songwriter had an amazingly bright and funny way of looking at things. For two years we were like brothers.
“Here we were living together in this San Fernando Valley house, both coming off failed relationships. We had this bond together and we started writing songs.”
The duo penned classics like “Christine’s Tune” and “Sin City.”  Hillman says Gram opened him up to new musical approaches by choosing interesting material like the soul song “Do Right Woman (Do Right Man).”
“It was Aretha Franklin’s big song at the time, but we did it country. That was the genius of Parsons. He got me into looking beyond the country parameters into R&B and making that work. That was really brilliant.”
Writer Stanley Booth chronicles this period of the Burritos in his book, True Adventures Of The Rolling Stones. Around this time, Gram began hanging out with the Stones, who were living at 14 Oriole Drive in Los Angeles and finishing Let It Bleed while rehearsing for their U.S. tour in November.
Gram and the Burritos were playing honky-tonks around L.A., to small but faithful audiences. Booth describes a night of watching the Burrito Brothers at Huntington Beach’s Golden Bear venue. “You all are really going to be a success,” Booth told Parsons after the first set. “I think we already are,” replied Gram.
“There were a lot of guys out here in California in the late ‘60s – singer-songwriters like Glenn Frey, John David Souther, Don Henley,” remembers Hillman. “All these guys would come watch The Flying Burrito Brothers play. I remember Glenn would come and sit in the audience and watch us.
“The greatest legacy of the Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram is we were the alternative country band. We couldn’t get on country radio and we couldn’t get on rock radio! We were the outlaw country band for a brief period,” says Hillman.
******
In the summer of 1971, Gram joined Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones at the Villa Nellcôte in southern France, as they began work on their classic album, Exile On Main Street.
“I just had the feeling this man was about to come out with something remarkable,” writes Keith Richards of their time together in France. Gram had some of the material that would later be released on his solo albums, but mostly the two of them sang and played classic country songs together.
While Gram had found an able partner in Hillman, and a brother in Richards, another enduring musical partnership was with a young Washington, D.C.-based folk singer named Emmylou Harris, whom he met in 1972.
“I was at the train station in Washington, D.C., and I picked him and [his wife] Gretchen up,” remembers Harris. “They had come in from Baltimore where he had been playing with The Flying Burrito Brothers. We went to my show and I think in between sets we sang a few songs in the basement of this place called Clyde’s. And he just said, ‘You’ll hear from me.’ It took a year to get the recording sessions together. Finally, I got a plane ticket in the mail.”
In late 1972, Gram brought together some of the players from Elvis Presley’s TCB Band, including pianist and arranger Glen D. Hardin and guitarist James Burton, to begin work on GP, his solo debut.
“We just played what we felt. [Gram] wanted everyone to just do what they did,” recalls Al Perkins, who played pedal steel.
To Perkins, the sound of both GP and Grievous Angel, often considered high-water marks in country-rock music, were Gram’s way of bringing together his love of Elvis with his love of country music.
“He loved the plaintiveness of country music and loved the fire that Elvis had. Some of these [session musicians] were associated with country music before they played with Elvis, but they still have this drive and fiery feel to their music, sometimes with the extreme up-tempo feel to the music that Elvis would do.”
On the cover of GP, released in January 1973, Gram looks out from a chair at the Chateau Marmont. He’s more fat-Elvis than the comely cherub from the A&M promos; the light pours in from the open window, and he looks healthy and happy.
One of the most poignant songs Gram ever wrote is “A Song For You” from GP. In a radio interview, Gram describes it as “a love song having to do with an area sort of like the one I came from in the South, the swampland, about somebody who just can’t stick around too long.”
“Take me down to your dance floor/ I won’t mind the people when they stare,” goes the chorus. In a 1973 review in Rolling Stone, Bud Scoppa said it was the saddest song he’d ever heard.
******
In 1973, Gram put together a road band he dubbed the Fallen Angels, including Emmylou Harris on acoustic guitar and vocals. They played shows throughout the Midwest, Texas, South, and East Coast. “People who saw that tour I think would remember it as a magical experience. It certainly was for me,” says Harris.
Harris remembers the early days as being more like jam sessions led by Gram. “He knew every country song. When we were rehearsing for the tour, we never worked up a single song. Gram would just go on to another song. We kinda of touched on songs on the record, but he was always playing other things and always moving on to the next thing. We actually got fired from our first gig because we didn’t have any beginnings, middles, or endings to any of the songs. After that, it was a wakeup call. So we had what is known as a rehearsal and worked up arrangements of the songs. Then it was amazing from there.
“Gram was really together. He was amazing on stage – an amazing presence and totally focused. We just sang and sang and sang. When we weren’t on stage we were just always working up something new. I was learning all these country songs. I was like a religious convert. I couldn’t get enough.”
In the summer of 1973, Parsons reconvened many of the same players from GP and began sessions for Grievous Angel in L.A. Harris says after the tour she and Gram were ready and focused. But Parsons would never see the album’s release. After the basic sessions had finished, he took a trip out to the desert and on September 19, 1973, he died of a drug overdose in Room 8 of the Joshua Tree Inn, at the of age 26.
 ******
“I feel like Gram was ahead of his time,” says Jim Lauderdale on a rainy day in Nashville. “GP and Grievous Angel are such touchstones. It just all came together in my mind on those two records. With the pickers, the material, Emmylou. They’re just classic records.”
“I only knew Gram for a very short year. I think music was a great comfort to him and how he dealt with the world,” says Harris. “It’s hard for me to be objective about it because he had such a huge influence on me. I can’t imagine if I’d have even ended up being an artist if I hadn’t met Gram.”
“I owe Gram a lot and so does Emmy,” says Hillman. “He influenced all of us. I’m just sad that we lost him so young.”
Hillman, who became a Christian later on, says that the songs he and Gram wrote had an inherent spirituality, a yearning for something that they perhaps weren’t fully aware of yet. “I think we both [had a spiritual life] or we would never have even gone there. It was sort of tongue-in-cheek but it also wasn’t,” he says about songs like “Wheels” and “Sin City.”
“He would be here right now if he’d have found what he was looking for,” Hillman reflects at the end of our conversation.
In five short years, Gram Parsons recorded six albums that have attained near mythical status: The International Submarine Band’s Safe At Home; The Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo; two Flying Burrito Brothers albums and two solo albums.
“His songs were deep and dark. There aren’t many country hits lately that are dark,” says Luke Lewis. “There are albums that endure, but not many. And he had them.”