Gram Parsons' Disastrous Career Made Him a Legend

2/1/2021

Host Nate Wilcox welcomes Gram Parsons biographer David N. Meyer to discuss his book: "Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music."

The interview covers Parsons' tragic life and innovative music. Nate and David discuss Gram's unique family circumstances, his beginnings as a teen rocker, transition to wannabe folkie, the International Submarine Band, the Byrds & Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris and Parson's tragic death.

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6 Comments

The Reverend Dr.Baz Hunt

3/25/2021 01:06:11 am

Thanks very much for your podcasts - both informative & entertaining.
A few points
1) The Beatles recorded 2 Larry Williams songs, so I would contest the assumption that he was an unknown.
2) The name The Flying Burrito Bros.was stolen from a loose group of players who played impromto gigs just for the fun of it. They were pissed off when GP stole the name.
3) Gram teaming up with Rick Grech was akin to Gene Clark working with Jesse Ed Davis - he was a notorious substance abuser.
4) I seem to recall that The Bryds London gig with Gram & Doug Dillard got rave reviews.
5) The Gilded Palace Of Sin received an excellent review by Stanley Booth in Rolling Stone.
6) Chris Hillman came from Bluegrass & probably knew as much about country music as Gram.
7) How could you not mention Gram singing Wild Horses & to tie in with your Bee Gees podcast, he does a decent job of To Love Somebody.
8) I purchased my copy of TGPOS in 1969 for 15 shillings - it was an American Import which the record shop couldn`t sell.
9) For me, of GP`s solo albums I always prefer the first.

Nate Wilcox link

3/25/2021 05:08:09 pm

thanks for listening and commenting!

1) fair enough
2) David mentions this in the book
3) ouch
4) interesting. do you happen to remember which publications?
5) Waycross boys looking out for one another!
6) true
7) For whatever reason David isn't a fan of FBB's version of Wild Horses so I let it lie. Good point on "To Love Somebody"
8)very cool
9)I think I agree

Rev.Dr.Baz Hunt

3/28/2021 01:18:52 am

The only music papers in those days were the NME, Melody Maker, Record Mirror & Disc - none of which offered any substantive journalism. So I don`t know where I heard about it but the fact that I knew Doug Dilliard played electric banjo with them would suggest that I got my information from somewhere. I have, what purports to be a legimate CD of them playing in Rome on the same tour. I think it was recorded by someone ooutside the venue - yes, the sound quality is not good but you can discern that the band are sounding okay.
Me & a friend took a week off school & travelled to London to see The Bryds at The Speakeasy (this was 1966/67 as Crosby was still in the group). We couldn`t find the club & I don`t think they would have let us in as we were underage & the club was a favourite with the in-crowd. Whilst wandering around London we came across a club called Tiles, they weren`t particular about who they let in so in we went & saw an early performance by The Move, this was when they smashed up televisions on stage & were the talk of the town.
Speaking of the esteemed Mr Booth, he got in toouch in touch with me on facebook after I wrote about my visit to an Opium Den - he enquired whether opium was still available these days, I felt very honoured.

Nathan Wilcox link

3/28/2021 03:07:15 pm

That's really cool. I love the Move. I would love to have seen their original line-up with Ace Kefford especially.
Quite an honor to receive such an inquiry from Stanley!

Rev. Dr.Baz Hunt

3/28/2021 11:14:48 pm

Funnily enough I was going to mention Ace Kefford but wasn`t sure if you would know who is was.My compadre on that adventure was an inspiring bassist & worshipped Ace.
I mean the name, the look, could he be any cooler?
I can`t think of another combo (that includes The Beatles & Stones) whose first 4 singles were uniformly excellent
Night Of Fear
I Can Hear The Grass Grow
Flowers In The Rain / Lemon Tree
& my favourite Fire Brigade - excellent lyrics.
Special mention for Walk Upon The Water- great tune & sung Toff accents & Bev`s version of Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart, so bad it`s brilliant.
I think the original line-up were bound to implode
Singer Carl Wayne wanted to be a MOR singer
Ace took too many drugs
Trevor Burton seemed content to underplay his talent.
The Move with Jeff Lynne had their moments - Do The Brontosaurus.but I didn`t like ELO or Wizzard.
The Move came from Birmingham & their accents are the second worst in the world (Afikaans being the first by a long margin).

Nate Wilcox link

3/29/2021 10:26:33 am

Yea I definitely love the early Move stuff the most. My heart is still broken about them losing the master tapes of their first album and never recovering them.
That line-up was definitely not built to last. It's too bad. Both they and their West Coast American counterpart Moby Grape dramatically under-performed against their potential and hard rock with harmonies never really recovered (Badfinger and Big Star tried their best though).

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Let It Roll is a series of in-depth interviews with music writers like Ed Ward, Robert Gordon, Paul Trynka, Peter Doggett, Elijah Wald and more.
We're slowly but surely putting together a history of popular music in America with a focus on the social, technological and business forces that drive the culture.

Gram Parsons' Disastrous Career Made Him a Legend

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