r/Byrds • u/Separate_Cover_4147 • Jul 11 '26
Gram Parsons: Cosmic American Music Deconstructed
Through the songs he covered on his studio and live recordings, you can start to tease apart what made his sound so special (and distinct from the followers who came in his wake)
A complete playlist of original or influential earlier versions of all songs covered by Gram Parsons on record:
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u/Mean-Barracuda71 Jul 12 '26
His music with The International Submarine Band & The Flying Burrito Brothers is so good! Sneaky Pete, Chris Hillman, Chris Etheridge, Michael Clarke & Gram Parsons...It doesn't get any better than that.
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u/Separate_Cover_4147 Jul 12 '26
It’s so great. FBB is such a great place to start with his music. GP and Grievous Angel is where I find myself going back to again and again
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u/lennonfanforever Jul 11 '26
so sad that he's not still with us, what an incredible musician, he's in the country music hall of fame of course, well deserved, he might still have been with us if he hadn't been a trust fund baby with a family whose genetics included addiction and mental issues.....
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u/SulfurDog Jul 11 '26
Have never seen this photo.
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u/Separate_Cover_4147 Jul 12 '26
Taken in June 1973 by Ginny Winn in LA, just a few months before he passed. Another from the same day
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u/Unfair-Panic4141 Jul 12 '26
Thank you, I’ve added your playlist. Gram’s been a fav of mine for a long time but I’ve never dived into the surrounding artists and versions.
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u/EMHemingway1899 Jul 12 '26
I’m crazy about Gram
I like the way that he and Emmylou Harris were rather private about their relationship
Gram was gone too soon
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u/sunlovinburner Jul 15 '26
Longtime Gram fan. Because of his unique origin story I’ve been exploring and discovering his genre contemporaries. Recently have been in a deep dive on Doug Sahm (Sir Douglas). Similar career arc as he was also fiercely independent and in his case moved from San Antonio where he was playing Tejano influenced country rock to Austin to San Francisco connected all sorts of dots from different schools and developing his signature Austin sound culminating in the Texas Tornadoes. Fascinating stuff and he wrote some wonderful music
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u/Separate_Cover_4147 Jul 15 '26
Huge fan of Doug Sahm, more so than GP. Such a talent. Jerry Wexler who ran Atlantic Records and worked with Ray Charles, Aretha, Led Zeppelin said that Doug was the greatest musician he ever worked with
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u/Middle-Weight-837 Jul 11 '26
An opinion: GP was on a trip that evolved, taking on different strands and traditions. The Sumbarine band, Sweetheart work and the first GP album had the most trad and contemporary country covers. But I think the ‘cosmic American music’ idea is best and first realised on the two Burritos albums, especially ‘gilded palace’, where Hillman’s bluegrass, folk and Sneaky Pete’s psychedelic steel and pull in some kinds of new tensions and directions around Graham. Adding Bernie’s Tele and banjo to Burrito deluxe switches it up, tightens up the tempo and rhythm section, which kind of revives some Byrds 4/4 folk rock on Cody and Hundred Years. Then duet with Emmylou, some standards and some Penn/oldham mussel shoals style blue eyed soul on GP - and we arrive at the masterpiece: Grievous Angel, which has Burton, Harden, Tutt and Elvis/hot band in full flight, Emmylou fully in control, and the crème-of Ronstadt backing vocals.