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GRAM PARSONS…INNOVATIVE, UNSUNG PIONEER LEFT US AT AGE 26

December 21, 2018 — Leave a comment

Ingram Cecil Connor III was born on November 5, 1946, in Winter Haven, Florida. Connor (1923–1965). The Connors normally resided at their main residence in Wycross, Georgia but Avis traveled to her hometown in Florida to give birth. She was the daughter of citrus fruit magnate John Snively who held extensive properties in Winter Haven and in Waycross. The senior Ingram Connor was a famous World War 11 Flying Ace, decorated with the air Medal who was present at the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. Biographer David Meyer characterized these parents as loving; he wrote in Twenty Thousand Roads that they are “remembered as affectionate parents and a loving couple”.

However, he also notes that “unhappiness was eating away at the Connor family”: Avis suffered from depression, and both parents were alcoholics. Ingram Connor committed suicide two days before Christmas in 1958, devastating the 12-year-old Gram and his younger sister, Little Avis. Avis subsequently married Robert Parsons, who adopted Gram and his sister; they took his surname.

Gram Parsons briefly attended the Bolles School in Jacksonville before transferring to the public Winter Haven High School after failing his junior year, he returned to Bolles (which had converted from a military to a liberal arts curriculum amid the incipient Vietnam War). For a time, the family found a stability of sorts. The family was torn apart in early 1965, when Robert became embroiled in an extramarital affair and Avis’ heavy drinking led to her death from cirrohsis on June 5, 1965, the day of Gram’s graduation from Bolles.

As his family disintegrated around him, Parsons developed strong musical interests, particularly after seeing Elvis Presley perform in concert on February 22, 1956, in Waycross. Five years later, while barely in his teens, he played in cover bands such as the Pacers and the Legends, headlining in clubs owned by his stepfather in the Winter Haven/Polk County area. By the age of 16, he graduated to folk music and in 1963 he teamed with his first professional outfit, the Shilos. Heavily influenced by The Kingston Trio and The Journeymen, the band played coffee House and high school auditoriums; as Parsons was still enrolled in prep school, he only performed with the group in select engagements. Forays into New York City (where Parsons briefly lived with a female folk singer in a loft on Houston Street) included a performance at Florida’s exhibition in the 1964 World’s Fair and regular appearances at the Café Rafio in Greenwich Village in the summer of 1964. Although John Phillips (an acquaintance of Shilo George Wrigley) arranged an exploratory meeting with albert Grossman the impresario balked at booking the group for a Christmas engagement at The Bitter End when he discovered that the Shilos were high school students. Following a recording session at the radio station of Bob Jone Uniersity the group dissolved in the spring of 1965.

Despite his middling grades and test scores, Parsons was admitted to Harvard’s class of 1969 on the basis of a strong admissions essay. Although he claimed to have studied theology Parsons seldom attended his general education courses before departing in early 1966 after one semester. He did not become seriously interest in country music until his time at Harvard, where he heard Merle Haggard for the first time.

By 1968, Parsons had come to the attention of Chris Hillman of the Byrds, via business manager Larry Spector as a possible replacement band member following the departures of David Crosby and Michael Clarke from the group in late 1967. Parsons had been acquainted with Hillman since the pair had met in a bank during 1967 and in February 1968 he passed an audition for the band.

Although Parsons was an equal contributor to the band, he was not regarded as a full member of The Byrds by the band’s label, Columbia Records.  Consequently, when the Byrds’ Columbia recording contract was renewed on February 29, 1968, it was only original members Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillaman who signed it. Parsons, was hired as a sideman and received a salary from McGuinn and Hillman. In later years, this led Hillman to state, “Gram was hired. He was not a member of The Byrds, ever. He was on salary, that was the only way we could get him to turn up. However, these comments overlook the fact that Parsons, like Kelley, was considered a bona fide member of the band during 1968 and, as such, was given equal billing alongside McGuinn, Hillman, and Kelley on the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album and in contemporary press coverage of the band.

“Being with The Byrds confused me a little. I couldn’t find my place. I didn’t have enough say-so. I really wasn’t one of The Byrds. I was originally hired because they wanted a keyboard player. But I had experience being a frontman and that came out immediately. And [Roger McGuinn] being a very perceptive fellow saw that it would help the act, and he started sticking me out front.”

—Gram Parsons reflecting on his time with The Byrds

Sweetheart of the Rodeo was originally conceived by band leader Roger McGuinn as a sprawling, history of American Popular Music. It was to begin with bluegrass, then move through country and western, jazz rhythm and blues and rock before finally ending with the most advanced (for the time) form of electronic music However, as recording plans were made, Parsons exerted a controlling influence over the group, persuading the other members to leave Los Angeles and record the album in Nashville, Tennessee.

Along the way, McGuinn’s original album concept was jettisoned in favor of a full-fledged country project, which included Parsons’ songs such as “One Hundred Years from Now” and “Hickory Wind along with compositions by Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard, and others.

Recording sessions for Sweetheart of the Rodeo commenced at Columbia Records’ in Nashville on March 9, 1968. Midway through, the sessions moved to Columbia Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles. They finally came to a close on May 27, 1968. However, Parsons was still under contract to LHI Records and consequently, they contested Parsons’ appearance on the album and threatened legal action. As a result, McGuinn ended up replacing three of Parsons’ vocals with his own singing on the finished album, a move that still rankled Parsons as late as 1973, when he told Cameron Crowe in an interview that McGuinn “erased it and did the vocals himself and fucked it up.” However, Parsons is still featured as lead vocalist on the songs “You’re Still on My Mind”, “Life in Prison”, and “Hickory Wind”.

While in England with The Byrds in the summer of 1968, Parsons left the band due to his concerns over a planned tour of South Africa, and after speaking to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards about the tour, he cited opposition to that country’s apartheid policies. There has been some doubt expressed by Hillman over the sincerity of Parsons’ protest. It appears that Parsons was mostly apolitical.

During this period, Parsons became acquainted with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Immediately after leaving the band, Parsons stayed at Richards’ house and the pair developed a close friendship over the next few years, with Parsons reintroducing the guitarist to country music. According to Stones’ confidant and close friend of Parsons, Phil Kaufman, the two would sit around for hours playing obscure country records and trading off on various songs with their guitars.

Returning to Los Angeles, Parsons sought out Hillman, and the two formed The Flying Burrito Brothers. Their 1969 album The Gilded Palace of Sin marked the culmination of Parsons’ post-1966 musical vision: a modernized variant of the Bakersfield Sound that was popularized Buck Owens. The band appeared on the album cover wearing Nudie suits emblazoned with all sorts of hippie accoutrements, including marijuana, Tuinal and Seconal -inspired patches on Parsons’ suit.

While unsuccessful from a commercial standpoint, the album was measured as “an ominous, obsessive, tongue-in-cheek country-rock synthesis, absorbing rural and urban, traditional and contemporary, at point of impact.” Embarking on a cross-country tour via train, as Parsons suffered from periodic bouts of fear of flying, the group squandered most of their money in a perpetual poker game and received bewildered reactions in most cities.

Parsons was frequently indulging in massive quantities of cocaine, so his performances were erratic at best, while much of the band’s repertoire consisted of vintage honky Tonk and soul standards with few originals. Perhaps the most successful appearance occurred in Philadelphia, where the group opened for the reconstituted Byrds. Midway through their set, Parsons joined the headline act and fronted his former group on renditions of “Hickory Wind” and “You Don’t Miss Your Water”. The other Burritos surfaced and the joint aggregation played several songs, including “Long Black Veil” and “Goin’ Back”.

By this time, Parsons’s own use of drugs had increased so much that new songs were rare and much of his time was diverted to partying with the Stones, who briefly relocated to America in the summer of 1969 to finish their forthcoming Let It Bleed album and prepare for an autumn cross-country tour, their first series of regular live engagements in over two years. As they prepared to play the nation’s largest basketball arenas and early stadium concerts, the Burritos played to dwindling nightclub audiences; on one occasion, Jagger had to beseech Parsons to fulfill an obligation to his group. As Parsons “became a trust-fund baby when he came of age,” he was still receiving about $30,000 per year (equivalent to $210,000 in 2018) from his family trust during this period, “distinguishing him from his many hungry, hard-scrabble peers.”

However, the singer’s dedication to the Rolling Stones was rewarded when the Burrito Brothers were booked as one of the acts at the Altamont Music Festival. Playing a short set including “Six Days on the Road” and “Bony Moronie”, Parsons left on one of the final helicopters and attempted to seduce Micelle Phillips “Six Days…” was included in Gimmee Shelter,a documentary of the event.

He then accompanied the Rolling Stones on their 1971 tour in the hope of being signed to the newly formed Rolling Stones Records; by this juncture, Parsons and Richards had mulled the possibility of recording a duo album. Moving with the guitarist during the sessions for Exile On Main Street that commenced thereafter, Parsons remained in a consistently incapacitated state and frequently quarreled with his much younger girlfriend, aspiring actress Gretchen Burrell. Eventually, Parsons was asked to leave by Anita Pallenberg, Richards’ longtime domestic partner. Decades later, Richards suggested in his memoir that Jagger may have been the impetus for Parsons’ departure because Richards was spending so much time playing music with Parsons. Rumors have persisted that he appears somewhere on the legendary album, and while Richards concedes that it is very likely he is among the chorus of singers on “Sweet Virginia”, this has never been substantiated. Parsons attempted to rekindle his relationship with the band on their next American tour to no avail.

After leaving the Stones’ camp, Parsons married Burrell in 1971 at his stepfather’s New Orleans estate. Allegedly, the relationship was far from stable, with Burrell cutting a needy and jealous figure while Parsons quashed her burgeoning film career. Many of the singer’s closest associates and friends claim that Parsons was preparing to commence divorce proceedings at the time of his death; the couple had already separated by this point.

Parsons and Burrell enjoyed the most idyllic time of their relationship in the second half of 1971, visiting old cohorts in England. With the assistance of a doctor who also dabbled in country music, Parsons eventually stopped taking heroin. He returned to the US for a one-off concert with the Burritos, and at Hillman’s request went to hear Emmylou Harris sing in a small club in Washington, DC. They befriended each other and, within a year, he asked her to join him in Los Angeles for another attempt to record his first solo album. It came as a surprise to many when Parsons was enthusiastically signed to Reprise Records by Mo Ostin in mid-1972. The ensuingGP(1973) featured several members of Elvis Presley’s TCB band led by lead guitarist James Burton. It included six new songs from a creatively revitalized Parsons alongside several country covers.

Parsons, by now featuring Harris as his duet partner, toured across the United States as Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels in February-March 1973. Unable to afford the services of the TCB Band for a month. The touring party also included Gretchen Parsons—by this point extremely envious of Harris—and Harris’ young daughter.

Coordinating the spectacle as road manager Phil Kaufman who first met Parsons while working for the Stones in 1968. Kaufman ensured that the performer stayed away from substance abuse, limiting his alcohol intake during shows and throwing out any drugs smuggled into hotel rooms. At first, the band was under-rehearsed and played poorly; however, they improved markedly with steady gigging and received rapturous responses at several leading venues.

According to a number of sources, it was Harris who forced the band to practice and work up an actual set list. Nevertheless, the tour failed to galvanize sales of GP, which never charted.

For his next and final album, 1974’s posthumously released, Greivous Angel, he again used Harris and members of the TCB Band for the sessions. The record received even more enthusiastic reviews than had GP, and has since attained classic status. Its most celebrated song is a Parsons-Harris duet cover of “Love Hurts” a song that remains in Harris’ solo repertoire. Notable Parsons-penned songs included “$1000 Wedding,” a holdover from the Burrito Brothers era, and “Brass Buttons,” a 1965 opus that addressed his mother’s alcoholism. A new version of “Hickory Wind” was included, while “Ooh Las Vegas,” co-written with Grech, dated from the GPsessions. Parsons was highly enthused with his new sound and seemed to have finally adopted a diligent mindset to his musical career, limiting his intake of alcohol and opiates during most of the sessions.

In the summer of 1973, Parsons’ home burned to the ground, the result of a stray cigarette. Nearly all of his possessions were destroyed with the exception of a guitar and a prized Jaguar automobile. The fire proved to be the last straw in the relationship between Burrell and Parsons, who moved into a spare room in Kaufman’s house.

Before formally breaking up with Burrell, Parsons already had a woman waiting in the wings. While recording, he saw a photo of a beautiful woman at a friend’s home and was instantly smitten. The woman turned out to be Margaret Fisher, a high school sweetheart of the singer from his Waycross, Georgia days. Like Parsons, Fisher had drifted west and became established in the Bay Area rock scene. A meeting was arranged and the two instantly rekindled their relationship, with Fisher dividing her weeks between Los Angeles and San Francisco at Parsons’ expense.

 In the late 1960s, Parsons became enamored of and began to vacation at Joshua Tree National Monument where he frequently partook in drugs. After splitting from Burrell, Parsons often spent his weekends in the area with Margaret Fisher and Phil Kaufman, with whom he had been living. Scheduled to resume touring in October 1973, Parsons decided to go on another recuperative excursion on September 17. Accompanying him were Fisher, personal assistant Michael Martin, and Dale McElroy, Martin’s girlfriend. Kaufman later declared that Parsons’ attorney was preparing divorce papers for him to serve to Burrell while the singer remained in Joshua Tree on September 20.

During the trip, Parsons often retreated to the desert. On both nights of their stay, Parsons consumed alcohol and barbiturates in high amounts. On September 18, Martin drove back to Los Angeles to resupply the group with marijuana. That night, after challenging Fisher and McElroy to drink with him he said, “I’ll drink for the three of us,” and proceeded to drink six double tequilas. They then returned to the Joshua Tree Inn, where Parsons purchased morphine from an unknown young woman. After being injected by her in room #8, he overdosed. Fisher gave Parsons a cold shower. Instead of moving Parsons around the room, she put him to bed and went out to buy coffee in the hope of reviving him, leaving McElroy to stand watch. As his respiration became irregular and later ceased, McElroy attempted resuscitation. Her efforts failed and Fisher, watching from outside, was visibly alarmed. After further failed attempts, they decided to call an ambulance. Parsons was declared dead on his arrival at High Desert Memorial Hospital at 12:15 a.m. on September 19, 1973 in Yucca Valley. The official cause of death at age 26 was an overdose of morphine and alcohol.

Here is Gram and Emmylou with Love Hurts. Enjoy (or not).

https://youtu.be/OBnRfjb488A

https://youtu.be/OBnRfjb488A

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