Having been fired from the Burritos, Gram struck out on his own and quickly landed a contract to record a solo record for A&M. However, the project stalled due to his drug and alcohol abuse and the plug was eventaully pulled by A&M. Gram quickly landed on his feet - this time in London with old pal Keef, where he continued to tutor his friend in all things country music (and all things drugs/acohol). In 1970-71, Gram along with his girlfriend Gretchen Burell, managed to make his way to France's Mediterranean coast, where he became Keef's houseguest at Nellcote as the Stones recorded Exile on Main Street. He is rumored to have contributed backup vocals on Sweet Virginia, and really, do you think the country sound of Sweet Virgina and Torn & Frayed (not to mention future Stones songs such as Dead Horses and Far Away Eyes) is a coincidence? But after a while, Mick was starting to feel threatened by Gram's presence and influence on Keith. Add in the massive quantities of drugs (hard stuff like heroin) and alcohol, which were excessive even to Keith's standards, and Gram had worn out his welcome with the Stones. He returned to the States with Gretchen, were the pair soon got married.
Emmy Lou Arrives
In 1971, Gram got back in touch with Chris Hillman who was then still with the Burritos, and it was arranged for Gram to appear with his old band at a show in Maryland. While there, Hillman urged Gram to go to Washington DC to check out a new singer that Burritos Rick Roberts and Kenny Wertz had discovered. The next night Gram and Gretchen went to a sparsely attended show at Clyde's in DC to check the young folk singer out. Her name was Emmylou Harris and she was 23 years old. Gram was immediately taken by her voice and he sat in with her for the evening's second set. After the show, they sang some duets and Gram convinced her to come to LA to sing on his new solo record.
Gram went back to LA convinced that having the young Emmylou Harris on board was just what he needed to secure a solo record deal. He was right, as a deal with Reprise was quickly reached. After first securing a producer (attempts to get Keith and then Merle Haggard to produce were unsuccessful), Gram put togther a band that included three of Elvis Presley's sidemen (he dipped into his trust fund to pay their substantial salaries) and several ex-Burrito Brothers, and of course Emmylou who was by now his duet partner. By this time, Gram had seemed to grasp that this might be a final chance and he had cleaned his act up (somewhat). The record, called GP, was recorded in the fall of '72 and featured six Parsons originals and several outstanding covers: We'll Sweep Out the Ashes and That's All it Took both feature Emmylou and are simply stunning. (The moment when her angelic voice comes in at about the 30 second mark of That's All it Took gives me goose bumps every time.) The cover versions of Streets of Baltimore and Kiss the Children are standouts as well. GP was a critical success, but commercially it flopped.
GP and the Fallen Angels
After GP was released in early '73, Gram put together his touring band, The Fallen Angels.
On board were road manager and bad influence Phil Kaufman (Gram's "executive nanny"), various wives and girlfriends, band members, an ex-Marine bus driver named Ledfoot, and various groupies and hangers-on. At first the tour was a mess. The first few shows in Denver featured a wasted Parsons, musicians who couldn't play and who threatened to abandon the tour. Gram even fired his guitar player and replaced him (for the entire remainder of the tour no less!) with a dude from the Denver audience. Things did improve as the tour progressed and Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels played some very successful and well-attended shows through Texas (Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt joined them onstage in Houston) and east through New York, Philly and Boston.
By the end of the tour, the Fallen Angels were doing great, but Gram's marriage wasn't. His wife Gretchen, predictably, was uncomfortable with his relationship with Emmylou, though to this day, a romantic affair between them has never been admitted or proven. Gretchen was also unhappy with his drug/alcohol abuse. What to do? Have Phil Kaufman ship her back home to California, of course! After the Fallen Angels tour, Gram made an effort to patch things up with Gretchen, and also his step-father Bob Parsons and his wife, by taking a vacation together. That did not go well, as Bob confessed that Gram's mother Avis had died after he had smuggled small bottles of vodka to her as she lay hospitalized for alcohol poisoning. It was apparently those last few vodka drinks that did her in. It is said that Gram never recovered from this news.
Gretchen and Gram are the two on the right.
In June of '73, Gram and Emmylou went on a Warner Brothers country rock road show with, among others, a group called The New Kentucky Colonels, which consisted of several ex-Byrds and Burritos including Clarence White, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Chris Etheridge. During this tour, Gram's close friend Clarence White was killed by a drunk driver as he loaded his gear into a van. Gram was extremely drunk and fucked up at White's funeral. It was here, after he sang Farther Along with Bernie Leadon, that Gram and Phil Kaufman (allegedly) made their pact that, should either of them die, they didn't want a conventional funeral but rather cremation in thir beloved Death Valley. As recalled by band member Chis Etheridge, Gram told Phil Kaufman, "Phil, if this happens to me, I don't want them doing this to me. You can take me out to the desert and burn me. I want to go out in a cloud of smoke."
The Grievous Angel and His Hour of Darkness
Soon after that funeral, an errant cigarette caused Gram's and Gretchen's Laurel Canyon home to burn down with all their possessions (save a guitar and a car). Apparently all these tragedies were more than he and Gretchen could take, and the pair separated. Gram moved in with Kaufman and in June '73 he began recording his follow up record which was called The Grievous Angel. Like GP it included the Elvis Presly sidemen and various of Parsons former bandmates. The fabulous record included six Parsons originals and a number of covers including The Louvin Bros' Cash on the Barrelhead, Tom T Hall's I Can't Dance, a duet with Emmylou on Love Hurts (made famous by The Everly Bros) and a new cover song called Hearts on Fire (another duet with Emmylou), that was written by her boyfriend Tom Guidera and Walter Egan. In addition to several older Parsons' originals (She, $1000 Wedding, Hickory Wind and Oooh Las Vegas), the record included two new Parsons songs: a rambling song about traveling across the young United States called Return of the Grievous Angel, and the haunting In My Hour of Darkness which was written following the deaths of Clarence White and two other friends but which is told in the first person and seems eerily autobiographical, as if Gram was foreshadowing his own death:
Another young man safely strummed his silver string guitar
And he played to people everywhere, some say he was a star
But he was just a country boy, his simple songs confess
And the music he had in him so very few possess
In my hour of darkness, in my time of need
Oh Lord, grant me vision, oh Lord, grant me speed
With the record completed but not yet released by Reprise, Gram was planning a big tour for the fall of 1973. He had also instructed his attorney to draw up divorce papers. So with the record in the can and his personal life becoming more focused, he decided to head out to Joshua Tree for a few days in the desert. As we know now, this trip to the desert ended with Gram's bizarre death. Grievous Angel was released posthumously in January 1974. Continuing a trend, it got rave reviews but flopped commercially, peaking at a disappointing #195 on the charts.
Next up: Gram's legacy and some odds and ends.
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