0068. Gram Parsons
Grievous Angel
The album starts playing and I'm like: "Country? Cool." (yes, I'm man enough to admit I didn't know a lot about this album before and since the near constant song-companion Emmylou Harris was removed from the cover by Gram's jealous widow I didn't even have that as a dead giveaway)
Then the second track rolls into the speakers and I'm like: "Waaait a minute, this sounds like... Love Hurts, but not really" a quick glance at the track list later, and yep, Love Hurts is track B2, which makes me suspect that Hearts On Fire (yes, track A2) was thrown in to keep peoples interest in the albums A-side.
Cause the rest of the album is actualy pretty standard country rock (which Parsons dubbed Cosmic American Music), tears'n'beers 'n' all that with some elusive dreams of the freedom of the road. And since country rock pretty much didn't exist until Gram invented it this is the standard by which all else is to be measured.
(And by the way: as far as I can hear not one single song on this album contains a diss to Nixon (unlike Gil's and Stevie's) in spite of it being released in 1974. The only reason I can see is that Gram tragically died the year before due to a drug overdose.)
