Why Isn’t Gram Parsons in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Posted on by
11

We’ve met too many people who have never heard of Gram Parsons. That alone is an injustice. Why he isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also leaves us scratching our heads.

What we call alt-country can be traced back to what Gram Parsons called “Cosmic American Music”, a blend of the rock and country genres that made them nearly indistinguishable from each other. Though his career and his life were short – he died at age 26, and is therefore never mentioned as a member of the Forever 27 Club – there is no denying his influence.

Gram Parsons

After a stint with The International Submarine Band, which he formed while attending Harvard, he joined The Byrds as a keyboard player in 1968 at the age of 22. But his talents on the guitar and as a vocalist were too strong, and he was soon able to convince the other members of The Byrds to record their next record, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, in Nashville, and focus the project on a more country sound.

Parsons and Byrds bass player, Chris Hillman would team up a year later to form The Flying Burrito Brothers, a band we consider to be the best to go unrecognized by the masses. Simply put, their music was fun and accessible. Click the link below to listen to Older Guys and tell me I’m wrong:

Beyond country music, Gram Parsons had an influence on the Rolling Stones through his friendship with Keith Richards. Together they composed the melody and penned a few key phrases of the song Wild Horses on the Stone’s album Sticky Fingers. Here’s a link to a video of Keith talking about his friendship with Gram:

Keith mentions the obvious: few people know of Gram Parsons because he never had a hit record. This is decidedly true; his two solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel, were critically acclaimed, but charted no higher than 195 on Billboard. But they helped launch the career of country music legend Emmylou Harris who sang back up vocals on both records. These records are worth finding and we highly recommend you add them to your collection.

GP

Grievous Angel

Now we’ve done our research and we know there’s no way of changing the closed-door process behind who gets voted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who doesn’t. And some might ask why a musician so closely associated with the country music genre would be included with the likes of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles. Well, Johnny Cash is in (country), so is Pete Seeger (folk), and so is Run D.M.C. (rap). Would you like to join us in our head scratching now?

We’ll leave you with this fantastic song, Return of the Grievous Angel:

Oh, There’s Just One More Thing …

We were featured in Tuesday’s Montreal Gazette! Click here to read the article on the Gazette’s website. We’d like to thank Bernie Perusse for taking the time to get to know us (next time, Bernie, we want you to drink with us). Thank you ALSO to John Kenney for being so accomodating and snapping some great photos in a very confined space. And thank you once again and always to R.D. Harris for being so gracious in letting us use the confined space known as his basement, not only for the photo shoot, but for two and a half wonderful years of making music. Long live Feathered Serpent Sound.

The Gazette sent an additional photographer to film us rehearsing a new song, Those Who Can’t Be Saved. That video can also be seen on their music page, click here.

We will be debuting the new song at our next show on Saturday February 18th in Montreal at O Patro Vys. Click here to RSVP.

Have a great week everybody!

Savage Fridays or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Press

Posted on by
1

I have to admit that I (David) have never actually seen Dr Strangelove, so despite the title, don’t expect any subtle references to the Kubrick classic in this post. In other news, we’re changing the name of our band to The Merkin Muffleys. Expect a press release shortly…

Savage Fridays

Savage Fridays is a monthly concert series that started this past October. After testing the format at Centre St-Ambroise, they’ve moved the event to Grumpy’s. The first Savage Friday of this new year is happening in two days on, February 3rd.

As usual, the concert series’ creator, Jennifer Johnson and The Big Savage Band will perform. Joining her on this month’s bill are two fabulously talented performers: Laurel Jackson, and Danielle Lebeau-Petersen.

Click the image to join the Facebook group

On a somewhat personal note, I’m very happy to see that this is now happening at Grumpy’s, the bar that’s been at the centre of our roots-rock community for the past six years. It’s the perfect venue to showcase what we have to offer. And by the way, the entertainment at Grumpy’s is always free.

Now what’s this about loving the press?

The press has started to take notice. At our rehearsal this past Monday night we had some guests in to film us, a videographer from the Montreal Gazette, and another from What’s On, the CTV News entertainment segment. Our feature article in the Gazette and the video will both be out on Tuesday February 7th, and the What’s On segment will air a few days before our next show. We’ll let you know when in an upcoming post.

Of course, there are some people we have to thank for this. Namely, The United Steel Workers of Montreal and The Unsettlers. Both bands have helped pave the way for all the others in our community and we’re very thankful. It’s too bad they’ve both broken up.

(Note: The Unsettlers have NOT broken up. A misprint on Nightlife.ca reported they did, but they did not)

You know, someone should really pay a proper tribute to the departed Steel Workers. Who knows, maybe we will at our next show. You should show up and find out. And in case you haven’t heard, we’ll be recording our next show for a live album, so if you’ve ever wanted to be on a recording now’s your chance.

Click the image to RSVP

Have a great week everybody!