Safe at Home: Lou Waxman on Gram Parsons and the Art of Burning Bright

Lou is not a Gram Parsons guy, but he gets it.  People Lou respects are huge Parsons fans.  When it comes to country rock, Lou is apt to hype Michael Nesmith just to be a contrarian asshole, but when you get down to it Gram is probably your man.  Sweethearts of the Rodeo, The Gilded Palace of Sin, Safe at Home.  You can’t argue with this shit.  Lou read the 33 1/3 book on The Gilded Palace of Sin.  The case for Parsons’ importance is all laid out in there.  Lou has Grievous Angel by Jessica Hundley.  He hasn’t read it, but he probably should.  Parsons was at the forefront of a true innovation in rock and roll and that doesn’t happen every day.

The Vogue had a copy of Safe at Home by the International Submarine Band.  A reissue by Rhino but Lou was happy to get it.  There was also a copy of the self-titled third album by The Flying Burrito Brothers as well.  Recently, Lou found The Last of the Red-Hot Burritos.  What Lou really wants are Sweethearts of the Rodeo and The Gilded Palace of Sin.  That is the stuff.  In the next few days, Grievous Angel with Emmylou Harris will probably turn up.  This stuff happens in waves.  It is like celebrity deaths.  Three at a time.  

Safe at Home is just over 26 minutes long.  Come on.  That is basically an EP.  But it makes sense to Lou.  The album, in terms of kickstarting a new genre of music, is like Ramones’ debutalbum.  That was just over 29 minutes.  You do not need much time to make a major statement.  The double and triple albums of progressive rock are proof that they had nothing to say.  Bikini Kill’s first EP was like 15 minutes, and they were the last band that really made an original statement in rock and roll.  The Riot Grrrl movement is the end of rock and roll as a counterculture, alternative media force.  Read Girls to the Front:  The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus.  It is great.  Lou loaned his copy to an aspiring artist and never got it back.  As Sam Kinison sang, “I hope you die under a gas truck in your own blood.  I want my records back.  I want my records back.”  Just kidding.  She probably needed the book more than Lou did.  Better yet go on the rare book market and get the original Riot Grrrl fanzines.

Parsons is famous for the bands he got kicked out of.  The International Submarine Band barely even existed.  Parsons was in the Byrds for a hot minute and was largely written out of the band even when he was in it.  Parsons’ involvement with the Burrito Brothers lasted just a bit longer than his tenure with the Submarines.  What is it about Parsons that fascinates so many?  Quite simply, he helped invent a new sound.  During the recording of Exile of Main Street in the south of France, Parsons appears to be nothing more than a hanger-on.  A sponger and a mooch who does Keith Richards’ drugs and makes a nuisance of himself, but there is more than that.  Keith Richards is a sponge as well, like David Bowie.  Richards knew how to use people creatively and get the most from his influences.  The sound of Sweethearts of the Rodeo and The Gilded Palace of Sin, which is the sound of Parsons, is all over Exile, even if Parsons had nothing to do with the actual recording of the album.  Keith is a vampire and he sucked Parsons dry.  After his interaction with Keith, Parsons was for all intents and purposes a dead man.  His vital juices were gone.

And then there is the death of Gram Parsons.  If you are cynical, you could argue that the farce surrounding his death and the kidnapping of his corpse to Joshua Tree is the source of the Parsons’ legend.  That would be wrong.  For that fiasco to happen in the first place, Parsons had to already have been a legend.  The fact that Parsons was a cult figure in his lifetime led to the burning at Joshua Tree.  Don’t get it twisted.  

In considering Gram Parsons, Lou flashes to Richard Hell.  Like Parsons, Hell is known for the bands he got kicked out of.  Television and The Heartbreakers.  Both Parsons and Hell were more influential on others than they were successful in their own right.  Both had style.  Parsons with his Nudie suits set the template for country rock.  Hell with his spiked hair and torn T-shirts defined the punk look.  For those interested, take a peek at Daniel Kane’s “Do You Have a Band?”  Poetry and Punk Rock in New York City, which has a great essay on Richard Hell.  The entire book is top-notch with wonderful insights into the intellectual foundation of punk and the punk influences on the New York poetry scene.  The suggestion that Hell’s haircut was inspired by the image of Rimbaud on the cover of Enid Starkie’s book on the proto-punker rocker is inspired stuff.

Comparisons aside, Lou would guess that Hell is not on the level of Parsons in terms of public recognition.  Lou could be wrong.  Is Parsons more famous than Hell?  If so, Lou would suggest that this has nothing to do with their fashion contributions or their music but only down to the fact that Parsons died in spectacular fashion and Hell was a survivor and is still with us.  In rock and roll, dying young is good for your career.  It helps you to live forever.  Both Parsons and Hell were innovators in the evolution of the rock soundscape.  Is Hell more of the footnote?  Is Parsons more well known?  For visibility it helps to go up in flames.

Suggested Sites and Sounds:

It’s All About Mike Nesmith, Man:  More Than a Monkee: Mike Nesmith’s Seminal Hand in Country Rock - Saving Country Music

California Country Rock:  The Story of California Country Rock is More Revolutionary Than You Think | Documentary

33 1/3 on Sin:  33 1/3 FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN – The Museum Store

Fallen Angel:  Fallen Angel: Gram Parsons (2004)

Poetry and Punk in New York City:  Poetry & Punk Rock in New York City – a talk by Daniel Kane [KulturNatten Uppsala 2020]

Richard Hell:  Richard Hell: The Original Punk

— Lou Waxman