By the time Gram Parsons died – aged just 26, on 19 September 1973 – he’d already made an indelible impression on rock music.
Parsons’ vision for what he termed "cosmic American music” – a heady mix of country, soul, folk, R&B and rock – saw him join and reinvent The Byrds for the classic 1968 album Sweetheart Of The Rodeo; release two highly influential country-rock albums with The Flying Burrito Brothers; and, along with duet partner Emmylou Harris, record two landmark albums of his own – 1973’s GP and 1974’s posthumously released Grievous Angel – before his untimely death.
In his short career, Parsons not only gave us some killer interpretations of standards, but he also wrote some all-time greats himself. Here, then, are the best Gram Parsons songs.
The best Gram Parsons songs, ranked
11. 'Luxury Liner' (with The International Submarine Band, 1968)
Parsons’ first great song, ‘Luxury Liner’ featured on Safe At Home, the only album from his short-lived early outfit The International Submarine Band, released on Lee Hazlewood’s LHI record label.
This portrait of an outsider on the road takes the boom-chicka-boom sound of Johnny Cash’s Tennessee Three and adds a pinch of Los Angeles rock and R&B to create a prototype for country-rock. It later provided Emmylou Harris with the title track for her 1976 album.
10. '$1000 Wedding' (1974)
On the surface, ‘$1000 Wedding’ from Parsons' second and final solo album, 1974's Grievous Angel, is a classic tears-in-your-beers country heartbreaker, but look closer and its lyrics tell an evocative and mysterious story. Parsons sings of a lavish wedding that never took place, though the invitations were already sent out.
He tells us the bride simply ‘went away’ and from the groom’s reaction – and the elegy of the final verse – the circumstances sound tragic. But Parsons never confirms exactly what happened to her, giving the song an enigmatic edge that sets it apart from traditional country – much like his songwriting in general.
9. 'Still Feeling Blue' (1973)
The opening track of Parsons’ debut solo album GP is a bittersweet slice of honky-tonk country that introduced backing vocalist Emmylou Harris to the world.
‘Still Feeling Blue’ brought a bold, unapologetically country sound into early-’70s rock, with whipsmart fiddle playing from bluegrass master Byron Berline, and the great James Burton (Elvis Presley, Glen Campbell, The Everly Brothers) on lead guitar and dobro.
8. 'Sin City' (with The Flying Burrito Brothers, 1969)
This co-write with Burritos bassist and former Byrd Chris Hillman is both a cautionary tale and a celebration of the music industry in LA, a town so “filled with sin, it’ll swallow you in.” A modern take on one of the old Baptist hymns Hillman and Parsons grew up on, ‘Sin City’ is filled with fire and brimstone, and inspired a magical vocal from Parsons.
7. 'A Song For You' (1973)
Another mournful highlight from Parsons’ first solo album, 1973's ‘A Song For You’ finds a devastated-sounding Parsons lamenting lost potential and squandered opportunities with such conviction it’s hard to believe that he was only 25 when he recorded it.
Still, there is a resilience in the chorus pay-off – "And tomorrow, we may still be there" – that gives the song steely optimism, along with the delicate and nuanced harmony vocal from Emmylou Harris.
6. 'She' (1973)
Originally written back in Parsons’ Burritos days, with bandmate Chris Ethridge, ‘She’ was eventually recorded for GP, where it emerged as a country-gospel gem. Though the lyrics appear to be set in the deep South of the past and challenge racism of the era, there’s an ambiguity to the tale which leaves a sense of mystery.
'She' has gone on to become one of Parsons’ most covered songs, with notable versions by Norah Jones, The Black Crowes and – on the star-studded 1999 album A Tribute To Gram Parsons – The Pretenders & Emmylou Harris.
5. 'In My Hour Of Darkness' (1974)
The closing track of the Grievous Angel album, released just four months after Parsons’ death, foretold the tragic events that would unfold following its recording.
‘In My Hour Of Darkness’ finds Parsons pleading with a higher power for strength in tough times while each of its three verses eulogises a friend of his who’d recently died – actors Brandon DeWilde and Sid Kaiser, and former Byrds guitarist Clarence White. Emmylou Harris was given a co-writing credit on the song, later saying, "I feel like that was a product of Gram’s incredible generosity."
4. 'Brass Buttons', Gram Parsons (Grievous Angel, 1974)
Parsons wrote ‘Brass Buttons’ back in the mid-’60s (a touching demo from that time was released in 2000, on the early-years collection Another Side Of This Life) but didn’t record the definitive version until his final recording sessions.
Perhaps the intensely personal subject matter – his mother’s struggle with alcoholism – made him mindful of the need to treat the song with care. Parsons invests the lyrics "Brass buttons, green silks and silver shoes/Warm evenings, pale mornings, bottled blues" with a tender soulfulness befitting their inspiration.
3. 'Hickory Wind' (with The Byrds, 1968)
The Byrds’ leader, Roger McGuinn, later commented that he thought he was hiring a piano player when Parsons joined his band. McGuinn must’ve been surprised, then, when Parsons hijacked the group, radically transformed their sound, recorded an all-time country-rock classic album with them and then quit – all in the space of six months.
One of two Parsons originals on Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, the homesick and hurting ‘Hickory Wind’ is among the greatest songs of this formative phase of his career; it paints a vivid and evocative picture of Parsons’ childhood, and was blessed with one of his most poignant and yearning vocals.
He’d later record a version for Grievous Angel, and the 2006 solo Parsons box set The Complete Reprise Sessions featured a beautiful alternate rendition.
2. 'Hot Burrito #1' (with The Flying Burrito Brothers, 1969)
Another co-write with Chris Ethridge, ‘Hot Burrito #1’ was based on a melody written by the bassist and which Parsons turned into one of the greatest break-up songs of all time.
At the time of its recording, Parsons had recently separated from his long-term girlfriend, Nancy, and his trembling vocals make it painfully apparent how raw the feelings still were. On The Gilded Palace Of Sin, ‘Hot Burrito #1’ was followed by another breathtakingly heartbroken vocal from Parsons, on the altogether funkier ‘Hot Burrito #2’.
1. 'Return Of The Grievous Angel' (1974)
The opening track of Parsons’ second and final solo album, the sublime Grievous Angel, was a glorious, self-mythologising statement of intent.
‘Return Of The Grievous Angel’ fuses imagery from the Old West with the new world – truckers are depicted as the modern era’s cowboys, and Parsons references a king with “an amphetamine crown” (Elvis Presley).
Topping this list of the best Gram Parsons songs, ‘Return Of The Grievous Angel’ paints its creator as a lonesome and rootless wandering figure, searching in vain for a lost America and personal salvation.
All photos Getty Images
Top image Gram Parsons poses for a portrait wearing a t-shirt advertising his band Flying Burrito Bros. sitting on the hood of a Cadillac at Burrito King restaurant in circa 1971 in Los Angeles, California
