Gram Parsons – Under Your Spell Again

The brevity of Gram Parsons’ life inherently magnifies the importance of any documents that can inform our understanding of his talent. Though the official Parsons canon contains more than enough to justify his stature, it’s a meager catalogue compared to other legends who stuck around this mortal coil a good while longer. As such, it’s no surprise to see bits and pieces of Parsons’ rarities, unreleased cuts and live work surfacing on bootlegs, with mixed results.

Resourceful Gramophiles have been blessed with a minor flood of illicit releases. The Tendolar label’s Byrdaholics includes a live tape of the Gram-era Byrds in Rome circa 1968. The same label also issued Saddle Up The Palomino, described as a sound board recording from a June ’69 Los Angeles Burritos performance but obviously sourced from a tape many generations removed from the master. Much more rewarding are a pair of quality live Burritos ’69 CD-Rs released by unnamed labels: Sin City and The High Lonesome Sound Of…

Now comes the double-disc compendium Under Your Spell Again, by far the most ambitious attempt yet to scoop the choicest unreleased material. Apart from some steep dropoffs in sonic quality, there’s plenty here that warrants an alert to the Parsons faithful.

Under Your Spell Again runs in roughly chronological order, beginning with a raw-quality radio tape of Parsons’ early combo, the Legends, performing “Rip It Up”, followed by the wonderful “Sum Up Broke/One Day Week”, a jangling, pounding single by the International Submarine Band, captured here in perfect audio quality.

Things then leapfrog ahead to a muffled audience recording of the Byrds’ eight-song 1968 set at London’s Roundhouse, described here as Parsons’ Byrds swan song. What it lacks in sonic fidelity is more than compensated by the chance to hear the short-lived Sweetheart-era Byrds backing Parsons on “Hickory Wind”, “Sing Me Back Home”, “The Christian Life”, Buck Owens’ “Under Your Spell Again” and “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, as well as hearing Gram pitch in on “Eight Miles High”.

A six-song tape from the Burritos’ set at the ’69 Seattle Pop Festival is marginally better sound quality, mixing covers such as “Take A Message To Mary” with their own “Sin City” and “Christine’s Tune”. Although excerpts from the Tendolar Palomino tape pop up on disc two, Colosseum also has unearthed a better-quality tape from a different Palomino set, including a rigorous workout on Owens’ signature tune, “Buckaroo”. Parsons’ vocals are occasionally shaky, and his between-song patter is all but drowned out by audience chatter. It’s an important reminder that although he is celebrated in death, he spent most of his life struggling for recognition.

The second disc yields the most startling artifacts. A 1964 “House Of The Rising Sun” sound-alike demo called “Race With The Wind” leads into a stunning six-song tape of a ’72 acoustic demo session. Although the sound is only so-so, it’s a thrill to eavesdrop as Gram yells for Byron Berline to take a fiddle solo on “Still Feeling Blue” or leads his troupe through a tentative version of “A Song For You”.

Further on, there’s a superlative tape of a ’73 Boston radio session with the Fallen Angels. “These are bus songs we sing at the back of the bus,” an impossibly young-sounding Emmylou Harris tells the DJ. Apart from Parsons’ cynical, road-weary banter, there are some exquisite performances, including wrenching duets with Harris on “Love Hurts” and “Sin City”.

After that, disc two’s Burritos live tracks and a handful of muddy ’73 Fallen Angels cuts are anticlimactic. But a pristine live version of “We’ll Sweep Out The Ashes” and studio outtakes of “Return Of The Grievous Angel” and “Hearts On Fire” bring matters to a fitting, fine close. Photos of the Burritos onstage have been surprisingly rare, but the deluxe packaging includes color shots of Gram and band in full flight. The 12-page booklet includes an offbeat ’69 interview from Fusion magazine plus rare photos and single picture sleeves.