Gram Parsons – Another Side Of This Life: The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons 1965-1966
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Posted On March 1, 2001
Gram Parsons gets heavy credit as one of the pioneers and true talents of country rock. In the 27 years since his death, no one has matched the beautiful fragility of his voice or his novelistic sense of country songwriting (i.e., “$1000 Wedding”). Though Parsons may not have been an overly prolific writer, the few cuts that showed up on his LPs were high-quality keepers.
Listening to his canon of work, Parsons seems to have arrived as a full-blown original. While owing a debt to his heroes such as Merle Haggard and George Jones, Parsons seemed to be coming from a different, outside place; he occupied a space that seemed truly his own. Now, for the first time, we are privy to an early, developmental stage of his amazing, if too short, career.
Another Side of This Life: The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons 1965-1966 gathers 18 tracks recorded three and a half decades ago on a friend’s reel-to-reel machine. What makes these recordings so interesting is the evident development that was taking place. The total commitment to country music doesn’t yet seem to be in place, and Parsons shows heavy folk leanings from his time playing the coffeehouses in Greenwich Village. Fred Neil, in particular, seems to cast an influence over these performances, which makes sense considering Neil’s stature in the New York City folk scene at that time.
Parsons’ recorded work, beginning with his 1968 International Submarine Band recordings, showed a rapidly maturing and seemingly confident stylist. It comes as a bit of a revelation to hear where Parsons was only two years earlier. The Gram Parsons of these demos is a more straight-ahead folk singer. Songs such as Dick Weissman’s “They Still Go Down” and Hamilton Camp’s “Pride Of Man” even sound Kingston Trio-ish. The vocal style Parsons would use on his later work is not wholly evident here, and the fragility in his delivery, though hinted at, is not fully present.
The track on this collection that stands out and points to the future is an early version of the Parsons original “Brass Buttons”. The vocal does not yet contain the homespun quality of the version that would later appear on Grievous Angel, but it still stands as a promising sign of what’s to come. It’s a shame Parsons didn’t write more during his brief life, but “Brass Buttons” shows how capable he was, even at this early stage.
As usual, Sundazed has done a wonderful job mastering and packaging this release. The sound quality of these home-recorded demos is much better than one might assume; at first listen, I was shocked at how well they had been transferred.
Another Side Of This Life may not be essential listening for those not interested in the Parsons story or legacy, but as a historical document, it is revealing. This collections fills in a previously missing aspect of Gram Parsons’ musical life; for those intrigued or moved by his work, it sure is nice to have that early chapter.
