What was the genius of Gram Parsons and Buck Owens?

November 20, 2007 1:44 PM

Gram Parsons and Buck Owens. What am I missing here?

Was in Border's last night and browsed through a biography of Gram Parson. I have always heard of him, especially of his relationship with EmmyLou Harris. I realized how little I know of his music. Rock music bios to me tend to fawn/gush like sports bios so I probably won't read this bio. But can I get some directions on some songs to listen to that key me to him and his music.

Buck Owens was listed in the same bio, referred to as one of the progenators of the "Bakersfield Sound" I remember him joshing with Roy Clark on Hee Haw and thought that he was kind of goofy. The "Bakersfield Sound." is something I recently heard about. How was this and Buck different than mainstream country?

posted by goalyeehah to media & arts (23 comments total)

Wikipedia has a good description of the Bakersfield Sound, along with external links to check out.
posted by amyms at 1:56 PM on November 20, 2007

For less than 10 bucks you can pick Gram's 2 official solo releases. Probably my favourite song by his is Return of the Grievous Angel.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 2:01 PM on November 20, 2007

The thing with Gram Parsons is the thing with any other artist, where you either get it or don't and there's no right answer. He was heavily influential even during his life (and he died young enough that this is really saying something). I mean, the Rolling Stones were influenced by him. There wouldn't have been an Eagles without him (which might have been a blessing, YMMV). The entire alt-country phenomenon owes itself to him. The Joshua Tree would have been called something else, if not for Gram Parsons.

There's a terrific Rhino anthology of Gram's work, and there's also a tribute compilation, "Return of the Grievous Angel", where you can really get a feel for how his influence trickled down. It's not a tribute album in the "let's get some bands into a room and record some stuff", but in a "these are people who truly feel this music" sense.
posted by padraigin at 2:04 PM on November 20, 2007

I think the cover to the Sacred HEarts, Fallen Angels anthology says a lot about why Gram was different. More motorcycles. More Elvis.

Grievous Angel

Ooh Las Vegas

In My Hour of Darkness

(do those m4a links work for people? Or do I need to convert 'em?)
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:10 PM on November 20, 2007

You've already heard at least two Gram Parsons songs: "Wild Horses" and "Love Hurts". He was instrumental in moving the blues-based sound of 60s and 70s rock to embrace traditional American country music. He influenced the Byrds (especially the album Sweethearrt of the Rodeo, on which he was a featured performer), the Rolling Stones, and a whole generation of "alt-country" artists who came along after him. I recommend "The Streets of Baltimore" (a cover, but great), "Miller's Cave", "Hickory Wind", "Hot Burrito #2", "Return of the Grievous Angel", and "The Dark End of the Street".

I'll leave Buck Owens to those that know more about the man than I do, but I will say that there's a 1968(?) bootleg floating around of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos live somewhere in Europe that's jaw-droppingly good and sounds like the Rolling Stones playing country music.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:10 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Gram Parsons didn't write "Wild Horses," Jagger and Richards did, though Parsons recorded it first.
posted by apetpsychic at 2:19 PM on November 20, 2007

And the liner notes of Exile on Main Street show "Jagger/Richards" wrote "Stop Breakin' Down". Me and Robert Johnson have our doubts about that, too.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:22 PM on November 20, 2007

Seconding the "Return of the Grievous Angel" tribute album. While I'm not a huge fan of Gram's singing, I adore the simplicity and beauty of his songwriting, and this album captures this perfectly. The version of "She" by the Pretenders and Emmylou Harris on that album may be one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard.
posted by platinum at 2:26 PM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

The International Submarine Band is the bridge between Buck and Gram, and was Gram's band before he started meeting famous people and partying with them. You'll also want to check out The Byrds' "Notorious Byrd Brothers" for a less-orthodox take than "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo." For Buck, you'll want to check out anything from his "My Heart Skips A Beat" era.

A slight niggle on the above: even though it was my gateway to GP, "Love Hurts" was actually written for the Everly Brothers and I'd dare say the Nazareth version is the one people are most familiar with.

Lastly, there's a documentary about Gram Parsons, called, "Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel," which should also fill in some gaps.
posted by rhizome at 2:27 PM on November 20, 2007

Sweetheart of the Rodeo is one of the few rock albums I can listen to pretty much any time, over and over, and never get tired of. If you listen to it and don't care for it, you probably don't like Parsons. If you like it, you'll want more.

Can't speak to Buck Owens.
posted by languagehat at 2:57 PM on November 20, 2007

That Wikipedia article is okay, although a little confused and off on a few points.

First of all, you need to listen to Buck Owens. See if you can download some songs or listen to a collection of his hits. A great place to start? One of his classics, "The Streets Of Bakersfield:"

You don't know me but you don't like me,
You say you'd care less how I feel
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

That grit, that immediacy, is what characterized Bakersfield country. Buck sometimes seemed a little goofy to some, and his biggest hit, the silly "Act Naturally" (which nonetheless is a great song) is not really representative of what he did.

What did Buck Owens do? He took country back to its roots. In the post-Elvis years, those suddenly wide-open times when lots of singers were aiming at the ever-more-country-friendly charts with increasingly pop-oriented schlock and sap, Buck kicked the shit back down, hired a good, tight band, and tried to write songs like Hank Williams wrote songs: tight melodies, solid hooks, stuff you could rock to and enjoy. He liked that gritty country that he grew up with, from Roy Acuff's slowed-down rambling bluegrass to Hank Snow's rollicking numbers to the rhythm and showmanship of Bob Wills to the crazy Mexican stuff he heard on border radio. He loved rock and roll, and all the electrical rhythm that came with it.

Buck's take on the Bakersfield Sound, which is probably the most influential one (although Merle is more important overall) is what happens when you combine that electricity, the clanging guitars and the sheen of the treble-laden honky-tonk pedal steel, with Hank's old way of writing: short, lively numbers based on solid, catchy hooks. Buck Owens had an extraordinary sense for melody, like Hank did, but, like Hank, he didn't sentimentalize or overdramatize those melodies; the band jumped along, and the parallels with the spicier varieties of rock were pretty apparent.

But Buck had a huge impact on 'mainstream country' as time went on. By the mid-seventies, mainstream country had all but embraced the outlaws like Merle and Willie. But Buck, and the Bakersfield establishment, was the first outlaw; it was the first stand against the country music establishment and its pop sheen. Without Buck and what he accomplished, there might not have been the country we have today, and there certainly would not have been country-loving hippies like Gram and the Byrds.
posted by koeselitz at 3:10 PM on November 20, 2007 [9 favorites]

Also, as far as the magnificent Sweetheart of the Rodeo is concerned: buy it, please, as it's worth a lifetime of listening, but buy the CD reissue with the bonus tracks. It includes the album as sung by Gram, which is a better album; the record company for some reason preferred Roger McGuinn's attempt at twang to Gram's more natural voice.
posted by koeselitz at 3:14 PM on November 20, 2007

What koeselitz said: in the early sixties country music as based in Nashville had become polished and bland, with a lt of big-budget (relatively speaking), pop-influenced recording going on. Buck Owens almost single handedly reversed that trend.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:21 PM on November 20, 2007

Hey, fifteen years ago I'd never even *heard* of country music! But it's a big world with lots of cool stuff in it, sadly overshadowed by Nashville schlock and Toby Keith suicide-inducing neo-Nazi platitudes.

Buck Owens - I'll tackle that, since he doesn't seem to have as many supporters as Gram. Buck was the one purveyor of the "Bakersfield Sound" who really made it big, partially because he was a good songwriter with excellent taste in covers too, and partially because he was a great and very likeable performer. Sundazed is releasing all of his albums on CD - they've done about two dozen so far, in roughly chronological order. They've all got something to recommend them, but it's a bit much for a casual fan or someone exploring. I like his late 60s / early 70s stuff where he's covering non-country songs and doing mind-bending songs like "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass?" which is just as suggestive and crazed as one might guess.

BUT!!! The obvious choice is the 3xCD anthology on Rhino, "The Buck Owens Collection (1959-1990)," which is less than $25 on Amazon. It's got all his hits and is pretty great from start to finish (and there's almost nothing on it from after the early 70s.) It'll spread the gospel better than I can and it's got 62 cool tracks and a booklet.

But if you want a single disc, any of the live albums - Carnegie Hall, London or Japan - which are beautifully recorded and entertaining - will do. "The Instrumental Hits Of The Buckaroos" shows how great Buck's band is, without his vocals though. And I'm partial to "Dust On Mother's Bible," which has religious songs - but it's evry nice, even if I'm Muslim!

The real glory of the Bakersfield Sound is in lesser known artists such as the Maddox Brothers & Rose ("America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band" . . . who made it to California as a family by hopping freight trains à la the Joad family) or Tommy Collins or Wynn Stewart or the Farmer Boys or Red Simpson . . . sigh. Great stuff!

As for Gram - his discography is simple and easy to get on CD.

Most crucial are:

The Flying Burrito Brothers "Hot Burritos! The FBB Anthology 1969-1979" - a double CD with all the Gram stuff you need.

The Byrds "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo" - double CD (as mentioned, this contains loads of great Gram vocal stuff)

Gram Parsons "The Complete Reprise Sessions" which has both solo albums, plus extra stuff. 3xCD, but cheapish.

Still great, but get the above first:

The International Submarine Band "Safe At Home"

Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels "Live 1973"

Gram Parsons "Another Side Of This Life" (early demos)
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 4:05 PM on November 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

There may be some legitimate argument about whether (and how much) Parsons contributed to "Wild Horses," but he definitely didn't write "Dark End of the Street". That was the great soul writing duo Dan Penn and Chips Moman.
posted by timeistight at 4:06 PM on November 20, 2007

Also, Amoeba Records just released a Gram Parsons CD called Archives Volume 1: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 . It's a 2-CD set of previously unreleased "meticulously remastered live performances." I've heard it's tremendously good.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 4:17 PM on November 20, 2007

I recently read a surprisingly good (if short) interview with Dwight Yoakam, a Buck Owens protege (in American Airlines' inflight magazine of all places). It points out something I hadn't considered about "the Hee-Haw effect" -- namely that if you star on a top-rated long-running primetime show in an era of only three networks, those performances are going to be an indelible mark on your legacy, no matter what kind of musician you were before or after. Dwight suggests as well as others have here that, without Buck, there would have been no Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and ergo no Eagles.

I believe that where Buck was significantly different from mainstream country (at that time) was the pickin' sound, the distinct twang (almost jarring next to the smooth crooning sounds of popular chart-toppers like Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves), and the open rebellion from what was churning out of Nashville.

I'm too big a fan of both artists and of the genre, and too much a dilettante when it comes to the actual musicology, to give good insight -- other than to say that learning more about both Buck Owens and Gram Parsons is a respectable goal if you aim to "know" modern American music.

I would say, though, to listen to actual Gram Parsons singing his own actual songs ("Hickory Wind," "Lazy Days," "Sin City," "Wheels," "Ooh Las Vegas," "$1000 Wedding") before you get into "Return of the Grievous Angel." To me it's a bit like watching the movie before reading the book.
posted by pineapple at 5:52 PM on November 20, 2007

See, and now you've got this song stuck in my head:

A Dinosaur Victrola
Listenin' to Buck Owens
Doo Doo Doo, Lookin' out my back door...
posted by koeselitz at 5:56 PM on November 20, 2007

I would say, though, to listen to actual Gram Parsons singing his own actual songs ("Hickory Wind," "Lazy Days," "Sin City," "Wheels," "Ooh Las Vegas," "$1000 Wedding") before you get into "Return of the Grievous Angel." To me it's a bit like watching the movie before reading the book.

That's good advice. It's true that you either get Gram Parsons or you don't, but I can say that if you get his schtick then its music that you'll come back to over and over again.
posted by ob at 6:45 PM on November 20, 2007

Yeah, and there's questions about Ry Cooder writing some Stones stuff too, but...
posted by apetpsychic at 9:28 PM on November 20, 2007

You've already heard at least two Gram Parsons songs: "Wild Horses" and "Love Hurts".

Gram Parsons didn't write Love Hurts, Boudleaux Bryant (Bye Bye Love) did. And Nazareth is the definitive version ;)
posted by methylsalicylate at 2:41 AM on November 21, 2007

This anecdote related upon Buck's passing still makes me smile. Buck was much, much more than Hee-Haw.
posted by waraw at 7:05 AM on November 21, 2007

That's a great anecdote. It's interesting, because it reminds me of the one about the facts surrounding Buck's passing itself:

A friend of his tells that he was at the Crystal Palace in Bakerfield for a gig, and, several hours before he was to go onstage at a joint, he sat down and ate his favorite meal, chicken-fried steak. He had had some health problems, and apparently the steak didn't go down great; he felt a little off, and told his friends and the band that he probably wouldn't go on. But he met some fans before he left, and they were so jazzed about meeting him that he decided to stay and play the gig. He told the audience that those people had come all the way from Oregon, and if people had come all that way, then he owed it to them to give it his best shot. By all accounts, it turned out to be a great show, and everyone loved it. He died that night in his sleep of an apparent heart attack.

Now, you tell me, is there any better way to go?
posted by koeselitz at 6:28 PM on November 21, 2007