Comments on Setting The Woods On Fire: The Flying Burrito Brothers Live At The Avalon

That sounds like a pretty great early-country-rock...

2008-02-12T10:26:31.184-05:00

That sounds like a pretty great early-country-rock mix. GP is just the poster boy, he's easy to latch on to, what with the Nudie suits and rock'n roll lifestyle.

Paul, I got your Rock Opera debate in my drafts box!

Tom, Thanks for your great (and very well-informed...

2008-02-11T18:33:07.702-05:00

Tom,

Thanks for your great (and very well-informed) comment. You obviously know your country-rock history very well.

I just want to clarify that I didn't mean to imply that Gram Parsons "invented" country rock, only that his work embodied or defined the style. Bill Monroe did not invent bluegrass and Bob Wills did not invent western swing, but those are the artists that we most associate with those genres, fair or not.

The whole discussion reminds me of the oft-debated question about the first "rock opera." Was it Tommy, as popular legend would have it, or Arthur, as Ray Davies claims. Or was it The Who before the Kinks with A Quick One? Or SF Sorrow before that? The world may never know... But Tommy gets credit.

Anyway, thanks for the great e-mail. You are right that country and rock were blending before Parsons joined the Byrds. I think this discussion will be fodder for another post in the near future!

This is an e-mail that I got from Tom Silvestri:He...

2008-02-11T18:19:50.080-05:00

This is an e-mail that I got from Tom Silvestri:

Hey Paul, great job spreading the word on the live Burritos CD! But please stop spreading the myth that Gram invented country-rock. Gram himself admitted once that he didn’t even know what the Byrds had already done along those lines when he joined the band, I think that’s in the Ben Fong-Torres book. This situation has gotten so out of hand that a friend and I from back in the day had to compile a CD (not for profit, just as a birthday gift for someone) called Pre-Gram Parsons ‘60s Country-Rock. Here’s what’s on it:

I’ll Cry Instead, I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party, Act Naturally, I’ve Just Seen a Face, Run For Your Life, What Goes On – The Beatles

Nashville Cats, Wild About My Lovin’ – The Lovin’ Spoonful

Satisfied Mind, Mr. Spaceman, Time Between, The Girl with No Name, Wasn’t Born to Follow, Change Is Now, Old John Robertson – The Byrds

Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing, Go and Say Goodbye, A Child’s Claim to Fame, Bluebird, On the Way Home, I Am a Child, Kind Woman – Buffalo Springfield

Hey Grandma, Ain’t No Use – Moby Grape

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – Bob Dylan

Clarence White (who was one of the first musicians Hillman met, at the legendary Ash Grove club and guitar school, when he moved to L.A.), Gene Parsons (who formed Nashville West with White before Parsons did the International Submarine Band album and who, along with White and Poco’s Rusty Young, were considered for an early Burrito Brothers line-up with Hillman and Gram), and of course Richie Furay (who actually met Gram in the Bronx, of all places, when Gram was ditching Harvard and Furay was singing in Greenwich Village with Steve Stills in the Au Go Go Singers), McGuinn, Stills, Neil Young, and so on were forging country-rock long before Gram. And Gram fucked it up pretty badly after all, much as I love him; was never much onstage even as a singer in technical terms, though he of course he had extraordinary country soul in his voice. As Hillman said, I think also in the Torres book, “He wanted to be a star, but he didn’t want to work for it.” So let’s not go overboard.

P.S. I couldn’t figure out how to enter this comment with the other ones on the Burritos CD. If you can figure out how to do it and want to enter it there, be my guest.

damn thanks for this post. I've been going back an...

2008-02-11T10:34:40.926-05:00

damn thanks for this post. I've been going back and forth on whether to try this one out. now i can make an informed decision! after some rank & file of course.

and i'm quite happy with the FBB anthology. essential stuff by all means.

Emmylou is quite the tiebreaker, isn't she.

2008-02-08T19:11:03.559-05:00

Emmylou is quite the tiebreaker, isn't she.

Scott, Thanks for pointing out the GP post. I rea...

2008-02-08T15:02:07.350-05:00

Scott,

Thanks for pointing out the GP post. I read This Recording but somehow missed that day (too many good blogs to keep up with!).

You need to get both albums. I probably favor the Gram two-fer, but only by a hair over the FBB and probably just for sentimental reasons. Both are great. Tiebreaker is Emmylou on the GP disc.

Hey Paul - did you see this post over at This Reco...

2008-02-08T13:01:11.661-05:00

Hey Paul - did you see this post over at This Recording? It's a nice Gram post from a week or two back, including audio snippets of interviews and more mp3s (which I'm sure you have already).

Both the Gram and the FBB two-for-one discs are on my to-buy list. Which do you like more? I'm leaning toward the FBB because I have an affinity for Chris Hillman.