WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 Imagine recording just an absolute masterpiece. 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.419 Right. But, like, now imagine the lead artist 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:09.759 has to be literally, physically carried into 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:12.460 the recording studio. Oh, man. Right. And he's 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:14.679 completely incapable of writing a full album 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.899 of new music, and then, tragically, he dies before 00:00:17.899 --> 00:00:19.719 the record is even released. Yeah, it's a heavy 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:22.539 story. It really is. So, welcome to today's Deep 00:00:22.539 --> 00:00:25.620 Dive. We are looking at the beautiful, kind of 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:28.739 chaotic miracle that is Graham Parsons' album, 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:31.399 Grievous Angel. a really legendary piece of work. 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:34.719 Exactly. And our mission today is pretty straightforward. 00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:37.079 We're pulling entirely from a really fascinating 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:40.359 Wikipedia article that details this 1974 studio 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:43.780 album, which basically surges Parson's final 00:00:43.780 --> 00:00:45.820 testament. Final musical statement, yeah. Yeah. 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:47.880 And for you listening, I want to set the stakes 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:49.479 right up front because this isn't, you know, 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:52.560 your standard dry album review. Not at all. We're 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:56.140 going to explore how a commercial flopper record 00:00:56.329 --> 00:00:59.350 that was actually manipulated by a jealous widow, 00:01:00.189 --> 00:01:02.570 somehow became the foundational text of what's 00:01:02.570 --> 00:01:04.909 called cosmic American music. Which is here. 00:01:05.090 --> 00:01:07.609 Right. And it ultimately secured a spot on Rolling 00:01:07.609 --> 00:01:09.870 Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all 00:01:09.870 --> 00:01:12.670 time. I mean, this is the ultimate story of illusion 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:15.609 versus reality, right? Completely. It's a tragic 00:01:15.609 --> 00:01:18.549 genius basically racing against his own demons 00:01:18.549 --> 00:01:21.780 to leave one final mark on the world. Yeah, and 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:24.480 to truly understand the gravity of that mark, 00:01:24.620 --> 00:01:27.200 we have to look at the incredibly dark context 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:29.299 that surrounds it. Because it gets really dark. 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:31.980 It does. We're essentially analyzing a snapshot 00:01:31.980 --> 00:01:34.659 of an artist who is standing at the absolute 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:37.140 edge. I mean, Graham Parsons died of a morphine 00:01:37.140 --> 00:01:39.659 and alcohol overdose at just 26 years old. Just 00:01:39.659 --> 00:01:42.519 26. In Joshua Tree. Exactly. Out in Joshua Tree, 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:45.599 California. And what makes Grievous Angels so 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:47.620 profound is that the bulk of it was recorded 00:01:47.620 --> 00:01:50.790 in the summer of 1973, which was just... weeks 00:01:50.790 --> 00:01:52.909 before that tragedy happened. Oh, so it was right 00:01:52.909 --> 00:01:55.829 at the end? Right at the very end. He was basically 00:01:55.829 --> 00:01:58.870 living on borrowed time, and the music really 00:01:58.870 --> 00:02:01.510 reflects that profound urgency. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:04.150 this. Because to understand the album's brilliance, 00:02:04.510 --> 00:02:07.310 we first have to look at the incredibly contradictory 00:02:07.310 --> 00:02:10.090 atmosphere in the recording studio itself. The 00:02:10.090 --> 00:02:12.949 studio sessions are legendary. Right. So we're 00:02:12.949 --> 00:02:15.830 in Wally Hyder Studio 4 in Hollywood. It's the 00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:20.150 summer of 73. If you read the accounts from the 00:02:20.150 --> 00:02:24.069 people actually in that room, it sounds like 00:02:24.069 --> 00:02:25.870 they were attending two completely different 00:02:25.870 --> 00:02:27.810 recording sessions. Yeah, the stories do not 00:02:27.810 --> 00:02:29.870 line up at all. They really don't. Yeah. You 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:33.229 have acoustic guitarist Herb Peterson, and he 00:02:33.229 --> 00:02:35.530 recalls that when Carson showed up, he was just 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:38.189 a total mess. Yeah, Peterson did not hold back. 00:02:38.310 --> 00:02:40.620 No, he didn't. According to him Parsons was you 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:42.979 know coming in late battling some very serious 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:45.860 heroin addiction and alcoholism and Peterson 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:48.560 said he essentially had to be physically brought 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:52.659 in and quote -unquote Minded by his singing partner 00:02:52.659 --> 00:02:55.879 Emma Lou Harris basically babysat Yeah, exactly 00:02:55.879 --> 00:02:58.099 Peterson flat -out said Parsons wasn't in any 00:02:58.099 --> 00:03:00.300 shape to record and was generally just out of 00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:03.139 it for the most part But then the paradox there 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:04.719 is striking because you flip the coin and you 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.219 have bassist Emory Gordy Jr. providing this entirely 00:03:07.219 --> 00:03:09.060 different narrative. Right, which is so weird 00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:11.819 to me. It is. Gordy explicitly calls them great 00:03:11.819 --> 00:03:14.539 happy sessions. Great and happy from a guy who 00:03:14.539 --> 00:03:17.240 has to be carried in. I know, right? But Gordy 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:19.800 recalls that Parsons really rallied. He says 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:21.979 he was bouncing all over the studio, showing 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:24.159 everyone the songs and kind of directing these 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:26.919 really loose, spontaneous arrangements. That 00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:30.039 is such a contrast. He really is. And then you 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:32.340 have his manager Phil Kaufman, who sort of splits 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:34.560 the difference between those two extremes. What 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:36.840 did the manager say? Kaufman claimed Parsons 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:39.659 wasn't necessarily sober, but he was just much 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:42.500 better at hiding his drinking and drug use than 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:45.280 he had been during his previous solo album, the 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:49.400 one called GP. Wait, I, um, I have to push back 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:52.800 on this a little bit. Because I really hate this 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:56.080 romanticized myth of the quote unquote tortured 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:59.650 genius holding court. Sure. I mean, If Parsons 00:03:59.650 --> 00:04:02.550 is actively disintegrating, showing up late and 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:05.210 needing Emmylou Harris to literally babysit him, 00:04:05.530 --> 00:04:08.229 why did the band just walk out? That's a very 00:04:08.229 --> 00:04:10.229 fair question. Right. Because we aren't talking 00:04:10.229 --> 00:04:12.349 about a bunch of amateur garage rock kids who 00:04:12.349 --> 00:04:14.409 are just happy to be there. No, these were top 00:04:14.409 --> 00:04:18.209 tier guys. Exactly. We are talking about members 00:04:18.209 --> 00:04:21.389 of Elvis Presley's Taking Care of Business band. 00:04:21.670 --> 00:04:24.569 Yeah. You've got legendary guitarist James Burton 00:04:24.569 --> 00:04:28.680 and piano player Glenn D. Harden. I mean, these 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:32.259 are consummate discipline professionals who literally 00:04:32.259 --> 00:04:35.259 play for the king of rock and roll. They don't 00:04:35.259 --> 00:04:38.579 have time to waste. They don't. So was this studio 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:41.839 dynamic essentially a musical weekend at Bernie's? 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:44.720 Oh, wow. Weekend at Bernie's? Well, yeah. Are 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:47.040 they just, like, propping up a severely impaired 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:48.860 guy to get the tracks down and collect a paycheck? 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:51.160 Well, what's fascinating here is that the tension 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:53.500 you are describing is the method. What do you 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:56.560 mean? The paradox wasn't a flaw in the recording 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:58.800 process. It was actually the engine that drove 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.199 the album. Burton, Hardin, and the rest of the 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:03.160 band stayed, because when Parsons actually stepped 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:05.720 up to the microphone, the soul and the delivery 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:08.259 were just undeniable. The talent was still there. 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:10.399 It was. And because the formal arrangements were 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:13.639 left so incredibly loose, it allowed this hyper 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.139 -professional band to step up and build a really 00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:19.120 sturdy, reliable framework around him. Ah, I 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.800 see. So they were basically functioning as, like, 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:25.240 Musical shock absorbers. Precisely. Musical shock 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:27.279 absorber is a great way to put it. They took 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:30.000 all the erratic, unpredictable bumps of his addiction, 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:32.639 so the chassis of the song stayed completely 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:34.660 smooth. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. They 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:37.660 created a safe container for his chaos. Parsons 00:05:37.660 --> 00:05:40.220 provided the raw, fraying nerve at the center, 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:42.899 and the band provided the polished steel holding 00:05:42.899 --> 00:05:46.399 it all together. Wow. It's honestly a master 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:48.759 class in accommodating a fracturing frontman 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:51.040 without letting the song itself break. You know, 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:52.920 it makes you think about the workplace dynamics 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:55.459 we all deal with. Oh, for sure. Like, for you 00:05:55.459 --> 00:05:58.100 listening, have you ever had to carry a brilliant 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:02.139 but completely chaotic colleague over the finish 00:06:02.139 --> 00:06:05.079 line on a massive project? Everyone's had one 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:07.240 of those. Right. where you're doing all the heavy 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.759 structural lifting, managing the schedule, fixing 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:12.939 all the typos, just so their one flash of genius 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:15.279 can shine through at the big presentation. Yeah. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.300 That is exactly what this backing band, and especially 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:21.500 Emmylou Harris, did for Graham Parsons. And that 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:25.120 dynamic, that kind of pulling things together 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:27.540 at the last minute, it wasn't just happening 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:29.879 with the band's physical performance in the studio. 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:32.699 No. No, it fundamentally shaped the track list 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:36.410 itself. Because of Parson's deteriorating physical 00:06:36.410 --> 00:06:39.490 and mental condition, he simply lacked the focus 00:06:39.490 --> 00:06:42.189 required to sit down and write a full album's 00:06:42.189 --> 00:06:44.430 worth of new material. Oh, of course. You can't 00:06:44.430 --> 00:06:46.550 write if you're out of it. Right. The illusion 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:48.730 is that this was a brand new record, but the 00:06:48.730 --> 00:06:51.370 reality was much more desperate. Here's where 00:06:51.370 --> 00:06:53.029 it gets really interesting, because you look 00:06:53.029 --> 00:06:55.629 at the track list, and it is a total patchwork 00:06:55.629 --> 00:06:57.930 quilt of his entire life. Yeah, completely stitched 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:00.470 together. Out of the whole album, only two new 00:07:00.470 --> 00:07:02.350 songs were quickly written during these sessions. 00:07:02.410 --> 00:07:04.980 Just two. Just two. You have the title track, 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:08.139 Return of the Grievous Angel, which, get this, 00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:10.800 Parsons didn't even write the lyrics for. Wow. 00:07:11.339 --> 00:07:13.660 Yeah, the words were actually penned by a Boston 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:17.259 -based poet and fan named Tom Brown. That's crazy. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:19.939 And then you have In My Hour of Darkness, which 00:07:19.939 --> 00:07:22.879 Emmylou Harris had to arrange. And that is the 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:25.579 entirety. of the brand new material. Exactly. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.899 To get this album done, Parsons was forced to 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:31.759 basically become an archivist of his own past. 00:07:31.939 --> 00:07:33.540 He had to dig through his own history. Yeah, 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:35.860 he had to scavenge his previous eras just to 00:07:35.860 --> 00:07:38.079 fill the runtime. So you have a track like Brass 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:41.220 Buttons, a song that dates all the way back to 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:43.959 the mid -1960s when he was just a folk singer 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:45.879 at Harvard. All the way back to Harvard. Yeah. 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:48.339 Then you have A Thousand Dollar Wedding, which 00:07:48.339 --> 00:07:50.480 was actually recorded with his former band, the 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:54.120 Flying Burrito Brothers, around 1970. The backstory 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:56.100 on The Thousand Dollar Wedding is wild, too. 00:07:56.259 --> 00:07:58.480 It is. I mean, he's digging through the crates 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:02.220 of his unreleased life to pull out this highly 00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:05.480 narrative, almost theatrical song about his own 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:08.300 aborted plan to wed the mother of his daughter. 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:11.079 Right, in this incredibly ostentatious style. 00:08:11.339 --> 00:08:13.600 Exactly. It's dense and brooding. And then he 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.740 pulls, ooh, Las Vegas, which was a rejected track 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:19.060 from his first solo album. Just pulling scraps. 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:21.449 Yeah. He even pulls Hickory Wind, which is a 00:08:21.449 --> 00:08:23.750 song he had already famously recorded and released 00:08:23.750 --> 00:08:26.009 with The Birds years prior. Yeah, he's just gathering 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:28.529 whatever he can find. So my question to you is, 00:08:28.769 --> 00:08:31.689 is Grievous Angel really an album, or is it more 00:08:31.689 --> 00:08:35.090 like a college student writing a brilliant senior 00:08:35.090 --> 00:08:38.710 thesis by frantically cobbling together a bunch 00:08:38.710 --> 00:08:40.429 of old essays the night before the deadline? 00:08:40.529 --> 00:08:43.250 Well, the panic and the frantic assembly certainly 00:08:43.250 --> 00:08:45.830 mirror your college student analogy. Right. But 00:08:45.830 --> 00:08:48.409 we have to evaluate the final thesis he submitted. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:51.799 because even though it was scavenged from disparate 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:54.600 parts of his life, it operated as the ultimate 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:58.120 manifesto of his entire musical philosophy. It 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:00.740 really expanded what he called Cosmic American 00:09:00.740 --> 00:09:03.179 Music. We hear that term thrown around so much 00:09:03.179 --> 00:09:05.679 in music history, but what does Cosmic American 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:09.340 Music actually mean mechanically on this specific 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:13.179 record? Mechanically, it's the seamless integration 00:09:13.179 --> 00:09:15.639 of country music soul and storytelling with the 00:09:15.639 --> 00:09:18.200 rhythm and attitude of rock and roll. So blending 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:20.940 the two worlds. Yeah. It means taking a weeping 00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:23.840 pedal steel guitar or maybe a traditional country 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:27.059 fiddle and pairing it with a heavy driving rock 00:09:27.059 --> 00:09:29.039 rhythm section. Oh, that makes sense. And it's 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:31.700 playing country music not as a novelty or a parody, 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:33.840 which some rockers did. Right. They kind of made 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:37.019 fun of it. Exactly. But Parsons played it with 00:09:37.019 --> 00:09:39.600 absolute earnestness while injecting it with 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:41.980 a countercultural rock and roll swagger. A really 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:45.460 unique blend. Definitely. And Tom Russell, writing 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:48.740 in the magazine Helix, made a massive comparison 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:51.620 regarding the synthesis. He argued that Parsons' 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:53.720 influence in bringing country music to rock and 00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:56.159 roll is as culturally important as Bob Dylan 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.539 combining folk lyrics with rock instruments. 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:01.340 Whoa. Comparing him to Dylan going electric. 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:05.399 Yeah. That is not small praise for a record pieced 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:07.820 together from scraps. It's monumental praise. 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:10.759 I mean, Dylan synthesized folk and rock, showing 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:13.559 that acoustic storytelling could have this electric 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:16.419 energy. Right. Well, Parson synthesized country 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:19.100 and rock, showing that traditional rural music 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:21.679 could have a countercultural edge. I love that. 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:24.440 So even he was submitting old essays, the final 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:26.679 document changed the academic field forever. 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:30.620 Man, and if that track list was a Frankenstein's 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:33.779 monster of old and new material, the stitch holding 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:37.360 all those eras together was undeniably Emmylou 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:39.519 Harris. Without a doubt. Which makes the drama 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.399 that happened after the recording sessions, like 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:45.600 the illusion of Graham as a solitary solo artist, 00:10:46.419 --> 00:10:49.279 incredibly jarring. Yeah, Emmylou Harris's contribution 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:52.200 to this album honestly cannot be overstated. 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:55.909 She was vital. She really was. The musical connection 00:10:55.909 --> 00:10:58.470 between her and Parsons is the emotional core 00:10:58.470 --> 00:11:01.090 of the record. You hear it most clearly on their 00:11:01.090 --> 00:11:03.570 duet of Love Hurts, which is a song originally 00:11:03.570 --> 00:11:05.809 written by Bode Low Bryant. Oh, I know that song. 00:11:05.909 --> 00:11:08.549 Yeah. And biographer David Myers points out their 00:11:08.549 --> 00:11:11.769 perfect emotional restraint on this track. He 00:11:11.769 --> 00:11:14.769 highlights what he calls their lovely high wine 00:11:14.769 --> 00:11:17.669 and describes their performance as a keening 00:11:17.669 --> 00:11:20.570 reach for the suffering. A keening reach for 00:11:20.570 --> 00:11:22.629 the suffering. That is a very poetic description. 00:11:22.710 --> 00:11:25.370 But how does that translate vocal? because traditional 00:11:25.370 --> 00:11:28.590 country duets usually have a very specific polished 00:11:28.590 --> 00:11:31.210 structure, right? They do. Traditional country 00:11:31.210 --> 00:11:33.669 duets often feature the male lead with the female 00:11:33.669 --> 00:11:36.210 voice neatly tucked underneath, or vice versa. 00:11:36.409 --> 00:11:39.429 Right, in very predictable, safe harmonic intervals. 00:11:39.850 --> 00:11:42.370 Exactly. But Parsons and Harris didn't do that. 00:11:42.529 --> 00:11:44.750 Their phrasing was looser, sort of wrapping around 00:11:44.750 --> 00:11:48.389 each other. Okay. The lovely high wine. comes 00:11:48.389 --> 00:11:50.570 from them pushing into the upper registers of 00:11:50.570 --> 00:11:52.629 their voices, where the sound starts to thin 00:11:52.629 --> 00:11:54.330 out and feel fragile. Oh, it's like it's going 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:56.570 to break. Exactly like it's going to break. But 00:11:56.570 --> 00:11:58.610 they hold back. They feel the pain. They show 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:01.070 the vulnerability to the listener. But they never 00:12:01.070 --> 00:12:04.490 cross the line into melodrama. Oh, wow. The sustain 00:12:04.490 --> 00:12:07.409 they achieve on the final words, love hurts. 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:10.820 It just demonstrates a profound technical and 00:12:10.820 --> 00:12:13.259 emotional synchronization. It's haunting. It 00:12:13.259 --> 00:12:15.480 sounds like an absolute master class in harmony 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:18.559 and restraint. It really is. But then, the tragedy 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:23.620 strikes. September 1973, Parsons overdoses in 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:26.440 Joshua Tree. Yeah. The album is mixed, the master 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.019 tapes are done. But it hasn't been released yet. 00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:32.039 It wouldn't come out until January 1974. Right, 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.200 a few months later. And in that four -month gap 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:36.600 between his death and the release, his widow, 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:39.120 Gretchen Parsons, steps in. And this is where 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:43.480 it gets messy. So messy. She initiates some breathtakingly 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:45.860 petty historical revisionism. Yeah, the sources 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:48.120 are clear that Gretchen had never cared for Emily 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.240 Harris's relationship with her husband. She was 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:52.899 jealous. Right. And now with Graham gone, she 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:55.720 had legal control over the estate. And she essentially 00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:59.259 tries to erase... Emelu Harris from history. 00:12:59.460 --> 00:13:01.919 She really did. Like originally the album was 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:03.940 going to be credited to Graham Parsons with Emelu 00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:07.080 Harris and the front cover was an actual photograph 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:09.240 of the two of them together. A beautiful picture 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:13.039 too. Yeah. But Gretchen rips Emelu off the front 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:15.899 cover completely. She relegates her to a simple 00:13:15.899 --> 00:13:18.100 credit on the back. Just unbelievable. And it 00:13:18.100 --> 00:13:21.080 gets worse. She physically removes the original 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:23.100 title track, a song called Sleepless Nights. 00:13:23.470 --> 00:13:25.710 which completely alters the length and pacing 00:13:25.710 --> 00:13:27.870 of the record. She literally changed the music. 00:13:28.110 --> 00:13:31.210 She did. And then she replaces the cover art 00:13:31.210 --> 00:13:34.350 with an image of Graham floating alone in this 00:13:34.350 --> 00:13:36.570 quote -unquote sea of blue. Trying to make him 00:13:36.570 --> 00:13:38.929 look like a lone wolf. Exactly. It's the equivalent 00:13:38.929 --> 00:13:41.590 of a museum curator walking up to a masterpiece, 00:13:41.950 --> 00:13:44.370 pulling out a paintbrush, and literally painting 00:13:44.370 --> 00:13:47.330 over a co -artist's face just because of a personal 00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:50.669 grudge. It's wild to think about. How does personal 00:13:50.669 --> 00:13:53.840 jealousy... successfully alter musical history 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:56.340 like that. Well if we connect this to the bigger 00:13:56.340 --> 00:13:59.179 picture... It happens more often than we'd like 00:13:59.179 --> 00:14:02.299 to admit. Really? Yeah. Estates often have immense 00:14:02.299 --> 00:14:05.840 legal leverage over unreleased material. And 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:08.019 record labels, you know, wanting to get the product 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:10.679 to market and make money, they will often concede 00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:13.600 to demands. That is so frustrating. It is. But 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.200 what's crucial here is that while the packaging 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:18.519 was manipulated to create this illusion of a 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:21.539 solitary genius, the truth of the art remained 00:14:21.539 --> 00:14:24.399 untouchable. The music spoke for itself. Exactly. 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:26.899 The critics at the time saw right through the 00:14:26.899 --> 00:14:29.820 drama. Alan Jones, writing for Melody Maker, 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.820 reviewed the album and basically said it defies 00:14:32.820 --> 00:14:35.220 standard critique. What did he say? He wrote 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:38.019 that the works need no analysis. There are no 00:14:38.019 --> 00:14:40.320 words to describe the sense of desperation and 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:42.679 the haunting quality of these last works. They 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:45.639 just need to be listened to. Wow. You know, it 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:47.740 really makes you rethink the art you consume. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:50.850 Definitely. For you listening right now. Consider 00:14:50.850 --> 00:14:53.190 how much of the music, the literature, or the 00:14:53.190 --> 00:14:56.309 films you love has been filtered or edited or 00:14:56.309 --> 00:14:58.970 manipulated by the messy personal lives and estates 00:14:58.970 --> 00:15:02.169 of the creators long after they are gone. It's 00:15:02.169 --> 00:15:04.750 a sobering thought. It is. We buy the record 00:15:04.750 --> 00:15:06.990 or read the book, assuming we are getting the 00:15:06.990 --> 00:15:09.970 artist's pure unfiltered vision. But sometimes 00:15:09.970 --> 00:15:12.389 we're just getting a curated vendetta. That's 00:15:12.389 --> 00:15:16.230 a vital point. Despite all that manipulation, 00:15:16.570 --> 00:15:19.210 the quality of the scavenge tracks really survived 00:15:19.210 --> 00:15:21.710 the editing process. Oh, absolutely. Years later, 00:15:21.929 --> 00:15:24.370 when the magazine Uncut compiled Parsons' 20 00:15:24.370 --> 00:15:27.429 Greatest Tracks, the top three on their entire 00:15:27.429 --> 00:15:30.529 list, which were Hickory Wind, Brass Buttons, 00:15:30.649 --> 00:15:33.610 and $1 ,000 Wedding, were all pulled directly 00:15:33.610 --> 00:15:36.210 from this exact album. That's incredible. Yeah. 00:15:36.429 --> 00:15:39.389 The songs he had to dig out of his own past literally 00:15:39.389 --> 00:15:42.129 became his ultimate legacy. So what does this 00:15:42.129 --> 00:15:43.789 all mean? Let's look at the incredible journey 00:15:43.789 --> 00:15:46.090 we've just been on. It's been a ride. We started 00:15:46.090 --> 00:15:48.710 in a drug -addled recording studio in Hollywood 00:15:48.710 --> 00:15:51.889 with a legendary backing band acting as shock 00:15:51.889 --> 00:15:54.370 absorbers for a fading addict. Right. We watched 00:15:54.370 --> 00:15:56.570 him scavenge a track list from his Harvard folk 00:15:56.570 --> 00:15:59.029 days all the way to his Burrito Brothers era, 00:15:59.629 --> 00:16:01.970 completely held aloft by the revolutionary vocal 00:16:01.970 --> 00:16:04.409 mechanics of his partnership with Emmylou Harris. 00:16:04.570 --> 00:16:08.419 A true patchwork. And then we watch that final 00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:11.820 testament survive a jealous posthumous edit by 00:16:11.820 --> 00:16:14.240 his widow. Yeah. You know, the ultimate irony 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:16.340 of all of this. What's that? When Grievous Angel 00:16:16.340 --> 00:16:19.980 was finally released in January 1974, it peaked 00:16:19.980 --> 00:16:22.799 at a completely disappointing number 195 on the 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:26.600 Billboard 200 charts. Number 195. Ouch. Yeah. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.740 A massive commercial failure that quietly went 00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:33.110 on to define an entire genre. It is a profound 00:16:33.110 --> 00:16:35.529 testament to the fact that long -term cultural 00:16:35.529 --> 00:16:38.250 impact rarely aligns with immediate commercial 00:16:38.250 --> 00:16:40.629 success. Oh, sure. But before we finish, there's 00:16:40.629 --> 00:16:43.409 one final bizarre detail from the source material 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.590 regarding this theme of illusion versus reality 00:16:46.590 --> 00:16:49.309 that we actually haven't discussed yet. Oh, I'm 00:16:49.309 --> 00:16:51.570 intrigued. So track one on side two of the album 00:16:51.570 --> 00:16:54.549 is titled Medley Live from Northern Quebec. OK, 00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.210 a live track. Well, it combines the Leuven brothers 00:16:57.210 --> 00:16:59.809 classic Cash on the Barrelhead with his own song 00:16:59.809 --> 00:17:03.649 Hickory Wind. It is not a live recording at all. 00:17:03.889 --> 00:17:06.269 Wait, really? Not at all. It is entirely fake. 00:17:06.410 --> 00:17:08.950 You're kidding? Nope. They took a studio recording 00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:11.450 and heavily layered it with canned applause and 00:17:11.450 --> 00:17:14.430 an ersatz completely artificial concert ambiance. 00:17:14.690 --> 00:17:17.769 No way. Yeah. The album credits even list his 00:17:17.769 --> 00:17:20.250 manager Phil Kaufman, producer Kim Fowley, and 00:17:20.250 --> 00:17:23.529 others as providing quote, background blah blah 00:17:23.529 --> 00:17:26.410 to simulate a bustling crowd. Background blah 00:17:26.410 --> 00:17:28.269 blah. That's actually in the credits. Literally 00:17:28.269 --> 00:17:30.869 credited as background blah. That is hilarious. 00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:33.250 But why? Well, that's the question to leave you 00:17:33.250 --> 00:17:36.650 with. Why would an artist who was so deeply obsessed 00:17:36.650 --> 00:17:39.549 with the raw, authentic soul of country music 00:17:39.549 --> 00:17:42.930 intentionally engineer a completely fake live 00:17:42.930 --> 00:17:45.089 track for what would become his final testament? 00:17:45.809 --> 00:17:48.549 Was he perhaps trying to simulate the adoring 00:17:48.549 --> 00:17:50.829 sold out audience he never quite achieved in 00:17:50.829 --> 00:17:53.450 life? Oh man, that is a haunting thought to end 00:17:53.450 --> 00:17:57.250 on. A fake audience for a very real genius. Well, 00:17:57.250 --> 00:17:58.890 thank you all for joining us on this Deep Dive. 00:17:58.970 --> 00:18:01.470 I highly encourage you to go listen to Grievous 00:18:01.470 --> 00:18:03.900 Angels with all these messy, beautiful contradictions 00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:05.619 in mind. We'll catch you next time