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Gram Parsons
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Gram Parsons was actually called Ingram Cecil Connor and was born in 1946 in Winter Haven, Florida, into a wealthy family of fruit growers. His youth was unhappy: his father committed suicide, and on the day Gram finished high school his mother died. He took his stepfather's surname. After an Elvis Presley concert in 1956 he wanted to make music. He first played rock 'n' roll and then folk, and briefly studied at Harvard. Thanks to a family trust fund he always had money enough.
Music and breakthrough
In 1966 he started the International Submarine Band with musicians from Boston, which later moved to Los Angeles. In 1968 he joined The Byrds. He persuaded the band to record the country album Sweetheart of the Rodeo in Nashville, including his own song Hickory Wind. He left that same year. With The Flying Burrito Brothers he made The Gilded Palace of Sin, which sold little but was praised by critics. He sang his solo records GP (1973) and Grievous Angel (1974) together with the young Emmylou Harris. Parsons died in 1973, aged 26, from a combination of alcohol and morphine.
Influence
Parsons called his music Cosmic American Music: a mixture of country, soul, rhythm and blues, folk and rock. He is regarded as a founding father of country rock and alternative country. His body of work is small, but his influence is great. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones learned to appreciate country music through him.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1973GP
- 1974Grievous Angel
- 1976Sleepless Nights
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still PopNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Country rock Genre
In the late 1960s some rock musicians returned to the roots of American music; in 1968 The Byrds recorded Sweetheart of the Rodeo with Gram Parsons.