Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 50 of 69

Thread: Gram Parsons

  1. #1
    firegilnotguns Guest

    Gram Parsons

    Any Gram Parsons fans out there? He's perfect to discuss on this site - I'd love to see a FAD page about him. If you aren't familiar with him/his death, he died of a drug overdose at the age of 26, his body was stolen by his road manager and burned in Joshua Tree National Park...that's the very, very, very short version of his death. There's more info on Wikipedia but like I said, perfect for a FAD page, especially since all the stuff is relatively close to LA...
    Anyway, his death aside, though, I'm a big Gram/FBB fan and though I know OF many others, I don't actually KNOW many others!
    Last edited by firegilnotguns; 10-04-2007 at 04:46 PM.

  2. #2
    colin s Guest
    I can't believe that there isn't an FAD page for Gram Parsons. The circumstances surrounding his death truly are stranger than fiction. Is anyone out there willing to work on an FAD page on Gram with me. Please advise.
    Colin S

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    NoHo Arts District-L.A.
    Posts
    5,648

    Gram Parsons

    I don't know too much about him except for what's already out there. I do know that he was very influential to todays musicians.

  4. #4
    Sweet Tooth Guest
    I know that Emmy Lou Harris cut her teeth with him.
    a

  5. #5
    Eugenioinreno Guest

    A genius

    A couple of years ago they had a tribute concert for him that K Richards jammed on and and it was good until they rolled out the daughter that never knew him.(Parsons)After she droned on for about as long as Gram's career lasted I wished it was me that was dead instead!The man was truly an artist who never even scratched his potential before his last get-high.

  6. #6
    knothere Guest
    Theres a movie starring Johnny Knoxville all about his death.

  7. #7
    Death Hag Chris Guest
    hey all. i'm new here. I am a HUGE fan of Gram's. between his 1 album with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Bros. albums and his solo works, he WAS an inspiration on music as we know it today. he inspired the Stones to dabble in country, and was a big influence on Ryan Adams and Steve Earle (both amazing in their own right). so, how's about a Gram page on FAD Scott! it would be really great for people to know more about him. and it really IS an amazing story. sick, but amazing.

  8. #8
    Snoopy Guest
    Wow I haven't heard about the circumstances surrounding his death..but the little tid bit I read here sounds interesting!

  9. #9
    Lisamarie Guest

    omg!!! I love Gram Parsons! And I live down the street from his grave.,

    Okay so I love him and think had he lived he would have become a ledgend! He was so before his time and talented ! His music was just breathtaking...such a shame more people dont know what a great artist he was...okay I live across the street from garden of memories graveyard were he is buried ! Took me all day to find! How cool huh?? Ill post a pic of his grave for ya! Its hidden..you really have to search for him. I walked right over him!!! And this is weird there was a big black dog sitting on his grave and I was scared to get out of the car cause I thought he might be mean! But he was just sitting there like a statue! So I drove round and when I came back he was gone.......weird! He looked so weird just sitting like a good dog on his grave....Gram was hot too!! I loved his style!

  10. #10
    knothere Guest
    cool about the dog at his grave Lisamarie

  11. #11
    Snoopy Guest
    LisaMarie that is very creepy about the black dog looking forward to seeing pictures!

  12. #12
    firegilnotguns Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by knothere View Post
    Theres a movie starring Johnny Knoxville all about his death.
    I haven't seen "Grand Theft Parsons" but apparently while it's based on his death, it's not all factual. It's kind of cool, though, that on the IMDb boards about it, the screen writer for the film responds to a lot of posts regarding the film and answers questions about why things weren't quite as factual (legal issues with the family) and why not more of Gram's music was used (money issues, I believe.)
    I'm sure I'll see it eventually.

    A better source to go to, though, is the film "Fallen Angel" that has interviews with EmmyLou Harris and a lot of Gram's friends and family members...it's definitely worth a watch. We own it, my dad bought it for my husband last at Ernest Tubb's Record Shop last time we were in Nashville (I used to live there...not in the record shop, obviously, but right outside of Nashville) but I'm sure you could get it on eBay or Amazon!

  13. #13
    firegilnotguns Guest
    And btw, it's so awesome to meet other Gram fans!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    kansas
    Posts
    514
    I LOVE GRAM PARSONS!! and the story of his death is one of the most fascinating i think. i've always wanted to see a FAD story on him.

    anyway, i really want to stay at the hotel where he died one day. has anyone gone there?

  15. #15
    firegilnotguns Guest
    I haven't gone there but I think it's pretty cool that they don't make his room the most expensive one on the list. I also think it's smart of them to play up the Gram Parsons factor, rather than trying to pretend it didn't happen like so many other death hotels do. Anyway, here is the link to the B&B where he died (there's a photo of the room where he died on there): http://www.joshuatreeinn.com/

  16. #16
    Tombstone Tourist Guest
    I've actually stayed in his room in Joshua Tree and much like the Janis room in Hollywood - it is truly haunted.

    The only original piece of furniture, aside from the bathroom, is the gold-framed mirror on the wall. After playing his music for several hours and asking outloud for a sign of his presence, I went into the bathroom and heard movement in the main room. Sure enough the mirror was tilted to the right and a CD was knocked off the table. There is also a weird vibe in the walk in closet. The owners say this where the paranormal activity eminates from in the room.

    Also just outside the door the pool is exactly the same as when Gram and friends stayed there.

  17. #17
    Death Hag Chris Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Tombstone Tourist View Post
    I've actually stayed in his room in Joshua Tree and much like the Janis room in Hollywood - it is truly haunted.

    The only original piece of furniture, aside from the bathroom, is the gold-framed mirror on the wall. After playing his music for several hours and asking outloud for a sign of his presence, I went into the bathroom and heard movement in the main room. Sure enough the mirror was tilted to the right and a CD was knocked off the table. There is also a weird vibe in the walk in closet. The owners say this where the paranormal activity eminates from in the room.

    Also just outside the door the pool is exactly the same as when Gram and friends stayed there.
    that's so freaky. and I believe every word of it. if/when I ever make it to Joshua Tree, I would love to rent that room for the night. it's odd that me being a major punk rock fan, I fell in love with Gram's music. the only thing I don't have that he played on is the International Submarine Band album. but the others, especially Grievous Angel, speaks to me like nothing before or since. songs like In My Hour Of Darkness and $1,000 Wedding make me feel his pain, and imagine what he could have done if he would have lived a little longer. but his music turned me onto such artists as Emmylou Harris, James Burton and Chris Hillman. I actually saw Chris Hillman last year, and he played Hickory Wind in memory of Gram (Ryan Adams did the same at Lollapalooza last year too). it was very beautiful and touching.

  18. #18
    Queen_Death_Hag Guest
    OMG I love his music Grievous Angel my favorite Gram album!!!

  19. #19
    .
    Last edited by Dan33185; 12-21-2010 at 01:52 AM.

  20. #20
    Death Hag Chris Guest
    Ryan Adams RULES!!! his old band Whiskeytown did a great cover of A Song For You by Gram. Ryan is really worth checking out, if you haven't already. his new cd Easy Tiger is AMAZING!!!!!

  21. #21
    firegilnotguns Guest
    Yeah, Ryan Adams also has a duet with Emmylou Harris on Heartbreaker called "Oh My Sweet Carolina."

  22. #22
    Death Hag Chris Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by firegilnotguns View Post
    Yeah, Ryan Adams also has a duet with Emmylou Harris on Heartbreaker called "Oh My Sweet Carolina."
    that's one of my favorite Ryan Adams songs. I even have a live version he did with Elton John that's just as amazing as the original. you people have GOOD taste in music, I gotta tell ya. anyone here from the Chicago area?

  23. #23
    firegilnotguns Guest
    I've heard that version, too - really good! Not from Chicago, my brother and his wife used to live there (he went to Northwestern Law and worked in the Sears Tower after that for several years.) I love Chicago, one of my favourite cities by far!

  24. #24
    Death Hag Chris Guest
    Chicago is cool. but i'm actually moving to London, Ontario in about a month. as much as I love this town, I really need a break from it for a little while.

  25. #25
    meggles Guest
    I love Gram also! He was somewhat a tortured soul, and you coudl hear it in his music. Pamela Desbarres had some good things about him in her book, and she married his daughter (well, not the two of them but performed the ceremony of Polly to a guy).

    Will have to check out Ryan Adams. RIP, Gram! I'd love to go to Joshua Tree and check it out, we wanted to when in LA area and just ran out of time trying to go to every cemetary and site and take Scott's tour and all....

  26. #26
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    kansas
    Posts
    514
    Quote Originally Posted by firegilnotguns View Post
    I haven't gone there but I think it's pretty cool that they don't make his room the most expensive one on the list. I also think it's smart of them to play up the Gram Parsons factor, rather than trying to pretend it didn't happen like so many other death hotels do. Anyway, here is the link to the B&B where he died (there's a photo of the room where he died on there): http://www.joshuatreeinn.com/
    yes! i really would love to stay there one day. i've always wanted to go to Joshua Tree anyway..

  27. #27
    cherryghost Guest
    I love Gram Parsons music but that movie was unwatchable, terrible and would not entice any novice to his music to engage. Just listen to his music , it is timeless and the vocals are so beautiful.

  28. #28
    cherryghost Guest
    Wilco nod to Gram parsons as did Uncle Tupelo!

  29. #29
    Lady Macbeth Guest
    My husband and I camped at Joshua Tree this last weekend and took a special trip to the Cap Rock cremation site to see the shrine to Gram. We spent a few minutes reading the messages written on the rock and reflecting on the view. I think park maintenance had been by recently to clean up because we didn't see any tokens at the site. I hear the park also periodically sand blasts the rock to remove the "graffiti." If this is the case, it seems contradictory to their goal of preserving history.

    Joshua tree is a beautiful and spiritual place. No wonder Parsons fell in love with it. The view from the rock is especially pretty. Unfortunately, we left our camera in the car and didn't get any pictures. We're planning on going back in the spring, and this time I won't forget my camera.

  30. 11-15-2007, 09:12 PM

  31. #30
    knothere Guest
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	gram_parsons.jpg 
Views:	42 
Size:	22.4 KB 
ID:	1153

  32. #31
    Bukowski Guest
    Great post, I have also been to Joshua Tree to visit Gram's memorial. And I must agree with you on the spirituality of this place and of the Western American Desert Itself. To be able to drive Two hours from downtown L.A. and lay down under a billion stars and fall asleep to the howl of coyote's, It's no wonder they call this God's Country.

  33. #32
    Keyser Soze Guest

  34. #33
    firegilnotguns Guest
    There is already a thread on Gram Parsons here: http://www.findadeath.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37

  35. #34
    Keyser Soze Guest
    whoppsie my bad

  36. #35
    tuesdays_jupiter Guest
    good music and grand theft parsons was entertaining even if not factual

  37. #36
    ratkin638 Guest
    Now here is a thread that needs to be bumped if I've ever seen one. I'm pleased to do the honors. Gram Parsons should not be forgotten.

    Whatever you might think of country-rock, Gram Parsons is the guy most often credited with starting and popularizing it. It was his influence, as a member of The Byrds, that led to the album "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo," and when he left the Byrds he formed The Flying Burrito Brothers, one of the earliest country-rock bands.

    I was lucky enough to see Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels (which included Emmylou Harris) at Max's Kansas City in New York, and meet him and Harris backstage. Friends of mine were the opening act that night, and became close to Parsons towards the end of his life. They had dinner with him a few nights before his death.

    The story of the theft of and attempted cremation of Parson's body is pretty well known by now. If you don't already know it, Wikipedia has a good synopsis. One detail that they missed is my favorite. Road manager Phil Kaufman retrieved Parsons' coffin from LAX, where it was awaiting shipment to Louisiana. In typical beauracratic form, the workers at the freight terminal were perfectly happy to release the body upon obtaining (a) a good bullshit story on why the body wasn't going to Louisiana after all, and, (b) signatures on all sorts of release forms. It was only later than anybody noticed that all of the forms were signed "Phil Nobody."

  38. #37
    Lisamarie Guest
    thanks for the bump..I gotta get that pic of his grave for you guys!!! To be frank he is so dooooable!!! Oooh lala!!!!

  39. #38
    fultondyke Guest
    I always liked Gram also (I have Hot Burrito #2, and Love Hurts--which is a duet he did with Emmylou) on my mp3 player...I have the movie Fallen Angel also, and I too would recommend it to any Parson's fans out there. He really lived a sad life...He was born an heir to a fotune, was enormously talented, and was physically beautiful so --on the surface--it seemed like he was destined for a charmed life, but his father comitted suicide when Gram was a kid, and his mother died from alcoholism on the day Gram graduated from high school...It turned out that his stepfather had been sneaking booze into the hospital for Gram's mother as she was dying of alcoholic cirrhosis! (On an interesting parallel, Jimi Hendrix's mother also died of cirrhosis when he was quite young...)

  40. #39
    Cynthia Guest
    There are two biographies of Gram Parsons that I know of: "Hickory Wind" by Ben Fong-Torres and "Twenty Thousand Roads" by David N. Meyer. I think his daughter had a book about him too (she never knew him, he died when she was a toddler or infant; he basically abandoned her and her mother). Parsons was something of a paradox. On one hand he was said to be sweet and gentlemanly; on the other he was said to have been an asshole of major proportions who broke women's hearts and acted like an idiot. He came from a doomed family: father a suicide, mother and step-father dead of alcoholism-related illnesses, sister and niece dead in a boating accident. And he died of an overdose. Much is made of how talented he was and how he practically invented "country rock" but the truth is that he pissed all that talent away in drugs and alcohol.

    He would have lived longer than 26 years if the two women he was with had called an ambulance when it was obvious he was od-ing. They were drug users, so they knew what was happening. They shoved ice cubes up his butt to revive him; he came to but started nodding off again. One of them went to get food and coffee, thinking if he ate something he'd be ok; the other one just sat with him as he lay on the bed, lapsing into a drug-induced coma from which he would never awake. He could have been saved. What a tragedy, what a waste.

  41. #40
    Lisamarie Guest
    Ice cubes up his but!!! Are you seriouse??? And yeah he was a real dumbass , had he lived he would have been a ledgend...but he wated it away and died at a young age in an hotel with two junkies....sad and stupid....pooor doomed soul.Why ice cubes?? I never heard of that?

  42. #41
    ratkin638 Guest
    Well - - it gets your attention, if you have any to be gotten!

  43. #42
    Cynthia Guest
    Apparently shoving ice cubes up the rectum is a typical trick drug addicts use to revive someone who is od-ing. Drug addicts don't like calling ambulances; they don't want to be implicated in anything, so they try to take care of the situation themselves. I get the feeling this type of thing happens a lot, expecially when famous people are involved. When the woman who was with Jimi Hendrix the night he choked on his own vomit found him unresponsive she called Eric Burdon of the Animals instead of an ambulance! The "massage therapist" who found Heath Ledger called Mary Kate Olsen instead of an ambulance. ALL these women were dumb as a box of rocks.

  44. #43
    brikdon1956 Guest
    Christine and I went up to Joshua last weekend and came away with these shots. I have more, if you want.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PB030483.jpg 
Views:	49 
Size:	389.6 KB 
ID:	9650   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PB030480.jpg 
Views:	40 
Size:	343.1 KB 
ID:	9651   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PB030499.jpg 
Views:	47 
Size:	437.9 KB 
ID:	9652   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PB030495.jpg 
Views:	34 
Size:	377.0 KB 
ID:	9655  

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PB030494.jpg 
Views:	45 
Size:	469.7 KB 
ID:	9656  

  45. #44
    ratkin638 Guest
    My guess would be 'no.' Something about having been set on fire that makes you hard to seat at parties.

  46. #45
    Mach2 Guest

  47. #46
    jz63 Guest

    I kept this momento...

    .. from the Joshua Tree Inn.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	key.jpg 
Views:	30 
Size:	104.3 KB 
ID:	10865  

  48. #47
    ShockDoc Guest
    I saw one of his last shows at Liberty Hall in Houston. Emmylou was with him but was pretty much unknown at the time. The first thing he did when he came onstage was flick a lit cigarette into the audience. After that i just thought 'What an asshole'. I did think he was a good writer...

  49. #48
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Nunya Bidness
    Posts
    10,179
    bump
    The most dangerous woman of all is the one who refuses to rely on your sword to save her because she carries her own.

    - R.H. Sin

  50. #49
    stacebabe Guest
    He was mentioned ALOT throughout Pamela Des Barres' "I'm with the Band" book, she adored him. That was the first I'd heard of him, or the crazyness that ensued with his manager/body stuff.

  51. #50
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    kansas
    Posts
    514
    just dropping my two cents in here. i'm a huge gram parsons fan. i would LOVE to stay at the Joshua Tree one of these days!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity. ~Edvard Munch

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •