Thursday music corner: Gram Parsons (1946-73), born in Florida as Ingram Cecil Connor III, died before he could reap the rewards of his trailblazing country-rock recordings, and was about six weeks shy of joining the infamous 27 Club of recording artists who lost their lives at that untimely age. Having recorded with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, he laid down what would become his defining solo album, Grievous Angel, in Hollywood in the northern summer of 1973 with the invaluable collaboration of his singing partner, Emmylou Harris. The sessions were reportedly happy, but Parsons was an unreliable performer, much affected by his heroin and alcohol addictions.
Las Vegas, sometimes listed as Ooh Las Vegas, was a reject from his first solo album, GP, co-written by Family, Blind Faith and Traffic guitarist Ric Grech. Here on Grievous Angel the number, fuelled into a frenetic country boogie by Elvis Presley's Taking Care of Business band, and sweetened by Harris' harmonies, took off and became a rousing anthem of rueful excess.
Grievous Angel was released in January 1974, four months after Parsons' death from an overdose of morphine and alcohol. While it initially failed to sell, over time it emerged as a cross-over classic, successfully bridging the gap between country and rock. It went on to influence generations of performers. One of its best-known tracks, Parsons and Harris' duet on Boudleaux Bryant's 1960 classic Love Hurts, became a romantic standard alongside other performances by the Everly Brothers and Nazareth.
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