Country outlaw Tompall Glaser passed away this week. Glaser had a distinguished career, performing with his brothers and running a publishing company. But most of us know him for his work on the first “outlaw” country album, appropriately named Wanted! The Outlaws. The 1976 album — which also featured Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter — was a landmark album that went platinum.
One of the songs Glaser performed on the album, along with “Put Another Log on the Fire,” was “T for Texas.” Here he is performing the song in the 1980s.
Glaser also co-wrote the great song, “Streets of Baltimore,” for Bobby Bare. The song contains a lot of alt-country street cred because of the wonderful version by Gram Parsons. More recently, the song has been covered by The Little Willies. Here is a 2006 Virginia performance of the song by Ryan Adams.
T for thanks for the great music, Mr. Glaser. Rest in peace.
What is your favorite Tompall Glaser song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In this video from the Wall Street Journal‘s WSJ Cafe, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell discuss their history together and their new CD, Old Yellow Moon (2013). The album is the first collaboration between Crowell and Harris since Crowell joined Harris’s Hot Band in 1975. The new album also features members of the Hot Band, who had worked with Crowell and Harris thirty years ago.
The connection between the two talented artists goes back to when Harris chose Crowell’s song “Bluebird Wine” as the lead track for Pieces of the Sky, her 1975 album that followed the 1973 death of her collaborator and mentor Gram Parsons and was her first album with a major label as a solo artist. On the new CD, Harris and Crowell perform a new version of “Bluebird Wine,” after Crowell made some changes to the lyrics. In the following video, also at the WSJ studios in New York City, Crowell and Harris perform another one of the new songs off the album, “Dreaming My Dreams.”
Old Yellow Moon includes songs by Crowell, former Hot Band member Hank DeVito, Roger Miller, Patti Scialfa, Allen Reynolds and Matraca Berg. Vince Gill also plays on the album. NPR also has a story about Harris and Crowell along with audio of some of the songs.
What are your favorite songs by Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On September 19, 1973, singer-songwriter Gram Parsons died from too much morphine and tequila in Room 8 of a motel room in California. It was not the end for Parsons, or at least his body, which then went on an odd journey.
Parsons’ Body
Before Parsons’s death, Parsons and his road manager Phil Kaufman made a pact. They agreed that for whichever one of them died first, the other would take the friend’s body to Joshua Tree National Park, where they would cremate the body.
So, after Parsons’s death, Kaufman and Michael Martin, a roadie, then stole the body and coffin. They took the coffin while it had been en route to a burial in Louisiana.
Kaufman and Martin then drove the body to Joshua Tree National Park. There, they poured gasoline on the coffin and set it on fire with a match.
But Gasoline is not enough to cremate a body, so some of Parsons’s body survived the burning. After Kaufman and Martin were arrested, the charred remains of Parsons were buried in New Orleans.
Because at the time stealing a body was not a crime in California, Kaufman and Martin were fined for stealing property: the coffin. Today, though, one may still pay respect to Parsons at Joshua Tree.
Grand Theft Parsons
The story of the body theft was told in the movie Grand Theft Parsons (2003), starring Johnny Knoxville. It has been awhile since I saw the film, but I remember being a bit disappointed by it.
The story’s focus on the few days seemed stretched out for a movie. And maybe I was disappointed that the movie did not tell us more about the most interesting person related to the story: Gram Parsons.
Rotten Tomatoes has a 44% critics rating and 53% audience rating for Grand Theft Parsons. But I suspect other fans, like me, will still want to see the film.
“Streets of Baltimore”
I do not know whether or not Parsons would be unhappy that his remains are in New Orleans. But one of his classic songs, “Streets of Baltimore,” is about a another journey and going some place you do not want to be.
In “Streets of Baltimore,” the singer recounts leaving Tennessee on the train for Baltimore because his love wants to live in the city. He gets a factory job and walks the streets with her. But he soon realizes she loves the city lights more than she loves him.
So in the end, the singer takes the train back to Tennessee alone: “Now I’m a going back on that same train that brought me here before / While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore.”
There is little video footage of Parsons, but check out this rare grainy recording of him singing with Emmylou Harris.
It is sad that there is so little video footage of Gram Parsons. Not only did he predate the music video era, but much of his fame came after his short life ended. So, he was never a regular on television.
Even in this grainy black and white video of “Streets of Baltimore,” you can still tell he is a superstar, though. And wherever his ashes and remains are, his music resides in our souls.
What is your favorite Gram Parsons song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chris Ethridge, bassist and founding member of the Flying Burrito Brothers passed away earlier this week in Mississippi. Ethridge was a long-time collaborator with Gram Parsons, also playing with Parsons in the International Submarine Band and co-writing some of Parson’s solo songs. While with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Ethridge played on Gilded Palace of Sin (1969), an album Rolling Stone magazine lists as one of the top 200 albums of all time. He also co-wrote “Hot Burrito #1 (I’m Your Toy),” a song we previously discussed on Chimesfreedom. In this performance of “Christine’s Tune (Devil in Disguise),” you may see Ethridge playing bass in the background (with a black beard wearing a Nudie suit).
Ethridge also played as a session musician later in his career, playing with such artists as Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, and Jackson Browne. He also toured with Willie Nelson for eight years. Ethridge learned he had pancreatic cancer in September. He was 65. RIP.
What is your favorite Flying Burrito Brother song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In case you have been too busy this week angrily Tweeting about American Airlines because a flight attendant interrupted a game you were playing on your phone, here are some of the pop culture stories you might have missed this week. FYI, see below for a funny video relating to the American Airlines incident. Three of the big stories that were already covered this week in Chimesfreedom were the passings of actor Harry Morgan, singer Dobie Gray, and blues man Hubert Sumlin, so check out those stories too. But here are some of the lesser known reviews and stories from the fields of movies, music, and popular culture.
—— Movies —–
Filmmakers are clashing with each other over access to West Memphis 3 witnesses.
The Hangover III may be set in Los Angeles and may try a new formula.
Billboard named Adele the top artist of 2011 as she makes history.
—– Television —–
In Wookie news, Chewbacca is going to guest star on Glee.
The Mythbusters guys apologized after they accidentally fired a cannonball into a residential area earlier this week.
“Very funny.” — Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks on the Roots’ controversial entrance song for Michele Bachmann.
Laugh-In star Alan Sues, who also was in the Twilight Zone Episode “The Masks,” passed away this week.
Was it too soon for Saturday Night Live to spoof the Penn State scandal? Colin Quinn thinks so. In other SNL news, Alec Baldwin appeared on the show last night to apologize about the American Airlines incident to . . . Alec Baldwin, “an American treasure.”
—– Other Pop Culture News —–
Manny Ramirez un-retired from baseball. That’s Manny being . . . Brett.
Jerry Robinson, the comic book artist who created Batmans’s The Joker, passed away yesterday. RIP.
In the way that all sci-fi alien horror movies begin. . . NASA just discovered an earth-like planet. Assuming the aliens do not attack us, we will see you with more pop culture stories soon. . .
Country outlaw Tompall Glaser passed away this week. Glaser had a distinguished career, performing with his brothers and running a publishing company. But most of us know him for his work on the first “outlaw” country album, appropriately named Wanted! The Outlaws. The 1976 album — which also featured Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter — was a landmark album that went platinum.
