Grievous Angel by Gram Parsons

The first rule of songwriting is to write what you know. In Gram Parsons’ case this was booze, shotgun marriages, doomed love affairs and spitting in the eye of the Grim Reaper. He certainly packed a lot into his tragically short life.

He played music from an early age, formed several successful bands and joined The Byrds in 1968 aged just 22 and then quit on principle over a planned tour of apartheid South Africa. He got to know Keith Richards, formed yet another band (The Flying Burrito Brothers) before meeting the then unknown Emmylou Harris who he recruited for his two solo albums.

At this time he was struggling with a crippling drug addiction and alcoholism, but somehow managed to make a solid country rock album greatly elevated by Harris’ vocals, especially on the duets Love Hurts and In My Hour of Darkness.

By rights Harris should have been co-credited for this album, but when Parsons died of an inevitable overdose, his jealous estranged wife removed her from the cover. Her 1975 song Boulder to Birmingham shows how much he meant to her.

Another tragic member of the rockstars die young club.