Gram Parson's International Submarine Band "Safe at Home" 1967(orig) 1991(CD reissue)****

In retrospect, this short album is one of these seminal moments in pop music, signifying the first "marriage" of rock and country music. True, at the beginning of rock'n'roll there were some artists like Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins that felt equally at ease with both genres, but by the mid-60's they were worlds apart: country was music for conservative rural America, rock for the hip teenagers. It took an unlikely personality to bring them together. Gram Parsons (true name: Ingram Cecil Connor the 3rd) was the opposite of a redneck, indeed he was as blue-blooded as any American can get. His father was a renowned fighter pilot and his mother's family were wealthy land-owners; when he came of age they enrolled him in Harvard University and endowed him with a trust fund that solved his livelihood problem once and for all. Seeing as he didn't actually need an education, Gram immediately indulged himself chasing his two loves: music and girls. He formed the first version of The International Submarine Band (ISB) in 1965 and released a few pop singles that went nowhere. Undaunted he took his band first to New York and then to Los Angeles; in each city, he bought a house for the whole band to live and practice together. By '67 he had decided to focus on country music, going completely against the flow: this was the year of hippies, drugs, and free love while country music was considered to be the music of redneck farmers, Southern religious nuts and gun-toting "love it or leave it" nationalists. With the exception of guitarist John Nuese, the rest of the band saw no future in that direction, and abandoned him - just as he was meeting his future producer Suzan Hokom. Suzan was impressed by the group and convinced her then-boyfriend Lee Hazlewood to give ISB a recording contract. Soon, Gram, Nuese and a few country session musicians went into studio to record what would be the first ever crossover country rock album. The LP clocks in at only 26 minutes and consists of a mix of country classics and original compositions. It seems quite audacious for an upper class 21-year old to tackle these tunes by Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, "Cowboy Jack" Clement and Porter Wagoneer. What could he possibly know of these people's lives? But -just like with those English white boys who dared to play the blues- his honest passion for the material and the culture that inspired it helped Gram see it through. He sounds as authentic as possible under the circumstances, and his band of mostly Nashville session men help him achieve it, especially with the addition of pedal steel guitar and backing vocals. My favorites among the covers are the two murder ballads, "Miller's Cave" and "Folsom Prison Blues". The latter sports an R&B beat and is played as a medley with Elvis' "That's Alright Mama", as if to better emphasize the country/rock mix the band was attempting. That said, it is Gram's own compositions that remain the most interesting: "Strong Boy" and "Luxury Liner" are somewhat faster than the rest and remind me of The Byrds' folk rock of the era, especially in the former's harmonies. "Blue Eyes" and "Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?" are perfect imitations of classic country & western songwriting. Had this album been released immediately after its recording, it would have deservedly taken its place in history as one of the most innovative debuts of all time. Instead, The Byrds snatched Parsons from the ISB and beat them to the punch, recording and releasing with him their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo LP while the ISB tapes were still languishing in Hazlewood's drawers. Regrettably, many of Parson's contributions to the S.O.T.R. album were erased for copyright reasons, and re-recorded with Roger McGuinn on vocal. ISB's Safe At Home was released later that year to good reviews, but sounded less pioneering in the shadow of The Byrds' album which had made history as the first commercialy released country rock LP. Parsons left the Byrds in protest when they accepted an invitation to play in appartheid-era South Africa; he subsequently recorded seminal albums, both solo and with The Flying Burrito Brothers, and discovered Emmylou Harris who made her recording debut as a guest singer in his GP album. He also befriended Keith Richards and introduced The Stones to country music, all before dying from overdose in 1973, a couple of months before his 27th birthday - another hugely talented member of the so-called 27 Club.

***** for Folsom Prison Blues/That's All Right, Luxury Liner

**** for Blue Eyes, I Must Have Been Somebody Else You've Known, A Satisfied Mind, Miller's Cave,  I Still Miss Someone

*** for Strong Boy, Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?

Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman featuring Gene Clark "City" 1980***

I got a bunch of LP's recently which were on sale by a Delft record shop. I stopped collecting vinyl some time ago, because of all the space it takes up and difficulty in use: you can't rip them to your portable device or listen on the car nor take them with you everywhere you move: at the moment I and my record player are residing in different countries. But these were 70's albums who have either never been released on CD or, like in this case, whose reissues are long out of print. Plus these items seemed so rooted in their period that it seemed right to own them on vinyl and, of course, one can't argue with the price: €5 for 3 LP's and you get to discover what former Byrds were up to at the dawn of the 80's. Also, the album cover is bonkers: Hillman and co. have exchanged their cowboy nudie suits with "sensible" haircuts & ties, posing dressed as their idea of city slickers amid pictures of skyscrapers while McGuinn proudly displays his mobile telephone: It'a a big square box with an antenna which seems to weigh at least a couple of kg's, but he's holding it to his ear - so a telephone it must be.

...wait till you see the charger!

Anyway, I figured that even if the music was bad (and I haven't heard anything really bad from these guys) at least its deliciously silly cover and relative rarity as an album would make it a worthwhile addition to my record collection. Well, the content proved to be satisfying beyond expectation (admittedly an easy task as my expectations were rather low) as it wasn't plagued by the sterile sound and "modern" recording techniques that ruined so many 80's productions. Surprisingly, it also rarely sounds like The Byrds as the blueprint seems to be the laid-back soft rock of The Eagles. Hillman's opener "Who Taught The Night" takes that West Coast sound and rocks it out a bit, while listening to the beginning of "One More Chance" was a mild shock: Was it obligatory that everyone must record a reggae song in the 70's? What could have driven McGuinn the world's whitest singer to attempt something so foolish? Eric Clapton I blame you for this abomination! But when the shock subsided and the folky chorus and blues-rock guitar kicked in, I found that it somehow worked well as a song. McGuinn emerged unscathed from flirting with ridicule and, to my knowledge at least, wisely never tried it again. "Won't Let You Down" is the most Byrds-sounding track here, with beautiful harmonies and McGuinn's trademark 12-string on the fore. It's the first of only two numbers written and sung by Gene Clark. They had released a fairly good album as a trio the previous year, but Clark dropped out of the project during the recording of "City" so he's downgraded to guest status here. "Street Talk", "Skate Date" and "Deeper In" are upbeat and kind of new wave-ish. "City" and "Givin' Herself Away" repeat the questionable trick of putting folk rock to a reggae-like beat and come out sounding like a mixture of Tom Petty and Police.

  

"Ha, ha, we had you fooled with the ties -

  this is what we really look like!" 

"But you said you have covers
for all mobile types!"

Worse crimes have been committed in the effort of sounding modern. The second Clark track "Painted Fire" is a kind of Southern blues rock with boogie woogie piano and "Let Me Down Easy" a country ballad with beautiful vocals and pedal steel guitar. It's a throwback to their earlier country rock sound, in an album going for a more contemporary sound. The trick is to play to your strengths while opening up to new influences and I daresay Hillman and McGuinn pull it off quite nicely. So kudos for that! While in no way essential listening, this album is certainly worth more than its current obscurity, as it should satisfy the numerous fans of the West Coast soft rock/country sound of The Eagles, America, Fleetwood Mac etc...

**** for Who Taught The Night, One More Chance, Won't Let You Down

*** for Street Talk, City, Skate Date, Givin' Herself Away, Deeper In, Painted Fire, Let me Down Easy