Almanac Music: Not Quite Bob – Something Cooking In LA: Serving of Buffalo, Burritos and Byrds with a side of (C)larks thrown in

 

A bit after Bob’s emergence there were strange things happening in the West that presaged the arrival of chart toppers like Crosby, Stills and Nash and later still, Young.  CSN &Y are clear NQBs but so are this lot.  In that NQB is about (sort of) who begat who, then here is how you get to those 4 minstrels.  With a bit of license taken on the exact pathways.

 

The Byrds

 

As good a place to start as any, The Byrds were very influential in the emerging folk rock scene, formed in 1964 in a trio that included David Crosby, Roger (then Jim) McGuinn and Gene Clark.  As a lot of acts did at the time they covered Bob with ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and ‘The Times They Are A’ Changin’’ but they’re probably best known for their trippy, folky psychedelia like this one.  ‘Eight Miles High’.

 

 

 

 

Turbulent describes their history with lots of members floating in and out including Chris Hillman, Michael Clarke and notably, the sadly doomed Gram Parsons.  More of Gram later.

 

Aside from Crosby the most prolific member post-Byrds would be Roger McGuinn, a musical doppelgänger for Bob, here on his self-titled debut with ‘I’m So Restless’.

 

 

 

 

McGuinn later collaborated with Bob on the soundtrack to ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’.  He has remained active over a long period recording until recently and has a website called Folk Den which has hundreds of freely downloadable songs for his fans.  Very much NQB but still, a solid career.

 

The most famous Byrds album is probably Sweethearts At The Rodeo which features originals plus Dylan and country covers and heralds what is labelled country rock although it wasn’t the first to wear that label.  It did however pre-date Nashville Skyline by some 6 months.  Here to sample, it is notable for the Gram Parson song called ‘Hickory Wind’.

 

 

 

 

The Flying Burrito Bros

 

In July 1968 Chris Hillman and McGuinn kicked Gram Parsons out of The Byrds.  Difficult to work with, creative differences, too heavily on the Uncle Dougs, wanted to hang around with his new BFFs Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (then recording Exile In Main Street in France) Gram wasn’t the first or last sacking from The Byrds.  David Crosby also got the kyhber but I’ll leave his and the other members of CSN&Y stories for another NQB as they’re in due course a lot more extensive than some of these artists.  And Neil Young has a special place in my musical affection.  Needs plenty of space in that piece.

 

Not to be deterred Gram forms The Flying Burrito Bros with … Chris Hillman, apparently now over whatever disputes had caused The Byrds fracas.  They are joined in the first lineup by Chris Ethridge, ‘Sneaky’ Pete Kleinow and another Byrd in Michael Clarke.  While they don’t have an extensive or particularly notable catalogue Gram Parsons songwriting takes flight and they become his band effectively.  Their most famous album is the first, titled The Gilded Palace of Sin and it features a number of very Dylan-y songs including this, the curiously titled Hot Burrito #1

 

 

 

 

On their second called Burrito Deluxe they beat the Stones to the market by nearly a year when they record what I would suggest is an even better version of the Jagger/Richards classic ‘Wild Horses’ (from Sticky Fingers).  See what you think.

 

 

 

 

The Burritos continue in many forms for years afterwards and have an impressive roster of  famous alumni including an Eagle (Bernie Leadon), a member of Firefall (Rick Roberts), Garth Hudson from The Band and … Brian Cadd in the 90’s.  A version  called Burrito Deluxe still tours with no original members present.

 

Gram Parsons

 

But Gram was the man.  Or a boy really.  His story is as tragic as any of the other famous 27YO burnouts from that period.  Except he didn’t even make that.  He as dead at 26, in September 1973.  Both parents dead before he left his teens, both alcoholics, his father a suicide, his mother succumbs to cirrhosis.  Still, after the stints with The Byrds and the Burritos he begins in 1970, his most productive period professionally if not personally.  From 1970 till his death in 1973 he tours with Emmylou Harris and produces 2 cracking records, the first GP, released in 1973 and the second Grievous Angel released posthumously in 1974.  Each full of great heart breaking songs.  Here from GP, ‘She’.

 

 

 

 

And from Grievous Angel, ‘In My Hour Of Darkness’.

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t got both albums, get ‘em.  Way, way back when I got them they were issued as a twofer, probably only on downloads now.  A mark of the esteem of others is the roster of the great musicians who played on another essential album called Return Of The Grievous Angel.  Released in 1999 it’s got covers of all of his greatest songs by artists like Beck, Gillian Welch, Elvis Costello, The Mavericks, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams.  Another essential disc, there’s not much point linking it here because a lot of them have left Spotify (thus making the tracks unplayable on the naughty platform) but I found this version of ‘Hickory Wind’ by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

 

 

 

 

Sadly a lethal combination of pills, alcohol and enough morphine to drop a moose Gram’s life finished in a seedy motel in Joshua Tree in California.  What followed is truly bizarre and involved amongst other things the stealing of his body by a couple of friends from a funeral parlour and it being incinerated in the desert at a location that has become the stuff of myth and mystery.

 

26 is too young by a very long way and the possibilities evident in his two solo albums and his other recordings would never be realised but he did leave his mark and influence on the music of the day.  I’m pretty sure The Jayhawks and Wilco and Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt to name a handful of the Americana family would worship at the altar of Ingram Cecil Connor 111 as he was christened, Gram Parsons as he was when he left.

 

Buffalo Springfield

 

Buffalo Springfield are famous for two things.  Their original lineup included Neil Young and Stephen Stills as well as future members of Poco.  And this song, ‘For What Its Worth’, which appeared on their first self-titled album.  Written by Stills, if there’s a song that more clearly suggest that era and that place I haven’t heard it.  Not so much an anthem as an earworm that once heard never leaves you, used in countless films, ads and elsewhere, 344 million hits on Spotify which you’ll add to if you take another listen.

 

 

 

 

A lot of the rest of their songs are forgettable, of the time and pretty corny if anyone is being honest but you know, two substantial artists in Stills and Young, to appear later in this series.

 

Gene and Guy Clark

 

I thought in considering this branch of NQBness it would be remiss of me to leave out a couple of Clarks, not related, but definitely brothers from different mothers if you listen to them and each a significant figure in the scene at the time.

 

Gene was an original Byrd who wrote or co-wrote a lot of their best known early songs (except the Dylan covers of course) but he left in 1966 after management decided that McGuinn should be the lead on most of these tracks.  He did however subsequently record a number of highly regarded solo albums including White Light (71), Roadmaster (73), No Other (74) and Two Sides To Every Story released in 1977 which are his best work.

 

This from White Light, ‘Tears of Rage’, a cover as it happens of a song by The Band (from Music From The Big Pink) with lyrics by Bob Dylan.  A more than decent version.

 

 

 

 

And Guy Clark, a Texan born in 1941, who recorded from the 1970’s until his death in 2016.  More straight ahead country, covered by many artists like Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett and Emmylou Harris.  Lots of good records and songs on them, I’ve been struck by the similarities in style and delivery.  Never more than on this, ‘My Favourite Picture Of You’ from an album of the same name recorded in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

So, a long trip, through a big slab of Bob acolytes from a time and a place.  It’s a setup piece for a later instalment on the work of CSN&Y but there’s a lot to like here, lots of begatting action, plenty of great songs and Bob, always Bob.

 

 

You can read more from Trevor Blainey HERE.

 

 

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