Customer Reviews

Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Meyer has given us, without a doubt, the best book on Gram Parsons yet. Wheras Ben Fong-Torres' work focused on the historical, "dry-er" side of Parsons's story, Meyer perfectly combines fact with fiction. The result is a wonderfully balanced view of Gram as the supposed "father" of Cosmic American Music and Gram, the self-destructive human being who couldn't stay out of his own way.

I would like to point out a few problems I have with this book, though. One of Meyer's strengths is the exclusion of his personal viewpoints. Unless they're dumbly obvious- that "Burrito Deluxe" does not even compare to "The Gilded Palace of Sin," for example. Meyer crosses into subjectivity once, however, and I found it rather ridiculous- he insists that "GP" is a better album than "Grievous Angel."

I admit that, personally, I think that "Grievous Angel" is one of the best albums ever whereas "GP" is a good album (just ask Tom Petty). But that's not the issue- Meyer never backs up his claim. He states that the high points of the album are as best as Gram ever did, and then continues to name all but one or two of the tracks as exemplary. So why is "GP" better? Perhaps Meyer wants it to be better, because it (arguably) combines more genres of music (the R&B-based "Cry One More Time", for example), giving more claim to the term "Cosmic American Music". Perhaps not. But in either case, he doesn't substantiate his one truly subjective input.

Also, with regards to Emmylou Harris's and Gram's relationship, Meyer doesn't point to Harris's recent comment that she really WAS in love with Gram and was waiting to tell him! Seeing as how Meyer devotes a few paragraphs to addressing their (platonic?) relationship, I can't figure out why he didn't deem her comment worth mentioning.

Besides these two main points, I think "Twenty Thousand Roads" is fantastic. It's extremely well written and insightful, and should be purchased by any fan of country and rock and roll music.

This is a passionate, well-researched rock bio of Gram Parsons. It's an easy read, wonderful for those who love the music, great for those who are learning it. An amazing saga. Meyer's other books contain some of the funniest, incisive criticism of film; as he turns his attention to the fabled rocker, few old myths are left standing, but Parsons emerges as a human figure who we now know as never before.

This book has all the elements of a well written biography--it's incredibly comprehensive in Grams' details from birth to death and the aftermath, it's easy to read and follows smoothly, it doesn't judge and presents many contemporaries' and close friends' points of view, and it provides a lot of data for proposing that Gram was one of the main and most dedicated creators of the blending of country, soul and rock music in the mid-sixties--Which were at great odds with each other culturally at that point in time.
For folks like me who lived through the era it reveals how a lot of the connections I saw occurring in music--why the Rolling Stones went roots-country-blues on Exile on Main Street (after sucking at psychedelia), where Poco, Manassas, Pure Prairie League and especially Emmylou Harris suddenly sprung from in the early '70's etc., etc
A great read of a sad, short but fruitful life--and an encyclopedic rendering of the beginnings of alt-country, outlaw country music...

This is a wonderful book. It is passionate, obsessive, brilliant, sometimes very moving, often screamingly funny, an amazing portrait of a talented but wounded young man and of a time when everything changed. The biographical detail has the richness of a good novel, backed by a wealth of insight into the broader musical and cultural context that Parsons shaped and was shaped by. I am totally biased, of course, but I think "Twenty Thousand Roads" is a marvel.

Meyer patiently, carefully lays out what he can of the life of Gram Parsons, from well before his birth to well after his death in 1973. While no biography can ever claim to be exhaustive (not Boswell's fat Life of Johnson, nor Malone's 6-volume Jefferson), Meyer does as fine and thorough a job of explaining GP's life as one might expect. At well over 500 pages, the book never seems too much in a hurry, and this is mostly a positive, though I learned a bit more about the pre-Gram days than I cared to.

But it's all here, laid out well: family wealth and decadent, alcoholic lifestyles, his father's--Coon Dog's--suicide, his mother Avis's death by alchohol, his stepfather's (Bob Parson's) later death by the same, his love of music (the ongoing explanation of this is one of the book's greatest strengths), early bands, flunking out of Harvard, various love interests (or the major ones), life in NYC, then LA, playing with the Intl Sub Band, the Byrds, the Burritos, and his solo career (w/ Emmylou), his friendship with Keith Richards (and the jealously of Mick), drug use (and more drug use), commercial failures and artistic successes, the fateful day at Joshua Tree and the tragic foolishness regarding his corpse. Meyer leaves few stones unturned. He has done his homework on Parsons, he has obviously spent a lot of time interviewing familiy members and friends, and he has great respect for and understanding of Parsons's music, as well as that of his contemporaries and his many influences (Elvis, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, George Jones, the Louvin Brothers, etc.).

Maybe it's me, but Meyer's occasional use of the colloquialism is a bit annoying, and the book is plagued (though not fatally) with some wordiness and repetition. The length doesn't bother me so much as some laziness in revision. Tightly-written prose this is not. Also, some of Meyer's opinions seem questionable. As one reviewer points out, the idea that GP is a superior record to Grievous Angel is a bit odd, at best. Fans will, of course, disagree, but I think Grievous is GP's very best record, though I also love the first Burritos record. (I'd put GP third.) Meyer goes on and on about how badly it--the first Burritos (Gilded Palace of Sin)--is produced. I say, make your point and move on, man! It doesn't seem all that badly produced; I like its rawness. I also disagree with him regarding Parsons's touring band, the Fallen Angels, which he disses pretty throroughly as a "mediocre band." They were actually pretty good. Meyer makes other claims that strike me as iffy, at best.

Meyer claims that Parsons is more central in American music than Dylan or anyone else. That is hogwash. For what it's worth, I don't think ANYONE is as central as Dylan, though, to say the least, it's difficult to quantify influence. Yet I do believe that Parsons's influence is enormous and enduring, and Meyer gives good insight into why this is true. I recommend this book without hesitation to anyone interested in knowing more about this great musician. Not that I don't want to know about his drug use, girlfriends, palling around with the rich and famous, and so on, but I care much more about the life of the mind--what makes the man tick--and Meyer delivers sufficiently on that.

P.S. Living in northeast Arkansas, I was horrified and embarrassed to read Meyer's account of GP's rough--but perhaps partially justified--treatment by the Blytheville police in 1973. (Some of the Stones, following Parsons' lead, would get busted in the state a few years later!) But the explanation of what led the police to beat and arrest him, supplied by Fallen Angels guitarist Jock Bartley, made me laught out loud. At 2:30 AM Parsons and his wife are arguing loudly in their motel room, so responding to a complaint, the police arrive and pound loudly on his motel door. Bartley: "Gram, reacting to the aggressive police, staggers and takes a step back and launches a roundhouse right punch that misses by three or four feet, I mean it wasn't even close." The next day Parsons was out of jail, and the band couldn't leave Arkansas quickly enough.

I consumed David M. Meyer's fantastic biography of the enigmatic, deeply destructive and hugely gifted Gram Parsons within weeks of having also read Jim Walsh's likewise excellent oral history of The Replacements "All Over But The Shouting". Quite the double bill- there is much that overlaps in the two stories- enough to cause one to really ponder the relationship between challenging art, marginal personalities, and the contrary and self defeating nature of so many artists in different mediums who have exhibited a very particular sort of attraction/revulsion towards a wide, mainstream acceptance in the market place.

In a strange, if entirely appropriate coincidence, Keith Richards occurs as a kind of chimerical figure in both books. Keith bonds with Gram, appreciates his extraordinary talent, and shares his penchant for excess. Only too haltingly does he assist Gram in getting his music heard- a long held promise to produce a Gram solo record goes mournfully unfulfilled- eventually Gram succumbs to the high wire lifestyle that both men are driven to but only Keith survives. A decade and a half later, he's a Replacements fan and has them open for the X-Pensive Winos at Madison Square Garden. But immediately it becomes clear that the stage is too big for the Mats and they too wilt in Richards Shadow.

All of this occurs to me as a single illustrative instance of what is so peculiar about the dichotomy between the relatively few great artists seemingly programed to survive and even thrive in the hothouse of public notoriety and the larger number who seem unable to weather it's various excesses and deprivations over the long term. In addition to it's being impeccably researched and delightfully rendered in the knowing but never condescending argot of a passionate music fan, there is a special excellence in Meyer's unsentimental contemplation of Parsons grim fate. For all of the posthumous mythologizing and tireless legend making that has gone on during the three and a half decades since his death, it remains true that even in the asinine context of early exits in rock music, there was something uniquely senseless, avoidable and frustrating about Gram's demise at the age of 26. Meyer's work is an essential history in many respects, but perhaps most importantly because it correctly challenges us to esteem Parson's great music, while impugning the notion of his "romantic fate". Finally and for the perhaps the first time we have here the true, slighlty pathetic story of Gram Parsons: a massive talent, feckless and heedless, whose greatest work no doubt laid ahead of him.

This is a wonderfully crafted biography with a broader scope than the already-compelling life of Gram Parsons. David Meyer has captured Parson's time, place and musical era in beautiful, evocative prose. You have to make yourself slow down enough to savor the fine writing even as you are swept up by the saga.

This is an amazing book for anyone who is interested in music from the 50s - 70s.
While reading I suggest you listen to the music discussed to truly appreciate the details and evolution of Gram's contribution to American music. enjoy!

There are many schools of writing. Some authors are trained to write biographies in the journalistic tradition. David Meyer, is different. He writes about his subject, Gram Parsons, with an almost poetic cadence to his words. Meyer understands the interplay of types and shadows that helped to form a man who is at once accessible somehow an archetype of something greater. A man with a voice who once heard, suddenly reaches out and touches that lonesome place deep within all of our hearts. A man who was a wanderer--who never truly felt at home in this world. Moving on and leaving others behind was how Gram coped with the vicissitudes of life. He had all of the money a young man could ever want, but "only one rich man in ten has a satisfied mind." Parson's wealthy family could never claim satisfaction, endowing Gram with more than enough dysfunction for several lifetimes. Yet, Gram's music and voice transcended it all. While not achieving success in life, his "Cosmic American Music" influenced country, especially alt. country to this very day. All of these facts can be found in other biographies. However, David Meyer weaves them together in an intuitive and flowing narrative that make the characters come alive. Some say he connects some of the dots in Grams life incorrectly. However, given the fact that Gram was such a complex individual, this can be forgiven due to the details laid out which support these claims. Meyers book is a worthy addition to this talented artist's legacy, and will help ensure that Gram's legacy will never be forgotten.

We're not in the age of letters anymore, so be thankful that D. Meyer performed the work of interviewing those connected to GP before...well, before that is no longer possible. This book is characterized by Meyer's focus on GP's psychology--and especially for the specific evidence rather than the broad and incomplete rock-legend myths. For me, the early pages are fantastic...the unique social and psychological world that would produce the results. Cypress Gardens indeed.