Share Subscribe

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Gram Parsons vs. The Eagles

I now feel vindicated.  Maybe it was all those guitar lessons in junior high...  My teacher Chuck, a Vietnam vet prone to flash-backs, made me learn one too many Eagles songs.  And to get around copyright issues he made his own tabs and renamed the song titles things like "Western Auto" instead of "Desperado."  At any rate, I despise The Eagles.  I also just found out one of my all time favorites, Gram Parsons did too.  In the biography Twenty Thousand Roads which my friend just let me borrow (which is awesome), Parsons refers to The Eagles as a "plastic dry fuck."  Gram you potty mouth!  But so right on.  Don't be surprised if you see an essay here one day soon about how terrible The Eagles are/were.  It's science...

13 comments:

  1. I was so afraid you were gonna say something about it being tough to decide which was your favorite between Gram Parsons and the Eagles. The thought of it gave me pure anxiety of having to re-evaluate our long standing friendship. Glad I was mistaken.
    I cant say i hate the Eagles as much as everyone else, and I would definately say that is Chuck's fault.Clearly Gram Parsons is way superior.
    Long live Chuck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dude Im glad you like that book. Text me if you'll be at home tonight... I gotta bring you some veggies and i have at least one big pot to put something in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Desperado, Why don't you come to your senses?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Umm Gram and the Eagles partied at joshua tree together..jammed together, and were great friends..
    Recheck your facts.. Whatever

    ReplyDelete
  5. Man, I love Gram Parsons!
    He may have called them that, but he'd some songs sound like he could have written or recorded them, such as Lying Eyes and Already Gone.

    Can't we all just get along?! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That was Bernie that the Eagles partied with, who played with Gram in the Flying Burrito Brothers. By the time the Eagles partied in Joshua Tree, Gram was already dead...check your facts

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bernie Leadon was buddies and bandmate to Gram in the Flying Burrito Brothers. He even wrote a touching tribute to Gram ("My Man") that appears on the Eagles On The Border album after he OD'd in 1973. Bernie has stated that Gram even attended an early Eagles show and was gushing to the band backstage how great they were. I think Gram's "plastic dry fuck" quote showed his jealousy towards the band (and his old buddy Bernie) who found instant success with "country rock" whilst he wallowed away without ever finding commercial success during his lifetime. I love Gram and his music, but he really blew it. Meanwhile, the Eagles are one of the biggest bands in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Eagles were easy-listening, safe as milk, dull as toothache. They recorded exactly 4 songs that transcend their mind-numbing blandness and they're all on the same album: Hotel California, New Kid in Town, Life in the Fast Lane, and what is easily the best thing they ever did, The Last Resort. The rest is squeaky-mouse music, yuppie drivel.

    ReplyDelete
  9. gram was the real deal. the eagles cut a country-rock album; it flopped and they began to move away from the genre toward arena rock or some bloated 70's crap. he was about creativity. they were about selling as many albums as they could. he was the trailblazer. he left them an easy path to follow...and they crapped on it. the eagles were not committed to the music. they were only committed to their careers; making as much money as possible. they are also the biggest whiners in the history of rock music. you see them in interviews and they might as well be saying in a whiny voice: 'we partied so hard and there were so many chicks. we had so much fun.' life in the fast lane is just the eagles complaining about the life they sought and chose to live. don henley is a jerk. he wants to be totally commercial, sell the most records/make the most money and still be taken seriously as an artist.

    ReplyDelete