AMERICAN SONGS: "Return of the Grievous Angel"

Gram Parsons--"Return of the Grievous Angel" (mp3)

One could probably put together a list of the best American songs and then discover that, wait a second, they've all been written by Gram Parsons.

Consider this list, for example:

1. "Hickory Wind"
2. "Sin City"

3. "Wheels"

4. "A Song For You"

5. "Return of the Grievous Angel"

If you don't know all of these songs, I'll wager you've heard at least some of them, as performed by The Byrds, Bob Mould, Emmylou Harris, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Peter Holsapple, and, best of all, Gram himself with Emmylou singing backup. On his new CD released just this past week, Pete Yorn has taken a shot at "Wheels."

Now I'm not the one to give you a history and a context for the life and curious death of Gram Parsons, his time in the Byrds, his connections to the Stones, and all of that. Those are available to you all over the Internet. I'll only say this: if country-rock has a father, it is indeed Mr. Parsons, and without him, you would not have the Eagles (a mixed blessing), Ryan Adams, and, ultimately, perhaps not even the alt-country movement at all. Without Gram Parson's use of Emmylou Harris as his back-up singer, everyone from Bob Dylan to Connor Oberst would not have been dialing her number for the past 40 years.

But the song calls me tonight, and it is "Return of the Grievous Angel." Yes, to me, it ranks as one of the very greatest American songs, another one that captures the space, the essence, the mystery of our country.

Usually, when arguing for the quality of a particular song, I find myself quoting and analyzing lyrics. I'm not going to do that here, maybe because that approach seems to draw almost no response, except from those already know the song. I'll only give you the opening couplet, because it serves my larger purpose:

Won't you scratch my itch, sweet Annie Rich,

And welcome me back to town.

Parsons has taken a great American tradition and added love, romance, even sexuality to that great genre, the road song.

Without a doubt, there are other wonderful examples of this kind of song--Chuck Berry's "The Promised Land" and the Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A." stand as perhaps the most famous; Peter Case's "Satellite Beach" is an effective, though obscure, rendering of the same kind of journey. I love these kinds of songs that take the listener all over the country, aural road trips to parallel the Great American Journeys--Lewis and Clark, Huck Finn, the Joads, the Oregon Trail, the Great Migration after the Civil War, Jack Kerouac and Neal Casady, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.

But Parsons, like I said, adds romance, so even though his narrator "headed west to grow up with the country" and has encounters with "prairies," "waves of grain," "the King," the Bible Belt," nothing touches him as much as returning to the woman he loves. In doing so, he captures the dichotomy of American life--the lure of big cities and wide open spaces and the comforts of home and small town life.

Musically, the song is transcendent, containing, arguably, some of the finest harmonies ever put to vinyl and beyond. When Parsons and Harris sing "Out with the truckers, and the kickers, and the cowboy angels," when they take it even higher on "twenty thousand road I went down, down, down and they all led me straight back home to you," if you don't feel the chills, if you don't feel like an eagle soaring over the land, all I can say is, play it again. And again and again and again. Until you get it.

AMERICAN SONGS: "Willin'"

Little Feat--"Willin'(live)" (mp3)

A truly great American song should have a sense of rebelliousness. It should convey a sense of mystery, leaving questions unanswered. It should nail down the details, the names and the places, of this sprawling land.

"Willin’," written by Lowell George of Little Feat, possesses all of these qualities. Written by George around 1970, the song has been recorded by, among a host of others, Seatrain, Linda Rondstadt, and Steve Earle. Beyond that, it has most certainly remained a staple of folksingers and guitarists in performance, with its descending chord G-D-Em-C (starting on the 7th fret) opening signature and the layered harmonies of its chorus, especially on the "Weed, whites, and wine" section.

Though no one would claim that Little Feat was ever a country music band, the song itself is about as country as it gets, or should get.

Perhaps you know the opening lines:

I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I'm drunk and dirty don't ya know, and I'm still, willin'
Out on the road late at night,
Seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice

An ironic paean to the life of a truck driver for whom the lure of the road is stronger than any attachments or petty moralities, the song captures the costs of choosing to stay on the move instead of settling down--battling the weather in all its forms, only occasional visits with a lover, drug and alcohol use to get through the long miles and hours.

I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin'

In addition to a complex melody, the lyrical qualities of these classic songs also stand out. In "Willin'," the alliterative use of unusual Native American names for cities and towns not only sets the song in the wilder area of the country, the Southwest, but also, like the best poetry, the use of strange and interesting words adds to the aural pleasure of the song. A listener can't help but sing along with the chorus, waiting for the chance to say try these words on his or her tongue. In doing so, he or she becomes complicit with the narrator, sharing the social taboos and shortcuts that the life requires. Also the powerful verbs associated with the weather--"warped," "driven," "baked," "kicked," and "robbed"--enhance the struggle, even the battle, suggested by the trucker's lifestyle.

Now I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico, and I'm still

I've been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in, but I'm still on my feet and I'm still... willin'

It's kind of fun to think of this 40-year-old song in the context of today's crazy America. Would Joe Hit Country Music Maker refuse to record the song because it references drug use, irresponsible driving, support for illegal immigrants, blatant breaking of the laws of interstate commerce? Or would he see that this is the kind of rebel who has always ridden our roads and that, like all other kinds of "don't ask, don't tell" situations, this little song captures the realities of what it takes to transport goods from one end of the country to the other.

If you thought truckdriving was more like B.J. and the Bear, think again.

And I been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin "

Willin'" walks an interesting tightrope. While it clearly romanticizes the life of a truck driver, it does so using only the potential negatives of this lifestyle, as if to say, not everybody could do what I'm doing, but it has to be done, and I'm willing to do it, and if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it my way, and screw you, if you don't like it. More a testament than an explanation, it does not expect you to understand the why of what he does, but it shows you the what in brief, but powerful, detail.

This live version of "Willin'" comes from Little Feat's Waiting For Columbus, one of the great live albums, available in a deluxe edition for a cheap price at eMusic.com