deli parsons tribute tonight

a stark and beautiful place to kill yourself with drugs and drink
Joshua Tree California © Rick Chapman 1999

This is gonna come off all wrong, but I really don't care at this point...
Tonight at the Deli, some of the areas best musicians are gathering to celebrate the music of Gram Parsons. Parsons, argued by some to be one of the most important players in the creation and popularization of country rock (or what has become alt-country), died as a result of his body's rejection of copious amounts of drugs on this date in 1973 just after finishing the recording of Grievous Angel. I can't stand most of anything he did. That being said, his biography is pretty impressive (up until the death part) and has been done by others you can find in a quick Google click. I won't do that part here. I think it would be too smart-assed in tone anyway for too many fans.
Instead, I started thinking about what the me of today would have been listening to in 1973 had I not been only two years old. A little wiki walk told me very quickly. Among the other albums released that year were some of the most innovative and long lasting records in my collection. David Bowie collapsed in NYC, said good-bye to Ziggy in London, and shuttled in Aladdin Sane. In the US, Iggy and the Stooges unleashed Raw Power. Fripp & Eno brought on (No Pussyfooting). Cale gave us Paris 1919. T. Rex rolled out Tanx. Nico sang The End while Reed (someone bit him on the add in March of that year) moved in with Berlin. Stevie Wonder showed us Innervisions and Neu! clanged out Neu!2. All that and Kiss formed too!

mp3 shoebox
Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris~Love Hurts
David Bowie~Drive-In Saturday
Stevie Wonder~Living For The City (live at the Hollywood Bowl?)
Roxy Music~Do The Strand
Neu!~Super
Iggy & The Stooges~Gimme Danger