Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.27 (987 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0345503368 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 592 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-03-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Praise for Twenty Thousand RoadsNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMESNAMED ONE OF THE FIVE BEST ROCK BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROLLING STONE“Far and away the most thorough biography of Parsons skewers any number of myths surrounding this endlessly mythologized performer.”–Los Angeles Times“A terrific biography of a rock innovator that hums with juicy detail and wincing truth. Parsons led the Byrds to create the seminal country rock masterpiece Sweetheart of the Rodeo, helped to guide the Rolling Stones beyond the blues in their appreciation of American roots music, and found his musical soul mate in Emmylou Harris. As a singer and songwriter, Gram Parsons stood at the nexus of countless musical crossroads, and he sold his soul to the devil at every one. Meyer gives Parsons’ mythic life its due. His intimates and collaborators included Keith Richards, William Burroughs, Marianne Faithfull, Peter Fonda, Roger McGuinn, and Clarence White. From interviews with hundreds of the famous and obscure who knew and worked clos
This isn't the first biography of Parsons, but Meyer's semidetached stance as a critical fan makes it a valuable one, in the vein of Peter Guralnick or Greil Marcus. (Oct. All rights reserved. From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Gram Parsons is remembered as much for wearing sequined cowboy suits on stage and for being illegally cremated in the desert by one of his friends after dying of a drug overdose as he is for the half-dozen albums he played on in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the Byrds' classic Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Meyer (A Girl and a Gun) covers both aspects of the legend, but he gives particular attention to the way Parsons broug
Hannah Fowler said The most authoritative biography so far. 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 somethi. Gram abbysnoni Here is the story of a man child who died in 1974 and yet every year thousands are discovering him and becoming fans. This is an intelligently written book which is not a fan's homage. The author brings to the legend of Gram Parsons his flaws, indeed his fatal flaws Part of the great joy of this book is the intimate insights into so many on the scene in the la. Chris Coates said A true biographer. I don't think I've seen a life so fully represented and with such respect for the truth (or, in some cases, the most likely truth). That Meyer does this with the source material of sketchy memories, scant or missing documentation, and witnesses with their own bed to feather makes his book all the more miraculous.Meyer has no axe to grind, or at least not one t
David N. Mr. twentythousandroadsFrom the Hardcover edition.. He contributed to the underground humor classic The Book of the Subgenius. He lives in New York City and Ketchum, Idaho. His books include The 100 Best Films To Rent You've Never Heard Of and A Girl and A Gun; The Complete G