The musician Don Henley called “the godfather of country rock”
At the start of the 1970s, rock and roll had just started to get a little more rustic. Although a lot of great talent may have fallen by the wayside due to the hippy movement, the survivors of the Woodstock generation were usually burned out on heavy music and wanted the chance to make something a bit more mellow.
Don Henley may get the accolade of being in one of the most revered country rock bands when touring with the Eagles, but he still thinks that Gram Parsons laid the groundwork for everything that the group did.
Before, there was country rock, there was country rock and roll. There had been country veterans like Johnny Cash who earned the public’s respect because of their outlaw status, but you weren’t going to hear someone like Kenny Rogers sharing radio time with Led Zeppelin any time soon.
But there were still some elements that could cross over, and The Byrds got a shot in the arm when working with Parsons on Sweetheart of the Rodeo. After David Crosby left to form his own supergroup, Parsons was the kind of rocker who knew country music inside and out, almost like he had the rock chops of Keith Richards and the swagger of John Wayne.
Though Parsons managed to kick down the door for the genre, it didn’t take long for the Eagles to indirectly steal his thunder. Debuting in the early 1970s with one of Parsons’ former bandmates, Bernie Leadon, songs like ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ were the kind of tunes that any rockstar could listen to and appreciate just as much as the cowboys of the world.
Even looking back on the genre years later, Henley still thought that Parsons was responsible for introducing bands like The Rolling Stones to country music, saying, “A lot of the things that the Stones recorded had a country flavour to it. They were immersing themselves in the music of the American South. Keith had met Gram Parsons, who is sort of the godfather of country rock. He sat Keith down and showed him Hank Williams records, George Jones records, etc, and said, ‘This is what American country music is about.’”
While Parsons’s work didn’t get very much love from the country rock community until his posthumous album Grevious Angel was released, his influence is still felt in every act that came after him, outside of people who built themselves off of the country rock brand, like Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle, some of the best work of The Stones’ later period had to do with country music, including Richards’s brilliant ‘Coming Down Again’ and ‘Far Away Eyes’ off Some Girls.
Henley was always lenient to accept the country rock term given the Eagles’ vast catalogue of different hits, but you’d be a fool not to hear a little bit of Parsons in their delivery. Just like his work with The Byrds, it can be squawky and a bit rough around the edges, but when it works well, nothing else can compare to it.
Don Henley isn’t just a Gram Parsons fan
Over the years, Henley has paid a lot of tribute to country stars, with Patsy Cline about whom Henley said, “Patsy Cline in many circles is regarded as one of the finest Country singers ever to come down the pike, and I would agree with that,” among his favourite singers. But his favourite country song might come from Glen Campbell, about whom Henley has always been incredibly praiseful.
“This gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting only once,” Henley told Rolling Stone. “We had a wonderful evening together talking about music and the recording industry many, many years ago. He has one of the greatest voices in music. He is also a very underappreciated musician. One of the best guitar players ever to emerge on the American music scene. He played on a lot of very famous records that people probably aren’t aware of.”
