GP (album)
| GP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Gram Parsons | ||||
| Released | January 1973 | |||
| Recorded | September–October, 1972, Wally Heider Studio 4, Hollywood, California | |||
| Genre | Country rock | |||
| Length | 38:26 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer | Parsons, Ric Grech | |||
| Gram Parsons chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Robert Christgau | B+ |
GP is American singer-songwriter Gram Parsons' debut solo album. It was originally released in a gatefold sleeve in 1973. GP received critical acclaim upon release, but failed to reach the Billboard charts. In the original Rolling Stone review, which individually covered both GP and its follow-up, Grievous Angel, the reviewer praises Parsons' vocals and delivery paraphrasing Gram's lyrics, "boy, but he sure can sing".
After being dismissed from his previous band, the critically acclaimed Flying Burrito Brothers, Parsons decided to embark on a solo career. Unlike his two albums with the Burritos, which melded country and western with soul and rock music, Parsons was determined to make a more traditional country record this time around. However, Parsons' ongoing drug problem (which was a deciding factor for his being fired from the Burritos) and his friendship with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones would delay his solo plans. As Mojo writer John Harris recalls in his article "The Lost Boy," Parsons had spent March of 1971 hanging out with the Stones entourage on their 10-day "Goodbye Britain" tour and then, after spending much of the summer in London, he and (girlfriend) Gretchen Burrell flew to the South of France and spent two months "living in Nellcote, Keith and Anita's rented abode-cum-zoo-cum-studio." As the Stones spent months struggling to complete their ragged masterpiece Exile on Main Street in the basement, Parsons could be found upstairs where he was often joined by Richards spending hours passing the guitar back and forth singing old country songs. However, Parsons condition eventually deteriorated to the point where he was booted from the premises, as David N. Meyer recounts in his 2007 Parsons biography Twenty Thousand Roads: "At Nellcote no one, not even Richards, saw rescuing Gram as a project that had much chance of success. Tolerance for his self-destruction had run out. The Stones had an album to record. Gram provided inspiration for much of what ended up on the record, but he had become a drag. It was time for him to go." Devastated at being ousted from the Stones inner circle, Parsons returned to London and, for a brief period, stayed with his former bandmate from The International Submarine Band Ian Dunlop in Cornwall before returning to Los Angeles intending to make a solo album for Warner Bros.
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