Features: PolKats - Class of the Sixties

Ingram Cecil Connor, III

       Gram Parsons was born Ingram Cecil Connor on November 5, 1946, in Winter Haven, Florida, although his parents were at that time residents of Waycross, Georgia.
        His mother was Avis Snively Connor. Her family was very prosperous in the local Florida citrus industry and Snively Groves was the largest shipper of fresh fruit in the state. The Snivelys also owned an interest in Cypress Gardens, a popular tourist attraction that was built on part of the Snivelys' land in Winter Haven, Florida.
        His father, Cecil "Coon Dog" Connor, Jr., was the son of a traveling salesman in Columbia, Tennessee. As a World War Two Army Air Force major, he flew over fifty combat missions. By the time Gram was born he was running a box factory in Waycross, Georgia which was owned by his new in-laws, the Snivelys. The Connors lived very comfortably in the nicest part of town.
        By the time he was nine years old, Gram Connor was taking piano lessons and listening to country music. By 1956, early rock and rollers had caught his interest. Some of his favorites were Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins. But in February 1956, when the nine-year-old Gram saw Elvis Presley open for Little Jimmie Dickens there in Waycross -- only weeks before "Heartbreak Hotel" made Presley a huge star -- his fate was sealed. He got Elvis' autograph, and soon was lip-synching Elvis numbers on his front stoop for the neighborhood kids. Those childhood friends remember Gram Connor as smart, charismatic, and prone to spinning wild tales.
        In 1957, Gram was sent to Bolles Military Academy, a prep school in Jacksonville, Florida. His stay was interrupted when his father killed himself on December 23rd, 1958. Gram was seriously shaken at his father's death and within a few months, was kicked out of Bolles because of disciplinary problems.
        Gram then returned to Winter Haven where his mother had married Robert Ellis Parsons of New Orleans, who formally adopted the then 15-year-old Gram and his younger sister, Avis. Ingram Cecil Connor's name was legally changed to Gram Parsons.
        Gram's interest in music was growing rapidly, but the radio scene around the end of the decade was dominated by pop artists like Bobby Vee and Bobby Vinton. Gram's taste still ran toward the early rock and rollers and R&B bands that toured the Southern frat-party circuit.
        In 1960, eighth-grader, Gram Parsons joined his first band. He became the lead singer with the Pacers. The rest of the group were Marvin Clevenger on bass, Skip Rosser on drums, and Jimmy Allen on guitar. They were all older guys at Winter Haven High School. The Pacers did a lot of Elvis songs to the delight of the local high school girls. After a year or so with the clean-cut Pacers, Gram defected to a rival local band that had several promising musicians.
        In 1962, Gram was attempting to put together his own group, the Legends. when he came across another group of young musicians, the Dynamics, in Auburndale (a small neighboring town) and convinced two members of that group to join he and Jim Stafford in what became the longest lasting version of the Legends. Through most of 1962 and early '63 the Legends were Gram Parsons (rhythm guitar & vocals), Jim Stafford (lead guitar), Gerald "Jesse" Chambers (bass & harmony vocals) and Jon Corneal (drums). Their music covered Ray Charles and Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the Everly Brothers, Duane Eddy and the Ventures. It was a loose organization and off and on, other members included Jim Carlton on upright bass, Lamar Braxton on drums, and Kent LaVoie, who also achieved fame in the early '70s as Lobo. The Legends earned a decent living for a high school band, playing gigs in Winter Haven and around Florida. Gram's social connections also gave the group access to the Country Club circuit around the state. The group also played a semi-regular slot on Tampa Bay television's "High Time", a live weekly "American Bandstand" style dance show.

        By 1963, Parsons had involved himself in several musical side projects while still a member of the Legends. He sometimes sat in on keyboards with Kent LaVoie's full-time band, the Rumors. As the folk music boom filtered onto the charts, Parsons also started dabbling in that genre. Occasionally he would play solo gigs with an acoustic guitar. With bassist Jim Carlton, he worked up a folk and comedy duo in the style of the Smothers Brothers. Next, Parsons put together the Village Vanguards, a folk trio patterned after Peter, Paul & Mary that featured Parsons, his girlfriend Patti Johnson, and his friend Dick McNeer. For the most part, the Vanguards played during intermissions at shows by the Legends.
        Music, girls, and other distractions caused Gram to fail his junior year at Winter Haven High School. Family friends managed to pull some strings, and in fall of 1963, he returned to the Bolles School, now a college prep school with no military ties, to repeat his junior year. Without Parsons, the Legends soon dissolved.
        It was also during the fall of 1963, that the 17-year-old Gram Parsons found his way into the Shilos, a folk group from Greenville, South Carolina. The other group members -- Paul Surratt, Joe Kelly, and George Wrigley -- were also in high school, but the addition of Parsons and the hustling of Gram's manager, old family friend Buddy Freeman, led to impressive success for the band. The Shilos played dances, coffee houses, colleges, and TV shows; in time they commanded several hundred dollars per performance.
        In March of 1965, the Shilos recorded nine tracks at the radio station of Bob Jones University, a Greenville religious college. These tracks surfaced many years later on Gram Parsons: The Early Years, Volume I (1963-1965) (Sierra/Briar SRS-8702).
         During 1965, Gram briefly attended Harvard University. Most sources agree that he was much more interested in his music than in higher learning during this time. While at Harvard, Gram met his freshman adviser, Rev. James Ellison "Jet" Thomas, who would become a close friend. Also during this period, Gram formed the original International Submarine Band. After moving to Los Angeles, the bands' line up was Gram Parsons on vocals and guitar, John Nuese on lead guitar, Mickey Gauvin on drums and Ian Dunlop (who named the band) on bass. As is often the case when talented musicians are trying to live on lots of potential and very little money a split was inevitable. That split finally came in late spring of 1967 over the direction the band's music was taking. Gram and Nuese stayed with the name and headed into a true country sound, while Gauvin and Dunlop put together an R&B horn band that Dunlop christened the "Flying Burrito Brothers".
        In mid 1967 Gram returned to Winter Haven, Florida for a visit. While here he persistently tried to persuade bassist, Gerald (Jesse) Chambers, and drummer, Jon Corneal to return to Los Angeles with him to perform and record with the International Submarine Band. Gram, Gerald and Jon had worked together in The Legends a few years earlier. Although tempted, Chambers was afraid he might be left high and dry in a strange land and opted to stay in Central Florida. In June, Gram returned to California followed shortly by Corneal.
        Later that month the new International Submarine Band, with a temporary bassist, auditioned for Suzi Jane Hokum of Lee Hazelwood's LHI Records and in July, cut Gram's Blue Eyes as well as Luxury Liner with Miss Hokum producing for a possible single. By Christmas of 1967, the album "Safe At Home" was finished. Though considered by most to be the very first full-blown country-rock LP, the album eventually faded into obscurity except for collectors and die-hard Parsons fans around the world. This album has been bootlegged several times, fought over, argued about and sold for many times its original asking price. A CD copy of the album is currently available from Sierra Records.

        Gram, in the mean time, had been hangin' out at Byrds recording sessions and had become friends with Chris Hillman. They shared a mutual love of real country music and had a similar sense of humor. When David Crosby left the Byrds, Hillman asked Gram to join the group and by February 1968, Gram Parsons was a full-fledged Byrd.

       The only problem was he'd never bothered to get out of his LHI contract. The story goes that Gram walked into LHI's lobby and announced to Hazelwood and a startled receptionist, "Ah'm singin' with the Byrds now. Goodbye." (??) He eventually made peace with Nuese and sold the I.S.B. name (although there has been much speculation that Gram didn't own the name) to Hazelwood to get out of the contract and avoid being sued.
        Later that year, along with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, the Byrds recorded "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" and Gram found himself in the middle of big-time Rock & Roll. "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was the Byrds only country album and one that has become a classic today. Gram left the Byrds prior to their South African tour and formed the Flying Burrito Brothers in 1969 with Chris Hillman, Chris Ethridge, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and later Michael Clarke. They recorded "Gilded Palace of Sin" and toured the Southwest, along with playing local gigs. In 1970, the Burritos recorded their second album - "Burrito Deluxe."
        Later in 1970, Gram had a motorcycle accident and left the band. He married model Gretchen Burrell in a ceremony performed by Jet Thomas. They honeymooned at Disneyland. The Parsonses spent time with friends in Europe and the United States. Gram hung around the Rolling Stones while they were recording "Exile on Main Street" and his influence on them can be seen in their more country-flavored songs, such as "Country Honk" (originally Honkey Tonk Women), "Dead flowers" and "Wild Horses."
        In September 1971, Chris Hillman persuaded a reluctant Gram Parsons to go see then unknown Emmylou Harris play at a club called Clydes in Washington D.C., where she was doing a gig 3 nights a week. They worked up and performed two songs; "I Fall To Pieces" and "That's All It Took". Gram, who was by now a converted Emmylou fan, then left Emmylou with promises of some recording work on his forthcoming album. This meeting was followed by a gap of about a year, during which time Emmylou continued playing in bars and getting the occasional phone call from Gram to say that the recording would happen any time now. Finally, Gram sent Emmylou an airline ticket and invited her to sing on GP. Also recruited for the album were three members of Elvis Presley's band - James Burton, Glen D. Hardin and Ronnie Tutt. Barry Tashian was enlisted as well. Burton, Hardin and Tashian would all go on to be members of Emmylou's Hot Band. The album was released in January 1973 and Emmylou joined the tour band, The Fallen Angels, formed to promote the album.
         During most of 1973, Gram, Emmylou and the Fallen Angels toured the U.S. and recorded Gram's second album, "Grievous Angel". Unfortunately, on September 19, 1973, while on vacation, Gram died in a motel room in Joshua Tree, California, a hauntingly beautiful part of the Mojave/Sonoran Deserts. While he died from heart failure due to an overdose of tequila and morphine, the coroner mercifully ruled, "natural causes."
        During a funeral ceremony for Gram's close friend Clarence White, Gram was overheard stating that when he died, rather than being buried in the ground, he would like to be taken out to the Joshua Tree Desert and burned.
        After Gram died, his body was taken to the Los Angeles International Airport in preparation for being flown to Louisiana for burial. Gram's road manager Phil Kaufman and a friend, Michael Martin, got very intoxicated, borrowed a broken down hearse and drove to LAX to retrieve the body. When they arrived, they told the shipping clerk that Gram's remains were to be sent out of another airport, flashed some bogus paperwork and falsely signed for the body.
        After crashing into a wall and almost being arrested, Phil and Michael drove Gram back to The Joshua Tree Desert, stopping only to buy more beer and a container of gasoline. They took Gram's remains into the desert, poured gasoline inside the coffin and set him ablaze. The two were arrested several days later and fined $700 for stealing and burning the coffin (it was is not against the law to steal a dead body). Gram's partially burned remains were finally laid to rest in a modest cemetery near New Orleans, Louisiana.

        In January 1974, "Grievous Angel" was released.

        The long list of musicians Gram Parson influenced includes but is not limited to Elvis Costello, U2, Rodney Crowell, Dave Edmunds, The Jayhawks, Marty Stuart, Black Crowes, The Lemonheads, Nick Lowe, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Tom Petty, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones and of course, Emmylou Harris, who carried his musical vision to fruition and beyond.
        Why Gram Parsons never achieved fame is a mystery. His songwriting, voice and his choice of musicians were a winning combination. Even in death, he was eclipsed by Jim Croce (of "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" fame), who died the day after Gram and received the media attention that still eluded Parsons.

Some of the biographical information on this page came from the Gram Parson's Homepage.

Much of the information on this site was derived from various web sites, newspaper articles and a lot of folks who were there. Our thanks to all those listed above as well as all others who were quoted directly or indirectly. If you use our site as a source, please give us credit. THANKS