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GRAM PARSONS The Complete Reprise Sessions (2006 UK issue 43-track 3-CD album set suberb set that comprises both solo albums each represented on a single disc with bonus tracks not on the previous GP/Grevious Angel CD - includes a version of Love Hurts with Emmylou a recording of the Burritos Sin City plus interviews & radio spots - but on disc three is where this collection really comes into its own - 17-track including 15 alternate versions of Gram classics such as Brass Buttons She & Hickory Wind plus solo outtakes previously featured on A&Ms Sleepless Nights compilation!)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
While Gram Parsons hated the term 'Country Rock', and the Eagles et al managed to partly sully it with their overproduced sound, there is no doubting that Gram truly was a visionary.
His short life means that his legend will live longer than possibly his musical output may merit, but his championing of Emmylou Harris should in itself be enough for us to be eternally grateful.
Unfortunately, the pricy retrospectives and collections of his music are starting to mount up, and while the Gram Parsons anthology on Rhino (2001) didn't provide us with much new music, and the reissues of the Flying Burrito Brothers albums contain only a few rarities, this new collection steps up to the plate, and comes through as a welcome addition to the collection. After all, it is now how many years since the Byrds Box set and Sweetheart of the Rodeo Legacy edition provided us with a true new batch of Parsons goodness.
While die hard fans can pick up this stuff on bootlegs, and semi official recordings such as 'Cosmic American Music', it is always the case that official releases are the way to go, both in terms of sound quality and legality.
Thus I heartily recommend picking up this set, if only to grab the remastered GP and Grievous Angel, because the current CD version of these two immense albums suffers from its age.
If you've never heard Gram, have only heard Love Hurts on the recent Emmylou greatest hits package, or own anything he ever recorded, it doesn't matter - The myth and the man are unnaproachable in their sheer greatness. Get this ASAP!
His short life means that his legend will live longer than possibly his musical output may merit, but his championing of Emmylou Harris should in itself be enough for us to be eternally grateful.
Unfortunately, the pricy retrospectives and collections of his music are starting to mount up, and while the Gram Parsons anthology on Rhino (2001) didn't provide us with much new music, and the reissues of the Flying Burrito Brothers albums contain only a few rarities, this new collection steps up to the plate, and comes through as a welcome addition to the collection. After all, it is now how many years since the Byrds Box set and Sweetheart of the Rodeo Legacy edition provided us with a true new batch of Parsons goodness.
While die hard fans can pick up this stuff on bootlegs, and semi official recordings such as 'Cosmic American Music', it is always the case that official releases are the way to go, both in terms of sound quality and legality.
Thus I heartily recommend picking up this set, if only to grab the remastered GP and Grievous Angel, because the current CD version of these two immense albums suffers from its age.
If you've never heard Gram, have only heard Love Hurts on the recent Emmylou greatest hits package, or own anything he ever recorded, it doesn't matter - The myth and the man are unnaproachable in their sheer greatness. Get this ASAP!
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I'd agree with T D Clifton's review elsewhere on this page entirely, but will add that despite quite a number of Parsons anthologies, there is still some seminal stuff unreleased:
Perhaps future compilers will acquire the three or four songs a prototype lineupm of the Burritos recorded while Parsons and Hillman were still in The Byrds. These sessions also featured Clarence White (who had played sessions with the Byrds and joined after Gram left) and Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram), who also joined The Byrds just before Chris Hillman left to join Gram in the 'Gilded Palace of Sin' Burritos. These recordings are especially important in the light of White's presence and the fact that Gene Parsons later joined the Burritos for 'Flying Again', their most underrated studio album.
Find these cuts and issue them someone, please !!!
Perhaps future compilers will acquire the three or four songs a prototype lineupm of the Burritos recorded while Parsons and Hillman were still in The Byrds. These sessions also featured Clarence White (who had played sessions with the Byrds and joined after Gram left) and Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram), who also joined The Byrds just before Chris Hillman left to join Gram in the 'Gilded Palace of Sin' Burritos. These recordings are especially important in the light of White's presence and the fact that Gene Parsons later joined the Burritos for 'Flying Again', their most underrated studio album.
Find these cuts and issue them someone, please !!!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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25 reviews
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Great album!
5 July 2006
Format:Audio CD
Don't believe the reviewers who say this is for completists only. I listened today to much of it today and found that I had to order the Reprise Sessions immediately. The remastering is fantastic, the information booklet and pictures are great, and the hitherto unissued songs are out of this world. This collection far exceeds any other collection of Gram's works, including the extended version of the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
59 of 66 people found the following review helpful
Almost Complete, Ethereal Beauties
20 Jun 2006
Format:Audio CD
First of all, this is an amazing issue. The first album, GP, is so well mastered the entire album sounds like an alternate version, but not in some jarring way, it's just that the wonderful musicians are so well articulated on this that the music seems new even if you know it very well. It also reveals how shaky Gram's vocals were on a couple of cuts, but Gram shaky is like Billie Holiday shaky. The second LP is more familiar, but for instance the steel pedal guitar on "Love Hurts" is subtly augmented without in any way stepping on the duet, which has never sounded so ethereal, the voice of a fallen angel merged with a soaring angel. So just to have the two LPs like this is worth the money.
The bonus material - the interviews are to the point and fine. You get a sense of how oddly shy Gram was, and extremely sensitive, fragile. The acoustic radio session with a very spare "Love Hurts" and Emmylou, Gram and N.D. Smart on a wonderful "Sin City" is not great sound, but a treat all the same. And the third CD alternate takes, which are simpler and sometimes fresher, are like the Rolling Stones' outtakes, arguably superior to the issued cuts on a few songs.
Complaints? Why are the three cuts left off "Grievous" stuck on the third disk instead of extending what is acknowledged in the booklet as a short LP? Why only one of what are obviously several wonderful instrumental backing tracks from one of the greatest backup bands ever assembled, since this issue is obviously for Gram devotees. There is at least an hour of unused CD space available. And most grievously, why not issue the two cuts that were tricked up with fake audience sounds 'naked' as bonus tracks? Lastly, why not put the two cuts remixed in the 80s on, rather than a tiny note that they were excluded? The CDs, issued in LP repro cardboard covers, should also have inner sleeves to protect them, a good idea in the vinyl era and now.
Kivetch, kivetch, kivetch. It's a wonderful collection, hope something like this turns up soon on the Flying Burritos. Judging from the bootlegs, there is still a lot of Gram to unearth. But it will have to go some to be as choice as what is here. These recordings reach a level of ethereal beauty that is unique in this genre.
The bonus material - the interviews are to the point and fine. You get a sense of how oddly shy Gram was, and extremely sensitive, fragile. The acoustic radio session with a very spare "Love Hurts" and Emmylou, Gram and N.D. Smart on a wonderful "Sin City" is not great sound, but a treat all the same. And the third CD alternate takes, which are simpler and sometimes fresher, are like the Rolling Stones' outtakes, arguably superior to the issued cuts on a few songs.
Complaints? Why are the three cuts left off "Grievous" stuck on the third disk instead of extending what is acknowledged in the booklet as a short LP? Why only one of what are obviously several wonderful instrumental backing tracks from one of the greatest backup bands ever assembled, since this issue is obviously for Gram devotees. There is at least an hour of unused CD space available. And most grievously, why not issue the two cuts that were tricked up with fake audience sounds 'naked' as bonus tracks? Lastly, why not put the two cuts remixed in the 80s on, rather than a tiny note that they were excluded? The CDs, issued in LP repro cardboard covers, should also have inner sleeves to protect them, a good idea in the vinyl era and now.
Kivetch, kivetch, kivetch. It's a wonderful collection, hope something like this turns up soon on the Flying Burritos. Judging from the bootlegs, there is still a lot of Gram to unearth. But it will have to go some to be as choice as what is here. These recordings reach a level of ethereal beauty that is unique in this genre.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Complete? Yes and No!
28 Jun 2006
Format:Audio CD
Having been treated to so many outstanding career retrospective CD boxsets over the past twenty-four years, we've come to expect several things from such compilations: 1. Remastered tracks; 2. Outtakes and demos; 3. Insights into the creation of the music through studio chatter, false starts and mistakes; 4. Rarities and previously unreleased songs. How does this set stack up? It is reasonable in the first and second instance, but has nothing in the third and fourth areas. Do these things exist? Previous bootlegs and a rare out-of-print "Cosmic American Cowboy" collection say so. So, what we have are the two original Gram Parsons solo albums, an interesting and likely incomplete set of outtakes, and some teasers from interviews and radio performance. For the novice, this box is probably too much (stick with the previous Gram Parson anthology!) and for the diehard fan, there is just not enough.
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