I know many of our OSU readers to this site aren’t big fans of Billy Tubbs. And I can definitely understand why. But I worked for him for two years and I can tell you one thing for sure, he’s a very funny guy. To prove my point, I’ll tell you a story about a road trip we went on to play the University of Maryland in Baltimore. (This is a “G” rating of the story, if you want the full story full with the “colorful” language, look me up some time and I’ll fill you in)
Our hotel was pretty close to the waterfront and the night before the game we went to eat at a restaurant that was right on the waters edge. Since it was so close to the hotel, we walked over to the restaurant and as we walked, Billy noticed an old war ship sitting in the harbor. He started to feel that a field trip to the ship the next day would be a good idea for the team. You see, his idea was to get all the players to man the cannons and bomb the harbor. He couldn’t think of the name of the things that you use to light firecrackers till one of us told him it was called a punk. “Yeah, that’s right, we’ll give everyone a punk. Then we’ll make this place look like Iraq/Iran. Everyone will be saying, ‘Oh crap, Billy and his boys are back.’” (To get the full effect you have to imagine him sounding like Jack Nicholson, because after all, that’s whom he sounds like) Then Billy got the idea that he’d like to come back to Baltimore in the summer when it wasn’t so cold. One of the other equipment managers informed him that he had been there in the summer and it was really hot. To which Billy replied, “No crap, of course it’s hot, that why I want to come in the summer. Now you can go home and tell your friends that you were in Baltimore in the winter and it was cold. Come back in the spring and it was eh.” (The last “eh” came with a classic Billy shrug of the shoulders that is hard to describe in words, again, look me up some time and I’ll fill you in on the actions) At our meal, my table was full of good God fearing Okies and like any good God fearing Okie that was eating a meal that some one else was paying for, we all had steaks. Big fat juicy steaks. Now since my table was filled with two equipment managers, a walk-on and a SID guy, we were served last, I know, go figure. Once Billy was done with his meal he walked around to all of the tables to talk with every one. When he got to our table and noticed all of our steaks, he came unglued. “You’re eating steaks in Baltimore. You know where those steaks came from don’t you? Oklahoma. You go home and eat some seafood, you know where it comes from don’t ya. Baltimore Maryland.” Anyway, he was in a great mood, right up till the time we lost. Then, not so great of a mood. Go figure. But that’s my story from the streets of Baltimore.
Here’s Gram Parson’s tales from the Streets of Baltimore. In it, he moves to Baltimore because that’s where his woman wants to be, but his woman likes the streets of Baltimore more than she likes him, so he moves back home. Not quite as funny, but still a great story. Actually, Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard wrote this song, but Parsons took the song and made it his own. This is just one of numerous songs on a new 3 CD re-release called The Complete Reprise Sessions, that includes the GP and Grievous Angel albums along with another CD with alternate versions of many of these songs and some interviews and some songs sung during the interviews.
No doubt, Parsons was a tremendous songwriter, but the best part of these works is EmmyLou Harris singing harmony. This is one of those times in music where their two voices joined together are far stronger than either of their voices are by themselves. The harmony on these songs might be the best harmonizing ever. My favorite is Return of the Grievous Angel, where these two voices come together as one and we are all better for have listened to them. Now don’t get me wrong, the song is outstanding in it’s own right. Here’s a little sample that many are already familiar with.
Oh, and I remember something you once told me
And I'll be damned if it did not come true
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you
‘Cause I headed West to grow up with the country
Across those prairies with the waves of grain
And I saw my devil
and I saw my deep blue sea
And I thought about a calico bonnet from
Cheyenne to Tennessee
During one of the radio interviews he sings Sin City, which I first heard way back when Jason Boland was doing his Tuesday night show at the Wormy Dog. I immediately fell in love with the song.
A friend came around.
Tried to clean up this town,
His ideas made some people mad.
But he trusted his crowd,
So he spoke right out loud
And they lost the best friend they had
On the thirty-first floor your gold plated door
Won't keep out the Lord's burning rain
Also included in the interviews is the now famous, “Is your music Rock or Country?” question. His response has given hope numerous Americana musicians ever since. He responds that in his view, there is only tow kinds of music, good and bad. Many times we get to caught up in trying to categorize music, instead of just listening to it and evaluating it on it’s merits. If you’ve never listened to the simple rhymes of Gram Parsons or listened to the sweet harmony of Gram and EmmyLou, this is a must get for you. Three CD’s to keep you entertained for many years to come.
So what have we learned today:
- Billy Tubbs is a funny guy
- It takes a lot of editing to get his stories down to a “G” rating
- Gram and EmmyLou are great harmonizers
- And many thanks are due to the people that put out these CD’s so that Parson’s memory won’t ever grow cold.
I’ll give this 5 out of 5 war ships.