Taking sides: Gram Parsons vs Townes Van Zandt

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I'm a dither about this. To me gram can do grander things but he lacks the subtle down to earthisms of TVZ.

so tell me who's best of the tow great 70's country singers?

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Sunday, 18 April 2004 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Townes by a million miles during his prime.

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

No question about it - Townes by a light year.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Gene Clark.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I just think Gene Clark's voice lets him down. It's just a bit flat (not in musical terms) and slightly lifeless. (I'm prepared to be ripped to pieces for that)

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

in the Byrds, I'm hesitant to agree, but I can see what you mean.

solo, no way.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

No, even in 'No Other' which is a brilliant album, i feel his voice is a barrier to my loving of it, in a way TVZ or GP's just never is.

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't a certain amount of downbeatness essential to the Country aesthetic?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

it's not downbeatness that I mean, I just think Gene Clark hasn't got a great country voice. it lacks...something. I'm being quite vague about this because it's hard to be specific about aesthetic qualities...

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

No Other really isn't a country album though. It's more like a desperate, overblown rock masterpiece.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I only really know the song "Kathleen" (sp?) by Van Zandt, but it rocks, so I'll have to say him, especially as Parsons looks like a minger in photographs (these are the image obsessed times we live in).

― DV (dirtyvicar), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

what? Parsons a minger?!?

my dear friend Roger Elgin once turned to me and said "Robbie, there comes a time when you have to accept that you'll never be the beauty that parsons was."

he has got a dumb jaw though...

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Sunday, 18 April 2004 21:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Tie

― 57 7th (calstars), Sunday, 18 April 2004 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

even in 'No Other' which is a brilliant album, i feel his voice is a barrier to my loving of it

that's just crazy talk. clark's voice is so rough and expressive, and perfectly suited to the material. besides, ra is right - you can't discount points in the country category as no other doesn't really belong to the genre.

― lauren (laurenp), Sunday, 18 April 2004 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

fifteen years pass...

This may be the stupidest comparison ever on ILM.

― banjoboy, Sunday, 16 June 2019 20:40 (six years ago)

man that would be a good poll.

― campreverb, Sunday, 16 June 2019 21:46 (six years ago)

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