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| Excerpt from Joshua Tree.
Gram Parsons rarely used his music to make
political statements. Although he lived and worked in Los
Angeles during one of the most turbulent political times in
American history, his music was primarily concerned with
touching people’s hearts.
But he was not without convictions.
Supposedly, one reason his employment with the Byrds was cut
short was because he refused to perform with them in South
Africa due to that country’s policy of apartheid at the
time.
It is not my intention to project sainthood
onto Parsons as we are prone to do with stars who die young.
Little good can be said about his self-destructive lifestyle.
But I hear in Parsons’s work an authenticity and purity,
free of gimmicks and commercial concerns, rare in creative
work. As such, his music offers us much more than we can
possibly ask for. It is a political statement in and of itself
to defy commercialism and remain uncorrupted.
Perhaps this is why Gram was attracted to
Joshua Tree. He must have been drawn to the unspoiled, virgin
qualities of the desert, and the purity of it rubbed off on
him. Surely it’s why most people visit the desert and
instantly fall in love with it. These are qualities that we
should respect and nurture in both our natural and cultural
treasures and not squander, because they do not exist in
infinitude and may disappear before we fully understand their
true value.
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