1/8/2012

Gram Parsons -- "Streets of Baltimore"

The defining quality of Gram Parsons' voice is the wistful sense of melancholy that it evokes -- not the sense of a deep despair, but that of a weary and lingering sadness, nonetheless.  "Streets of Baltimore" is one of the best showcases for this quality.  The story the song tells is a staple of the country tradition: Tennessee farm boy goes to the city; things go fine for a while, but ultimately the city defeats him, and back he goes to Tennessee.  Along the way, he manages to lose his wife, who succumbs not to the seduction of a blackguard rival but rather to that of the city itself and the promise of the high-life that it offers.  "Streets of Baltimore" is Ray Price's "City Lights" with a little more added to the story.  Of course, Gram is accompanied here, as he is in all of his solo recordings, by a top-notch crew of sessions players.  The sound is rich but tasteful.  Not to knock a classic like "Hickory Wind," but "Streets of Baltimore" is a little less sacharine, a little less burdened with sentiment, and for me at least the result is a song that is in the end more lasting.  "Streets of Baltimore" is not necessarily a prime example of what Gram called "cosmic American music," but it is song with a lot of soul, sung by a performer who also possessed a lot of soul.