Gram Parsons -- "In My Hour of Darkness"
One of Gram's finest songs, and one of the most eerie tracks ever recorded. I don't know for sure that it was the last track that Gram ever recorded, but the placement as the last track on his final (posthumously released) album is fitting. Who knows what would have become of Parsons had he not overdosed. Maybe he'd be playing Vegas himself by this point. By going early, he lived out the dominant country music ethic of the time: living fast, loving hard, dying young, and leaving a beautiful memory. He also bucked the Nashville trends not by forsaking the sound but by bypassing the usual routes to getting his music made and doing it his own way.
To claim that his buddy Keith Richards, he of the cavernous face and legendary metabolism, killed Gram by pernicious influence is to overstate the case. Gram did have a sweet and good-natured soul, even if it was a little wounded, and all of this comes across in this song. Whether he had that vision in his own hour of darkness, we'll never know, but he certainly had a vision during his short but unforgettable career.
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