Book Review - 'Breakfast in Nudie Suits' by Ian Dunlop

Last week on September 19th saw the anniversary of Gram Parson's death in 1973 in a motel room at Joshua Tree national park. The place has become enshrined as a kind of mythical destination for those seeking to connect with the gods of Rock n' Roll and those who may be, in the parlance of The Mighty Boosh, looking for the 'New Sound' such as U2. It is also an oft-visited destination in Ian Dunlop's recent book 'Breakfast in Nudie Suits' a very engaging beatnik-influenced mix of travelogue and musical reminiscences through whose pages the ghost of Gram wanders in an out of.

Dunlop (above, second from left in photo) was the bass player and friend of Parsons during the formative stages of his career and together they were amongst the first of their generation to re-connect with Country music from the deep south. While many others at the time were looking towards The Beatles and the Stones for musical leads these two were digging the sounds of Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and harmonising to old Everly Brothers records and forming The International Submarine Band in '65, they would for the next two years play a set of down-home style originals, R n' B and Country cover tunes to mostly perplexed and sometimes downright hostile audiences.

Half of the book chronicles this time up to the point where Dunlop leaves the group as Parsons is about to record the first ISB album with Lee Hazlewood and there are some great accounts of their experiences over those two years including filming a scene for Roger Corman's LSD-explotiation flick 'The Trip', appearing on TV host/horror star Zacherle's music show with Shirley Ellis and playing a multitude of gigs where people harass them for playing Country music. The ISB never had much luck as a band - Corman found their music inappropriate for The Trip and overdubbed a song from The Electric Flag instead and the release of their album was shrouded in ill feeling as Parsons was deemed to have broken his contract with Hazlewood's record company by joining The Byrds. Without much label backing it sank without trace. However, a few years later and The Eagles would saddle up The ISB pony and ride it all the way to the bank.

(Here is The ISB's brief appearance in 'The Trip' - Warning: there be breasts)

http://youtu.be/3EN5okO2Ve4?t=2m20s

Dunlop, having had enough of playing before indifferent audiences with the ISB, left the group before the recording of the album and unsure what to do next with his life decided to drive across America in a beaten-up, old VW camper van in the company of Barry Tashian and Bill Briggs, two members of the seminal Boston garage-rock band The Remains. The book cuts between scenes describing this ramshackle trip in the American hinterlands and swirling scenes describing the true adventures of the ISB in the big city and by and large the contrast between the two works very well. There are some vignettes that will resonate with collectors of vinyl and guitar lovers in particular as Dunlop picks up stacks of unwanted 45's and 78's during his travels, even though his VW seems perilously close to collapsing from the weight, and there is an in-depth account of how he acquires his early model Telecaster which will have twang-busters salivating. Along the way he obtains shellac'd gems like this: Bill Haley & the Comets - Hook, Line & Sinker and describes with great love and detail the sounds that he finds particularly rewarding from the fifties and early sixties.

Parsons comes across as an easygoing and likeable soul who has an underlying sad aspect and attraction to the darker sides of life. The stoned conversations between Dunlop and Parsons that litter the text here are amusing but at some points this darkness comes through. At one stage he surprises Dunlop with his memories of his father's suicide at the age of 12, two days before Christmas and in describing his love of Country notes:

"There is so much passion in the negativity (of Country music). Some good sounds come out from behind them ol' dark curtains... It's mostly about murder, death, drinkin'. The sins of the South. Really unhappy, morbid lyrics. It's the opposite of 'Good Day Sunshine' yeah? I love all that dark music about prison walls, lonely people drowning in booze, tryin' to hide their pasts and their adultery"

This book is certainly not just about Parsons, although its packaging may have you thinking otherwise, but as a scrapbook of literary polaroids from a particularly loaded moment in American musical and political history it well worth tracking down and one of the best music-related books I have read from this year.

It can be bought here.

Incidentally and as an endnote, that man Zacherle was an interesting fellow - here is a great clip of his music show in the 60's featuring the Box Tops and a very young Alex Chilton