‘and the man on the radio won’t leave me alone...'

the lyrics to the return of the grievous angel turn out not to have been written by gram parsons after all but by boston poet thomas stanley brown. he wrote them in about twenty minutes and then gave them to michael martin to give to gram in a bar called oliver’s in boston when gram and emmylou harris were performing during the summer of 1973.

they’re classic road trip lyrics. there are a few gram modifications from the original poem, brown said parsons changed the word “roughnecks” to “kickers,” in the line,‘ out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels’ which is smart because it has better rhythm.

parsons also added the two bridge lines. ‘and the man on the radio won’t leave me alone, he wants to take my money for somethin’ that I’ve never been shown.’

these lines were in a notebook that gram grabbed as he fled from his home, which burned down shortly before the second solo album sessions were scheduled to begin. gram was short on songs for the second album - return of the grievous angel was one of two he wrote in the studio. it was not originally supposed to be the title track for the album - that was to be boudleaux bryant’s sleepless nights.