The Safe At Home "Originals" (Updated)

Before joining The Byrds for Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, Gram Parsons (and what was left of the International Submarine Band) recorded another album of country rock called Safe At Home.

The ten song LP included six covers and four new songs written by Parsons. Here are some earlier versions of the cover songs:

1. Merle Haggard – Somebody Else You've Known (buy)
2. Porter Wagoner - A Satisfied Mind (buy)
3. Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues (buy)
4. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - That's All Right (buy)
5. Bobby Bare - Miller's Cave (buy)
6. Johnny Cash - I Still Miss Someone (buy)

Bonus tracks:
Uncle Tupelo - Blue Eyes (buy) (Here's a great cover of a Parsons' original from Safe At Home.)

Hank Snow - Miller's Cave (buy) (You may prefer this over the Bobby Bare version. I don't, but it's still good. More importantly: Does anybody have the Dickey Lee version? It was the first one, but it's out of print and I've never heard it. Please send it over if you have it.)

Elvis Presley - That's All Right (Mama) (buy) (This is almost certainly the version that inspired the ISB's cover.)

Marty Robbins - Knee Deep In The Blues (buy) (The ISB's cover of this hit is included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of Safe At Home.)

See also:
The Original Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

*** UPDATE!***
Thanks to loyal STWOF reader Dave, you can now hear Dickey Lee's version of Miller’s Cave (which I believe was the first recorded version).

Dickey Lee – Miller’s Cave (out of print).

Dickey Lee did not write Miller’s Cave (that was Jack Clement), but he did write one of the all-time great country songs, She Thinks I Still Care. He also sang one of the most bizarre pop hits of the 1960’s, Laurie (Strange Things Happen).

Thanks Dave!

The "Original" Sweetheart Of The Rodeo - UPDATED!

One of the things I like to do here at Setting The Woods On Fire is to compile what I call the "original" version of well-known cover albums.

It's no secret that The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo was an important album in the development of country rock. (Read about it here, here, and here.) But you might be surprised to learn that nine of the eleven songs were covers.

Listening to earlier versions of the songs covered by The Byrds, along with two originals written by then-member Gram Parsons, gives you a pretty good idea what the band was thinking when it created Sweetheart. It also shows how much of their own unique style The Byrds contributed to these songs.

1. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere - Bob Dylan (buy)
2. I Am A Pilgrim - Merle Travis (buy)
3. The Christian Life - The Louvin Brothers (buy)
4. You Don’t Miss Your Water - William Bell (buy)
5. You’re Still On My Mind – George Jones (buy)
6. Pretty Boy Floyd - Woody Guthrie (buy)
7. Hickory Wind - The Byrds (buy Sweetheart Of The Rodeo)
8. 100 Years From Now - The Byrds (buy alternate version)
9. Blue Canadian Rockies - Hank Snow (out of print?)
10. Life In Prison - Merle Haggard (buy)
11. Nothing Was Delivered - Bob Dylan & The Band (buy)

[Note: The alternate take of 100 Years From Now is the original take using Gram Parsons' vocals, as opposed to Roger McGuinn's, which appear on the official release. Also, the Merle Travis and Hank Snow songs here are not the first recorded versions, just ones I liked better.]

UPDATE!

Reader Eric points out that I should have used the Basement Tapes version of You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, which is the version The Byrds would have heard. Read his comment! Also on Eric's suggestion, I'm posting Otis Redding's excellent version of You Don't Miss Your Water:

Bob Dylan – You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (Basement Tapes version) (buy)
Otis Redding – You Don’t Miss Your Water (buy)