Gram Parsons: Grievous Angel (Reprise MS 2171); Chip Taylor: Last Chance (Warner Bros, BS 2718)

WITH THIS album, Gram Parsons ends what was probably one of rock's most uneven and exciting careers on a high note. Always a writer of dense songs (dense, not obscure) and a singer in whom influences made themselves felt in the most unusual ways, Grievous Angel shows Parsons at his most open and accessible, as a writer and singer of songs about pain.