Return of the Grievous Angel

"Return of the Grievous Angel" opens the album, 4:19 on the listing (4:14 on the song's infobox), written by Parsons and Tom Brown, a Boston poet. Brown wrote the poem with Parsons in mind and Parsons revised and adapted it. Clash says Brown, a student fan, handed Parsons a sheet of lyrics while the band toured Boston and told him to keep them and put music to them; American Songwriter calls it a drifter tale and Parsons's defining song. It is a narrator's journey across the United States, the train being the Grievous Angel, in which he tells his story to a woman called Annie Rich and decides to return home, with references to Elvis and Las Vegas. No interview was found in which Parsons or Brown explains it.

It was recorded in summer 1973 during the album sessions in Los Angeles, with Emmylou Harris singing harmony, and Bernie Leadon, Al Perkins and Byron Berline with the TCB core; Harris regards the duet as a kind of pinnacle of their work together. It was reissued as a single in February 1982 with "Hearts on Fire". Mojo called it a country rock standard. No chart history for the single, a video or a performance in the 1973 setlists was found.

Lucinda Williams recorded it with David Crosby in 1999 for the tribute album Return of the Grievous Angel (Almo Sounds, July 13, 1999, produced by Emmylou Harris and Paul Kremen). Counting Crows covered it in 2012 on Underwater Sunshine, and The Raveonettes in 2024. We hold two uploads, one titled with the album, and we have not established which version each is.