Today in Music (1969): The Flying Burrito Brothers The Gilded Palace of Sin released

The Gilded Palace of Sin The Flying Burriot Brothers

Released: February 6, 1969 Charted: date Peak: 164 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: country rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] Christine’s Tune (aka “Devil in Disguise”) (Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman) [3:04] Sin City (Hillman, Parsons) [4:11] Do Right Woman Chips Moman, Dan Penn) [3:56] Dark End of the Street (Moman, Penn) [3:58] My Uncle (Parsons, Hillman) [2:37] Wheels (Hillman, Parsons) [3:04] Juanita (Hillman, Parsons) [2:31] Hot Burrito No. 1 (aka “I’m Your Toy”) (Chris Ethridge, Parsons) [3:40] Hot Burrito No. 2 (Ethridge, Parsons) [3:19] Do You Know How It Feels (Parsons, Barry Goldberg) [2:09] Hippie Boy (Hillman, Parsons) [4:55] Total Running Time: 37:24 The Players: Gram Parsons (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, organ) Chris Hillman (guitar, vocals, mandolin) “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow (pedal steel guitar) Chris Ethridge (bass, backing vocals, piano)

Rating: 3.902 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Quotable: “No one ever brought rock and country together quite like the Flying Burrito Brothers, and this album remains their greatest accomplishment.” – Mark Deming, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: After a stint with the International Submarine Band, Gram Parsons joined the Byrds for their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Parsons only lasted one album with the group, getting fired by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. That album, however, became viewed as ground zero for country rock – and it wasn’t the last time Parsons and Hillman worked together. Parsons formed the Flying Burrito Brothers and Hillman decided to jump ship from the Byrds and joined up as a rhythm guitarist. His “strong and supportive harmony vocals blend flawlessly with Parsons’ (and he also proved to be a valuable songwriting partner, collaborating on a number of great tunes with Gram).” MD Chris Ethridge, a bassist and keyboardist, also joined. He previously played with Parsons in the International Submarine Band. Rounding out the foursome was “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow, a steel guitarist whose “fuzztone steel guitar provides a perfect bridge between country and psychedelic rock.” MD He went on to work extensively as a session musician with Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Joe Cocker, Eagles, the Everly Brothers, George Harrison, John Lennon, Little Richard, the Steve Miller Band, Joni Mitchell, the Rolling Stones, Linda Ronstadt, and Stevie Wonder. It was with the Burrito Brothers first album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, that Parsons “revealed the full extent of his talents.” MD “It ranks among the finest and most influential albums the genre would ever produce.” MD In the documentary Beyond Nashville, Parsons is described as “passionate about country music’s simple poetry. He was equally passionate about rock music. At a time when they were poles apart, he alone thought they belonged together.” WK Rolling Stone said the album “picks up where Sweetheart of the Rodeo left off.” WK Bob Dylan called it his favorite country-rock album. WK John Firminger of Country Music Review said the album “quite clearly stands as a complete definition of the term country rock.” WK “As a songwriter, Parsons delivered some of his finest work on this set; Hot Burrito No. 1 and Hot Burrito No. 2 both blend the hurt of classic country weepers with a contemporary sense of anger, jealousy, and confusion.” MD Both songs grew out of old melodies Chris Ethridge had written. WK Sin City was written by Parsons and Hillman at a San Fernando Valley house the group called “Burrito Manor.” Hillman woke Gram up saying he had an idea for a song and they wrote it in about thirty minutes. WK It “can either be seen as a parody or a sincere meditation on a city gone mad, and it hits home in both contexts.” MD My Uncle and Hippie Boy both addressed “then-contemporary countercultureal concerns: the draft and the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Parsons said the latter had to “be a narrative song, and Chris Hillman has to do it…It was the toughest challenge on the album.” WK “Parsons was rarely as strong as a vocalist as he was here, and his covers of Dark End of the Street and Do Right Woman prove just how much he had been learning from R&B as well as C&W.” MD “While The Gilded Palace of Sin barely registered on the pop culture radar in 1969, literally dozens of bands (the Eagles most notable among them) would find inspiration in this music and enjoy far greater success. But no one ever brought rock and country together quite like the Flying Burrito Brothers, and this album remains their greatest accomplishment.” MD It has been credited with the New Tradtionalist movement in the 1980s, which included Clint Black, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, and Travis Tritt. The album has also been cited for influencing the alt-country movement, which includes the Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, and Wilco. WK In the liner notes for the 1997 reissue of the album, Sid Griffin wrote that Gilded Palace may have sold only 50,000 copies, but “like the first album by the Velvet Underground, it would seem everyone of those 50,000 went out and formed a band inspired by what they’d heard.” WK

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Gram Parsons DMDB encyclopedia entry for Chris Hillman MD Mark Deming, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/18/2010; last updated 3/21/2024.