The Flying Burrito Bros., "The Gilded Palace of Sin"

Mitch takes it easy

Mitch’s Pitch:

Gram Parsons is the patron saint of lazy days, and as a lazy boy myself, I absolutely love lazy days and I definitely love Gram Parsons.

Now, please don’t confuse laziness with productivity. Lazy people have to be incredibly productive in order to enjoy their lazy days. Us lazy boys learn early in life (well, not before 10 a.m.) that the best way to enjoy a lazy day is to get your work done quickly and to get it done well. Procrastination causes guilt, which ruins a lazy day. Laziness is a lifestyle, an ethos, and a personal philosophy. Lazy people can do stuff. We’d just rather not.

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Gram Parsons has had an outsized influence on the music world, which is impressive when you consider that he died in 1973 when he was only 26 (homework: go read about Gram’s unbelievable post-death adventures in Joshua Tree) with only about 26 original songs to his name. Of course, some of those songs, like “Hickory Wind”, have become standards that you’ll still hear every night in every honky tonk across the land.

Gram was restless, came from a fucked up family (think southern gothic tragedy), and wanted to be George Jones (the possum not exactly being the world’s best role model). He made one record with the International Submarine Band, took The Byrds to the Grand Ole Opry with “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”, got fired, formed the Flying Burrito Bros. with Chris Hillman, got fired again (from his own band), and made a couple of solo albums before dying tragically.

Gram might have been lazy, but he was also kind of a genius, with a vision for a new sound that he called “Cosmic American Music” - an intoxicating blend of country, rock and R&B - that is perfectly distilled on the Burrito’s delicious debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin.

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Sneaky Pete Kleinow wasn’t a lazy boy at all. He was an animator and special effects artist who worked on Gumby and later won an Emmy award. For our purposes he gave the Burritos an innovative country-rock sound by playing lead pedal steel guitar, and running that pedal steel through a fuzz box. When you’re wondering what makes The Gilded Palace of Sin sound so different, the answer is almost always Sneaky Pete. 

From the honky tonkin’ opening track “Christine’s Tune” to the fuzzed-out “Wheels”, to the Louvin Brothers-esque “Sin City”, Sneaky Pete musically dominates Gilded Palace, and basically set the template for Poco and the next generation of country-rockers.

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As a successful industry veteran, Chris Hillman wasn’t lazy, but he was the lazy whisperer, sharing a house with Gram so they could write most of the album together. Chris’s intensity and professionalism kept Gram’s hedonism (temporarily) in check, and led to Gram’s most productive period.

One of the jewels of The Gilded Palace of Sin are the lyrics, which retain the god-fearing authenticity of traditional country music but add a dash of rock and roll Bacchanalia, the devil and the angel, the darkness and the light, or maybe just the Parsons and the Hillman. Like the Velvet Underground, the Burritos brought the underground lifestyle to the mainstream.

In the Burritos, Hillman was able to (temporarily) put down the bass and play his beloved mandolin, and he doubled up Gram’s vocals brilliantly, if not as famously, as Gram’s future duet partner Emmylou Harris.

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It is unclear whether bassist Chris Ethridge was lazy or not, but he also teamed up with Gram to write the two worst-titled but best-sounding songs in music history with “Hot Burrito #1” and “Hot Burrito #2”. Burritos weren’t well known back in the ‘60s (I have a live show where the emcee helpfully explains that it’s a “Mexican sandwich”) so naming your band and two songs after an obscure sandwich seems both insane, and, well, a little lazy. When Elvis Costello covered “#1” he retitled it “I’m Your Boy” which is somehow both much better and much worse at the same time.

The “Hot Burrito” suite is a sublime 7 minutes of music, featuring some of Gram’s most sensitive and forceful vocals. “#2” is as defiant as “#1” is mournful, and together they paint a picture of all 7 stages of grief following a break-up. As good as this whole album is, the Burrito suite is its timeless centerpiece.

Ethridge brought the final ingredient to Gram’s cosmic American stew with a strong love for rhythm and blues, which comes through in his bass playing, and in the two cover songs - “Do Right Woman” and “Dark End of the Street” - that I’m sure you mostly associate with soul and Motown. The Burritos versions of both tunes are delightful, proving Gram right - country, rock, R&B - it’s all just American music.

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An incredible album. A new genre of music. Songs that have stood the test of time. That’s some pretty impressive work for a lazy boy. What do you say that we give Gram and the boys a little love in our gilded palace on Newbury St.?

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CJ’s Response:

When Mitch texted us that he was pitching The Flying Burrito Bros., I responded that in terms of Bros they ranked behind Mario Bros. and well ahead of Roche Bros.

For those who have never lived in the Boston Metro West area, Roche Bros. is a small, but inordinately expensive supermarket chain that charges you twice as much for a box of Cheerios and three times as much for a bunch of grapes as other stores do. And yet, through a combination of small-town bullying and provincialism, they’ve managed to keep the larger, less expensive chains off their turf. They’ve pulled a sort of reverse Wal-Mart. It would almost be admirable if it weren’t my only local option. On top of that, it’s pronounced Roach. Not “roash” or “ro-shay”. Roach. I wish I were making that up.

However, after listening to this album, the Burritos have moved further away from the Marios and much closer to the Roches.

Let me begin by saying that Mitch has not so surreptitiously been foisting his country agenda on us for a long time now. And I believe I’ve been fairly receptive to most of it. Or at least open-minded. But just as Metallica broke Mitch and Ken, the Burrito Bros. were my Waterloo.

The Gilded Palace of Sin is pure shit kickin’ music. If I walked into a bar in my standard jeans and Black Sabbath t-shirt and I heard that telltale steel guitar, I’d assume that I’d have to fight my way out. Songs like “Christine’s Tune” and “Sin City” are the standard country bouillabaisse of deceitful women, Jesus and regret. Or, as it’s known in some circles, a Texas Saturday night.

I will agree with Mitch that “Hot Burritos” 1 and 2 are the best songs on the album. They finally abandon the twangy guitar and the nasally vocals and give us some soulful tunes. In fact, they made me think of “Just Can’t Be” which is a FBB song I really enjoy. Alas, these are the exceptions rather than the rule.

As for the Motown remakes, no, no, a thousand times no. As the boys have chastised me on many occasions, if you’re going to put a cover on your album make sure it’s as good or better than the original. You’re never beating Aretha Franklin on “Do Right Woman”. (In fairness, nobody is.) And you may be on equal footing with James Carr on “The Dark End of the Street”, but Percy Sledge beat you to the punch on the remake.

I’d also like to point out that Mitch studiously avoided discussing the two worst songs on this album, the cringeworthy “My Uncle” and “Hippie Boy” which can generously be described as novelty songs. They reminded me of my parents’ old Kingston Trio records where Charlie was still riding ‘neath the streets of Boston on the MTA. (Not on the Orange Line, though. It’s under repair.)

It’s too bad, really. The Gilded Palace of Sin is easily one of the best album titles in our portfolio. I just wish there were more sinning.

• Pitch Unsuccessful (Even the burritos at Roche Bros. are expensive.)

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Ken’s Response:

Let’s skip all the way to the end this week.  The Gilded Palace of Sin is IN (although technically it’s OUT because…well, CJ).  This is a glorious album largely put together by the venerable Chris Hillman and gone-before-his-time musical genius (yes, GENIUS) Gram Parsons.  The album hits you right in the face with its country-folk-rock stylings, reminiscent of The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo from just a year before, an album that was also largely influenced by Hillman and Parsons.

From the opening notes of “Christine’s Tune” to the honky tonk ballad “Sin City”, and continuing throughout the album, the Burritos take us on a wonderfully peaceful, if not a bit cynical, walk along the meandering road toward the gilded palace, wherever that is.  For my money, you don’t want to skip “Dark End Of The Street”, “Juanita” or one of the best songs of the entire 1960s, “Hot Burrito #2”.

But what I want to really address is this idea of Mitch’s about laziness.  Getting all your work done, painting your house, getting kids to and from school, and being wildly successful in business is, by definition, NOT lazy.  Taking some downtime after doing a lot throughout the day/week isn’t lazy, it’s called rest.

Gram Parsons died at age 26; what 26 year old musician doesn’t love his or her downtime. Sure, Gram liked the drugs, and he was famously undisciplined in and out of the studio.  Let’s remind ourselves again that he was 26.  He wrote profound music, he had a beautiful voice and I believe (Mitch and I have had this debate many times) that had he not died, he could have been a once in a generation talent.  

What you call lazy, I call creative…and pacing oneself.

• Pitch Successful (great pick, Hippie Boy!)

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Mitch’s pitch was not successful and The Flying Burrito Bros.’ The Gilded Palace of Sin has been cast out from the hallowed halls of Newbury St.

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Do you know how it feels to be lonesome? You wouldn’t if you took some wheels to the comments section and let us know if the Burrito Bros. sing you back home or take you to the dark end of the street.

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Please join us next week as Ken trades in the burrito brothers for some cocaine sisters with a look at the eleventh album by a little band called Fleetwood Mac and their smash hit Rumors.

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