"...Wild Horses..."
I know real downhome Country
Music and its bratty sibling Country Rock is actually not everybody’s fave rave
if the honest-to-God truth is told – but rehearing these seminal albums from
1969 and 1970 has been a blast for me. In September 2019 (half-a-century later)
- the GRAM PARSONS legend only continues to grow and with good reason
I mean for God's sake, the
last track on this amazing twofer is "Wild Horses" – the
Jagger/Richards ballad masterpiece most of us know from April 1971's
"Sticky Fingers" by The Stones. But it was GP with The Flying Burrito
Bros. nearly a year earlier in May 1970 on the "Burrito Deluxe" LP
who (it could be argued) actually shaped what made The Stones cut so great when
it first appeared on that album. The Stones took from that FBB mixture of
Country Rock and laced it with a smattering of their own Acoustic Blues thereby
giving their gorgeous 1971 version such an ache and damn it – let's say it –
beauty (Leon Russell guested as the piano man on the FBB version while
legendary sessionman Jim Dickinson did the keys on the Stones take).
And although this
'gatefold-slip of paper as an inlay' cheap and cheerful remaster from 1997 is
truly beginning to show its age (docked a star for sheer ordinariness - both
albums deserve Universal DE 2CD sets) - as I say - for under three quid in
certain corners of the digital schmidgital domain - you can get a whole lot of
Country Rock hoo-ha here for a pittance. And these are seminal albums you need
in your musical boudoir. Let's get's the whip-crack-away...
UK released 24 March 1997 -
"The Gilded Palace Of Sin/Burrito Deluxe" by THE FLYING BURRITO
BROS (featuring GRAM PARSONS) on A&M ReMasterPieces 540 704-2 (Barcode 731454070423) offers
their Debut and Second Albums from February 1969 and May 1970 in their entirety
and plays out as follows (70:49 minutes):
1. Christine's Tune [Side 1]
2. Sin City
3. Do Right Woman
4. Dark End Of The Street
5. My Uncle
6. Wheels [Side 2]
7. Juanita
8. Hot Burrito No. 1
9. Hot Burrito No. 2
10. Do You Know How It Feels
11. Hippie Boy
Tracks 1 to 11 are their
debut album "The Gilded Palace Of Sin" - released February 1969 in
the USA on A&M Records SP-4175 and April 1969 in the UK on A&M Records
AMLS 931 in Stereo.
THE FLYING BURRITO BROS
were:
GRAM PARSONS - Lead Vocals,
Rhythm Guitar and Keyboards
CHRIS HILLMAN - Lead Vocals
and Guitar (Mandolin on "My Uncle")
"SNEEKY" PETE
KLEINOW - Pedal Steel Guitar
CHRIS ETHRIDGE - Bass and
Backing Vocals (Piano on "Hot Burrito No. 1" and "Hot Burrito
No. 2")
Guests:
Eddie Hoh (Drums on Tracks 2
and 10) - Jon Corneal (Drums on Tracks 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7)
Popeye Phillips (Drums on
Tracks 8, 9 and 11) - Sam Goldstein (Drums on Track 6)
Tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 and 11
written and sung by Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons except 11 sung by CH alone
Track 3 is a Chips Moman and
Dan Penn song covered by The Sweet Inspirations, Otis Clay and Aretha Franklin
Track 4 is a Spooner Oldham
and Dan Penn song covered by James Carr
Tracks 8 and 9 written by
Chris Ethridge and Gram Parsons, lead vocal sung by GP, backing vocals by CE
and GP
Track 10 is written by Barry
Goldberg and Gram Parsons, lead vocals sung by CH and GP
12. Lazy Days [Side 1]
13. Image Of Me
14. High Fashion Queen
15. If You Gotta Go
16. Man In The Fog
17. Farther Along
18. Older Guys [Side 2]
19. Cody, Cody
20. God's Own Singer
21. Down In The Churchyard
22. Wild Horses
Tracks 12 to 24 are their
second studio album "Burrito Deluxe" - released May 1970 in the USA
on A&M Records SP-4258 and May 1970 in the UK on A&M Records AMLS 983.
THE FLYING BURRITO BROS was:
GRAM PARSONS - Lead Vocals
and Piano
CHRIS HILLMAN - Lead Vocal,
Bass and Mandolin
BERNIE LEADON - Lead Guitar
and Dobro
"SNEEKY" PETE
KLEINOW - Pedal Steel Guitar
BYRON BERLINE - Fiddle
MICHAEL CLARKE - Drums
Guests:
Leon Russell - Piano on
"Man in The Fog" and "Wild Horses"
Leopoldo C. Carbajal -
Accordion and Tommy Johnson - Tube
Track 13 is a Harlan Howard
cover, Track 15 is a Bob Dylan cover and Track 22 is a Rolling Stones cover
Track 20 written by Bernie
Leadon (later with Eagles), Track 16 is co-written by Leadon with GP
Track 18 is co-written with
Leadon, Hillman and GP
The gatefold slip of paper
that acts as an inlay (same for most of these A&M ReMasterPieces CD
Reissues) has a functional liner note from SID GRIFFIN (January 1997) that
outlines their genesis, poor sales and subsequent deification as creators of
the Country-Rock sound. The Remaster is by ROGER WAKE and is very clean and
full of detail although if I'm honest I prefer the Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot
remasters on the Rhino Gram Parsons 2CD Anthology set "Sacred Hearts &
Fallen Angels" in 2001 (features five tracks from the debut and four from
the second).
The band's pedigree was
incredible - Hillman and Parsons with The International Submarine Band for
their legendary "Safe At Home" LP from April 1968 on LHI Records and
then a stint with The Byrds for "Sweethearts Of The Rodeo" in July
1968 on Columbia Records. Bernie Leadon would be poached eventually to join
Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Don Felder in The Eagles, Hillman and Michael Clarke
had been in the Byrds too and Sneaky Pete Kleinow has a sessionman rap sheet
longer than Bob Dylan's lyrics in 1965. Let's get to the nudie suits...
"She's a devil in
disguise...telling dirty lies..." - the lyrics tell us as the album opens
happily with "Christine's Tune" - a pedal-steel shuffler punctured
with wild guitar - a sort of Everly Brothers meets Link Wray moment. Better is
the fabulous "Sin City" - a Country moaner apparently inspired by
Gram's manager Larry Spector who relieved GP of his money and dignity on the
31st floor of a gold-plated office block. We're then hit with two covers - the
late 60ts Soul classics "Do Right Woman" and "Dark End Of The
Street" (Aretha Franklin and James Carr) where the duet vocals are not
just complimentary but gorgeous. Of the other albums classics, I've always
loved "Hot Burrito No. 1" - in fact check out Raul Malo's beautiful
vocal take on it on the 1999 tribute CD compilation "Return Of The
Grievous Angel" on Almo Sounds. Another cold-dirty-room winner from the
debut turned up on that 1999 tribute - "Juanita" - done by the mouth-watering
duo of Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris. The 'come on wheels, take this boy away’
song "Wheels" sees Parsons in one speaker while Hillman fills the
other - very tasty.
After the miserable 50,000
sales attributed to "The Gilded Palace Of Sin" debut (it peaked at
No. 164 in the US charts and didn't register at all in the UK) - better things
were expected of "Burrito Deluxe" with its edgier more Rock 'n' Roll
feel. It also sported an exclusive Jagger/Richards ballad "Wild
Horses" before The Stones did their own version and new blood in the line
up with Bernie Leadon (soon to be an Eagle in 1972). After the 'I got a thing I
wanna try with you' barbecue boogie of "Lazy Day" - other Tex Mex
faves include the accordion-flavoured "Man In The Fog" and the
jangling guitars of "Older Guys" while elements of Bernie Leadon's
"God's Own Singer" sport a similar melody to "Train Leaves Here
This Morning" on the 1972 "Eagles" debut (credited to him and
Gene Clark on that LP). And it all ends on "Wild Horses" - a song
that is still emotionally loaded for me 50 years on - a tune I never tire of
hearing...
Michael Clarke migrated to
Firefall on Atlantic Records; Hillman to The Desert Rose Band and Florida boy
Gram Parsons (not nicknamed the "Waycross Waif" for no reason) got
lost of course in drugs and stardom and was tragically already gone by 1973. Parsons
put out two wildly brilliant solo sets - "GP" in January 1973 and the
posthumous January 1974 LP - "Grievous Angel" – another chapter for
those.
But these two platters with The Burritos are where that amazing journey really
started to cook. Take a trip into this particular Sin City...
