![]() But make no mistake: Gilded Palace of Sin is as essential a piece of late ’60s West Coast rock ’n’ roll as any.įaced with the task of holding a band together when a big part of their identity was getting stoned and rejecting societal mores proved difficult for Parsons and Hillman. Overall, listeners expecting a traditional country western album are likely to find the record jarring and disjointed, the vocals sounding like the hillbilly Chipmunks on acid, the instrumental work messy and unfocused. Only the mock gospel “Hippie Boy” sounds inessential, though it does contain some hilarious lines. Recycled from the Submarine Band, “Do You Know How it Feels to Be Lonesome” is the album’s most country western moment. Parsons takes solo vocal turns on a pair of tunes co-written with Ethridge and the mysteriously titled “Hot Burrito #1” and “Hot Burrito #2.” “#1,” also identified at times as “I’m Your Toy,” is one of Parsons’ finest moments, with a stirring, soulful vocal that bends and gently breaks at all the right times. Side one opens with the up-tempo jangle of “Christine’s Tune” (later known as “Devil in Disguise”), then downshifts to the gritty apocalyptic waltz of “Sin City” before boldly taking a turn towards R&B with the recent Aretha Franklin hit “Do Right Woman” and James Carr ballad “Dark End of the Street” (both from the formidable writing team of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham) and winding up with the bluegrass-flavored, anti-war “My Uncle.” When you think it’s bound to be all downhill from there, side two hits the high-water marks: “Wheels,” an ode to motorcycles and dangerous living, followed by “Juanita,” a gorgeously dramatic waltz about loneliness and the saving grace of love. The songs were conceived in a house Hillman and Parsons shared in the outer Los Angeles hills called Burrito Manor, where the two wrote together daily. Together it’s the sound of a unit hitting on all cylinders, believing in every lick and lyric. Ethridge meanders around on the bass, laying down lines more associated with Motown or Stax, while Sneaky Pete defines psychedelic pedal-steel guitar with an array of fuzz-tone licks that more often sound like a Memphis horn section than a Nashville country record. Parsons and Hillman take an Everly Brothers-like approach on most of the songs, strumming away on their guitars and singing in impossibly high harmonies. The band’s outlaw intentions were freely stated right on the cover art, which pictured them outfitted in gaudy suits tailored by Nudie, standing stoned and rebellious with beautiful models in the California desert. The Burritos’ Gilded Palace of Sin (1969) is an unlikely masterpiece of stellar material, gut-wrenching performances and unique and almost deranged instrumental work. Parsons told journalist Chuck Casell that the goal was to form “a hot country group that we could provide material for that would be famous, with ideas for classic songs that everyone would record.” By the time pedal-steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow was recruited and the Flying Burrito Brothers’ debut album was recorded, Parsons could not have known how close he’d come to reaching his goal. ![]() In late 1968, after a series of dust ups left both Gram Parsons and original member Chris Hillman out of the Byrds, the two, along with former Johnny Rivers bass player Chris Ethridge, began taking stabs at forming a band. His music remains a cornerstone of Americana and country rock music to this day, with his songs covered on countless recordings and played every night of the week in clubs and honkytonks around the globe. Some followers, like Glenn Frey of the Eagles, took elements of GP’s sound to the masses, while others like Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello formed their own distinct cults of appreciation. If only a few thousand people bought the albums during his lifetime, many of them went on to write and record their own songs. Like the Velvet Underground or the 13th Floor Elevators though, time and distance have been very kind to the Parsons legacy, allowing us to see an artist with a deep and affecting charisma who has proven to be a guidepost to innumerable musicians who have followed in his rhinestone spangled footsteps. None of the six albums were received with much commercial or critical praise at the time of their release. Two fine solo efforts, a pair of influential albums with the Flying Burrito Brothers, a disc with the dead-on-arrival International Submarine Band, and major contributions to an album by the Byrds make up the entirety of music released in Parson’s short lifetime. Exiting this mortal coil at the tender age of 26, Cecil Ingram Connor, known to the world as Gram Parsons, left behind an impressive, if brief catalog.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |