462. The Flying Burrito Brothers, "The Gilded Palace of Sin"

 


In July of 1968, the Byrds went to England for a show at the Royal Albert Hall and were all set to embark on a tour of South Africa when Gram Parsons, who hadn’t even been in the band that long, announced that he wouldn’t be going.  He said he opposed South Africa’s apartheid policies, but the band suspected that a nascent friendship – and nonstop partying – with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were actually to blame.  Gram got kicked out of the band.

Later in 1968, after a series of setbacks and misunderstandings, Chris Hillman left the Byrds as well.  Hillman went back to LA, called up Gram, and got a band together.  That band was the Flying Burrito Brothers.  They wrote and recorded this record fairly quickly and it came out in 1969.  Nobody really gave a shit.  It peaked at #164 on the Billboard Top 200.  Tough shit for all you people in the ‘60s because the Flying Burrito Brothers just invented alt-country.

This album is just great.  It is the sonic equivalent of lying in a hammock with a sweaty cold can of domestic beer and a poorly rolled joint on an overly hot day but it’s dry heat so you don’t really care.  Maybe by a pool in Joshua Tree, where Gram Parsons died at 26.  Poor Gram Parsons.  Dwight Yoakam said, about Gram, “You can’t be a country singer with a trust fund,” and that’s probably true.  He’s got a voice and something to say but he’s too laid back almost for this music.  There’s no real hardship there.  He knows he’s always going to be okay at the end of the day.

That doesn’t take anything anyway from this record, a purely enjoyable listening experience. I'm glad I listened to it again; I forgot how mellow and relaxing it is.  Plus the songs are great. 

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