The Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace of Sin [HIP-O]

Why you'll love it

This A&M reissue was pressed in the Czech Republic. Rolling Stone ranks it among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and Robert Christgau put it in his Basic Record Library of 1950s and 60s recordings.

This edition

• Pressed in the Czech Republic
• Stereo mix

About the album

Gram Parsons thought country and rock belonged together at a time when most people thought they belonged on opposite sides of the room. After steering the Byrds toward country on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, he left the band in 1968 rather than tour South Africa, and bassist Chris Hillman followed two months later. Together they formed the Flying Burrito Brothers and set about proving the point.

Larry Marks produced the album at A&M Studios in Hollywood, with Henry Lewy engineering and a rotating cast of drummers. The harmonies owe plenty to the Everly and Louvin Brothers, but the band also reached for Southern soul, covering "Do Right Woman" and "Dark End Of The Street" with real tenderness. "Christine's Tune" kicks things off with Sneaky Pete Kleinow's fuzzed pedal steel, "Sin City" is a gorgeous, foreboding waltz about Los Angeles, and "Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2" are two of Parsons' most aching vocals. "Wheels" and "Juanita" round out a record that mixes folk, country, gospel, soul and psychedelic rock without a seam showing.

It's now widely regarded as a key record in the development of 1970s rock. Gospel, soul, psychedelia and honky-tonk sounds like a double album's worth of ambition; they fit it on two sides.

Also at Kops: more The Flying Burrito Brothers on vinyl · browse Country

Tracklist

Listen

On A&M, a reissue of the 1969 album.