January-February 2008 

Artist: THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS

Title: GRAM PARSONS & THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS LIVE AT THE AVALON BALLROOM 1969

Label: AMOEBA AM0002

Release Date: NOVEMBER 2007

By Dennis Roger Reed

For a very brief time in 1968 and 1969, Los Angeles was the home of an almost perfect amalgamation of rock and roll, country and soul music known as The Flying Burrito Brothers. Their first recording, Gilded Palace of Sin, was a eclectic mix including recent soul hits redone in a country rock mode. Somehow The Flying Burrito Brothers were able to take songs like Dark End of the Street or Do Right Woman with their own imaginative spin while still capturing some of the essence of the original interpretations. The Flying Burrito Brothers also brought a good number of originals to the project, and each was worthy of contrast with the soul tunes. In fact, it wasn’t hard to imagine William Bell or James Carr taking a crack at Hot Burrito #1 or Hot Burrito #2. Then The Flying Burrito Brothers upped the ante, adding several Nuevo-country tunes that would have felt at home with George Jones, Buck Owens or more likely Waylon Jennings. Christine’s Tune, Sin City, Wheels: these were all steely country tunes but with hip, bent lyrics.

The Flying Burrito Brothers’ musical chops were prevalent. Lead vocalist/writer Gram Parsons had helped transform the folk rocking Byrds into a “country” group that released Sweetheart of the Rodeo and performed on the Grand Ol’ Opry, though only gracing that venue once. Parsons had a pathos driven vocal style and a stage and personal flamboyance that portended rock stardom; Chris Hillman helped write the tunes, sang harmony and played rhythm guitar. He had just left his job with the Byrds as their second to last original member. Hillman was a bluegrasser at heart, and he fell into a magical songwriting and performing union with Parsons. Bassist Chris Ethridge played his instrument in a different style than a country player, filling the spaces of the sparse band with slides and flurries of perfectly appropriate notes. Sneaky Pete Kleinow was an innovator of the pedal steel guitar who somehow managed to be the only instrumental soloist in the band, but still kept it fresh. The band recorded Gilded Palace of Sin with several drummers, but settled on Mike Clarke, also an original member of the Byrds who had flown the coop earlier than Hillman.

This concept was, not startlingly, ahead of its time. The original band lineup splintered almost immediately, with Ethridge the first to leave. The second Flying Burrito Brothers recording, Burrito Deluxe, only had the slightest shine, a sad victim of a major sophomore jinx. Parsons left soon after the second record, fired by his “own” band for failure to attend.

The Flying Burrito Brothers continued nearly into the next century with so many band changes as to confuse even the most avid train spotter. Parsons recorded two highly acclaimed solo records, but died at 26 of issues most likely associated with drug and/or alcohol abuse.

Dave Prinz of Amoeba Records is a long time Parsons fan, and found out that Grateful Dead associate Stanley Owsley had prime recordings from two shows that The Flying Burrito Brothers had opened for the Dead in 1969. A long and arduous journey later, these two live shows are released on Amoeba’s own label.

The title, Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 is correct, but silly. The band was called The Flying Burrito Brothers. Parsons was an important member of the band, but not the only talent involved. Hillman’s vocals were almost as important as Parsons, and the writing for the group moved between collaboration between Hillman and Parsons and Ethridge and Parsons. Each member provided an important element, and it makes no more sense to single out Parsons that it would to call a recording Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones or John Lennon and the Beatles.

Parsons is often crowned as the creator of country rock, one of those over simplifications that requires little to refute. But Gilded Palace of Sin is not only the band’s finest hour, but Parsons’ finest as well.

These tremendous live recordings chronicle a historic band in its prime. The mix is for the most part crystal clear. Parsons’ and Hillman’s vocals are way up front in the mix, almost painfully so. But it helps to point out the remarkable fusion they had as lead and harmony vocalists. The “hairs on the back of the neck” test is induced time and time again. Emmy Lou Harris and Parsons were a potent blend on his two solo recordings, but that blend dims in comparison with the vocal harmony lock Hillman and Parsons were able to produce. These live recordings prove that they could deliver even better vocals that they had on Gilded Palace.

The guitars are mixed so low in the mix as to be inaudible on some numbers. This was the same live mix I heard from the band on two occasions in 1969, so it is truly representative of what they wanted to be heard. Ethridge is full in the mix. Early on in the first show, tuning issues cloud some of his playing but by later in the set and in the second CD, his playing is spot on. Clarke is prominent in the mix, which is not always for the best. Clarke was not a country drummer and was seemingly incapable of altering his attack. However, on the band’s original numbers his drumming shines. On the soul tunes his drumming is sometimes interesting, but on the country tunes he sounds a bit like a fish out of water.

The recently deceased Pete Kleinow is incredible on these recordings. Kleinow covers all the bases: expansive fills during the vocals, and all of the instrumental solos on the project. And he plays steel like no one before him, and arguably no one since. Red Rhodes was experimenting with the new rock sound in Michael Nesmith’s First National Band, using some electric guitar effects, and Rusty Young of Poco was in the process of perfecting the “is it a Hammond organ?” sound with his pedal steel, but Kleinow was able to switch settings three times in one solo, and alter his playing accordingly. It is almost impossible to believe that some of the work Kleinow is doing on these live sets is not being provided by a second or third guitarist. And Kleinow’s use of sustain and distortion to obtain a psychedelic sound is unparalleled. I saw Jimi Hendrix perform live during the same time frame that I saw The Flying Burrito Brothers’ live performances, and there is no question that on the “psychedelic” solos, Kleinow’s work was even more abandoned and wild than Hendrix.

These two shows feature a minimum of the band’s originals, and only a few of the soul tunes from Gilded. The shank of the sets are country classics or recent country hits. The quality of performance often falters here, for as innovative as The Flying Burrito Brothers were with their originals and their reworking of soul tunes on Gilded and these live recordings, their take on most of the country tunes is only “bar band good.” It’s unlikely that many of the San Francisco audience were country music fans, for in 1969 the schism between country and rock and roll was huge. But the performance of The Flying Burrito Brothers’ originals is truly sparkling, often even surpassing the versions from Gilded. Parsons and Hillman are in excellent voice, and Parsons takes off his Telecaster to play organ on both Hot Burrito #1 and Hot Burrito #2. These performances benefits greatly from the fuller sound that the more highly mixed organ provides, and Hillman’s guitar also seems more audible on these tunes. There’s even a hint of a jam at the end of Hot Burrito #2. Although no one will mistake Parsons for Jimmy Smith, he rocks out quite admirably on the outro.

Did this need to be a two CD set? There’s a couple of extras provided on the first disk, a decent homemade demo of Parsons doing Thousand Dollar Wedding, and an excretal version of the Everly Brothers’ When Will I Be Loved that doesn’t provide much more than an incentive to move on to disk #2. There was a big overlap of numbers in each night’s sets, and it could easily have been shrunk to a single, somewhat more potent disk. But there are enough Parsons or The Flying Burrito Brothers completists to require the need for two disks, and based on the quality of most of these performances, it’s not a bad call.

Probably not the best starting point for the uninitiated, but still a fine recording of a distinctive musical group at their prime.

 Dennis Roger Reed is a singer-songwriter, musician and writer based in San Clemente, CA. He’s released two solo CDs, and appeared on two CDs with the newgrassy Andy Rau Band and two CDs with the roots rockers Blue Mama. His prose has appeared in a variety of publications such as the OC Weekly and MOJO magazine. Writing about his music has appeared in an eclectic group of publications such as Bass Player, Acoustic Musician, Dirty Linen, Blue Suede News and Sing Out! His oddest folk resume entry would be the period of several months in 2002 when he danced onstage as part of both Little Richard’s and Paul Simon’s revues. He was actually asked to do the former and condoned by the latter. He apparently knows no shame.