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50th Anniversary Album Spotlight
The Gilded Palace of Sin
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Released April 1969
Chart debut: May 3, 1969
Chart peak: #164, June 7, 1969
#192 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Wiki said:
The Gilded Palace of Sin is the first album by the country rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers, released in 1969. It continued Gram Parsons' and Chris Hillman's work in modern country music, fusing traditional sources like folk and country with other forms of popular music like gospel, soul, and psychedelic rock.
Wiki said:
After spearheading the Byrds foray into country music with the influential Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, Gram Parsons fell out with the band when he refused to accompany them on a tour of South Africa in 1968. Two months later bassist Chris Hillman left the Byrds as well and joined Parsons to form The Flying Burrito Brothers. As stated in the documentary Beyond Nashville, "Gram Parsons was passionate about country music's simple poetry. He was equally passionate about rock music. At a time when they were poles apart, he alone thought they belonged together."
I'd had this album for a couple of months and given it several casual listens, but sitting down to do my write-up listen on the heels of watching
Easy Rider inspired me to approach it in a new light. The film offered a dramatic depiction of the gulf between conservative rural America and the counterculture, one that resulted in tragic bloodshed. Whereas one could see the mission of this band being to bridge that gulf through music.
The album's opening, "Christine's Tune," could be seen as its mission statement, with its psychedelic/country fuzzy steel guitar:
It probably would have been called "Devil in Disguise" if not for the Elvis tune.
Next up is "Sin City":
Wiki said:
"Sin City", co-written by Hillman and Parsons and called a "loping lament" and a "cautionary dirge", mentions The Byrds's manager Larry Spector ("a gold plated door") and Robert F. Kennedy ("tried to clean up this town").
This one sounds a bit more straight-up country to my ear, though my ear is used to hearing later country that may have been influenced by this album and other country rock in its wake. Anyway, it has a spot on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The one after that is very interesting--Fusing country and rock wasn't enough for these guys...they had to bring in some soul, too! One of two covers on the album, "Do Right Woman" was the B-side of Aretha Franklin's first Top 10 single, "I Never Loved a Man," in 1967!
(Aretha's version is #473 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)
"Dark End of the Street" is the other cover, also soul, from the same songwriting team (Dan Penn & Chips Moman), though I'm not familiar with a previous version. A little Wiki Fu tells me that it was recorded by James Carr in 1967.
The first side closes with an original tune, "My Uncle":
Wiki said:
"My Uncle" and "Hippie Boy" address then-contemporary countercultural concerns: the draft and the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots.
So I'm heading for the nearest foreign border
Vancouver might be just my kind of town
Cause they don't need the kind of law and order
That tends to keep a good man underground
Can't imagine that sort of message would have sold well with Country traditionalists in the day! Also, the final verse makes it clear that the titular relative's name would be Sam:
Now, I don't know how much I owe my uncle
But I suspect it's more than I can pay
He's asking me to sign a three-year contract
I guess I'll catch the first bus out today
Side two opens with
"Wheels," which is on the slower and more straight countryish side. I'm not sure what exactly the song is about. There seems to be an element of faith involved...though these lines remind me of
Easy Rider:
We're not afraid to ride
We're not afraid to die
Come on wheels take me home today
"Juanita" definitely seems to be getting into "crying in my beer" territory.
"Hot Burrito #1" gets a little more interesting...it almost has a mid-'70s soft rock sound to it.
The tempo picks up a bit with
"Hot Burrito #2"...which also sounds kind of '70s-ish to me, but with fuzz guitar. This one's definitely more in rock/pop territory than most of the album.
The country is back in
"Do You Know How It Feels"...actually sort of rockabilly, with a bit more energy than the slower country songs.
The album closes with one of its more striking tracks, "Hippie Boy," a bizarre spoken-word story song which, as quoted up-post, strongly references the 1968 Democratic Convention:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gilded_Palace_of_Sin#Reception
The Gilded Palace of Sin was not a commercial success, peaking at #164 on the Billboard 200. At the time of its release, John Firminger wrote in Country Music Review that the album "quite clearly stands as a complete definition of the term country rock, using a heavy instrumental approach combining strong country roots." Allan Jones, writing in the influential British rock weekly NME, raved, "Let me discourse on the sheer magnificence contained within the micro-grooves of Gilded Palace of Sin." In the original Rolling Stone review of the album, Stanley Booth called it "one of the best records of the year" and the best, most personal music Parsons had ever done. When Rolling Stone asked Bob Dylan to name his favorite country-rock album, he answered, "The Flying Burrito Brothers. Boy, I love them. Their record instantly knocked me out." The album has since become regarded as one of the most groundbreaking of the 1960s. Rolling Stone included it on their list of "The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time," writing that "in many ways, Gilded Palace picks up where the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo left off...Together, the mercurial Parsons and the levelheaded Hillman concocted a crazily coherent statement of irony-fueled hillbilly anthems, inventive covers and achingly beautiful two-part harmonies, all underscored by Sneaky Pete Kleinow's radical pedal-steel guitar." In a 5 star review, AllMusic's Mark Deming raves, "...no one ever brought rock and country together quite like the Flying Burrito Brothers, and this album remains their greatest accomplishment."
As for me...alas, my inspiration to approach this album in a new light didn't withstand the listen. For my money, the more distinct tracks on this album make for good listening, but the whole package gets a little to sameity-sameish country for my tastes. I don't see myself putting this on a lot in the future.
Next up:
Tommy, The Who
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Not much going on in the itinerary for today. Mission Status at Crew Wake-up (1:19 p.m. EDT):
Mission Day: 7/9
Mission Phase: Returning to Earth
Crew Status: In Command Module, sleeping
Wake-up in: 000:00:00
Current velocity: 3,987.5 feet per second (4,375.4 km/h, 2,718.8 mph, Mach 3.5)
Command Module: Distance from Earth: 175,467.6 nautical miles (324,966.0 km)
Beddy-bye will be at 1:37 a.m.:
Mission Day: 8/9
Mission Phase: Returning to Earth
Crew Status: In Command Module, sleeping
Wake-up in: 010:54:58
Current velocity: 4,546.1 feet per second (4,988.3 km/h, 3,099.6 mph, Mach 4.0)
Command Module: Distance from Earth: 145,130.9 nautical miles (268,782.4 km)
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I had no idea Paul wrote this one. And that's quite a name change.
And the new name came from "Bad Finger Boogie," which had once been the working title of "With a Little Help from My Friends" (reportedly because John was playing the piano with his middle finger due to an injury).
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The Wild Wild West
"The Night of Miguelito's Revenge"
Originally aired December 13, 1968
Wiki said:
West is joined by Jeremy Pike in this tenth encounter with Dr. Loveless. This time around the doctor is behind a series of kidnappings. His victims are all people he felt had wronged him in the past and now he is plotting his revenge.
This is the final Doctor Loveless episode and the only one from season four.
There's a cute gag in the teaser where Loveless is in a barber's chair with his face hidden and wearing a false pair of legs so as not to alert Jim. Jim is knocked out, taken to Loveless's weird funhouse, and treated to the hospitality of a group of thugs that includes...who else?...then is knocked out again and wakes up back in the barber shop with a different lady barber than the "Delilah" (Susan Seaforth Hayes) who was working with Loveless. The whole bizarre incident seems to have been designed to provide Jim with a clue regarding Loveless's scheme, which is themed to the "Monday's Child" rhyme.
This one was obviously shot before the previously aired Pike episode, as it has more of an intro for him, including Jim mistaking him for Artie from behind on the train. Jim is friendly with him and is said to have worked with him before, but it doesn't come off like they'd just worked together a couple of weeks prior.
Loveless's victims include an actress (Linda Chandler), a ballet master (Peter Bruni), a jockey (Johnny S. Luer), a judge (Byron Morrow), and a blacksmith (Don Pedro Colley). Anticipating his next victim, Pike disguises himself as philanthropist Cyrus Barlow (Walter Coy) and gets himself kidnapped.
Jim comes across a ventriloquist act with Loveless posing as the dummy. Backstage, Loveless attacks Jim with the "ventriloquist," which is actually an steam-powered artificial man (Jim Shane) controlled by an organ to which he's connected with a hose. After escaping confinement in an underwater box that has a lavish interior and a music box playing Loveless singing a taunting ditty, Jim enters a circus big top to find that he's at a trial for Loveless's prisoners, with the other audience members being his men (including...who else?). When his scheme goes south because of Pike's involvement, Loveless escapes by shooting himself out of a cannon and leaving a talking dummy in his place outside.
In the train coda, West and Pike drink a toast with a third glass filled for Artie, which somehow empties itself when they're not looking.
Loveless's right-hand man, Pylo, is played by Trek guest Arthur Batanides.
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This is a pretty strong and distinctive number in its own right.