Flying Burrito Brothers' the Gilded Palace of Sin

By Bob Proehl

Book Overview

In 1968, the Flying Burrito Brothers released The Gilded Palace of Sin on A&M Records, selling a disappointing 400,000 copies. Almost forty years later, front man Gram Parsons, is still spoken of with almost messianic reverence. Patron saint of alt-country, emblazoned with a shining cross, dead at 26. Overshadowed by Parsons, this album remains an anomaly in the country rock genre, a map in miniature of a moment in music, and warrants discussion as more than part of the Gram Parsons legacy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826429033
• ISBN13: 9780826429032
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Continuum
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.8" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

So You Thought You Knew Country

This concise book should come with a cd copy of "The Gilded Palace of Sin," then you could listen to and read about an album which, although shunned at the time, proved to be one of the most influential records in popular music's history. Hillman, Parsons, Chris Etheridge and Sneeky Pete Kleinow completely abandoned the popular trends of the late sixties, and looked back to the purity and essence of American Country Music. While looking back, they brought their modern talents to the table: Hillman and Parsons could sing and harmonize like country Everly Brothers, and Sneeky Pete tore the cover off of what was normal pedal steel playing, he created waves, almost symphony like, and then could just as easily play the best sounding honky-tonk music you ever heard. There's rock overtones in their music for sure, but the influences of country, r & b, and gospel bring it all back home. Reading this book will help you to understand just how audacious a project this was, and how brilliantly the Burrito's performed. It's the story of one of those magic moments when artist's follow their visions and lay down something for the ages! Don't miss it.

And I thought I knew every Gram Parsons antidote there was to know

As a long, long time Parsons/Burritos fan, I have read everything there is to read on this subject, so it's not very often some new tid bit shows up that is truly enlightening. This book contains several, but the most revelatory one concerns a rift that developed between Parsons and Bernie Leadon on where to go musically on Burrito Deluxe. Gram adamantly continued to champion soul music as an essential ingredient to the Burritos sound, and Bernie felt it was hurting their commercial potential. Leadon wanted to smooth things out a bit and take them into a more country rock direction, which he ultimately did with great success as a founder of the Eagles. He and Gram deadlocked on the issue, and it was left to Hillman to break the tie. Hillman sided with Leadon, and eventually Gram got sacked from the Burritos after he clearly lost interest in where the Burritos wanted to go. And now, in 2009, we are left with one truly great Burritos album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin, and several more that are of interest, but by no means as earth shattering. And a nifty new little book of insights to help put it all in context. Essential Burrito reading.