Page 57 - Classic Rock (February 2020)

Psychedelic posse: (l-r) Michael
Clarke, Pete Kleinow, Chris Ethridge,
Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons.
re you ready for the country? So
asked The Byrds in August 1968,
with their album Sweetheart Of The
Rodeo. On that, their sixth album,
A partly recorded in Nashville, they
tackled songs made famous by Merle Haggard, the
Louvin Brothers and others, alongside two
country-centric originals from the band’s newest
member, Gram Parsons.
The answer to The Byrds’ question, most
emphatically, was: “No.” Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
bombed, having alienated both country followers
and The Byrds’ core fan base. The album sold just
50,000 copies.
The creative licence of the late 60s had allowed
all kinds of musical hybrids to flourish: King
Crimson brought heavy riffs to European
classicism in the pursuit of prog; Fairport
GETTY Convention gave trad folk a fiery electric jolt;
Wendy Carlos brokered the worlds of ready for it either,” Hillman sighs. “It was too gritty
Bach and electronica; Captain Beefheart and raw for most people.”
took free jazz and blues way out The Burritos were a far less focused playing live.
beyond. But it seemed as though the Having brought in another ex-Byrd, drummer
marriage of country and rock was Michael Clarke, they lived hard on the road.
a step too far. Parsons, Clarke and Ethridge were particularly
Country was viewed as establishment fond of booze, mescaline and cocaine, resulting
music, the soundtrack to straight- in erratic shows that were either brilliant or
backed, conservative America. And in forgettable. An added distraction was Parsons’s
the age of student riots, Vietnam and burgeoning friendship with Keith Richards and the
civil unrest – with battle lines drawn Rolling Stones. “That’s when he decided to become
between the counterculture and those a rock star,” Hillman laments. “Gram just wasn’t
in power – it represented the enemy. a person you could work with any more.”
Parsons and fellow Byrd Chris Hillman Against this backdrop, the Burritos recorded
were nevertheless undaunted. Keen to a second LP. Burrito Deluxe, released in April 1970,
further explore the links between rock lacked the intensity and ambition of its predecessor,
and country, the pair quit to form the although it still had its moments. Guitarist Bernie
Flying Burrito Brothers in late ’68. Leadon, brought in as replacement for Ethridge,
Adding pedal steel player ‘Sneaky’ was an extra songwriting foil. This was best
Pete Kleinow and bassist Chris Ethridge, illustrated by the sublime Older Guys (co-written
the Burritos moved to California. There with Parsons and Hillman), while Parsons gave Lazy
they set about realising Parsons’s vision Days, one of his earlier songs, a chugging Stones
of a place where gospel, soul, R&B, makeover. As a gesture of goodwill, the Stones
country, psychedelia and rock could gifted them Wild Horses, which eventually appeared
co-exist, each genre informing and on the Stones’ Sticky Fingers album.
shaping the other. “Gram had this idea Sales-wise, Burrito Deluxe did just as poorly as The
of ‘cosmic American Music’,” says Gilded Palace Of Sin. By July, Parsons’s recklessness
Hillman. “In the late sixties, when had become too much. Hillman fired him after
record labels were run by real music a disastrous gig in Los Angeles, for which he
people, you were allowed to develop showed up at the last minute, drunk. Hillman,
and experiment. Music had no rules who likens their final shows with Parsons to “the
back then. People borrowed from other Keystone Cops crashing into a wall”, carried on
styles. There was so much freedom.” with the Burritos for another couple of years before
Rleased in February 1969, the joining Stephen Stills’s band Manassas. Frustrated
Burritos’ The Gilded Palace Of Sin at their lack of success, Leadon had already left to
introduced the West Coast hippie form the Eagles – which is where the Burritos’ true
aesthetic to juke-joint country. Most of value started to become apparent.
the songs emerged from an accelerated The Eagles smoothed the rough edges from the
creative spurt between Hillman and Burritos’ sound, ditched the pedal steel and aimed
Parsons at Burrito Manor, a house they themselves squarely at mainstream America.
shared in the San Fernando Valley. “It Their platinum-selling debut of 1972, featuring
was one of the most productive times in Take It Easy and Peaceful Easy Feeling, made country
my life,” Hillman recalls. “We came up rock palatable for mass consumption. The Eagles’
with some of the best things either of us Glenn Frey recalled studying the Burritos when
ever wrote – songs like Sin City, Christine’s they played at the Troubadour in LA: “We got to
Tune, Wheels and Juanita, which conjures see them play live, watch what they were doing
up some wonderful imagery.” and check out the harmonies.”
Particularly striking were their covers Others followed suit, among them Linda
of two Chips Moman/Dan Penn songs Ronstadt, the Doobie Brothers, Pure Prairie League,
– Do Right Woman and Dark End Of The and Firefall, who included Michael Clarke and
Street. “Gram opened up these other another ex-Burrito, Rick Roberts. Further down the
areas to me: the real R&B coming out of decades, the Burritos were cited as a key influence
Memphis,” explains Hillman. “For the Burritos to on the alt.country boom of the early 90s; Uncle
do Do Right Woman in Tupelo, Whiskeytown and
a country style was pretty Wilco were just a few who
far-fetched at the time. But acknowledged a debt.
it worked so well.” “Music had no In the sleeve notes to a 90s
The album sleeve posited rules back then reissue of The Gilded Palace Of
the Burritos as counterculture Sin, The Long Ryders’ Sid
cowboys, a psychedelic posse [the late 60s]. Griffin placed its poor
of desert outlaws in nudie commercial showing into
suits emblazoned with There was so a wider cultural context: “Like
cannabis leaves, peacocks much freedom.” the first album by the Velvet
and flaming crosses. Underground, it would seem
It wasn’t the only thing that Chris Hillman every one of those 50,000
confused the band’s potential [people] went out and formed
audience. The music did too. Despite a glowing a band inspired by what they’d heard.”
review in Rolling Stone and the ringing endorsement Chris Hillman summed up the Burritos’ legacy
of Bob Dylan, The Gilded Palace Of Sin was in Hot Burrito, co-written with John Einarson: “The
a commercial flop. “It wasn’t slick enough to be on Byrds invented country-rock. Gram and I refined it
country radio, but the rock crowd weren’t quite in the Burritos and the Eagles took it to the bank.”
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