Fact #100601
When:
Short story:
The Flying Burrito Brothers release their debut album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin, on A+M Records in the USA.Full article:
THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN
by Johnny Black
When Gram Parsons quit The Byrds in the wake of their country rock classic Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, he set about founding the Burritos, and was soon joined by another disillusioned Byrd, bassist Chris Hillman.
The Gilded Palace Of Sin, however, proved to be much more than just a successor to Sweetheart. Whereas The Byrds had retained much of the traditional elegance of country music, The Burritos dragged it kicking and screaming into the rock age, letting rip with distorted steel guitars, studio effects and synthesisers, right there alongside the mandolins and honky tonk pianos.
Parsons and Hillman hit their songwriting peaks with this album, and it is Parsons’ impassioned, soulful, performances on the tracks known as Hot Burrito No1 and No2 that are the bedrock of his huge reputation but the album’s real achievement lay in fusing country performance techniques with rock attitude and amplification, thus kicking open the doors of the Nashville establishment for every inspired young cowboy who felt that the peoples’ music had stagnated.
The impact of the album was not felt so much in sales as in the slew of young acts who followed in its wake, from the Eagles to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Commander Cody, and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
That its influence had also quickly crossed the Atlantic became evident in the summer of 69 when Fairport Convention set to work on Liege And Lief which would become Britain’s first electric folk album, and a guiding light for successors like Steeleye Span and Matthews Southern Comfort.
(Source : by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums by Backbeat Books, 2007)
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by Johnny Black
When Gram Parsons quit The Byrds in the wake of their country rock classic Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, he set about founding the Burritos, and was soon joined by another disillusioned Byrd, bassist Chris Hillman.
The Gilded Palace Of Sin, however, proved to be much more than just a successor to Sweetheart. Whereas The Byrds had retained much of the traditional elegance of country music, The Burritos dragged it kicking and screaming into the rock age, letting rip with distorted steel guitars, studio effects and synthesisers, right there alongside the mandolins and honky tonk pianos.
Parsons and Hillman hit their songwriting peaks with this album, and it is Parsons’ impassioned, soulful, performances on the tracks known as Hot Burrito No1 and No2 that are the bedrock of his huge reputation but the album’s real achievement lay in fusing country performance techniques with rock attitude and amplification, thus kicking open the doors of the Nashville establishment for every inspired young cowboy who felt that the peoples’ music had stagnated.
The impact of the album was not felt so much in sales as in the slew of young acts who followed in its wake, from the Eagles to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Commander Cody, and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
That its influence had also quickly crossed the Atlantic became evident in the summer of 69 when Fairport Convention set to work on Liege And Lief which would become Britain’s first electric folk album, and a guiding light for successors like Steeleye Span and Matthews Southern Comfort.
(Source : by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums by Backbeat Books, 2007)