Archives Volume One
by: Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers
(Amoeba)
This double CD documents two live performances by The Flying Burrito Brothers featuring Gram Parsons at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, in April 1969. I have owned the bootleg of one of these shows for a few years, but this official release sounds as clear as the day it was recorded.
There are some great performances here, including “Dark End of the Street,” “We've Got to Get Ourselves Together,” “Hot Burrito #1,” “Sin City,” “Sweet Dream Baby,” and “Do Right Woman,” among others.
These performances, recorded just a few weeks after FBB's groundbreaking studio album Gilded Palace of Sin, provide a great look at their live sound then. Sneaky Pete Kleinow sounds pristine as always on pedal steel, and Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman are superb on vocals.
As Pamela des Barres and producer Dave Prinz point out in the liner notes, it was fairly outrageous for the Burritos to be playing such country-fried songs for the "chemically imbalanced" flower children of San Francisco, in 1969. But on the other hand, The Burritos were floating in the same boat as The Grateful Dead at the time, and in retrospect, the song choices were brilliant.
A real time capsule and a true treasure.
-Michael Buffalo Smith
Comments
Keep on keepin'n on brother...you know you hit a nerve with anything Gram.
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