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1960s |
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Abbey Road, The Beatles
Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
Axis: Bold As Love, Jimi Hendrix
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young
The Gilded Palace of Sin, The Flying Burrito Brothers
John Wesley Harding, Bob Dylan
Oar, Skip Spence
Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits, Patsy Cline
Sounds of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel
The Stooges, The Stooges
Sunshine Superman, Donovan
Surrealistic Pillow, Jefferson Airplane
Sweetheart of the Rodeo, The Byrds
The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground & Nico |
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The Gilded Palace of Sin, The Flying Burrito Brothers
A&M Records, February, 1969
Track Listing: 1. Christine’s Tune, 2. Sin City, 3. Do Right Woman, 4. Dark End Of The Street, 5. My Uncle, 6. Wheels, 7. Juanita, 8. Hot Burrito No. 1, 9. Hot Burrito No. 2, 10. Do You Know How It Feels, 11. Hippie Boy, 12. Do You Know How it Feels to be Lonesome
As the sun sets over Joshua Tree National Park, the coyotes come out to play. The perfect blue that painted the sky above the desert horizon in the sun-soaked daylight hours just hours before now begins to rust. The setting sun first turns the yellow sands to pumpkin orange before it leaks into a thousand subtle shades of brown, yellow, and gray, all in perfect coordination with the wild bouquet of colors that coat the surrounding hills and bare rocks. The Joshua trees themselves change hues as well, removing their day-glow green in favor of a faded lime that begins to play tricks on novice photographer tourists who foolishly try without success to capture the magic taking place before them.
Quick! Someone give me the number to Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors. I need to order my own nudie suit. I will have them cover it with sparkly sequins in flower formations and dolls of every color. I will make sure they add pot leaves and a few bare breasts, all in good fun of course. Maybe even throw in a burrito in homage to the man and his mates who laid down those twelve blissful tracks. And on the back, there would have to be a lone, prickly Joshua tree: a symbol of Gram’s eternal resting place.
The Gilded Palace of Sin isn’t just an album. It’s a love letter to Nashville. Who knew that hippie boys could do it so right? And Gram Parsons didn’t just sing a song, didn’t just become a song, he found a way to grab you along with him and pull you under. When the artist and listener become one in this way, time stands still. The resulting communion is as euphoric as it is immortal.
Outside, it is dark now. The tourists have gone for the day. It is the time of coyotes once again. Soon, they will serenade the moon. If you listen real close, inside their mournful howls, maybe you can hear his voice too, simply as gorgeous as ever.
“Once upon a time
You let me feel you deep inside
But nobody knew, nobody saw
Do you remember the way we cried?”
-from “Hot Burrito #1”
-G |
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