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 horizon above the desert landscape in the daylight hours just hours before is now showing its rust. The dusk first turns the yellow sand into a pumpkin orange as it catches the falling sun, and then a thousand subtle shades of brown, yellow, and gray perfectly coordinated with the wild bouquet of colors that coat the surrounding bare rocks. The Joshua trees themselves change colors as well, removing their day-glow green in favor of a faded lime that begins to plays tricks on novice tourists who have foolishly try and take that which cannot be taken. The clickety-clack of their cameras will later showcase the invisible reflections of vampires.

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. Pot leaves and bare breasts. All in good fun of course. Maybe even throw in a burrito, in homage to the man and his mates and 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, Dear Nashville, all because of you. Who knew that hippie boys could do right by you anyway?

Gram Parsons didn’t just sing a song, he didn’t just become a song. His voice pulls you in and pulls you under. It leaves you gasping. 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 now. They begin to serenade the moon. If you listen real close, inside the mournful howls, maybe you can hear his voice once more, 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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