Thanks to Dangerous Minds for digging this one up, a really sharp video of The Flying Burrito Brothers. As DM says, their album The Gilded Palace of Sin is one of the most influential in rock and country history. Gram Parsons, the singer here, is the key. Parsons, as a member of the Byrds, was a big part of the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, which took the so-called folkrock group completely into country. Since the Byrds had previously been all over the map (in a good way), this distillation of their work into one genre was absolutely startling at the time (and it still holds up as one of the top albums ever, genre notwithstanding). After this, Parsons and fellow Bryd Chris Hillman formed the Flying BBs, and created a clear vision of electrified country that forever bridged the two genres, so that nowadays it's often hard to tell if a group is country or rock, and more to the point, it's hard to care, al long as the musicians just get down and do it. Credit Parsons for that. Readers of Keith Richards's Life know that Parsons was instrumental in inflecting country into the Stones's repertoire, although they had dabbled in it a bit previously, thanks to their abiding interest in rock roots music. Unfortunately, when Parsons was living with Richards, neither was exactly abstemious in their use of suicidal drugs, and a couple of years later GP had overdosed at the age of 26.
Students of music, rock and/or country, can do worse than acquiring Sweetheart and Gilded. Your iPod will be a much better place as a result.
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