jfiedler17
Well-Known Member
Seeing as that the new AOTW is a Flying Burrito Brothers album, I thought this was a good excuse to start an observational thread about the Burritos, which is probably the A&M act that confuses me the most, and not just because they've changed lineups more often than I change outfits. 
The comment I hear the most about the Burritos from rock writers and music critics for why they didn't make it is because they were "too country for the rock audience and too rock for the country audience." I've always been puzzled by that comment. The first half of it makes total sense to me. But how were the Burritos "too rock" for the country audience? Their first album has got to be the most blatantly honky-tonk-ish album I've ever heard in my life. And I own more hardcore country albums than anyone else I know, too. Their first album doesn't strike me as being the LEAST bit "rock." ("Hot Burrito #2" is the closest thing to a possible exception I can think of off the top of my head.) (And, though there's certainly some good tunes on it, I really don't think any of the songs on there could realistically have stood a chance of making any real impression on the pop charts.)
The same thing goes with the Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" (which, of course, future Burrito Gram Parsons played a big part in making). I constantly hear music critics and writers tagging "SOTR" as being "arguably the first "country-rock" album." Personally, I consider "SOTR" an outright country album. I don't hear any shades of rock in it at ALL, even if they DO cover Dylan on it. For all the "this album kicked off country-rock" comments I'd read over the years about "SOTR", I was stunned when I finally got to hear the album 'cause it was far, far more "country" and that much less "rock" than everybody had led me to think. Not that this would necessarily be BAD, 'cause, like I said, I listen to a lot of country too, but I thought "SOTR" was so much duller and short on good songs than I was expecting.
Although I have to admit that I like the self-titled Burrito Brothers A&M studio album with Rick Roberts a tad better than the first two Burritos albums, so maybe there's just something about Gram Parsons that I don't get ...
Anybody else have similar reactions?
Jeff F.
The comment I hear the most about the Burritos from rock writers and music critics for why they didn't make it is because they were "too country for the rock audience and too rock for the country audience." I've always been puzzled by that comment. The first half of it makes total sense to me. But how were the Burritos "too rock" for the country audience? Their first album has got to be the most blatantly honky-tonk-ish album I've ever heard in my life. And I own more hardcore country albums than anyone else I know, too. Their first album doesn't strike me as being the LEAST bit "rock." ("Hot Burrito #2" is the closest thing to a possible exception I can think of off the top of my head.) (And, though there's certainly some good tunes on it, I really don't think any of the songs on there could realistically have stood a chance of making any real impression on the pop charts.)
The same thing goes with the Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" (which, of course, future Burrito Gram Parsons played a big part in making). I constantly hear music critics and writers tagging "SOTR" as being "arguably the first "country-rock" album." Personally, I consider "SOTR" an outright country album. I don't hear any shades of rock in it at ALL, even if they DO cover Dylan on it. For all the "this album kicked off country-rock" comments I'd read over the years about "SOTR", I was stunned when I finally got to hear the album 'cause it was far, far more "country" and that much less "rock" than everybody had led me to think. Not that this would necessarily be BAD, 'cause, like I said, I listen to a lot of country too, but I thought "SOTR" was so much duller and short on good songs than I was expecting.
Although I have to admit that I like the self-titled Burrito Brothers A&M studio album with Rick Roberts a tad better than the first two Burritos albums, so maybe there's just something about Gram Parsons that I don't get ...
Anybody else have similar reactions?
Jeff F.
