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33⅓ Main Series #61
The Gilded Palace of Sin
In 1968, the Flying Burrito Brothers released The Gilded Palace of Sin on A&M Records,selling a disappointing 400,000 copies. Almost forty years later, front man Gram Parsons, is still spoken of with almost messianic reverence. Patron saint of alt-country, emblazoned with a shining cross, dead at 26. Overshadowed by Parsons, this album remains an anomaly in the country rock genre, a map in miniature of a moment in music, and warrants discussion as more than part of the Gram Parsons legacy.
- GenresMusicNonfictionBiography
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 17, 2014
I've read quite a bit on the Burritos and on Parsons, this this book didn't cover much new historical or biographical territory (except for the excellent chapter on Nudie Cohn and the beginnings of his suit business). The reason this got a five star rating from me is the presence of thoughtful and often insightful discussions of masculinity, gender, and race that I was not expecting. In the contexts of both song lyrics and events of the times, it's a really nuanced look at the album and the people behind and around it. Gratuitous mockery of the Eagles may have also influenced my high marks for this book.
April 24, 2019
A succinct but comprehensive overview of The Flying Burrito Brothers and the making of The Gilded Palace of Sin. Lots of good observations on the interplay of country, folk, R&B, and blues in the late 1960s. Gram Parson's ambition to make "Cosmic American Music, while largely unfulfilled by him, certainly inspired others from Uncle Tupelo to REM. The book documents many examples for disastrous Burrito Brother shows but I remain grateful for the piece of luck that allowed me to see them at the Avalon Ballroom, Easter Sunday 1969 when they were at their best.
Random Quotes
1. Vanity: Cosmic American Music
Close listening to Safe at Home and Sweetheart of the Rodeo show them not as the country rock innovations they’ve been labeled in retrospect, but as earnest, straightforward country albums, loyal and reverential to the tradition that spawned them
5. Lust: Christine’s Tune
At the same time, by choosing to dive into the country tradition, they aligned themselves with not just the perceived hokeyness of country, but with all the misogynist aspects of the country tradition,
5. Lust: Christine’s Tune
Attempting to construct a form of masculinity out of the bricolage of two musical cultures, the Burritos were in a double-bind.
6. Avarice: Sin City
Bastardized gospel forms were the perfect fit for a band whose style was a combination of two genres that were the willful orphans of spiritual music.
8. Wrath: My Uncle Sons
Dressing like a hippie was a political statement, Haight-Ashbury was party headquarters for a political movement based not around whom you voted for, but what you wore, what you ingested, and whom you slept with. Within the hippie movement, the personal, the cultural, and the musical were political.
8. Wrath: My Uncle Sons
Treating the songs as timeless was, in some ways, a betrayal of what the songs were all about. Responding to the country tradition with nothing but empty reiterations of generalized sentiments added nothing to the canon; it allowed country to become a museum piece, studied, venerated, and occasionally repackaged for public consumption.
(April 23, 2019 6:44 PM)
Random Quotes
1. Vanity: Cosmic American Music
Close listening to Safe at Home and Sweetheart of the Rodeo show them not as the country rock innovations they’ve been labeled in retrospect, but as earnest, straightforward country albums, loyal and reverential to the tradition that spawned them
5. Lust: Christine’s Tune
At the same time, by choosing to dive into the country tradition, they aligned themselves with not just the perceived hokeyness of country, but with all the misogynist aspects of the country tradition,
5. Lust: Christine’s Tune
Attempting to construct a form of masculinity out of the bricolage of two musical cultures, the Burritos were in a double-bind.
6. Avarice: Sin City
Bastardized gospel forms were the perfect fit for a band whose style was a combination of two genres that were the willful orphans of spiritual music.
8. Wrath: My Uncle Sons
Dressing like a hippie was a political statement, Haight-Ashbury was party headquarters for a political movement based not around whom you voted for, but what you wore, what you ingested, and whom you slept with. Within the hippie movement, the personal, the cultural, and the musical were political.
8. Wrath: My Uncle Sons
Treating the songs as timeless was, in some ways, a betrayal of what the songs were all about. Responding to the country tradition with nothing but empty reiterations of generalized sentiments added nothing to the canon; it allowed country to become a museum piece, studied, venerated, and occasionally repackaged for public consumption.
(April 23, 2019 6:44 PM)
January 8, 2009
I've read pretty much everything having to do with Gram Parsons and/or the Burritos. Even though this covered familiar territory, the writing was lively. The 331/3 books are a mixed bag, but this is among the better ones. I loved the 7 Deadly Sins motif. Recommended.
November 7, 2024
For someone who didn't know anything about "The Gilded Palace of Sin" before reading this book, Bob Proehl's book definitely supplies some essential context to the debut album from The Flying Burrito Brothers. Which is basically to say that Gram Parsons was a spoiled, drugged-up piece of shit which made the creation of this album almost a minor miracle.
This is a book that not only shows the difficulties in getting this band together and this album, but also shows just how unbelievably confusing and intertwined the bands of the late '60s were, and how much of a pain in the ass Gram Parsons was to everyone that dealt with him. I particularly like how much time Proehl takes in exploring what each song means, especially important to me, since I don't think I would've ever known these extra layers by listening to the album on its own. It added a much-needed depth that I didn't know in listening to this album the first time around.
But I also found Proehl little notations throughout the book to be a bit silly at times, especially when he tries to be funny, which only occasionally works. But it's a small price to pay to get this in-depth into this album. I also sort of wish that Proehl got more into what makes this album so influential. I get that what Parsons called "cosmic American music" was groundbreaking in the creation of alt-country, but while I think Parsons believed he was making subversive music, all these years later, this simply sounds like country music, albeit made by artists who were more known for rock music. Is this really such an integral album in the genre still, or did it just sound that way in 1969?
Still, a strong exploration of this album in a way that does a nice job explaining what's really going on with "The Gilded Palace of Sin." Parsons is a piece of shit, but this is a pretty decent album.
This is a book that not only shows the difficulties in getting this band together and this album, but also shows just how unbelievably confusing and intertwined the bands of the late '60s were, and how much of a pain in the ass Gram Parsons was to everyone that dealt with him. I particularly like how much time Proehl takes in exploring what each song means, especially important to me, since I don't think I would've ever known these extra layers by listening to the album on its own. It added a much-needed depth that I didn't know in listening to this album the first time around.
But I also found Proehl little notations throughout the book to be a bit silly at times, especially when he tries to be funny, which only occasionally works. But it's a small price to pay to get this in-depth into this album. I also sort of wish that Proehl got more into what makes this album so influential. I get that what Parsons called "cosmic American music" was groundbreaking in the creation of alt-country, but while I think Parsons believed he was making subversive music, all these years later, this simply sounds like country music, albeit made by artists who were more known for rock music. Is this really such an integral album in the genre still, or did it just sound that way in 1969?
Still, a strong exploration of this album in a way that does a nice job explaining what's really going on with "The Gilded Palace of Sin." Parsons is a piece of shit, but this is a pretty decent album.
January 26, 2024
Die young, stay pretty, live as a legend is the lesson of Gram Parsons, a trust fund kid whose stepdad bought an entire nightclub when he decided he wanted to be in a band, who lived a drug-addicted rock life to the extreme, who would be driven to shows in a limo while his bandmates took a van, would hide out instead of showing up for practice, who assumed control because of his charisma, who left his two band members on the platform at Altamont while he boarded a helicopter to get away from trouble, rarely contributed to song writing, and who died young. But he still elicited loyalty, since there was even a friend loyal enough to steal his coffin from the airport and drive him out to Joshua Tree to burn him on a funeral pyre. And he did end up leaving a musical legacy that launched the alt-country hippie music thing, which I really enjoy. This book was some kinda ride...
October 1, 2025
This was excellent. Kind of everything I want in these books. Proehl tells the story of the Flying Burrito Brothers, not just as Gram Parson's story, but that of Chris Hillman, the other musicians on the record and also as a ballad of the late 60's LA/SF music scenes as they careened uncertainly into the 1970s. There are fascinating, yet critical, digressions into Nudie Cohn, the GTOs, Altamont and the differing visions of masculinity in rock and counry at the time.
As a pure music nerd, there's plenty of satisfying space devoted to Gram's conception of 'Cosmic American Music,' the tangled lineage of the Byrds, The Burrito Brothers et. al and much more. The passages wherein he depicts Gram and Chris writing the songs which would become The Gilded Palace of Sin in 'Burrito Manor' are really evocative.
Well done
As a pure music nerd, there's plenty of satisfying space devoted to Gram's conception of 'Cosmic American Music,' the tangled lineage of the Byrds, The Burrito Brothers et. al and much more. The passages wherein he depicts Gram and Chris writing the songs which would become The Gilded Palace of Sin in 'Burrito Manor' are really evocative.
Well done
July 8, 2021
Worth a read if only for the excellent chapter on Nudie Cohn’s life and suits, but mostly this is a lot of words about an okay album by an okay band who is mostly notable for their scene-y connectedness.
January 20, 2020
Una buena fuente de información sobre las influencias y construcción de un álbum que escuché hace tiempo por mera casualidad, y que terminó abriendo nuevos caminos a mis oídos.
November 20, 2022
Lots of good info about The Flying Burrito Brothers. I like the connection to the 7 deadly sins as a framework. Didn’t agree with his assessment of the Eagles!
February 17, 2025
The best one in the series I read up till now. Nice overview of the era, the band and the process of making the album.
April 3, 2023
Cosmic American Music was "Buck Owens singing Aretha Franklin songs" (7), and Gram Parsons is a great trickster figure of authenticity. Their label, A&M, with a stable of talent which Bob Proehl writes "didn't set the world on fire" (95) included Herb Albert & Tijuana Brass, Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66, Burt Bacharach, and Fairport Convention by the time they began signing late-60s music for kids. The Burritos had two members of the Byrds, yet A&M were signing a band "determined to actively avoid commercial success, (Ian) Dunlop chose a ridiculous and unmarketable name: The Flying Burrito Brothers" (10). Dunlop left the band to be replaced by bassist Chris Ethridge but continued to use the name Flying Burrito Bros. East while in NYC. He was a "firm believer in the band as a collective" (11). Burritos as a concept, rather than a group. Dunlop was also responsible for Gram's pre-Byrds group, The International Submarine Band.
Proehl's meditation on Gilded Palace of Sin, a fairly good marquee for America in any era, defines it as an essential American piece of art. It has a gaudy cover, with the Nudie suits, a history of which get an entire chapter; and relaxed morals, especially their oft heard Side 1, Track 1 Christine's Tune, which is all about a groupie who wouldn't sleep with anyone, one of many Devils in disguise throughout the book. To this he peppers in the album's lasting vibrancy as compared to books like Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and its Church without Christ; lyrical comparisons to William Blake poetry, and Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, for it's templating of a new genre of music.
Deliberate toying with the idea of American entertainment is highlighted by Proehl: "Authenticity hangs like a ghostword in the wings of almost any genre of music, from Norwegian black metal to West Coast hiphop, and country music is no exception" (25). The Burritos were a deft representatives of the silliness and slipperiness of music-as-product. Dylan could only "go country," The Charlatans could only open a saloon in Nevada to increase their street cred, "Willie Nelson never robbed a stagecoach" (26). Looking back on anything is never as rosy as it was: Westerns or War Movies, Woodstock, hippies or yuppies, Emo kids, the Beat Generation, Punk Rock, flappers... America is built on the idea of image and nostalgia, but there really is no way to know you actually living through what will later be dubbed a 'Golden Era'. Photographer Barry Feinstein, who shot the iconic cover, on the Burritos LA: "Everyone was loaded" (28). Such a pastiche, as sun-dappled and packaged as a Barbie, had a lasting effect of mish-mashing an American collage. Proehl cites its influence on Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton John, Kris Kristofferson as a Cowboy singer-songwriter and actor, and Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
"Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2" are the templates for what the music should sound like. Gram's voice, Sneaky Pete's pedal steel, Chris Hillman's folk-country guitar, and the Ethridge-Michael Clarke funk-shuffle. The subject of the songs have a plastic earnestness too, as Gram bemoans the end of a relationship on #1, and "Sin City" is a "bastardized gospel".
Before the inevitable end of the book with Gram's death from morphine and alcohol at Joshua Tree, there is Altamont. "Frankly, the Rolling Stones scare the fuck out of me," Proehl begins one chapter. "At least from 1968 to 1972, they were the most important rock band in America. Actually, thats not quite right. They were the most important American Rock Band. Their early efforts may have had the Mr. Fish paisley tint of Swinging London... but from Beggars' Banquet to Exile on Main Street, there was no band more American than the Rolling Stones" (87-88). But the Burritos played Altamont and calmed people, despite the gig's sad, dark reputation. Gram had been signaling his exit from the Burritos by hanging in France during the Exile on Main St. sessions and doing heroin.
As Proehl recounts the unruly crowd of Altamont and the blow-by-blow of the Angels vs. the drugged- and boozed-young people in the crowd, the Burrito's stand in opposition to it, at least according to Keith Richards, who was interviewed for the book:
"'Gram was up there and I mean, he's a very gentle guy,' Keith Richards remembered. 'Very soothing effect on people. And he knew it, y'now? But I think, I mean, that probably saved at least some other peoples, and some other heads gettin' broken.... Gram could do that..."(107).
Earlier, Keith says: "I remember being the Palomino club in LA and, y'know, hardened old peroxide waitresses who'd been there for yonks, tears streaming down their eyes while they're listening to Gram play" (4).
And Gram himself: "...I was in my satin bellbottoms and the people couldn't believe it...I got off (stage), a guy said to me, 'i want you to meet my five brothers. We were going to kick your ass, but you can sing real good, so we'll buy you a drink instead" (4).
Proehl's meditation on Gilded Palace of Sin, a fairly good marquee for America in any era, defines it as an essential American piece of art. It has a gaudy cover, with the Nudie suits, a history of which get an entire chapter; and relaxed morals, especially their oft heard Side 1, Track 1 Christine's Tune, which is all about a groupie who wouldn't sleep with anyone, one of many Devils in disguise throughout the book. To this he peppers in the album's lasting vibrancy as compared to books like Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and its Church without Christ; lyrical comparisons to William Blake poetry, and Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, for it's templating of a new genre of music.
Deliberate toying with the idea of American entertainment is highlighted by Proehl: "Authenticity hangs like a ghostword in the wings of almost any genre of music, from Norwegian black metal to West Coast hiphop, and country music is no exception" (25). The Burritos were a deft representatives of the silliness and slipperiness of music-as-product. Dylan could only "go country," The Charlatans could only open a saloon in Nevada to increase their street cred, "Willie Nelson never robbed a stagecoach" (26). Looking back on anything is never as rosy as it was: Westerns or War Movies, Woodstock, hippies or yuppies, Emo kids, the Beat Generation, Punk Rock, flappers... America is built on the idea of image and nostalgia, but there really is no way to know you actually living through what will later be dubbed a 'Golden Era'. Photographer Barry Feinstein, who shot the iconic cover, on the Burritos LA: "Everyone was loaded" (28). Such a pastiche, as sun-dappled and packaged as a Barbie, had a lasting effect of mish-mashing an American collage. Proehl cites its influence on Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton John, Kris Kristofferson as a Cowboy singer-songwriter and actor, and Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
"Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2" are the templates for what the music should sound like. Gram's voice, Sneaky Pete's pedal steel, Chris Hillman's folk-country guitar, and the Ethridge-Michael Clarke funk-shuffle. The subject of the songs have a plastic earnestness too, as Gram bemoans the end of a relationship on #1, and "Sin City" is a "bastardized gospel".
Before the inevitable end of the book with Gram's death from morphine and alcohol at Joshua Tree, there is Altamont. "Frankly, the Rolling Stones scare the fuck out of me," Proehl begins one chapter. "At least from 1968 to 1972, they were the most important rock band in America. Actually, thats not quite right. They were the most important American Rock Band. Their early efforts may have had the Mr. Fish paisley tint of Swinging London... but from Beggars' Banquet to Exile on Main Street, there was no band more American than the Rolling Stones" (87-88). But the Burritos played Altamont and calmed people, despite the gig's sad, dark reputation. Gram had been signaling his exit from the Burritos by hanging in France during the Exile on Main St. sessions and doing heroin.
As Proehl recounts the unruly crowd of Altamont and the blow-by-blow of the Angels vs. the drugged- and boozed-young people in the crowd, the Burrito's stand in opposition to it, at least according to Keith Richards, who was interviewed for the book:
"'Gram was up there and I mean, he's a very gentle guy,' Keith Richards remembered. 'Very soothing effect on people. And he knew it, y'now? But I think, I mean, that probably saved at least some other peoples, and some other heads gettin' broken.... Gram could do that..."(107).
Earlier, Keith says: "I remember being the Palomino club in LA and, y'know, hardened old peroxide waitresses who'd been there for yonks, tears streaming down their eyes while they're listening to Gram play" (4).
And Gram himself: "...I was in my satin bellbottoms and the people couldn't believe it...I got off (stage), a guy said to me, 'i want you to meet my five brothers. We were going to kick your ass, but you can sing real good, so we'll buy you a drink instead" (4).
March 9, 2018
It wasn’t bad, it’s just that learning Gram Parsons was a serious butthole bummed me out.
May 14, 2015
I've tried a couple of other volumes in this "33 1/3" series and this is the first one that I've actually stuck with for longer than a few pages. What mars the other volumes I've tried is the author's insertion of themselves into the narrative, explaining their personal connection to an album. This author does not do that. He just presents biographies of the main characters, explains the record industry at the time and what was going on in rock in Los Angeles. He also examines the gender issues that accompany countercultural types, including double standards for women (in song and in real life), racial undertones that complicate various musical genres, and the quest for authenticity in music that is often expressed in an affected manner. The time period covered in this book is the duration of the band The Flying Burrito Brothers, starting with Parsons joining the Byrds, and through to Parsons getting fired by Chris Hillman. The best part of this book (and the band) is Chris Hillman, who has been a rather unsung hero of rock and country, and whose hard work and professionalism enabled Parson to have a creative flowering that was rare for him and which fans mourn, without giving Hillman his due.
It was great to learn a little more about Christine of the GTOs, and the story of the Burrito Brothers at Altamont, where Parson escaped in a helicopter with the Stones and abandoned his band in the mayhem on the ground.
It was great to learn a little more about Christine of the GTOs, and the story of the Burrito Brothers at Altamont, where Parson escaped in a helicopter with the Stones and abandoned his band in the mayhem on the ground.
June 22, 2022
This is a really good book about the great first album of a band that had so a brief life.
Its chapters are structured under the seven deadly sins titles, although there are repetitions, such as Vanity for "the Cosmic American Music" and "Nudies Rodeo Taylors" and so. It joyfully opens with the Prologue Envy: Sweetheart of the Rodeo in direct reference to the infamous country sound in that Byrds album, which has so strong connections to the Burritos via Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman.
All of it, the music, the album, the songs, the band, the dope, the Nudie suits, Parsons, Hillman et al, the former one connections with the Stones' Keith Richards -and the influence on that British band sound from Let It Bleed to Exile on Main Street- are thoroughly accounted for, and one is presented with amazing information about the characters that makes you love more and more The Flying Burrito Brothers, in spite of their very short lifespan.
Very great reading, and one of the best written books of the 33 1/3 series.
Its chapters are structured under the seven deadly sins titles, although there are repetitions, such as Vanity for "the Cosmic American Music" and "Nudies Rodeo Taylors" and so. It joyfully opens with the Prologue Envy: Sweetheart of the Rodeo in direct reference to the infamous country sound in that Byrds album, which has so strong connections to the Burritos via Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman.
All of it, the music, the album, the songs, the band, the dope, the Nudie suits, Parsons, Hillman et al, the former one connections with the Stones' Keith Richards -and the influence on that British band sound from Let It Bleed to Exile on Main Street- are thoroughly accounted for, and one is presented with amazing information about the characters that makes you love more and more The Flying Burrito Brothers, in spite of their very short lifespan.
Very great reading, and one of the best written books of the 33 1/3 series.
January 13, 2014
Gram Parsons - huge talent, gorgeous singer, King-size pillock. All aspects of the other main Burrito given due consideration, and he likes Chris Hillman a lot. As do I. So a hearty recommendation for this essay from me, and I spent more time listening to Byrds and Burritos and Parsons with Emmy-Lou than I have for decades, so thanks for that.
January 27, 2015
My favorite 33 1/3 book so far. Covers the perfect span of the Burritos' career, focusing on the other musicians involved nearly as much as Parsons, while being fair and balanced towards everyone (except the Eagles, who the author showers with pure hatred). Also loved the bonus chapter on Nudie suits and Western-style fashion.
August 28, 2014
I am disappointed. Yes, this is an essay, and longer books exist that describe Gram Parsons in greater detail. But I wish the author of this book had fleshed out a few more details and omitted some moralizing.
November 29, 2009
This book was a quick read, and actually somewhat enjoyable, but I wouldn't exactly call it memorable. It read sort of like an op-ed piece, but what can you do. Still have trouble with the Chapter titles, but that's just me.
August 6, 2013
A really cool, sometimes funny (the author really hates the Eagles), sometimes moving look at the Flying Burrito Brothers, an often overlooked yet crucially important country rock band. If you're at all interested in that genre of music, this is worth a read
January 29, 2012
Deeply unfocused. More interested in describing the cultural moment of late-60s LA, it only deals with its nominal subject matter--"The Gilded Palace of Sin"--in passing.
October 14, 2014
This one made the mistake of mentioning 15 other classic rock albums I'd rather listen to.
November 11, 2014
Highlights the sad tragedy of Graham Parsons' short life.
May 5, 2009
Great job Bob!
April 17, 2017
Solid telling of the legend of Gram Parsons. Which is a timeless favorite for those who like rock legends. And I do.
Could have done without the occasional childish Eagles-bashing, but that's a fairly minor complaint.
Could have done without the occasional childish Eagles-bashing, but that's a fairly minor complaint.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews