Originally Posted by Classof75 Have to pick this one up. Nice review!

The Flying Burrito Brothers
Burrito Deluxe
1970, A&M Records

1. Lazy Days [Parsons]
2. Image Of Me [Howard/Kemp]
3. High Fashion Queen [Hillman/Parsons]
4. If You Gotta Go, Go Now [Dylan]
5. Man In the Fog [Leadon/Parsons]
6. Farther Along [Baxter/Stevens]
7. Older Guys [Hillman/Leadon/Parsons]
8. Cody, Cody [Hillman/Leadon/Parsons]
9. God's Own Singer [Leadon]
10. Down In the Churchyard [Hillman/Parsons]
11. Wild Horses [Jagger/Richards]

Although the Flying Burrito Brothers, with the help of their debut, the Gilded Palace Of Sin, had gained a cult following which included people like the Rolling Stones (who were no doubt taking notes for their own albums, Let It Bleed and the soon-to-be-recorded Sticky Fingers) and a certain Bob Dylan, the Brothers, like the International Submarine Band and the Byrds before them, had failed to find commercial success with their radical country rock package. It was that sense of frustration which saw Chris Etheridge hand his bass duties over to Hillman and leave the band. Guitarist, dobro player and occasional vocalist Bernie Leadon filled in Hillman's original place. After Michael Clarke, another ex-Byrd, became the band's full-time drummer, the Brothers were ready to take to the studio again.

The results, this time, were ones which lacked the kind of fire in its belly that the Gilded Palace Of Sin had, and you can hear so in the opener Lazy Days. Whereas Christine's Tune kicked its own album with real style and panache, Lazy Days (an outtake from the Sweetheart Of the Rodeo sessions) doesn't really do much to stand out with an identity of its own. It's all a bit flat and, dare I say it, not really that good.

Image Of Me, with its bluegrass-styled fiddle and slow-rolling tempo, is a vast improvement with its wonderful instrumental bridge and sweet harmonies. The Hillman/Parsons original, High Fashion Queen, is one of the highlights and a prime example of exactly what country rock is, what with how Hillman clearly draws on his experience with the Byrds to write a pulsating, rock 'n' roll bass rhythm as Pete Kleinow adds colourful swathes of his steel guitar to a livelier and stripped-down number. The following rendition of Bob Dylans If You Gotta, Go Now, is a similar kind of song - a juicy, up-tempo slice of archetypal country rock. It's passable, though not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, a bit like Man In the Fog, with its bubbly bluegrass kind of vibe. Coming up next, Farther Along is, for me, the best moment on the album, as Parsons sings the old standard with a beautiful injection of melody which gives this slower cut that much more edge than most of the songs that preceded it. What follows is another good enough song, although to be honest it's more interesting than good if that makes any sense, Older Guys being an intriguing show of the Flying Burrito Brothers trying to write and play a song like the Rolling Stones (who they'd befriended that year), what with the dirty, confident blues-rock swagger the whole thing has about it. As I said, it's decent enough but, like most of this album, just not brilliant.

Cody Cody (another three-way songwriting credit between Hillman, Leadon and Parsons) slows things down again. Once more, there's nothing wrong with the playing or the songwriting, but it just lacks the fire and panache of the album before it. It's something that can be said of the solo Leadon cut, God's Own Singer - while it's a nice enough little song, it doesn't push the boundaries of country music and therefore not only comes across as a tad uninteresting, but also isn't exactly something I'd give a non-country fan to listen to for themselves. Down In the Churchyard is a more upbeat, lively country rocker and is an improvement, but overall the lack of the kind of edge that Parsons' sorrowful vocal or Kleinow's psychedelic breed of steel guitar (which for some reason isn't used anywhere on this album) does drag the overall quality down.

Recorded before the Rolling Stones' own version (with Mick Jagger's permission of course), Wild Horses does give a so-so album a gorgeous send-off. While it doesn't quite touch the same level of greatness that the Stones' version on Sticky Fingers does (or that bloody beautiful Keith Richards solo), it still stands as easily one of the best moments on Burrito Deluxe.

So, while there's not a lot wrong with Burrito Deluxe here, it is simply nowhere near as good as the two albums Parsons had previously been involved with. It could be down to the departure of Chris Etheridge from the lineup (who, lest we forget, was partly responsible for the Hot Burrito songs), but you could also say that the lack of boundary-pushing, the flat sound of the production and the fact that the album focused on three writers and singers instead of two (which leads to a lot less Parsons to be heard here), all drag this album down a bit. Overall, it's nowhere near bad, but not something I'd go out of my way to recommend to anyone (unlike the Gilded Palace Of Sin and Sweetheart Of the Rodeo before it). To put it simply though, Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon, two youngish country rockers were catering for their own ambitions, were drowning out Parsons' vision of cosmic American music which had done so much for both those albums. It was time for him to move on.

6/10