B100: #51 “Hot Burrito #1” by The Flying Burrito Brothers

The B100 list of my favourite songs ranked 51-100 kicks off with the laidback allure of “Hot Burrito #1” by The Flying Burrito Brothers.

After a short-lived but hugely productive stint in the Byrds, when he was integral to recording their proto country-rock 1968 masterpiece “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo”, Gram Parsons founded the Flying Burrito Brothers later that year, along with Byrds bassist Chris Hillman.  Despite existing in multiple iterations over later years, the Gram Parsons fronted definitive version of the Flying Burrito Brothers only released two albums: 1969’s “The Gilded Palace Of Sin” and a year later “Burrito Deluxe”, which featured the first released version of “Wild Horses”, recorded after Gram Parsons heard the “Sticky Fingers” track on an advance tape courtesy of close friend Keith Richards.  “Hot Burrito #1” is taken from the superior first LP, but both records have much to commend them.

The Flying Burrito Brothers created a trailblazing cocktail of country, soul and psychedelic rock and “Hot Burrito #1” is the perfect distillation of this heady brew.  Its introductory melancholic piano chords and pedal steel give way to Gram Parsons’ heartbreakingly yearning vocals, anchored by delightfully rolling drums and a great Chris Hillman bass line, all combining to create a beautifully elegiac song.  “Hot Burrito #1” is followed on “The Gilded Palace Of Sin” by the more up-tempo companion piece “Hot Burrito #2”, another terrific tune that has been brilliantly covered by Dinosaur Jr, as the B-Side to my #16 song choice “Get Me”.  After leaving the Burritos in 1970, Gram Parsons went on to record two fantastic solo albums “GP” and “Grievous Angel” (which features “$1000 Wedding” my #77 song choice) before he sadly died in 1973 from a morphine and alcohol overdose, aged just 26.

VIDEOS AND OTHER STUFF

• “Hot Burrito #1” TV show performance on YouTube
• Other great Flying Burrito Brothers songs include: Dark End Of The Street, Do Right Woman, Wild Horses, Sin City, Hot Burrito #2.
• “Hot Burrito #1” is featured on my B100 Spotify playlist
• Also featured on my 379: Soul & Country Spotify playlist

NEXT: NUMBER 52