#462: The Flying Burrito Brothers, 'The Gilded Palace of Sin'
A&M, 1969
When I first started this project, I was hoping to be in non-stop healing mode. I did not anticipate Putin attacking Ukraine and bringing the entire world to the edge of nuclear war.
Forcing myself to listen to the Flying Burrito Brothers and their stupid name was painfully annoying at first. I wanted to listen to moody, tough stuff that could help push my chest into catharsis (or cardiac arrest, whichever came first, tbh).
My first listen of this album was more than ten years ago, I was in high school and I found my brother’s cd stash after he want to college. This was during my (first of many) Jane Fonda era and other provocateurs of the 60s. I felt a yearning for world conflicts that I could solve. I listened to Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman” and then The Flying Burrito Brothers’ cover of the same tune on this album over and over again.
I really thought that if I had lived before, I would have had more purpose. I could really dig my heels into some substantial dirt and possibly stomp around and do something about it.
After my third listen of this album this week, I got stuck on “Dark End Of The Street.” It’s a perfect song. The original by James Carr, the cover by Cat Power and every other cover – all perfect. It’s heartbreaking and powerless.
The 1960s have nothing on what we are still doing. Women’s rights are being thrown down the drain, LGBTQ+ children are being criminalized for existing and we are back in the Cold War. Of course, we must acknowledge that we are still bombing innocent countries and pretending there is holiness in the oppression of Palestine.
The politics The Flying Burrito Brothers debuted are back but with an extra edge. The Flying Burrito Brothers were a super group of some of the best folk and rock musicians of that era and dabbled in soul and psychedelic hippie music along with the best Americana rock out there.
This listening party made me realize that I have not really figured anything out since I first listened to this album at 17. I am still the same size, I still can’t figure out my hair or my hormonal acne and I still don’t quite know what marriage is all about. The biggest difference though is that I feel much more powerless than I did as a teenager.
When I was 17, I really believed that there was something spiritually significant about empathy. I believed that turning my sensitivity off was my own spiritual death. We must feel. We must look at strangers as real people with real feelings and relatable hearts and desires.
I don’t know what it does to our souls but I know that when I choose to feel, my insides don’t feel empty.
Maybe witnessing others is how our souls align with the Divine, by caring about people we don’t even know.
Top songs:
Do Right Woman, Dark End of The Street, Hot Burrito #1, Hot Burrito #2, Hippie Boy