The Gilded Palace of Sin
The Gilded Palace of Sin is the first album by the country rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers, released on February 6, 1969.[1] It continued Gram Parsons' and Chris Hillman's work in modern country music, fusing traditional sources like folk and country with other forms of popular music like gospel, soul, and psychedelic rock.
The Gilded Palace of Sin
Although it was not a commercial success, peaking at #164 on the Billboard 200, The Gilded Palace of Sin has been widely regarded as an important album in 1970s rock. It was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981).[2] It is also listed at number 192 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in the 2012 edition and number 462 in the 2020 edition, keeping the same position on the 2023 small review.[3][4]
Album artwork[edit]
The album cover features the band in Nudie suits.[7] Parsons had taken the band to designer Nudie Cohn to have custom sequin suits made for all the band members especially for the photo shoot, but Parsons' was most unusual, featuring a naked woman (rendered as an old-school sailor's tattoo on each lapel), red poppies on the shoulders, deep-green marijuana leaves on the front, and embroidered Seconal and Tuinal pills scattered elsewhere. Parsons asked that a flaming red cross surrounded by radiating shafts of blue and gold light cover the back of the jacket. The suit now hangs in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Tom Wilkes, who was the head of the art department at A&M at the time, explained to director Gandulf Hennig in 2004, "We decided to take them out to the desert and do something kind of surreal with the Nudie suits. And they looked great anyway. They looked funky and kind of country western and kind of rock. I felt that look was great. They didn't really need the Nudie suits." The album cover was shot by Barry Feinstein.
Influence[edit]
Like Sweetheart of the Rodeo, The Gilded Palace of Sin was not a commercial success. To date, the RIAA has not certified it gold. However, its impact on popular music has grown over the years, influencing, for example, the Eagles. During the 1980s, the New Traditionalist movement in mainstream country music was influenced by The Gilded Palace of Sin, with artists such as Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Clint Black and Randy Travis. Today, The Gilded Palace of Sin continues to influence the alternative country movement, often referred to as "alt-country." Bands like Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Whiskeytown, and the Jayhawks, as well as such musicians as Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris (Parsons' one-time singing partner), and Steve Earle all have recorded music that bears traces of The Gilded Palace of Sin. Non-country artists like Elvis Costello have cited the album as a particular favorite, with Costello covering several cuts during his career; similarly, Dinosaur Jr. have covered the song "Hot Burrito #2" on their album Green Mind. In the liner notes for the 1997 reissue, Sid Griffin wrote that while Gilded Palace only sold 50,000 copies, "...like the first album by the Velvet Underground, it would seem everyone of those 50,000 went out and formed a band inspired by what they'd heard."
For years, the album was never reissued in its entirety on compact disc in the United States. However, in 2000 the complete album was reissued as part of a two-disc set, Hot Burritos! The Flying Burrito Brothers Anthology 1969–1972. In 2002, a new mastering was issued on a single-disc release Sin City: The Very Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers, which packaged The Gilded Palace of Sin with its successor, Burrito Deluxe, as well as a few outtakes from the same period.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 192 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list and dropping to 461 on the 2020/2023 revision.[12] In 2013, the album was ranked number 99 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time".[13] The album was included in the 2014 Rolling Stone list of the "50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own".[14] It was ranked number 620 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums, 3rd Edition (2000).[15]
Reissues[edit]
In early 2017, independent record label Intervention Records released a 180-gram vinyl reissue of The Gilded Palace of Sin. The reissue was remastered by Kevin Gray, using a 1/2" safety copy of the original master tapes and includes an "old-style" jacket featuring the original album artwork printed by Stoughton Printing. In late 2017, it was reissued on hybrid SACD by Intervention Records. A standard reissue of the album on vinyl was released worldwide on January 29, 2021.
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