Customer Reviews

Sin City: The Very Best of

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'm quite perplexed by all of the negative reviews of this CD. I suppose if one has purchased the music before, this set may not offer anything in the way of new tracks. However, if you don't already own any Flying Burrito Brothers discs this CD is a welcome alternative to the two disc anthology. The sound quality is also excellent. This single disc contains Gilded Palace of Sin and Burrito Deluxe in the entirey. Two other FBB w/ Parsons tracks are thrown in for good measure. In other words, Sin City is loaded with great material. The Flying Burrito Brothers are more than a hip name drop and influential band. The music is great in and of itself. I honestly can't really tell the difference between country and country-rock but Sin City certainly has more "country" than anything that offer that genre has to offer these days. The bottom line: if you are looking for a single disc to definitively showcase the Flying Burrito Brothers in their heyday this is the way to go.

Finally! I can get both of the REAL Flying Burrito Brothers albums on one CD with decent mastering. The mastering of Burrito Deluxe in the original issue was especially bad. When they came out the the 2 CD Anthology I was tempted to buy it for the remastering alone...but I didn't want to pay [$$]for a bunch of songs that were recorded after Gram left. Well this is the answer to my prayers...great 24-bit remastering and both CDs together in their entirety. Thanks!

This is the prefect companion to the 2-for-one CD release of Gram's two solo albums. 2 CDs and you get 4 of the most important albums in popular music. Can't beat that with a stick...

All the tracks of "Gilded Palace of Sin" and "Burrito Deluxe" and a few extra non-album tracks, all on one CD. This makes the twofer "Gilded Palace of Sin/Burrito Deluxe" redundant. If you really want the Rick Roberts tracks, then get the two disc Burritos anthology. But if, like myself, you're not a big Rick Roberts fan, this is the one. "Here Tonight," the only great Rick Roberts era song in my opinion is also on the Gene Clark album "Roadmaster." If you want that song, get Roadmaster, not the Burritos Anthology. Yeah, if you already own most of the tracks, there's no reason to get this, but, if you don't, then seriously, get this one. Or, you might consider the Gram Parsons anthology.

But, in my opinion, you're better off with "Sin City," the Byrds' "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" (the Parsons anthology only has the tracks with Parsons vocals, but the rest of the album is excellent as well) and "GP/Grievous Angel," to make your Burritos/Parsons/Byrds collection complete.

So yeah- if you're looking at this item, you're probably a Parsons/Burritos fan, or you want to become a Parsons/Burritos fan, and so, you want to buy a good Parsons/Burritos CD. If that is so, then you should seriously consider buying this CD.

First off, I don't have this.

So you might wonder what qualifies me to write this review. Well, I do have "Hot Burritos!", the 2-CD Flying Burrito Bros. anthology, and frankly it's too much. "Farther Along," an earlier single-CD best-of, left off "My Uncle" and "Hippie Boy" from the landmark "The Gilded Palace of Sin". Disc 2 of "Hot Burritos!" has a couple decent outtakes from the group's last sessions with Gram Parsons - two of which are included here - but the rest comprises the Gram-less self-titled third album and other ephemera. I rarely pull out the second disc. Ergo, this is easily the best Burritos comp on the market, since it comprises all the essential stuff from the "real" Burrito Brothers, i.e. the lineup that included Gram Parsons. Some folks complain that it's yet another repackaging of the same old tracks. Well, that's certainly true, but it's the best one yet, and anyway this compilation isn't intended for people who already have these songs. Get "Sin City" and the Reprise two-fer "GP/Grievous Angel" and you've got yourself a damn fine Gram Parsons overview. Parsons didn't invent country-rock, which is if anything an even more redundant categorization that "folk-rock," but he was the only country-rocker with a natural affinity and connection for both genres; the hybrid came as naturally to him as breathing. I should note, too, that the Flying Burrito Brothers was a group with two frontmen, the other being fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman. Their collaboration (both in songwriting and performing, as evinced by their wonderful harmonies here) resulted in one brilliant LP and a rather less excellent follow-up, both of which are contained in their entirety here. If you want to know where everybody from the Eagles to Wilco came from, this is the place to start. That said, after "The Gilded Palace of Sin," country-rock would never be quite this weird or this magical again. There's a reason Gram called it "Cosmic American Music"; pick up this record to find out why.

The title says "the very best of" The Flying Burrito Brothers, but at first I wanted to nitpick that it was simply the two albums Gram Parsons recorded while a member. After much repeat listenings, however, I'm inclined to believe that this really is the best of the Burritos. And that's because this set delivers.

After leaving the Byrds in 1968, Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons examined their shared love of country music, albeit through the lens of warped psychelica and rock music that was the byproduct of their times. As a debut offering, "The Gilded Palace of Sin" (the first 11 tracks) is everything a debut should be: eye-openind, breathtaking, masterful and enjoyable. With such stand-outs (and should-be-standards if they're not already) like "Christine's Tune", "My Uncle", and "Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2", the Brothers stake their own unique claim on rock-meets-country. It's a satisfying stew that is only emphasized further by such covers as "Dark End of The Street", and great originals from Hillman and Parsons like "Sin City". Simply put, there is not a bad track on this album.

Which makes the follow-up effort (after "The Train Song", this constitutes the next ten or eleven tracks) suffer by comparison. After starting off strong with "Lazy Days", the album entitled "Burrito Deluxe" simply doesn't come across with the same power as the debut. I'm sure in time I'll learn to enjoy the album on its own merits, but I can't help but feel that "Burrito Deluxe" suffers by being included here. Perhaps a two-disc option would have been advisable, but in it's present format the second album comes off as almost a lazy, formulaic follow-up, a sophmore slump which Parsons never recovered from (he would leave the band shortly after, preferring to hang out with the Rolling Stones).

The bonus tracks (the aforementioned "Train Song", "Close Down the Honky-Tonks", etc) are all fantastic in their own right, and there are even some great "Deluxe" tracks worth putting on repeat ("Wild Horses" gets a great country treatment), but overall I'd have to recommend this for "The Gilded Palace of Sin" alone. It's the one that I keep putting on repeat, especially "Dark End", "Christine" and "Hot Burrito #1". Perhaps in time I'll learn to love "Burrito Deluxe" as well, but for the time being it's more of a nice afterthought than an essential back-to-back listening experience.

After the Brothers, Parsons would squander his talents until recording two solo albums that I plan to pick up later on. But while with the Flying Burrito Brothers (and on their debut in particular), his vision of Cosmic American Music came to fruition and helped to change the face of rock and roll. This best-of package demonstrates why. And it's the best possible introduction...

Formed by ex-Byrds Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman in 1968, the Flying Burrito Brothers helped to bridge the gap between country and rock audiences at a time when youth felt that country music was hayseed and the rednecks looked upon the hippies as Communists. Onstage, thanks to the copious amounts of drugs they took, they could be wildly erratic--sometimes superb, sometimes downright atrocious. But the two albums they made with Gram--the 1969 masterpiece THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN, and the lesser-known 1970 album BURRITO DELUXE--have now been combined on this 78 minute-long compilation album, along with three tracks that didn't appear on those albums originally.

The band never had anything close to what might be called a hit (GILDED PALACE, though now acknowledged as a classic, could only manage a miserable #164 on the album chart), but they came up with songs and a style that has endured over four decades. The erratic sound quality of the original LPs has been improved upon in the remastering here, and we get to hear much more clearly the acid fuzz-tone steel of "Wheels" and the Everlys-like harmonies of Parsons and Hillman on the immortal "Sin City", to name just two. The collection also includes a cover of the 1963 Dave Dudley anthem "Six Days On The Road", which the band did at the infamous Altamont Speedway debacle of December 1969. From BURRITO DELUXE, we get the twangy Stones cover "Wild Horses" and the Cajun-influenced "Man In The Fog", co-written by future Eagle Bernie Leadon, among others.

The Burritos were wildly ahead of their time, not merely in the way their style predated Poco and the Eagles, but also the alternative country movement of later decades. This, combined with their original erratic performances, is what kept them from being recognized for their achievements on record until only recently. This compilation album shows quite well just what the world of the late 60s and early 70s overlooked that first time around.

Hold on there, everyone. Yes, it is absolutely shameless the way labels are constantly reissuing and remastering the same material to sell it to us over and over. But y'know what? If your FBB interest is in the Parsons era (Gilded Palace, Burrito Deluxe), then this CD is it. This is by far and away the best-sounding CD of this material, as mastered by Gavin Lurssen. Even a less-than-discerning listener could immediately pick up on the improvement--very balanced and NOT shrill with too much high-end, like the recent Hot Burritos Anthology. I am refraining from a 5-star rating just 'cause they should have gotten this right years ago, rather than this being the 4th or 5th time most of you've bought these albums.

Yeah, if you already own this stuff on CD this 2002 collection offers nothing new. But if you are just getting interested in the Burritos this is a fine place to start with re-mastered sound and the first 2 albums in their entirety. Not bad for the price.

The first time I heard the Flying Burrito Brothers I realized this was something new and terrific. Today I get the same excitement listening to the fresh beginnings of the whole country rock movement. The raw genius of Graham Parsons comes shining through in every track.

DO NOT pay any attention to the people who criticize this cd as a bad repackaging. It is the best deal for FBB music that I have seen, and all on one disc!! I don't get tired of this cd because it is filled with wonderful songs, and it is now one of my desert island cd's. The best songs are off of the gilded house of sin, but other songs on here are terrific also. This is worth the price, because there are also other songs thrown in not from the albums. great deal, just get it!