Behka’s Secret Stash: Flying Burrito Brothers

Kids, today on our Secret Stash we're going to discuss... The Seventies.

The Flying Burrito Brothers were basically an offshoot band for Gram Parsons.  Who is Gram Parsons?  Maybe you should stop reading this and go Google him.  Make sure you read up and/or listen to Sweetheart of the Rodeo, a great Byrds album that is generally seen as his ship to steer.  They had started making that album as a kind of double album of experimental music, but the newish addition of Parsons brought them to bluegrass and country.   Parsons left the Byrds and then formed TFBB, and the result was a mix of rock and country and folk that would soon be very popular in the 70's.   The Eagles, The Band, Lynrd Skynrd,  Crosby Stills Nash and Young... you get the idea.

In my opinion, I think this kind of movement came about as a sort of response to the psychedlic type of style of the mid to late '60s in popular culture.  While many groups that were at the forefront of it like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had moved on from it and gone back to their roots, some of the other musicians at the time did as well - but their roots were in American folk and country, not rhythm and blues, rock and roll, or soul music.  So while the English bands veered rock, the American bands veered country.

Here's one of my favorite songs off of the album that put them critically on the map, even though it didn't do well in terms of sales.  It's off of The Gilded Palace of Sin, and it's called "Juanita."

And do yourself a favor - go pick up a CD of the Byrds' album Sweetheart of the Rodeo.   You can thank me later.

Flyingly yours,
Behka