The Flying Burrito Brothers' second studio album Burrito Deluxe was released in 1970. It was the band's last album to feature Gram Parsons. He had developed a serious drug problem at the time of the album's recording and failed to show up to several of the band's shows, which caused him to be fired a month after the album's release. (We'll be moving onto Parsons' two solo albums after this review since none of the subsequent Burrito Brothers' albums have good critical standing.) Because of his increasing drug problem, Parsons had difficulty writing new material with Hillman for the album. The album shows a strong rock and roll influence and is much more laid-back than their debut. It was a commercial failure and critics focused on their disappointment with the group's new release in comparison to the debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin. The album is best remembered for its cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," which was unreleased by the Stones at that point and which is still one of the Burrito Brothers' most popular songs.
I find it hard to view the album, even without strong songwriting or a clear sense of direction, as a disappointment--to be fair, expecting a substandard follow-up probably helped a lot. Usually, I'd be pretty quick to dismiss an album such as this, but Burrito Deluxe has its charms for being a couple of deliberately unproduced jams with a strong rock and roll flare. Kleinow's pedal steel guitar has mostly retreated to the background, which is a shame, but at least half of the songs--including "If You Gotta Go," "Older Guys," and "Down in the Churchyard"--conjure up some of that Burrito magic. I suppose the album's charms only go so far though. Not only do the best songs on the album pale to the weakest on The Gilded Palace of Sin, but one of the album highlights, "Wild Horses," isn't even as good as the Stones' version, which I've never been enamored by. B
