The Flying Burrito Brothers - Together Again (1970)

Ian Dunlop and Mickey Gauvin, formerly of Gram Parsons' International Submarine Band, founded the original Flying Burrito Brothers and named it after Parsons informed them of his new country focus, However, this incarnation of the band never recorded as such, and after they headed East it allowed Gram Parsons to take the name. With the original incarnation of the band out of the picture, the "West Coast" Flying Burrito Brothers were founded in 1968 in Los Angeles, California, by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, with the addition of bassist Chris Ethridge, pedal steel guitarist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow and session drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh. Though Hillman and Roger McGuinn had fired Parsons from the Byrds in July 1968, the bassist and Parsons reconciled later that year after Hillman left the group. The Flying Burrito Brothers recorded their debut album, 'The Gilded Palace Of Sin', without a regular drummer, as Hoh proved to be unable to perform adequately due to a substance abuse problem, and he was dismissed after recording two songs. After trying out a number of replacements, they ultimately settled upon original Byrd Michael Clarke, just before the commencement of their first tour. Despite widespread critical acclaim upon its release in February 1969 for its pioneering amalgamation of country, soul music, and psychedelic rock, 'The Gilded Palace Of Sin' stalled at No. 164 on the Billboard album chart. 

The band did embark on a comprehensive train tour of the United States (necessitated by Parsons' fear of flying), but this ultimately ended in disaster due to drug and alcohol use. Dissatisfied by the band's lack of success and unable to fully reconcile his predilection for R&B with the more conservative tastes of Parsons and Hillman, Ethridge departed the group in the autumn of 1969, and Hillman reverted to bass after the band hired lead guitarist Bernie Leadon, a Dillard and Clark veteran who had also played with Hillman in the early 1960s bluegrass scene. With mounting debt incurred from the first album and tour, and a failed single in 'The Train Song', A&M Records hoped to recoup some of their losses by marketing the Burritos as a straight country group. To this end, manager Jim Dickson instigated a loose session where the band recorded several traditional country staples from their live act, contemporary pop covers in a countrified vein, such as 'To Love Somebody', 'I Shall Be Released', and 'Honky Tonk Women', and Larry Williams's rock and roll classic 'Bony Moronie'. This effort was soon scrapped in favoru of a second album of originals on an extremely reduced budget, and so 'Burrito Deluxe' appeared in  April 1970, juxtaposing the band's inability to develop compelling new material with prominent covers of the Rolling Stones's hitherto unreleased 'Wild Horses', Dylan's 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' and the Southern gospel standard 'Farther Along'. 

Unlike their debut, the album failed to chart entirely, and a month later, Parsons showed up for a band performance only minutes before they were to take the stage, visibly intoxicated and singing songs that differed from what the rest of the band were performing. A furious Hillman (already incensed by the singer's penchant for showing up at concerts in a limousine and his increasingly Jagger-influenced showmanship) fired him immediately after the show, to which Parsons responded, "You can't fire me, I'm Gram!". According to Hillman, this incident was merely the final straw, with Parsons' desire to hang out with the Rolling Stones rather than focus on his own band's career also being a significant factor, mirroring his 1968 dismissal from The Byrds. For some fans this was the end of their association with the band, as they couldn't imagine a Burritos without Parsons, while others remained faithful until Hillman left in 1972. Over the years a number of out-takes have surfaced from the original incarnation of the group, and so to complete the Parsons-led era of the Flying Burrito Brothers' recording history, here are all the tracks recorded with him before he left the group, including singles, b-sides, out-takes, and an extended edit of the snippet that was available of 'I Shall Be Released'.

     

Track listing

01 Sing Me Back Home (Version 1)
02 The Train Song
03 Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
04 Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven
05 Close Up The Honky Tonks
06 Green Green Grass Of Home
07 Break My Mind
08 To Love Somebody
09 Just Because
10 Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)
11 Crazy Arms
12 Honky Tonk Women
13 Six Days On The Road
14 Bony Moronie
15 I Shall Be Released
16 Together Again
17 Sing Me Back Home (Version 2)

Thanks to the it's lost it's found blog for this post.