Cosmic America 5: The Gilded Palace of Sin

10/13/16 • 25 min

We've gone through a full cycle of our album reviews, so now it's back to stage one — the "One-album wonder" category. Even though the second album from this band was okay, the first album was a masterpiece, and we're glad to get a chance to review it here. It's The Gilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers, and it's a sadly overlooked album for a large cross-section of the music listening audience. One of the "Old Testament" albums of the country-rock hybrid that would come to dominate the Southern California sound over the next decade, this album is a slab of genius, the full flowering of a sadly neglected partnership between troubled genius Gram Parsons and the workmanlike Chris Hillman. Country rock? Soul? Balladry? Electrified folk? Nudie suits? All of that and some social commentary to boot on this album.
Be sure to subscribe to Cosmic America on iTunes, and tweet us with your musical thoughts and review ideas at @doctorgc and @akmccarthy. Thanks for listening.

Previous Episode

Cosmic America 4: Led Zeppelin in Inglewood 1975

Cosmic America heads for the "IMPORT" section of the record collection, tackling Led Zeppelin's last live show in the United States in 1975, in Inglewood, CA. This immensely long show (close to 4 hours) is arguably the last time a US audience saw Zeppelin in full fury. It's a bit of a ragged show in places, but still maintains the grandiose sound and reputation that the quartet had built for themselves. Touring in support of the recently released Physical Graffiti album, this show ended up being a fascinating live showcase for songs from both that album and from Houses of the Holy. If you're hunting for this show on torrent sites, it's labeled "Deep Throat", mostly (entirely?) because Linda Lovelace intros the band when they come out.
Be sure to subscribe to Cosmic America on iTunes, and tweet us with your musical thoughts and review ideas at @doctorgc and @akmccarthy. Thanks for listening.

Next Episode

Cosmic America 6: Katy Lied

On this episode of Cosmic America, we tackle the midway point of Steely Dan's primary studio phase — 1975's Katy Lied. Once described as "an epic bardic saga" on some message board that I read in the late 90's, this album captures the Dan as they transitioned fully from a touring outfit to a pure-studio outfit. The army of session musicians who would come to dominate later albums had started to assemble on this one, and the album ended up hosting some lesser-known but incredibly important songs in the band's canon. Musical cleverness and lyrical obliqueness fully on display throughout this one.
Be sure to subscribe to Cosmic America on iTunes, and tweet us with your musical thoughts and review ideas at @doctorgc and @akmccarthy. Thanks for listening.