The Flying Burrito Brothers – Hot Burrito #1

Written And Recorded In One Day On Uppers

Released on February 6, 1969, as part of The Gilded Palace of Sin, “Hot Burrito #1” never charted as a single but became one of the most influential country-rock songs ever recorded. The album peaked at number 164 on the Billboard 200 and sold only 40,000 copies in its first six months. Bassist Chris Ethridge told Gram Parsons he had a couple of old melodies from back when he was growing up in Mississippi, melodies he called go songs that he’d banged out on the family piano when his parents wouldn’t let him play outside. They wrote both “Hot Burrito #1” and “Hot Burrito #2” that afternoon, then went into the studio that night and cut them. Parsons grabbed a pencil, a notepad, and a handful of uppers, dispensed two to Ethridge, took two himself, and they nailed both songs within a couple of hours.

The track failed to register on the pop culture radar in 1969, but its influence spread like wildfire through the underground. Sid Griffin wrote in the liner notes for the 1997 reissue that while Gilded Palace only sold 50,000 copies, like the first album by the Velvet Underground, it seemed everyone who bought those 50,000 went out and formed a band inspired by what they’d heard. Bob Dylan said the record knocked him out, and Elvis Costello named it as one of the 500 essential albums all music lovers should own. The song became the template for heartbreak in country-rock, blending the hurt of classic country weepers with a contemporary sense of anger, jealousy, and confusion. Parsons’ heartbreakingly vulnerable vocal on the track remains unforgettable, a performance so raw and honest that Elvis Costello later determined “I’m Your Toy” to be a more fitting name than the goofily titled “Hot Burrito #1”.

Gram Parsons had already built the foundation of the country-rock movement through his work with the International Submarine Band and The Byrds, but his first album with The Flying Burrito Brothers was where he revealed the full extent of his talents. After spearheading The Byrds’ foray into country music with the influential Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, Parsons fell out with the band when he refused to accompany them on a tour of South Africa in 1968. Two months later, bassist Chris Hillman left The Byrds as well and joined Parsons to form The Flying Burrito Brothers. Parsons was a Harvard theology student dropout who came from a trust fund that included his share of his grandfather’s reported 28 million dollar Florida citrus empire, making him probably the coolest rich kid to ever walk the earth. He was 22 when the album was made, passionately pursuing what he called Cosmic American Music, a vision of country roots from Nashville and Bakersfield flowing together with Laurel Canyon psychedelia and smooth Southern soul.

The band recorded “Hot Burrito #1” at A&M Studios in Hollywood with producers Larry Marks and Henry Lewy. The sessions featured a variety of drummers, with Popeye Phillips playing on both Hot Burrito tracks. The arrangement featured Parsons on vocals and rhythm guitar, Chris Hillman on rhythm guitar and harmony vocals, Chris Ethridge on bass and piano, and Sneaky Pete Kleinow on steel guitar. Kleinow’s unorthodox steel guitar playing provides an almost continuous commentary throughout the song, blending country with psychedelic rock in ways nobody had attempted before. The production was deliberately raw and spontaneous, capturing the immediacy of the writing session. The band brought in bassist Chris Ethridge and pedal steel guitarist Pete Kleinow to complete the lineup, appropriating the band’s name from a group of Los Angeles musicians who gathered for jam sessions. Parsons used to call Kleinow the Maharishi of Country Music, and Kleinow became one of the most sought-after session musicians in the business, playing on albums by Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, and Eagles.

“Hot Burrito #1” appeared on The Flying Burrito Brothers’ debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin, released on February 6, 1969, and marking a quantum leap ahead of the groundbreaking but simplistic Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The album was steeped in the sin-and-redemption mythos of Americana, mixing country harmonies that revealed the influences of the Everly Brothers and the Louvin Brothers with soul sounds associated with Otis Redding and the Stax-Volt label. Most of the songs were written by Parsons and Hillman at a house in the San Fernando Valley dubbed Burrito Manor. The album included covers of two R&B standards, “Do Right Woman” and “Dark End of the Street”, alongside originals like “Sin City” and “Christine’s Tune”. The band famously promoted the album by mailing packages of hay to radio stations and music critics, which the U.S. Postal Service suspected of being contraband and confiscated to test for drugs. The packages tested positive for hay but negative for drugs, creating media buzz that was better than anything the A&M marketing department could have dreamed up.

The song has been covered extensively across genres, most famously by Elvis Costello who renamed it “I’m Your Toy” for his 1981 country album Almost Blue, produced by Billy Sherrill. Costello’s version introduced the song to audiences who’d never heard of Gram Parsons, with many fans discovering the Burritos through Costello’s gateway. DeVotchKa recorded it as “Hot Burrito #1 (I’m Your Toy)” for the 2009 compilation Sweetheart: Our Favorite Artists Sing Their Favorite Love Songs. The Mavericks cut a version in 1999, while Belly recorded it in 1993. Gene Clark and Carla Olson delivered a particularly tasty version that captured the song’s poignant meditation on love gone sad. Dinosaur Jr. covered “Hot Burrito #2” on their 1991 album Green Mind, bringing the Burritos’ influence into the alternative rock world. Bands like Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Whiskeytown, and the Jayhawks all recorded music that bears traces of The Gilded Palace of Sin, while musicians like Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, and Steve Earle cited the album as a particular favorite.

“Hot Burrito #1” remains The Flying Burrito Brothers’ most emotionally devastating song and one of the defining tracks of country-rock. The song proved that Parsons’ compositions could stand beside the classics with ease, expressing deep jealousy where the voice yearns to regain the love of his ex-lover. Music critic Mark Deming wrote that no one ever brought rock and country together quite like The Flying Burrito Brothers, and this album remains their greatest accomplishment. Gram Parsons was and still is an unsung genius of American roots music, though he died at age 26 in 1973 from a morphine and alcohol overdose at the Joshua Tree Inn in California. His body was famously stolen from Los Angeles International Airport by his road manager Phil Kaufman, who drove it to Joshua Tree National Monument and partially cremated it, fulfilling a pact the two had made. The album helped draw the blueprint for both 1970s country-rock and the alternative country boom of the late 1980s. Parsons left a marvelous legacy including The Gilded Palace of Sin and two solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel, though none quite exude the allure of this debut. That afternoon when Ethridge approached Gram with his childhood go songs and they banged out two classics on uppers proved that sometimes the most timeless songs come from the most spontaneous moments, even when you title them with numbers instead of names.