Rethinking Rumours
Back there in 1977-78 it seemed like you couldn't turn on the radio without being assaulted by Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. The platter spawned four hit singles, which you always heard on AM Top 40 stations, and when you switched over to FM, they were playing the album cuts. Plus, everybody and their sister owned the record--my sister included. Yeah, that's what it was, in my thirteen/fourteen year-old mind: Sister Rock!!! Nothing could be uncooler to an increasingly testosterone-infused boy. At that age (if you were white and heterosexual, I should qualify), you wanted nothing more than guitar solos (Led Zeppelin! AC/DC!), preferably dual solos (Lynyrd Skynyrd! Thin Lizzy!) if you could get 'em. And please, no vulnerability! That was for sisters. I mean, if I wanted women in a rock band there was Heart!
I hated Rumours with a passion in them days, even if I secretly hummed along to the songs. When I got a little older, and in my mind, hipper, I hated Rumours because it wasn't Punk Rock, and it was a symbol of everything played-out, mellowish, decadent hippieish, bloated music industryish that I was leaving behind for the supposedly truer sounds and visions of The Clash, etc.
When Bill Clinton used "Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow" for his 1992 campaign song, I groaned. If he really wanted to think about tomorrow, he shoulda kept it in his pants...but I digress...
About a year and a half ago, The Psychedelic Eskimo bought me a vinyl copy of Rumours as a joke after hearing me dismiss it in my obnoxious Rock Snob fashion. She spent a buck on it. Ha, ha.
Well, the joke's on me, Dear Reader. This is a Fucking Great Record!!! I've listened to it four times over the last couple of days. While Fleetwood Mac may have been cocaine-addled hippies, they were as Punk Rock as anybody in their willingness to lay bare their emotional pain in such a scalding, not maudlin fashion. Kurt Cobain wished he could have made such an honest, coherent pop statement, you can bet your boots he did (Elliot Smith, too). And it rocks, as well. Lindsay Buckingham turns out a couple of sizzling guitar solos. And, man oh man, was Stevie Nicks cute! Cuter than Heart, even!
"Go Your Own Way"; "The Chain"; "Gold Dust Woman": these are some devastating songs by lovers who were breaking up with each other. Not mellow in the least. I guess I needed to go through the relationship wars to really get the point of this great record.
Moving along through the vinyl alphabet, I spun the godly Gilded Palace of Sin, by The Flying Burrito Brothers. This really is Gram Parsons's best album. It's the most fully realized expression of his "Cosmic American Music" blend of country, soul, rock and pop. Gram and Chris Hillman are singing great, SneekyPete Kleinow is playing out of this world, psychedelic steel guitar. The originals--"Christine's Tune"; "Sin City"; the "Hot Burrito" songs are outtasite, and the covers "Do Right Woman" and "Dark End of the Street"--Country Rock guys covering Country Soul--brilliant! inspired! Gram would never reach these heights again, although he comes close at points on his solo albums. A really essential record.
What is not essential is the rest of the Gram Parsons-involved FBB output. Some of it is okay, but quite a comedown after the Gilded Palace...The follow-up record, Burrito Deluxe, sounds drugged-out, bored and uninspired. Like a La Salsa burrito (ha!). Only two really notable songs: the catchy, up-tempo "Down in the Churchyard" and the bizarre "Wild Horses." I can never decide whether or not I think the Burrito's version of "WH's" is raggedly great or just weird. Gram had to be drunk, hung over or smacked up while singing this Stones song (was it technically a cover? I think the Burritos released their version before the Stones did). Gram's vocal sounds like he's about to keel over at points. He uses that great soulful crack in his voice (utilized to devastating effect on "Hot Burrito No. 1" on the Gilded Palace record), and at least he came by his Southern drawl naturally (unlike Mick), but the tempo is so draggy and jerky that it's like The Velvet Underground Goes Country. Hey, now there's an idea!
About the Gram-era FBB odds n' sods compilation, Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music, the less said the better. Just because it's there doesn't mean it should be released. One good song ("The Train Song") and the rest crap covers. If this were your first G.P. record, you'd say, "What's the big deal?" After hearing Merle Haggard do "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down," Gram sounds like a little kid. It makes you realize that as great as Gram was, he was more of a Country Rocker than a Honky Tonker, even if his heart and liver were in the right place.
I hated Rumours with a passion in them days, even if I secretly hummed along to the songs. When I got a little older, and in my mind, hipper, I hated Rumours because it wasn't Punk Rock, and it was a symbol of everything played-out, mellowish, decadent hippieish, bloated music industryish that I was leaving behind for the supposedly truer sounds and visions of The Clash, etc.
When Bill Clinton used "Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow" for his 1992 campaign song, I groaned. If he really wanted to think about tomorrow, he shoulda kept it in his pants...but I digress...
About a year and a half ago, The Psychedelic Eskimo bought me a vinyl copy of Rumours as a joke after hearing me dismiss it in my obnoxious Rock Snob fashion. She spent a buck on it. Ha, ha.
Well, the joke's on me, Dear Reader. This is a Fucking Great Record!!! I've listened to it four times over the last couple of days. While Fleetwood Mac may have been cocaine-addled hippies, they were as Punk Rock as anybody in their willingness to lay bare their emotional pain in such a scalding, not maudlin fashion. Kurt Cobain wished he could have made such an honest, coherent pop statement, you can bet your boots he did (Elliot Smith, too). And it rocks, as well. Lindsay Buckingham turns out a couple of sizzling guitar solos. And, man oh man, was Stevie Nicks cute! Cuter than Heart, even!
"Go Your Own Way"; "The Chain"; "Gold Dust Woman": these are some devastating songs by lovers who were breaking up with each other. Not mellow in the least. I guess I needed to go through the relationship wars to really get the point of this great record.
Moving along through the vinyl alphabet, I spun the godly Gilded Palace of Sin, by The Flying Burrito Brothers. This really is Gram Parsons's best album. It's the most fully realized expression of his "Cosmic American Music" blend of country, soul, rock and pop. Gram and Chris Hillman are singing great, SneekyPete Kleinow is playing out of this world, psychedelic steel guitar. The originals--"Christine's Tune"; "Sin City"; the "Hot Burrito" songs are outtasite, and the covers "Do Right Woman" and "Dark End of the Street"--Country Rock guys covering Country Soul--brilliant! inspired! Gram would never reach these heights again, although he comes close at points on his solo albums. A really essential record.
What is not essential is the rest of the Gram Parsons-involved FBB output. Some of it is okay, but quite a comedown after the Gilded Palace...The follow-up record, Burrito Deluxe, sounds drugged-out, bored and uninspired. Like a La Salsa burrito (ha!). Only two really notable songs: the catchy, up-tempo "Down in the Churchyard" and the bizarre "Wild Horses." I can never decide whether or not I think the Burrito's version of "WH's" is raggedly great or just weird. Gram had to be drunk, hung over or smacked up while singing this Stones song (was it technically a cover? I think the Burritos released their version before the Stones did). Gram's vocal sounds like he's about to keel over at points. He uses that great soulful crack in his voice (utilized to devastating effect on "Hot Burrito No. 1" on the Gilded Palace record), and at least he came by his Southern drawl naturally (unlike Mick), but the tempo is so draggy and jerky that it's like The Velvet Underground Goes Country. Hey, now there's an idea!
About the Gram-era FBB odds n' sods compilation, Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music, the less said the better. Just because it's there doesn't mean it should be released. One good song ("The Train Song") and the rest crap covers. If this were your first G.P. record, you'd say, "What's the big deal?" After hearing Merle Haggard do "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down," Gram sounds like a little kid. It makes you realize that as great as Gram was, he was more of a Country Rocker than a Honky Tonker, even if his heart and liver were in the right place.
posted by ken at 8:59 PM
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