The Flying Burrito Brothers – "Hot Burrito #2" (1969)

You loved me, and you sold my clothes

I love you, but that's the way that it goes

[NOTE: I’m pretty sure that “Flying Burrito #2” is the only record in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME to feature a steel guitar – not to mention the only one recorded by a group of musicians who regularly wore Nudie suits.  Here’s a slightly edited version of my May 1, 2012 post featuring “Hot Burrito #2”.]

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Great music may be immortal, but great musicians are not.

Gram Parsons' vocals on the Flying Burrito Brothers' groundbreaking debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, sound as wonderful today as they did when the record was released in 1969.  But Parsons died of a drug and alcohol overdose in 1973, when he was just 26 years old.  (Click here to read more about Parsons' death and its bizarre aftermath.)

Gram Parsons in his Nudie suit

"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, the Burritos' unorthodox steel-guitar virtuoso – he sometimes utilized a fuzzbox, or played through a rotating Leslie speaker designed for use with a Hammond organ – died from Alzheimer's disease in 2007, when he was 72.

Last week, another of the original Flying Burrito Brothers passed away.  Chris Etheridge, who played bass and piano on Gilded Palace of Sin and co-wrote "Hot Burrito #2" with Parsons, died on April 23 after being hospitalized in Meridian, Mississippi – the same town he was born in.  He was 65. 

Chris Etheridge (1947-2012)

Etheridge left the Burritos after Gilded Palace of Sin, which was by far their best album.  He hooked up again with Gram Parsons after Parsons left the band, and later recorded with Judy Collins, Johnny Winter, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, and Leon Russell.  He toured with Willie Nelson for many years, and played bass on the recording of "Whiskey River," one of Nelson's best records.  

"Hot Burrito #2" – which Allmusic described as having "the passion and fire of a great soul record" – is one of my favorite Flying Burrito Brothers' songs.  Although it's hard to say exactly what is going on between the couple in the song, it doesn't sound good.  

But that's the way that it goes.

Click here to listen to "Hot Burrito #2."

Click here to buy "Hot Burrito #2" from Amazon.