Wednesday, September 12, 2007

His Pretty Face Is Going to Hell

Wow -- this one took me by surprise. The classic lineup of the Flying Burrito Brothers (circa early '69) with Gram Parsons doing Gram's fiendishly catch "Older Guys." And carrying on like they think they're in A Hard Days Night, to boot.



From the way Gram's mincing around here, I think it's safe to assume he'd begun hanging around with the Stones by this point. Sheesh, he's got eye makeup on, for crying out loud.

The song itself is one of the more obscure Burrito's tracks, and in many ways it's the closest they ever came to pop. The eighth-note feel makes it almost seem like a proto-New Wave song, something these guys -- about whom much more in a post tomorrow -- noticed and made explicit in a terrific cover back in '93.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, the Flying Burrito Bros.

The band that the Eagles all secretly wished they were as good as.

Thanks for reminding me of this. I was gonna post it but I totally forgot about it. I recall there was also some footage from their pic shoot for the 1st LP.

David Rasmussen said...

I love that song and never knew it was a cover! I also love tomorrow's band!

Heather said...

Gawd, what a beautiful, talented fuckup he was. Thanks for posting this.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely heather. Gram made more timeless music by the age of 26 than some artists make in an entire lifetime.

God, I wish he had hung around a little longer.