Burrito Deluxe

Burrito Deluxe is the second album by the country rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers, released in May 1970 on A&M Records, catalogue 4258. It is the last to feature Gram Parsons prior to his dismissal from the group. It contains the first issued version of the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards-written song "Wild Horses," released almost a year before the Rolling Stones own take on it appeared on Sticky Fingers. Background After the release of the group's debut album, ex-Byrd Michael Clarke was hired as the band's full-time drummer — he had recently been playing in another ex-Byrd, Gene Clark's band Dillard and Clark. In the fall of 1969 bassist Chris Ethridge left the Burrito Brothers in frustration at the band's lack of success. In his place the Burritos recruited guitarist Bernie Leadon from the disintegrating Dillard and Clark, freeing Chris Hillman to return to playing bass. The new Burritos lineup for this their second album was thus Parsons, Hillman, Pete Kleinow, Leadon and Clarke. Unfortunately, no one had many new songs to contribute, with Leadon explaining to Parsons biographer David Meyer in 2007, "We started getting together – Gram, Chris, and I – at the A&M lot and trying to write songs. We spent three or four months doing this. It was like pulling teeth. We knew the mechanics of writing music, but the stuff that we did were not Gram's best songs." Hillman concurred to Meyer, "After the brief initial burst Gram and I couldn't seem to hook up again. Burrito Deluxe was recorded without any of the feeling and the intensity of the first album." Recording and composition The LP is perhaps best remembered for containing the first recording of "Wild Horses." Parsons, who first met Rolling Stones songwriter and guitarist Keith Richards in 1968, had developed a close friendship with Richards during 1969. Richards gave Parsons a demo tape of "Wild Horses" on December 7, 1969, the day after the concert at Altamont, apparently in an effort to console Parsons after an alleged miscommunication with Michelle Phillips. In the 2004 documentary Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, Pamela Des Barres states that, "Gram was so proud of the Stones giving him that song to do...'cause that was unusual; the Stones didn't just give songs to people." "Lazy Days" had been recorded by Parsons' previous groups, the International Submarine Band and the Byrds, but neither version was released, although the Byrds' version did eventually surface on the 1990 box set.