Once A Day

Nick West's reviews for Bucketfull Of Brains and Rock'N'Reel

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Location: London, United Kingdom

Co-editor and publisher of Bucketfull Of Brains since 1996.

Friday, December 12, 2008


THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS

OUT OF THE BLUE

A&M
540 408-2

Their place in the pantheon secure, as the first and finest country rock band, we don't need to waste much time assessing the merits of the contents of this compilation. What you get is forty two stunning tracks, a seamless flow of brilliance, including the first two albums in their entirety. Music to party to, music to drink to, music to love. It's compiled by Sid Griffin who provides erudite and enthusiastic sleeve notes as one would expect. Not to mention whetting the appetite for his forthcoming BBC documentary on Gram Parsons through the tantalising references to various bits of film footage.

The documentary, I rather suspect, is the hook on which this collection hangs, and therefore its not aimed at the long time fan but as a new viewers start here project. If you already own 'The Gilded Palace of Sin' and 'Burrito Deluxe' there's no reason you're going to want them again in a jumbled order together with bits of 'Last of the Red Hot Burritos' and the various compilations. If you don't then you should really have them as they were originally intended.

If you're starting to get the idea that I'm carping ungratefully well I am. I would be quite happy to buy all the Burrito's stuff I already have again if it came as part of a complete package along the lines of the Velvets box set. This though doesn't add anything to the sum of my knowledge. If anything it confuses. The lack of order and track information mean you have to scurry off to other sources to piece this collection together. There is also a suspicion that this isn't quite the compilation that Sid originally submitted; I find it odd that after singling out 'Colorado' from the third album for particular praise it then doesn't appear.

So on that sour note I sign off. You won't find better music on many albums issued this year but at Bob Towers we demand more.

(from BoB#46 Aug 1996)

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