Friends of Friends: Burritos for the Eighties, anyone..?

One group's valley is another group's mountain. And nowhere is that more true than in our ongoing (though soon ending) adventures of The Flying Burrito Brothers. Once they were flying no more, they were flying higher than ever. And while they finally climbed the mountain of charts success, for some their output is the nadir of The Flying Burrito Brothers. Those last folks would be wrong by the way. But yeah, we are now entering the phase in which the once again reconstituted Burritos would shed both the Flying from their band name - seemingly upon pressure from the record company - and also any pretension of upholding classic country traditions. Nothing on the records of the newly christened Burrito Brothers would be something a stone cold trad country guy like Gram Parsons would recognize. 

Originally The Burrito Brothers were indeed a continuation of the reborn Burritos from 1975. Gene Parsons had been replaced by old Byrds comrade Skip Battin, and several years and several misadventures too long to recount later, three of the five Burritos from 1976 were still going: Gib Guilbeau, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Battin. The new guy in tow was, as per usual for the band, an old acquaintance: Guilbeau's old bandmate in Swampwater, John Beland. Both men immediately hit up a fruitful songwriting partnership. And from these sessions sprang the songs for the Burrito Brothers, a project that was way more commercial than anything they had issued since at least Flying Again. Too much for Skip Battin, who got quickly sidelined (with no hope at any lead vocals), and - despite being on the cover of the first album - quit the band during the making of their first album. Afterwards, the band continued on as a trio for a bit (while picking up bassists and drummers as needed), but then decisions loomed. 

True to their new sound, Guilbeau & Beland wanted to move to Nashville, while Sneaky Pete - a Los Angelito for almost twenty years now - wanted to continue his dual career as an animator, thus letting the other two leave with the Burritos name in tow. Quick trivia time: What do The Empire Strikes Back, The Right Stuff, The Terminator and Gremlins have in common? Sneaky Pete worked on their special visual effects, even if he wasn't always credited! Yay, Sneaky!

But Kleinow was now gone from the group he founded and led throughout its first revival phase, though admittedly in Beland & Guilbeau's new, slicker country sound there wasn't much space for his attention-heavy pedal steel style. With Kleinow gone, the two Burrito Brothers decided to stay as a duo and pick up musicians whenever live shows called for them. And so they did. And as indicated in the opening paragraph, they did it very successfully. Having had a single chart entry for a single, a measly (and fluky) 95 in 1979, they racked up nine singles hits, seven of them Top 50 hits (with one other barely missing, at 53). The Flying Burrito Brothers never were a commercially successful band, the Burrito Brothers definitely were...

But is the music any good? Yes, if you can stomach a certain slickness that comes with Beland's & Guilbeau's style. It's no wonder that they finally started to sell some records, because they both could write highly commercial music with clear and big hooks, recored with an extremely professional sound. Friends Of Friends is a compilation of what to my mind is the best of the Burrito Brothers, culled from the entire period of their adventures, from first single "She's A Friend Of A Friend" to songs from their goodbye album recorded years after they stopped (Back To The Sweethearts Of The Rodeo). Some of these songs, like "I'm Drinkin' Canada Dry" have some solid country humour, others show their hand for ballads ("Burning Embers"). It might be hard to reconcile what the Burrito Brothers are doing with, say, The Gilded Palace Of Sin, but taken on their own, this is a fun listen. Spring is knocking on our doors, and this is pretty good driving music, if nothing else. But also something else. 

And with this entry we are almost at the end of the One Buck Records Burrito week. Tomorrow, as a sort of "encore", the Burrito Brothers do their final stand, at least on One Buck Records, with a live album, and then we're off to something else...