or better or worse, we here at Stylus, in all of our autocratic consumer-crit greed, are slaves to timeliness. A record over six months old is often discarded, deemed too old for publication, a relic in the internet age. That's why each week at Stylus, one writer takes a look at an album with the benefit of time. Whether it has been unjustly ignored, unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way, we aim with On Second Thought to provide a fresh look at albums that need it.

Gram Parsons invented the genre we now know as country rock (Parsons called it "Cosmic American Music") with his first band, the International Submarine Band’s debut album Safe at Home back in 1967. A year later, following a chance meeting with Chris Hillman in a Los Angeles bank, Parsons joined the Byrds and brought his "Cosmic American Music" with him. He stayed with the Byrds long enough to record one of the genre’s greatest albums, Sweetheart of the Rodeo before departing due to contract disputes with his previous label (which resulted in his vocals being stripped from the album) and the band’s decision to tour South Africa. Shortly thereafter Parsons and Hillman formed The Flying Burrito Brothers with session musicians "Sneeky" Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge joining in on pedal steel and bass, respectively. On their debut, Gilded Palace of Sin, Parsons and company more or less perfected the genre (though the final product was more "country soul" than "country rock"). Simply put, the ultimate mix of Buck Owens/Merle Haggard style country, backwoods gospel, Everly Brothers harmonies, Memphis soul, and straightforward rock. American? Yes. Cosmic? Sure, why not?

"Christine’s Tune (Devil in Disguise)", an ode to the resident lady of the evening at the Burritos’ favorite bar, sets the tone for the rest of the album with Parsons and Hillman doing their best Don and Phil Everly impresssions over a standard Bakersfield country background while Kleinow tries to steal the show with his fuzz tone pedal steel. The transportation anthem "Wheels" follows more or less the same pattern, though Kleinow shows a bit more restraint with his fuzz box. On "Sin City" Parsons and Hillman (who are still in Everly Brothers mode) issue a tongue and cheek warning to the sinners of LA (especially the car salesmen) of future earthquakes and that "on the 31st floor/a gold plated door/won’t keep out/the Lord’s burning rain".

Parsons gets a chance to showcase his skill as a soul singer with his take on Aretha Franklin’s "Do Right Woman" and what, in my opinion, is one of the top five covers of all time, "Dark End of the Street" (originally recorded by Percy Sledge). His voice shines through with a compelling, confident southern charm, which he also uses to great affect on the weepy, lost love ballad "Hot Burrito #1" (as well as "Wild Horses" and "$1000 Wedding" later on in his career), which along with "Hot Burrito #2" serves as the centerpiece of the album. In "#1" he loses his girl and wallows in his sorrow, in the Big Star foreshadowing "#2" he wipes his tears away and moves on.

Following Gilded Palace of Sin, Parsons started to lose interest in the Burritos, opting to hang out with drug buddy Keith Richards instead. The result was the spotty, primarily rock influenced follow up Burrito Deluxe. Hillman eventually booted Parsons out of the group for "lacking discipline" and hired future Firefall frontman Rick Roberts as a replacement for the Burritos’ final self titled album. Parsons went on to record two excellent solo albums, 1972s GP and the posthumously released Grievous Angel before dying of a heroin overdose in the California desert in 1973 at age 26.