A&M Records
seemed to close the book on
the Flying Burrito Brothers
with
Close Up the Honky-Tonks
, a 23-track, double-LP compilation. A combination best-of and odds-and-sods career wrap-up, the album contained one LP given over to tracks from
the Burritos
' first two records,
The Gilded Palace of Sin
and
Burrito Deluxe
, plus the non-LP single
"The Train Song."
The second disc presented 11 previously unreleased tracks, most of them cover songs, ranging from
the Bee Gees
'
"To Love Somebody"
to
the Everly Brothers
"Wake Up, Little Susie."
Co-founder
Gram Parsons
was featured on the five songs on side three, while side four came from the
Rick Roberts
era of the band.
The Burritos
would lack a one-disc best-of until
A&M
came up with the CD/cassette release
Farther Along
in 1988. So, for more than a decade,
was the definitive
Burritos
compilation and contains some excellent performances available nowhere else. ~ William Ruhlmann