Hot Burrito No. 2

"Hot Burrito #1," from the Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin, captured Gram Parsons at his most emotionally naked and romantically shattered. "Hot Burrito #2" (which was written by Parsons and Chris Ethridge), appropriately enough, offered the flip side of his musical personality -- here the narrator has gotten his swagger back, and if this song is also an examination of a relationship on the skids, here Parsons has stopped begging and started making some demands ("You'd better love me/Jesus Christ!"). Also, while "Hot Burrito #1" was a country weeper of the first order, "Hot Burrito #2" had a lot more to do with Parsons' other great passion, rhythm & blues; despite the sting of Sneaky Pete Kleinow's fuzz-tone pedal steel, the piano and organ accents (which sometimes punctuate the melody like a horn section) give this tune the passion and fire of a great soul record. Of course, Parsons always knew that country and soul were only a hair's breadth apart, but while he often took a R&B tune and brought out its inner twang, here Parsons let the blues take center stage -- and proved he could master them as well.