Pitchfork

Bobby George and Vern Stovall's "Long Black Limousine" is one of the grimmest anti-fame anthems country music ever produced. "Well, you said when you left me that someday you'd return in a fancy car for all the town to see," goes the second verse. "Now you're back here from the city and you finally got your dream. Now you're riding in that long black limousine." Damn. Musically, Gram Parsons' take doesn't stray far from versions by Wynn Stewart, Glen Campbell, Bobby Bare, or Merle Haggard, but he gets the small-town perspective and the implied moralism just right, thanks as much to the band's gentle country accompaniment as to his stoic vocals. Previously unavailable, the song is included on Amoeba Records' 2-CD Gram Parsons Archives Vol. 1: The Flying Burrito Brothers "Live" at the Avalon 1969.

MP3:> Gram Parsons: "Long Black Limousine"

[From Gram Parsons Archives Vol. 1: The Flying Burrito Brothers Live at the Avalon 1969; available now from Amoeba Records]