April 25 — “Hot Burrito #1” as covered by Belly

Legendary country rock bassist Chris Ethridge passed away on Monday from pancreatic cancer. He was best known as a frequent collaborator with Gram Parsons, and a founding member of The Flying Burrito Brothers. After leaving the Burritos, he did some work with some giants of popular music such as Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson, Randy Newman and Jackson Browne.

In honor of Ethridge, today’s song is a beautiful cover of “Hot Burrito #1”, as done by Belly. The song was co-written by Ethridge and Parsons, and it originally appeared on The Flying Burrito Brothers’ debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969).

Belly’s version of it appeared on their 1992 EP Gepetto. There was a misprint on the initial pressing of the EP, which resulted in the song being mislabeled as “Hot Burrito #2”. That’s a different song altogether. Subsequent pressings of the EP corrected the misprint. The uncorrected records and CD digipaks have a white cover, while the corrected versions are black.

I’ve heard a lot of different covers of this song. To name a few: Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket, Cowboy Junkies, The Black Crowes. They’re all good in their own way, even if they’re a bit unimaginative. I’m partial to the Belly version because, well…, it’s Belly.

Belly

Belly was an indie pop band founded in 1991 by former Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly. She recruited bassist Fred Abong, who also formerly played in the Muses. Rounding out the band were brothers Chris (drums) and Tom (guitar) Gorman. They only put out two proper albums, but loads of singles and a couple of EPs. The band was dissolved in 1996, and Tanya Donelly went on to make a handful of solo records.

I’ve always been partial to Belly’s first record — Star(1993)– which featured the mainstream pop radio hit “Feed The Tree”. I also like the second record — King(1995)– but I just go back to Star much more frequently. I’ve actually had an argument that nearly turned into a fist fight about this. Part of my hangup with King has to do with the change that brought Gail Greenwood into the band. I never liked her, and she was way out-of-place as Belly’s bassist. She looked and acted like she would much rather have been in L7. She got that wish when Belly disbanded. I actually, to this day, blame her for killing Belly. I’m glad that Tanya had a solo career, but I wanted more Belly.

So anyway, if you only listen to one song today, make it “Hot Burrito #1” as covered by Belly:

I like that unlike most cover versions, they weren’t shy with the drums. In the original version and in most cover versions, the drums are kinda sparse. Not that they’re heavy here. Just that they’re present right from the drop. The guitar is a bit more prominent, too. The original starts off with piano, then gradually shifts to guitar, but it’s never quite as front in the mix as this Belly version. The Elvis Costello and Cowboy Junkies versions both exaggerate the piano bits, practically turning the song into their own.

As much as I like the band, I’m not very fond of the Cowboy Junkies version of “Hot Burrito #1”. I hate the way Margo Timmins changed the lyrics to reverse the gender roles. The original lyric at the end of the first verse is

He may feel all your charms
He may hold you in his arms
But I’m the one who let you in
I was right beside you then

Timmins annoyingly changed that to

She may feel all your charms
You might hold her in your arms

Then in the second verse, there’s more. Parsons and Ethridge did it this way:

I’m your toy, I’m your ol’ boy
And I don’t want no one but you to love me
No, I wouldn’t lie
You know I’m not that kind of guy

Timmins changed it to:

You’re my toy. You’re my sweet boy
And I don’t want no one but you to love me
No, I wouldn’t lie
I know you’re not that kind of guy

I’m not sure why I’m annoyed by that, but I am.

Back on track to today’s song and why I prefer it over the others. With the help of Juliana Hatfield on backing vocals, Tanya sings it straight up. I respect the fact that she didn’t feel the need to change the roles.

I love the way she’s practically whispering at the beginning. Actually for almost all of the song. The third verse is the same as the second, and that’s where Tanya does her stuff. The second time through that “You know I’m not that kind of guy” section, she really belts it out. It gives me goose-flesh when she does that. It’s my favorite bit of the song.

The “white cover” version of the Gepetto EP with the misprint is out of print. There are some copies floating around, though. As cool as I think it is, the reality of it is that there isn’t very much collectible value to that misprint. There have been Beatles records with misprinted labels, and even those don’t have collectible value. They’re not coins or stamps, after all.

The “black cover” version has a different mix of “Gepetto”, and the misprint was corrected. It’s also out of print, but is much more readily available. Get it here.