Musicians
- Gram Parsons — Lead Vocals, Guitar
- Chris Hillman — Harmony Vocals, Guitar
- Sneaky Pete Kleinow — Pedal Steel
- Chris Ethridge — Bass
“Sin City” is a song written by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman and recorded by their band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, for their influential 1969 debut album, “The Gilded Palace of Sin.” By Hillman’s account, the two wrote it in about half an hour, building from a single opening line about a town filled with sin.
The lyric is a dark, almost apocalyptic look at late-1960s Los Angeles — a gilded, corrupt city, with glancing references to the music business and to the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and a warning that a reckoning may be coming. Its mournful close harmony drew openly on the Louvin Brothers and other country duos.
The song became a country-rock classic and crossed into bluegrass.
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