Astro, I bought Music From Big Pink upon it's release in '68 on American Capitol, and the s/t album (the "Brown" album) on same in '69. In '70 I got hired at the best record store in San Jose (Discount Records, owned by Columbia/CBS at the time. To get hired you had to pass a Classical music test. A former bandmate of mine was already working there, and was a music major at San Jose State. He gave me all the answers, which I memorized! When I got hired at Tower in '87 there was also a test, but by then I knew the answers on my own ;-), which imported and stocked import LP's. I got copies of both albums on British Capitol, and they were much better I thought at the time, the vinyl being thicker and flatter than the U.S pressings, and noticeably quieter (Capitol LP's were notoriously warped and noisy). For years that was it, 'cause I never got into Japanese pressings.
In the '80's Mobile Fidelity released Music From Big Pink on LP, which sounded different than the British LP, though not necessarily better. MF never did the Brown album, as they said the master tapes had gone missing. But MF's competitor Audio Fidelity (remastering engineer Steve Hoffman) did, claiming the source for their Gold CD release was "The Original Master Tapes". As is true of other's of that label's releases, that claim is hardly possible. Being a CD, it doesn't sound like any of the LP's.
Recently Mobile Fidelity has released the two albums on both 180g LP and SACD. I have them all (as well as The Band's 3rd and 4th albums, nowhere near as good as the first two, unfortunately), but have yet to hear them. My living accommodations have been "in transition", a situation having changed only a few days ago. Can't wait to hear them all!
However, in his coverage of the Brown album (THE Band album for many people, though MFBP is at least as good and in some ways superior), Michael Fremer has been citing the original U.S. Capitol LP pressing (mastered by Robert Ludwig, identifiable by the "RL" etched into the LP's runout groove space by the label) as the best sounding he has heard. I coulda kept my original LP after all!
As an aside, the famous Levon Helm drumset sound on the Brown album, attributed by many including Michael to the vintage Ludwig kit Band Organist Garth Hudson found on Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles, is NOT that of the vintage kit, but of Levon's 60's Gretsch kit, the kit seen in pics on the LP's gatefold cover interior of the album's recording sessions, done in the pool house of the home they rented from Sammy Davis Jr. expressly for the recording of the album. Levon DID play the vintage kit on stage for awhile in the 70's, but his Black Diamond Pearl Gretsch kit is what's on stage at The Last Waltz.
