50 years on---the brilliance of The Band and their astounding debut album.


There are people who still, fifty years after it’s release on July 1st, 1968, don’t get what all the fuss made about The Band’s debut album, Music From Big Pink, is all about. I understand; I didn’t until a whole year later. It took me that long to figure out "What the heck IS this?" I didn’t get it AT ALL (I had just turned 18, and was still a boy ;-). Here’s what some people who did had to say about it at the time of it’s release:

Al Kooper: "Music From Big Pink is an event and should be treated as one. There are people who will work their whole lives away in vain and not touch it." Eric Clapton admitted as much when, while inducting them into The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall Of Fame, said "I was relieved in a way when they ended. I no longer had to live with the fact that I was not in The Band." Eric had gone to West Saugerties, NY (the town the Big Pink house, not far from Woodstock, was located) after being played Music From Big Pink by George Harrison (whereupon Eric immediately disbanded Cream), intending to ask to join The Band. He never got up the courage, and eventually realized they neither desired nor required his services ;-).

Speaking of George Harrison, during the January 2, 1969 sessions for what became The Beatles sad Get Back/Let It Be album and film (which are painful, for me at least, to listen to and/or watch), he played a new song of his for the boys, "All Things Must Pass" (which we eventually heard on George’s debut album). The song was originally written to be performed in a country-prayer style, which George later said he had imagined as sung by Band drummer Levon Helm.

During the fade-out at the end of The Beatles live performance of "Hey Jude" filmed at Twinkerham Film Studios on September 4th, 1968 and later shown on The David Frost TV show, McCartney quotes lyrics from The Band’s "The Weight" (an indescribably great song), singing "Take a load off Fanny...".

Greil Marcus, in his 1975 book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ’n’ Roll Music, wrote: "The richness of Big Pink is in The Band’s ability to contain endless combinations of American popular music without imitating any of them." The Band’s recordings made with Dylan in the basement of Big Pink in 1967 (now known as The Basement Tapes, The Band at the time as The Hawks) are now viewed as the genesis of what is known as Americana music. Ironic, then, that all but drummer Levon Helm are Canadians, recruited one-by one by Arkansas Rockabilly Ronnie Hawkins during his years playing clubs and bars in Canada in the late-50’s/early 60’s.

It’s hard to overstate the impact Music From Big Pink had on musicians of my generation. Everyone I knew, most especially myself, had to start all over, learning to play in the "musical" style of The Band. Gone were the Les Paul’s and Gibson SG’s into Marshall stacks, and double-kick drumsets with half-a-dozen cymbals, replaced with Telecasters into small combo amps (the Fender Deluxe Reverb a particular favorite), and 4-piece drumsets (tuned low and "thumpy", like Levon) with a couple of cymbals. Gone were the long solos and earbleed-inducing volume. In was ensemble playing, great songs, and harmony singing. Workingman’s Dead is an obvious attempt at being The Band (sabotaged by The Grateful Dead’s member’s inability to sing very well), as is Neil Young’s Harvest.

I still listen to Music From Big Pink EVERY SINGLE DAY, and have for years. Music simply does not get any better than this. There is a new, remixed and mastered (mixed by Bob Clearmountain, mastered by Bob Ludwig) release of the album by Capitol on 2-45RPM LP’s and CD, as well as a deluxe boxset with a nice book, prints of pictures taken of The Band by Elliott Landy in 1968, a Blu Ray 24/96 disc of the album, both the LP’s and CD, and a 7" 45 of The Band’s first single, "The Weight"/"I Shall Be Released". If you don’t have the album and want to, I would suggest you get the current Mobile Fidelity LP or SACD instead of this new version. I’m not yet sure about the remix.

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Thanks, man.  Most of us "old folks" who loved music were HUGE Band fans from day 1.  

You have brought back some wonderful memories; I still have them on my turntable often and listen to ALL their albums from over the many years they were recording.  Commentors are correct: they are as good as any musicians who chose to write and record during this period.

RIP, Levon and Rick. 

And Richard, richopp! He was the first of the three to pass away, at his own hand (suicide by hanging). A truly great, great singer (Eric Clapton is in awe of his voice), and very interesting drummer. Few know it, but he plays drums on about half the songs on the brown album. And he plays piano as part of the rhythm section, not like Elton John and Billy Joel, etc.

But it’s not just us old guys who appreciate The Band. There’s a whole underground appreciation society amongst the hipper younger musicians, songwriters, and singers. There have been live shows in both Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles of local bands performing either all Band songs, or songs from The Last Waltz. And I hear The Band in my favorite older musicians; Lucinda Williams Country Blues is full of The Band, as is the music made by Buddy Miller, John Hiatt, Richard Thompson, many others. Nick Lowe has said his original band (he was a member of Brinsley Schwartz) were trying to be The Band, and admitted they fell far short ;-).

@michaellent, I too have cried when listening to "The Weight". I applaud your courage in admitting to crying in response to music, especially to a sausage-fest audience such as AudiogoN ;-). No offence, Elizabeth. Some other songs that bring me to tears are "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys (perhaps Brian Wilson’s greatest song), "West" by Lucinda Williams, and "No Time To Cry" by Iris Dement. I made the mistake of using the latter as demo material while auditioning the Crosby Quads at CES in the late 90’s. Luckily only Jerry and I were in the room at the time ;-) ---Eric.

I could talk for hours about The Band, and have. Levon Helm is a musical giant in my book, and I’m not alone in that sentiment. Here’s part of his great story:

Levon grew up in Helena, Arkansas, the same town in which blues harmonica-great Sonny Boy Williamson lived. In the mid-1950’s Sonny Boy often performed on the local radio station’s live afternoon show. Levon, then in High School, would go to the station after school and situate himself in a corner of the studio, watching and listening to the Negro band. He got himself a snare drum, learned his rudiments, and started playing dances around town (how musicians started out in those days).

Ronnie Hawkins was a local Rockabilly singer who had had some success, and when he lost his drummer (whose wife had insisted he get a real job) he approached Levon about joining his back-up band, The Hawks. Hawkins had already been up to Canada, where the clubs, bars, dancehalls, etc,. were paying American bands real well. Levon was rarin’ to go, but his family insisted he finish High School first. No one in Levon’s family ever had! This was farming country; people stayed in school long enough to learn the 3 R’s, then went to work picking cotton or whatever.

Hawkins decided to hang around for the few months left in Levon’s education, then Ronnie, Levon, and the rest of The Hawks headed North. Up in Canada, every so often one of The Hawks would leave the band, and Ronnie would hire a replacement from the local talent pool. Those replacements included Robbie Robertson (guitar), Rick Danko (bass), Richard Manuel (piano), and Garth Hudson (organ, sax), hired one by one. Levon had been happy to be a hired sideman, but now thought this version of The Hawks---later to be renamed The Band---were ready to go out on their own. And that they did.

They traveled down into the States, playing all across the South, the Midwest, and up and down the Eastern seaboard, at every honky-tonk, bar, nightclub, and dancehall that had live entertainment. In 1965 they had a week off, so took a trip to Helena, to look up Sonny Boy, whom they heard had just returned from a tour of The UK and Europe. They drove into town, and saw Sonny Boy walking down a street in his suit and bowler hat. Levon reminded him of their meeting at the radio station years ago, and introduced the other Hawks to him. They decided to head to a nearby soul food restaurant, where they ate, drank, and talked. Some cops showed up, asked the young white men what they were doing hanging around with Negroes, and told them to get outta town. In 1965, segregation was alive and well in Arkansas. The Hawks made arrangements to meet Sonny Boy the next day, where he and they got down to playing some music. For hours.

Sonny Boy was stunned by this white band’s knowledge of and abilities at playing Blues music, and he and they discussed them going on the road with him as his backing band. The asked about his UK/European tour, and the local back-up bands the tour promoter had provided him with. He said of the bands: "They wanna play the Blues SO bad. And that’s just how they play it". One of those bands was The Yardbirds, whose guitarist at the time was Eric Clapton ;-).

Before they were to go on the road with Sonny Boy, The Hawks received a call from Sonny Boy’s people, telling them he had passed away. Later that year they received a call from Bob Dylan’s manager, making them the same offer. The rest is history. By the time they started recording Music From Big Pink in January of 1968, The Band had been playing together longer than had The Beatles, who were beginning their slow death. Playing together for eight before getting a major-label deal had turned them into the best Rock ’n’ Roll Band in the world. They will NEVER be equaled.