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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.

bdp24
slaw's avatar
slaw
22,886 posts
 
@n80,

You posted either here or elsewhere that you really don't want to get into vinyl. Yet, by your own posts are continuing to buy vinyl and continuing to make blanket statements against this format all at the same time without having any real experience for yourself that (is required) before making blanket statements or starting posts that assumes you actually have said experience. What gives?
slaw's avatar
slaw
22,886 posts
 
@bdp24 ,

Sorry dude.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
10,166 posts
 

@slaw, sorry for what Steve? No apology necessary, everything you said is fine by me! I agree about $30 being too much for an "RL" pressing of the brown LP (let alone $60!); I’ve had original UK pressings of both MFBP and the brown album since the late 60’s, and recently went looking for USA "RL" pressings (after reading a comment about them by you, as a matter of fact), and found a Mint Minus copy of each on ebay awhile back for ten bucks apiece. You have to know what to look for in LP listings (there is no substitute for experience), and be patient enough to wait for really clean copies to pop up. But I think the $30 n80 paid was for a new Mobile Fidelity pressing, which is a fine price, and money well spent.

@N80, sorry for your confusion over which album is which. Music From Big Pink is the album with cover art painted (poorly ;-) by Dylan, and a photograph on the rear cover of the Big Pink house in Saugerties, NY. The brown album has an almost-sepia-toned photograph of The Band taken outside on it’s front cover. Both albums are imo excellent (to put it mildly), but very different. The brown album is easily digestible on first listen, being not so austere as MFBP. The brown has an "organic" sound---lots of acoustic instruments, and a "down home" recorded sound quality, no studio effects. MFBP was recorded in pro studios in NYC and L.A., the brown album recorded by producer John Simon on a 4-track recorder rented from Capitol Records, done in the pool cabana of a house The Band rented in L.A. They stayed in the house, and went out to the cabana every day to record, set up in a circle facing each other (as they had done in the MFBP sessions, after talking the engineers into the idea). Here’s something else to know about both albums: the singing was recorded simultaneously with the instruments, not over-dubbed later. VERY few bands are capable of doing that.

n80
2,133 posts
 
bdp24 I think Steve is apologizing for me, and to a lesser extent, him, for highjacking your thread.

Steve, I think you are misunderstanding me. In general my comments about vinyl have _nothing_ to do with sound quality. I'm not making any vinyl SQ verses whatever else comparisons. My only references to vinyl SQ have been in regard to measured DR variations. That's it. So experience and level of equipment is not at all relevant to the points I've made.

My issues with vinyl have nothing to do with SQ, just the whole 'ritual' for lack of a better word, the care required, etc. I haven't even suggested that this should put anyone else off. It is just my personal opinion on the matter and I've seen it shared by any number of previously dedicated vinyl fans.

I also don't think that buying a few albums constitutes any sort of contradiction. I often preface that I'm not getting into vinyl simply to indicate that I'm not looking for advice on equipment, special pressings, etc. (One of these days I might....I'm dabbling here.) Sorry if this caused confusion.

If I've crossed a line, you know, like religion, politics, etc, then I apologize. I'll try to tread more lightly in the future.
n80
2,133 posts
 
bdp24, thanks for the clarification on the two albums. I do not have the brown album yet. Will probably get it on CD soon. Not knowing how to ID albums and such, all I can say is that this pressing of MFBP is SKAO 2955 and is by Capital. SKAO 2955 is engraved in the runoff area and I do not see anything else there but some sort of arrow symbol.

If I've paid too much, shame on me. I didn't do any research.
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