One of the first I considered a perfect album (not a single less than very good song, and most great.). The Kinks had three in a row in ’66, ’67, and ’68 (Face To Face, Village Green Preservation Society, and Something Else.). In ’65 and ’66 The Beatles made two in a row which that cannot be said of due to one song one each (the cloying "Michele" on Rubber Soul, and the dreadful "Yellow Submarine" on Revolver.). The next in line---the absurdly over-rated Sgt. Pepper, is 1/4 garbage ("A Little Help From My Friends", "Within You Without You", "When I’m Sixty-Four". Really?), 1/4 mediocre, and 1/2 good.
I didn’t get into Music From Big Pink until after The Band’s s/t brown album, the subject of this thread. MFBP too is a perfect album, but very different from the brown. MFPB was recorded in professional studios in NYC (Columbia Studio A) and Hollywood (Capitol Records Studio B), with union engineers. The engineers initially insisted The Band set up in the fashion common at the time in recording studios: isolated from each other, separated by gobos---the padded partitions that allowed the engineers to get mic separation. The Band eventually got the engineers to allow them to setup in a circle, in which they were used to rehearsing. The engineers applied the eq typically used at the time, leading to the "commercial" sound of excess "sheen", along with plate reverb & electronic echo, to make for a "bigger" sound. Listen to reverb trail after Levon Helm smacks his floor tom thrice at the beginning of "The Weight". Are the engineers trying to make the drums sound like they are in a cavern?!
In contrast, due to the success of MFBP the Capitol Records suits agreed to The Band and producer John Simon’s request to rent them recording equipment with which to record the brown album themselves. They famously rented a house in the Hollywood Hills formerly-owned by Sammy David Jr., living in the house and setting up a studio in the pool cabana. They recorded the album in a month, John Simon doing the engineering. Waaay ahead of everyone else (except Les Paul ;-).
The sound of the brown album is very unlike that of MFBP: very organic, with no attempt to sound "commercial". No excessive eq, no heavy compression, no gratuitous echo and reverb, using the latter only occasionally and sparingly, and then with artistic intent (to make a voice sound far off in the distance, for example). The sound of the drums on the album (very deep, "thumpy") is commonly discussed by reviewers, and attributed to the vintage drums Garth Hudson found in a pawn shop on Santa Monica Blvd., and which Levon Helm started using as his stage set. MYTH! If you look at the pics on the inside of the gatefold cover you will clearly see Levon’s set of black diamond pearl Gretsch drums. He DID use the wood snare from the vintage set on some songs, his Ludwig metal-shell Supraphonic on others. The reason the drums sound so good is that Levon had very good taste, and knew how to tune and damp drums (Ringo LOVED the sound Levon got.).
The s/t brown album is nothing less that a watershed moment and event in Rock ’n’ Roll history, influencing everyone and actually changing the trajectory of the music. So has said Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, Buddy Miller, Richard Thompson, Neil Young (Harvest was his attempt to duplicate the brown album), Elton John (Bernie Taupin said Tumbleweed Connection was their homage to the album), and every good musician I’ve ever known. It is the B.C./A.D. moment in Rock ’n Roll history. I can't decide if it or Music From Big Pink is my favorite album, but they are definitely my two favorite albums of all time.
