Springsteen and Clapton on their favorite, heh, band.

The Brown Album was the record where Robbie Robertson took control of the group.  You can hear it.


Stephen Stills was an army brat who grew up in a number of places, but primarily the Florida panhandle.  Confederate trappings were common place in that part of the country.  Further regarding Stills, MFBP was released in July, 1968 which is the same month the final Buffalo Springfield album came out.  Buffalo Springfield was an interesting mixture of rock, country and folk.  And let's not forget The Byrds.  "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" both were released in 1968.  I bring these up because you're making it sound as if The Band came out of nowhere with a unique sound.  They were one of several groups experimenting with rock and country sounds.  I mean Bob Dylan went to Nashville in 1966 to record "Blonde On Blonde".  I would also like to direct your attention to another 1968 release, this one from the Electric Flag,  "Along Time Comin'".  Combing rock, r&b, blues and soul in many ways it parallels MFBP as a roots oriented album.  1968 was an amazing year for music.

The Weight is such a key song in Easy Rider it cemented The Band’s place in rock history, if for no other reason…and Chest Fever was unlike anything most people had ever heard before. There are other quality cuts but overall, compared to the “brown album”, MFBP just doesn’t have the same cohesive brilliance.
The brown album takes me on a journey EVERY time I play it….and that’s been since it was released. Some albums remind me of people and places….. I can nostalgically drift off with the music as backdrop. The brown album effortlessly focuses my attention…. and all distractions fade. I am refreshed.
Not many albums can work that sort of magic.
The Band wrote/performed many more great songs, but IMHO never generated another complete masterpiece album.

@onhwy61 

I bring these up because you're making it sound as if The Band came out of nowhere with a unique sound.

 But they did have a unique sound, unlike any other at the time, and obviously were a perfect match with Dylan (IMO). 

I also have those Byrds albums, and was also a Deadhead, who during those years were also heavily influenced by American ‘roots music’, as were their buddies New Riders, or The Flying Burrito Brothers, or Commander Cody, or Neil Young, et al.  
But you have to agree, The Band was unlike those others, and their difference was noticed both here and abroad. There was never really anyone else like them, they were ‘their own’. Hard to pigeon hole them into any particular category, but their music definitely had ‘American roots’ mixture without being overtly ‘country’ or ‘country rock’ or ‘folk rock’, etc.

onhwy61,
I agree with you. For al The Band worship, I really can't think of any bands from the time that even sounded at all like them. I also think that it's interesting that you mention the Byrds  "Notorious Byrd Brothers", which I think had a much stronger influence on bands of that time and a longer echo as well, all the way to Tom Petty for one.
And no, Steven Stills wasn't imitating The Band with the military uniform. H said in a recent interview that it was a combative time and he was reflecting that.  

The "brown album" has long been one of my desert island dics (somehow I never warmed to MFBP) along with "Europe'72". Songs such as "Tennessee Jed", "Brown Eyed Women", "Ramblin'  Rose" and "Jack Straw" seem to me to be cut from the same cloth as those on The Band's magnum opus. It's too bad the Dead were never able to record a studio album featuring these tunes, as Hunter had hoped. Nevertheless, to my ears, the overlap between the Dead's early 70's output and The Band is particularly strong-- more so than other group from that period. Others will no doubt disagree. . .