@rettrussell: A beautiful post, thank you. Eric Clapton also holds Richard Manuel in very high regard. His death (okay, suicide) is the only one of a musician that brought me to tears.
@relayer101: I myself found Music From Big Pink to be unfathomable for a year after its' release in 1968. It wasn't until the next year that I heard my first really good ensemble-style band (New Buffalo, a quarter lead by Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin, with Bobby's brother Randy Fuller on bass and harmony vocals) that I "got" that style of music. It changed everything. I view the history of Rock 'n' Roll in terms of BTB (before The Band) and ATB (after). Not to be sacrilegious, but like B.C. and A.D.