Music from Big Pink |
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Released: July 1, 1968 Peak: 30 US, -- UK, 18 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: folk rock/Americana |
Tracks:Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Total Running Time: 42:22 The Players:
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Rating: 4.450 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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Before Their DebutThe musicians who comprised The Band originally came together in 1958 as the Hawks, the backing band for Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. By the mid-‘60s, they gained an even higher profile image supporting Bob Dylan in the mid-‘60s when he went electric. “Their collaborations with the folk king made the Hawks more adaptable during their live sets and gave them something of a jam-band feel.” CSWhen Dylan was laid up after a motorcycle accident, the Band joined him at his retreat in Woodstock, New York – what became known as “Big Pink.” They recorded what became known as The Basement Tapes in 1967, although they weren’t publicly released until after The Band became a known entity. Their efforts also resulted in The Band’s debut album, Music from Big Pink. The Sound of the First AlbumThey were rumoured to have recorded Big Pink live in the studio in just a couple of weeks. The music “certainly sounds as organic as that.” PM The music sounded like “a loose jam session, the arrangements giving alternating emphases to different instruments, while the lead and harmony vocals passed back and forth as if the singers were making up their blend on the spot.” AM “There are no stage hogs; everyone stands out.” PMThey “delved deeply into he American soil for their sound and themes, using organ, fiddles, and mandolins in place of effects-laden electric guitars.” RD Their sound was a merging of “their varying interests in folk, R&B, jazz, country and soul.” PM They didn’t “fit in with the ‘60s and ‘70s rock scenes…The Band remained firmly rooted in tradition” CQ singing about “family, faith, and rural life” AM “through a lens of mountainous, archaic Americana, spinning yarns about courageous settlers and the Civil War.” CQ It “detonated in the middle of the psychedelic era,” RD coming off “as a shockingly divergent musical statement only a year after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, when rock had moved toward ornate productions.” AM The album “still sounds bacingly fresh more than three decades after it was recorded.” RD The Members“With their passionate, free-flowing delivery and vocal harmonies that were as powerful and ragged as Crosby, Stills and Nash’s…the Band redfined how a rock group worked together – neither as a single, melodious unit nor as a backup band supporting a single frontman, but as five talented individuals bouncing musical ideas off each other like a heavily amplified porch quintet.” CSRichard Manuel's “aching pipes drench the entire album in earnest, alcoholic tears, especially on closer ‘I Shall Be Released.’” CQ His “haunting, lonely voice” AM infuses the album with “much of its frightening aspect, even when he wasn't singing lead (especially his moans in ‘The Weight’).” AM “Rick Danko’s and Levon Helm’s rough-hewn styles reinforced the songs’ rustic fervor. The dominant instrument was Garth Hudson's organ, which could be icy and majestic, his other keyboards introducing novel sounds.” AM “Robbie Robertson's unusual guitar work further destabilized the sound” AM and got him “recognized as one of the most soulful guitarists of his day.” CS The InfluenceThe Band spearheaded “a movement more toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music from Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.” AM There’s a certain irony that the form of music now referred to as Americana owes a debt to a “four Canadians and a an Arkansas farm boy.” RD It has been suggested, though, that “as outsiders, the group’s members were in a unique position to appreciate American folklore and mythology.” CS“Following their lead were folks like George Harrison and Eric Clapton, envious that this Canadian-American group were as authentic as it gets and trying desperately to ride their collective coattails toward a rootsier sound. But as Big Pink lays out, these boys had this sound in their bloodstream, in their bones, in their muscle memory. It all came natural and sounded as perfect and lived-in as could be.” PM The SongsHere are thoughts on some of the individual songs from the album.The album’s best-known song was The Weight, a song which “considered various acts of kindness that went wrong” AM and featured “the stacked harmonies and traded leads of Levon Helm and Rick Danko.” PM “Dylan features prominently, penning the classic plea I Shall Be Released, a song which “expressed the hopeless hope of a prisoner who determined his salvation by viewing the world in reverse (‘I see my light coming shining from the west unto the east,’ he sang, as if the earth were spinning in the opposite direction from its usual course).” AM Dylan also collaborated with Manuel on “the wrenching opening track, Tears of Rage,” RD “a lament by parents about a rebellious child.” AM Bassist Rick Danko and Dylan worked together on “the vengeful This Wheel’s on Fire.” RD Chest Fever featured “Garth Hudson’s Captain Nemo organ solo.” PM “Robertson’s genius [is] already fully evident on Caledonia Mission.” RD Notes:The 2000 CD reissue “included nine bonus tracks…Among the new material, there were alternate takes of ‘Tears of Rage’ and ‘Lonesome Suzie’ (the former only marginally different, the latter a completely different approach to the song); versions of four songs previously released on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes (‘Yazoo Street Scandal,’ ‘Katie’s Been Gone,’ ‘Long Distance Operator,’ and ‘Orange Juice Blues [Blues for Breakfast]’); covers of country and blues material (‘If I Lose,’ ‘Key to the Highway’); and one original song probably from the group's initial demo session (‘Ferdinand the Imposter’).” AM |
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First posted 3/28/2010; last updated 7/17/2025. |
