Before These Crowded Streets

Before These Crowded Streets is the third studio album by Dave Matthews Band, released on April 28, 1998. It is the last official album by the group to be produced by longtime producer Steve Lillywhite and their first album recorded at The Plant Recording Studios in Sausalito, California.^[4] The album title is taken from the lyrics of the song "The Dreaming Tree."^[5] It is one of only two Dave Matthews Band albums released on vinyl; the other being Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 charts after selling 421,000 units in its first week of release, which in turn knocked off the Titanic soundtrack from the top spot after a run of 16 consecutive weeks at #1.

Track listing

Special guest Tim Reynolds is featured on all tracks.

Several short musical interludes appear between songs:

• A clip in which LeRoi Moore is heard answering his cell phone follows "Rapunzel".
• A clip of flute music follows "Don't Drink the Water".
• An outtake featuring Bela Fleck and Alanis Morissette follows "The Stone".
• A clip of "Doobie Thing" an early DMB instrumental song, follows "Crush".
• A clip of "Anyone Seen the Bridge", a live show transition song, and a short excerpt of "Deed is Done", an unreleased song from the previous tour, follows "Pig".
• A clip now referred to as "The Last Stop Reprise" follows "Spoon."

Songs cut from the album

Songs that were recorded during the sessions, but were not included on the final cut:^[6]

• "Help Myself" - Licensed for the Scream 2 soundtrack in lieu of "Halloween", which the band decided was too good to leave off the album. Long believed to have been recorded during the Crash sessions.
• "Don't Burn the Pig" – Evolved into "Pig" during the sessions.
• "Get in Line"
• "MacHead"
• "#40 (Always)"

MacHead

"MacHead" was a song recorded during the album's sessions, but it was never completed, so it didn't make the album. Producer Steve Lillywhite named the song, claiming it sounded like a cross between the sound of Paul McCartney and Radiohead.^[7] The song's existence is only known from an image on the 1999 fan calendar with a list of the working titles of the other songs on this album and from an alleged meeting in which Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard said recording.

"[MacHead] is a song that we were working on for [Before] These Crowded Streets and it's a song that we just never got to completion before we finished the album. Who knows, maybe one of these days we'll finish it and record it again, but we finished the album before we finished the song."^[8]

—Boyd Tinsley, May 2006

Some fans familiar with the idea of "MacHead" speculated it had been developed, renamed, and added to the band's catalog.^[9] They speculate that "MacHead" developed into "Bartender", which debuted in January 1999 at a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert just months after the April '98 release of Before These Crowded Streets. In November 2009, Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard 6 different demo takes of "Machead" from an early 1997 recording session for the album,^[10] effectively confirming its existence to the fan community.^[11]

In a 2010 interview with Cali from CBS Radio, Stefan Lessard was asked to give his thoughts on Machead. He replied that "Machead's this little number that I believe was the last song to possibly make it on Before These Crowded Streets and I think there's a recording I have of it somewhere. So it's just finding a recording of it and listening to it and that's on our homework list." ^[12]

Personnel

Musicians

• Dave Matthews – acoustic guitar, vocals
• Carter Beauford – percussion, drums, background vocals
• Stefan Lessard – bass
• LeRoi Moore – bass clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, penny whistle
• Boyd Tinsley – violin

Additional personnel

• "The Lovely Ladies" – background vocals
  • Tawatha Agee
  • Cindy Myzell
  • Brenda White -King
• John D'earth – trumpet
• Béla Fleck – banjo
• Greg Howard – Chapman Stick
• Kronos Quartet – strings
  • David Harrington – violin
  • John Sherba – violin
  • Joan Jeanrenaud – cello
  • Hank Dutt – viola
• Alanis Morissette – vocals
• Tim Reynolds – mandolin, electric guitar
• Butch Taylor – organ, piano

Production

• Producer – Steve Lillywhite
• Engineer – Stephen Harris
• Assistant Engineer – Joel Courtright [sic],^[13] John Seymour
• Mastering – Ted Jensen
• Mixing – Steve Lillywhite
• Pre-Production – John Alagía
• Orchestral Arrangements – John D'earth
• Art Direction – Thane Kerner
• Design – Thane Kerner
• Photography – Ellen Von Unwerth

Charts

References