Music from Big Pink

Music from Big Pink
Studio album by The Band
Released	July 1, 1968
Recorded	Early 1968
Genre	Roots rock, Americana, folk rock, psychedelic rock
Length	42:22
Label	Capitol
Producer	John Simon
The Band chronology
Music from Big Pink (1968) The Band (1969)
Singles from Music from Big Pink
"The Weight" / "I Shall Be Released" Released: January 1968

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
L.A. Times	(favorable)[2]
MusicHound	[3]
Rolling Stone	(favorable)[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[5]

Music from Big Pink is the debut studio album by The Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, New York. The album itself was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles in 1968,^[6] and followed the band's backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour (as The Hawks) and time spent together in upstate New York recording material that was officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, also with Dylan.

Reception

The initial critical reception to the album was positive,^[1][2][7] though sales were slim; Al Kooper's rave review of the LP in Rolling Stone^[4] helped to draw public attention to it (even though Rolling Stone referred to them as "The band from Big Pink"^[8] instead of just The Band). The fact that Bob Dylan wrote one, and co-wrote two, of the songs on the album also attracted attention.

In 1968, "The Weight" peaked at #63 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in the US. The song was a bigger hit elsewhere, peaking at #35 in Canada, and #21 in the UK. The album peaked at #30 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in 1968, and then recharted as a #8 hit on the Top Internet Albums chart in 2000 (see 2000 in music). "The Weight" gained widespread popularity, from The Band's performance of it at Woodstock on 17 August 1969 and due partially to its inclusion in the film Easy Rider, though it was omitted from the soundtrack due to licensing issues. A cover version by the band Smith was included on the soundtrack album instead.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 34 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[9] The laid-back feel of the album attracted the attention of other major artists. For example, Eric Clapton cites the album's roots rock style as what convinced him to quit Cream, and pursue the styles of Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie, Derek and the Dominos and his debut album. George Harrison was also impressed by the album's musicianship and sense of camaraderie, and Roger Waters has called it the second "most influential record in the history of rock and roll" after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and that it "affected Pink Floyd deeply, deeply, deeply."^[10]

The original LP record issue included a gatefold cover in 1968, duplicated 40 years later in 2008 as a remastered 180 gm LP. On compact disc, it was remastered as a gold CD in 1989, as a DVD-audio in 2001, and as a remastered numbered edition SACD in 2009. On August 29, 2000, it was reissued by EMI Records as a standard compact disc with nine bonus tracks as listed below. In 2012, Mobile Fidelity released a remastered, numbered, limited edition, Half-speed_Mastering from the original master tapes, 180g LP pressed at RTI.

Big Pink house

"Big Pink" in 2006

"Big Pink" is a pink house in West Saugerties, New York, located at 56 Parnassus Lane (formerly 2188 Stoll Road). The house was built by Ottmar Gramms, who bought the land in 1952. The house was newly built when Rick Danko, who was collaborating with Bob Dylan at the time, found it as a rental. It was to this house that Bob Dylan would eventually retreat to write songs, play them and experiment with other songs, in its large basement. The 2-track recordings made by them, as a sort of audio sketch book, in the basement came to be known as The Basement Tapes. These tapes were circulated among other musicians at the time, and hits were made of "Too Much of Nothing" and "Mighty Quinn" as recordings by other artists, Peter, Paul and Mary and Manfred Mann respectively. The house became known locally as 'Big Pink' for its pink siding. Members of Dylan's band (with Dylan himself writing one and co-writing two) wrote most of the songs on Music from Big Pink at or around the house, and the band then adopted the name The Band. The cover illustration for the album is by Dylan.

The house was sold by Mr. Gramms in 1977 to M. Amitin, who rented the house to Parnassus Records, a label specializing in classical music which used the basement as its headquarters. In 1998, Mr. Amitin sold the house to Don & Sue LaSala, who maintain the house as a private residence and keep the creative tradition alive by creating music in the basement with friends from the Woodstock area and beyond.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Bonus Track listing from 2000 re-release

Personnel

• Rick Danko — bass guitar, fiddle, vocals
• Levon Helm — drums, tambourine, vocals
• Garth Hudson — electronic organ, piano, clavinet, soprano and tenor saxophone
• Richard Manuel — piano, organ, drums, vocals
• Jaime Robbie Robertson — electric and acoustic guitars, vocals

Additional personnel

• John Simon — producer, baritone horn, tenor saxophone, piano
• Don Hahn — engineer
• Tony May — engineer
• Shelly Yakus — engineer
• Bob Dylan — cover painting
• Elliott Landy — photography

Charts

Album - Billboard (US)

Singles - Billboard (US)

The Weight peaked at #35 in Canada and #21 in the UK.^[11]

References

External links

• Sheet music