WhatzUp

Music From Big Pink (1968)
The Band
by Dennis Donahue

The debut album from Bob Dylan’s band was named after the house they recorded in. Unlike John Mellencamp’s, this pink house gave us one of the greatest albums of the late 60s.

To call this the last great folk album of the 60s can only be an understatement. Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel all contributed to this record (along with Dylan, who painted the cover), which spawned the hit “The Weight.” (“Take a load off, Fannie, take a load for free Ö”)

Call it ‘proto-country,’ or maybe Grateful Dead at half-tempo. The Band were distinctive in that they came from Canada, not exactly a hotbed of popular American folk rock. When the Band mixed folk, blues, gospel, R&B, classical and rock ‘n’ roll, it was as though psychedelic rock and the British Invasion had never happened.

Opening with “Tears of Rage,” the soft organ and scratchy guitars create a tempo for the whole album. “To Kingdom Come” steps it up a notch with vintage soul and blues, while the gospel-folk vibe in “Long Black Veil” shows the vocal ranges of the group.

I love this record, and, fortunately, the CD was re-released (2000) with nine really good additional outtakes. The Band also had hits with “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

If you want to experience them live, watch The Last Waltz, their final appearance filmed in 1976 on Thanksgiving in San Francisco (with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young and many others). It’s two hours of the best hours of music you’ll ever see.