Music From Big Pink [Limited] [Slipcase]

Performer: The Band
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: The Band: Richard Manuel (vocals, keyboards); Rick Danko (vocals, bass); Levon Helm (vocals, drums); Robbie Robertson (guitar); Garth Hudson (keyboards). Producer: John Simon. Reissue producers: Cheryl Pawelski, Andrew Sandoval. Engineers include: Don Hahn, Tony May, Rex Updegraft. Recorded at Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York. Originally released on Capitol (7777 46069). Includes liner notes by Rob Bowman. Mini Vinyl CD. The Band emerged from months of seclusion with this enthralling debut album. It followed a lengthy spell accompanying Bob Dylan, which culminated in sessions known as THE BASEMENT TAPES. Three songs herein were revived from those recordings, and the remainder showed a similar pastoral spirit. Where contemporaries sought expression in progressive music, the Band were largely reflective, creating atmosphere from traditional forms and distilling the results in an economic style. Their ensemble playing and rural voices were best captured on "The Weight," an elliptical composition which displayed their craft to perfection. Americana of every hue can be gleaned from this collection, the depth of which left a marked impression on audiences and musicians alike.

Rolling Stone (8/31/00, pp.69-73) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...[One] of rock's few perfect albums, [an] immaculate reflection of [its] times [with] master fictions told with the spit and color of a fur trapper's memoirs...the bonus tracks are sweet gravy..." Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.108) - Ranked #34 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...An instant homespun classic..." Rolling Stone (8/10/68, p.21) - .MUSIC FROM BIG PINK is an event and should be treated as one...This album was recorded in approximately two weeks...There are people who will work their lives away in vain and not touch it. - Al Kooper Entertainment Weekly (9/1/00, p.81) - "...[One] of the best albums in rock history....These remasterings sound incredibly rich, and each has alternate takes....this is reissuing done right." - Rating: A Q (10/00, p.139) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Almost anonymously shifted the boundaries for what rock might aspire to be....it's still a collection to rake the breath away..." Q (8/99, p.136) - 4 stars (out of 5) - "1968 melange...laced with staggeringly affecting singing....For lovers of Deserter's Songs, the album and the things." Uncut (9/01, p.108) - "...Austere yet fascinating, enduringly impressive both as an aesthetic manifesto and a wonderfully understated display of controlled artistry, MUSIC FROM BIG PINK remains a landmark recording which no serious collector can be without..." Down Beat (10/01, p.66) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...Invoking the experience of working-class folks through music and words...[this] overflowed with distinctive singing and musicianship..." No Depression (9-10/00, pp.102-3) - "...Brilliant....enhancing one's admiration for [their] achievements..." Goldmine - 5 Stars - Excellent Mojo (Publisher) (10/00, p.126) - "...In its mixture of the mundane and the weird, of traditional and avant-garde gestures, BIG PINK retains all of that original transfixing magic..."

The Band began as the Hawks, backing up rockabilly cat Ronnie Hawkins. In the mid-1960s, they became Bob Dylan's ensemble of choice, aiding him in his epochal switch to an electric rock-based format. When they emerged as an independent recording entity at the end of the '60s, they helped usher in a move towards earthy roots-rock as a generation shied away from the clamor and excess of the psychedelic era. The mostly Canadian group synthesized a wide variety of traditional American styles in a unique hodgepodge that took full advantage of each member's unique multi-instrumental abilities. THE LAST WALTZ film and album provided their 1978 swan song, but the Band began anew in the '80s without songwriter/guitarist Robbie Robertson.

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