I don't know I want to vote for something other than "The Weight"
why? it's ok to agree with the canon you know
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Monday, 23 April 2012 13:39 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, there isn't a song on here that I don't fuck with, The Weight included. I don't really understand the dog transaction in that song though.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 14:49 (eleven years ago) link
the way I understand it: Danko thinks that Chester wants him to go shoot his dog, but Chester just wants Danko to take care of the dog. Is that wrong?
― tylerw, Monday, 23 April 2012 14:57 (eleven years ago) link
anyhoo, everyone otm, not really a bad song on here. at this point, "in a station" is the most *surprising* song on the album -- I've played it for people who are like "this is The Band"? Just a lovely, magical tune. But it'll be hard to vote against the Big Pink powerhouses. Man, this album is good.
― tylerw, Monday, 23 April 2012 14:59 (eleven years ago) link
if it weren't for the Weight this would be the hardest poll ever. maybe when that song dominates this poll we can have a "2nd favorite song on Big Pink" poll
― caulk the wagon and float it, Monday, 23 April 2012 15:09 (eleven years ago) link
Took me about a decade to realize "Chest Fever" was a pun on "Chest Cold"
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:06 (eleven years ago) link
Well. Make that two for me.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:07 (eleven years ago) link
Hah, never occurred to me. Took me forever to get "Rubber Soul," too.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:09 (eleven years ago) link
Wait, what's with that one? Rub her sole?
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
Seriously? Just literally a pun on rubber sole, like the bottom of a shoe. But of course it's Rubber Soul, which for whatever reason for the longest time I just figured was some surreal nonsense title.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:24 (eleven years ago) link
so close.
http://1.imimg.com/data/C/V/MY-704883/Rubber_Sole_Sheets_2_250x250.jpg
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:25 (eleven years ago) link
I bet it's a secret foot massage thing. When you think about the Kinky Boot Beasts in Yellow Submarine, it all starts to add up.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:29 (eleven years ago) link
kinda hard for me not to be boring and vote the Weight tbh. never liked this version of Long Black Veil, pales next to Lefty's.
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:32 (eleven years ago) link
wait how is Chest Fever a pun exactly? idgi
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:34 (eleven years ago) link
Maybe pun is not the right word.
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:37 (eleven years ago) link
I'm obviously some sort of crazy person because "The Weight" is probably my least favourite song on this album
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:39 (eleven years ago) link
It is a song about uncontrollable enthusiasm for chests.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
I like "The Weight", but it wouldn't even come close to being the best song imo on this album. It does sorta just keep plodding along with a verse too many or so.
Didn't like it in "Easy Rider" either.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
My man!
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
Glad you two found each other.
Not a pun, but another form of wordplay
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:45 (eleven years ago) link
i just listened to this album for the first time last week, it's pretty amazing.
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 23 April 2012 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
Maybe it's an "Only Nixon Could've Gone to China" type deal.
But one thing that's really stuck out in listening to The Band for the past week has been that coming from four Canadians, the American Gothic rings true. And Levon Helm, an American by birth and Southerner by the Grace of God, never sounds too maudlin about his roots.
What am I trying to say. --- I finally listened to Southern Rock Opera recently on Grooveshark. I've heard so much about this record and how awesome it is, that I decided to give it a shot while I was uploading cocktail photos to our online society magazine. Don't get me wrong, there's some strong ass guitar licks in there, but I get so tired of Southerners trying to be Southern. By the time, George Wallace was being welcomed into Hell by Satan, who offers him a glass of sweet tea, I realized that this was just another one of those items of culture from the South that plays too hard on being from the South. The Oxford American dances around this all the time. It's all former beauty pageant winners sitting in their ivy-colored antebellum mansions, sipping sweet tea and calling everyone "hon".
So the fact that Robbie Robertson is credited with writing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", barely 100 years after that war finished, is a landmark achievement. You want to talk about a song that could've "gone South" so easily? And it never does, not once.
Creedence Clearwater Revivial is another out-of-area band that accurately reclaims Southern soil. But even while Fogarty rarely gets a little transparent (you "hoid" it through the grapevine, eh?), I can't think of any instances where the Band steps out of line at all.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
Southern Rock Opera is awesome. It's not just about the south, which it is partly about, by way of guys as southern as Helm, but about the history of rock and roll by way of the south, the way the mythology of music and location converge. "SRO" is about the south without being about the south. It's both southern rock opera and southern rock opera, about both Skynyrd and a band like Skynyrd, paralleling the misunderstanding of that group against the social complexities of the south with the misunderstanding of the south in general. Which is to say, it's complicated, a whole lot more complicated as an album than "Big Pink," which like you said, could have gone too far into the hokum but somehow gets it just right. "SRO" starts from a different hokey point of departure - the saving graces of butt rock - but goes a lot deeper than that.
By the way, here's Patterson Hood, but mostly his dad David, talking about Helm: http://www.timesdaily.com/stories/Local-musicians-Levon-Helm-was-coolest-man-alive,189731
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 17:55 (eleven years ago) link
so many classic jawns but only one vote :(
― l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 April 2012 17:55 (eleven years ago) link
as a fanboy scum i want to vote for something other than "the weight" but that song will last for 1,000 years if humans are still here
― l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 April 2012 17:56 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry to veer, but here's some clips of the Truckers and Megafaun doing a mini-set of the Band a few nights ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DuwObzg0GIw
This is a beyond respectable version of "The Weight."
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 17:59 (eleven years ago) link
Megafaun encored w/that at the Songs of the South deal a couple years back, they kill it. Brad (bearded guitarist) has a tattoo of the Band with all figures in solid ink except Robertson, who's an outline lol
― same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 23 April 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
Great video
― Number None, Monday, 23 April 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
Southern Rock Opera really runs the gamut from rocking and beautiful to embarassing and forgettable.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 19:10 (eleven years ago) link
All part of the same portrait, in proud double album tradition.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 19:18 (eleven years ago) link
Would you say, perhaps, that it's part of its duality?
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 19:21 (eleven years ago) link
the duality of the double-album thaaaang
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 19:24 (eleven years ago) link
Tried to listen to that just now, almost got as far as pplains, then put on Rock of Ages instead.
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
Not a fair fight, really, but give it another shot when you get the Band out of your system. Best stuff is on the second disc, though.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 21:36 (eleven years ago) link
I'm also getting hit with a bunch of invitations to crawfish boils, and dammit, those things are disgusting.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 21:45 (eleven years ago) link
Best stuff is on the second disc, though.
Seconded. If anything Shut Up and Get On the Plane > Greenville to Baton Rouge > Angels and Fuselage.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 22:25 (eleven years ago) link
"Let There Be Rock,' "Women WIthout Whiskey," "Life in the Factory," "Plastic Flowers on the Highway" ... wow.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 22:36 (eleven years ago) link
First song here is more of a Rick number, I think, but that doesn't detract from this Levon tribute at allhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSHDjGgGGXU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
― Stars on 45 Fell on Alabama (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 10:51 (eleven years ago) link
While we're here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42WnZxLYWrM
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 11:51 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry, fellow Mekons fans, here's a more palatable, er, palate cleanser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6lhX08hz8A
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 11:54 (eleven years ago) link
Can I just take this opportunity to say what a great bass player Rick Danko was
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 11:56 (eleven years ago) link
Dude was incredible. Here he is, being all around ... festive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_dkavLVcN0
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 12:45 (eleven years ago) link
He had a unique sound and style, played like he wanted you to think his bass was a tuba
― Stars on 45 Fell on Alabama (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 13:31 (eleven years ago) link
It's incredible how much the law of diminishing returns kicks in. "Stage Fright" is pretty good, "Cahoots" has its moments. The rest are kind of erratic at best, which is pretty amazing, given the calibre of the players involved, but they all have their moments as well.
Yeah it might be about time that I gave Cahoots another chance. Most of their later work I've just skimmed through on spotify/youtube etc and not really returned to. I do have Stage Fright, but despite there being some excellent songs on there - Time To Kill, The Rumor, Shape I'm In - I don't often feel compelled to put it on (again esp in comparison to the first 2 albums).
― Mr Andy M, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 19:28 (eleven years ago) link
Also re the Festival Express movie I think I actually prefer the (slightly jauntier) version of Long Black Veil on there to the album cut:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbVXYQpJV8NB tho I'm not familiar with the og recording of LBV that Shakey alludes to upthread. Pretty amazing song still, the lyrics are sort of the perfect condensed story.
― Mr Andy M, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 19:35 (eleven years ago) link
worth getting familiar w/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc5p0-6uc_g
― bear, bear, bear, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:05 (eleven years ago) link
Absofuckinglutely.
― pplains, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
that woodstock clip Bee OK posted is kind of scary. Or at least I imagine it must've been scary for the Band -- just blackness out there, but knowing there are like 300,000 people in the crowd.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
avoiding the obv 'chest fever' is really fukkn dope
― Lamp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:15 (eleven years ago) link
oh man i take ppl's point I GUESS abt the slow steady decline in the band's songwriting/albs (after the peak of #2 imho) but some of the bonus/outtakes on the cd version of big pink point to the incredibly fecundity of their 'early' period - i mean, to leave off 'Katie's Been Gone', w/ another heartbreakingly gorgeous manuel vocal, is just criminal! and the fact that the only surviving version of Ferdinand the Imposter is v. sonically imperfect is a gddamm crime!
not enough for lonesome suzie on this thread, tho :-(
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:05 (eleven years ago) link
Doing the Pepsi challenge with the remix against the original and it's ... not bad. The biggest thing is Levon's drums and Rick's bass given much more prominence. (Some may say too much in Levon's case — he sounds like a timpani on "The Weight.") Some of the instruments (like the piano and organ on "We Can Talk") are moved more to center in parts — stuff like that. It doesn't really sound much "brighter" to these ears. But I've never really had hi-fi ears. Anyway, I'm digging it so far. The a capella version of "I Shall Be Released" is gorgeous.
― Jazzbo, Saturday, 1 September 2018 12:50 (five years ago) link
It does have a little more "presence," like they're playing in the same room as you. But as others have pointed out, the fact that Big Pink souded so muted was part of the appeal.
― Jazzbo, Saturday, 1 September 2018 12:53 (five years ago) link
OK, "Wheels on Fire" sounds horrible in this version. And the studio chatter added to the start of a couple of tracks is pretty pointless.
― Jazzbo, Saturday, 1 September 2018 13:26 (five years ago) link
Is the remix an additional version on this new release? Or is it now the only version available?
― Duke, Saturday, 1 September 2018 15:00 (five years ago) link
Erlewine turns in a long review but only spends an paragraph discussing the “bright, discordant new remix”: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-band-music-from-big-pink/
Music From Big Pink may be rooted in the earth but it exists entirely within the head. The way it makes roots music sound as impressionistic and idiosyncratic as any other kind of rock’n’roll is revolutionary. It casts a very distinct spell, which is why it’s so unsettling that the new Bob Clearmountain mix breaks this moody magic. Clearmountain takes pains to separate the elements that were previously inextricably intertwined, shattering the specific otherworldliness that has been retained in every reissue of the album over the past fifty years. Sometimes, certain parts are pushed to the forefront—the call and response on “We Can Talk” by Helm and Danko are isolated from each other—and sometimes, everything piles on to of each other, as on the cacophonic “This Wheel’s on Fire.” Worse, extraneous studio chatter has been added to “The Weight” and “Lonesome Suzie,” a move that punctures the illusion that Music From Big Pink materialized out of thin air from a cheap rental house in the woods of New York.
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Saturday, 1 September 2018 16:49 (five years ago) link
I'm sure that remaster thing is horrible if you all think so, but personally could never get into The Band's studio album, production is so muted and dry, clumsy (unlike that golden 70s dry style found on something like FM's "Dreams", one of the best sounding songs of all time) whereas I love The Last Waltz
If you haven't heard Northern Lights Southern Cross give it a listen, its production is cleaner than the first two albums and it contains two of their finest songs in "Acadian Driftwood" and "It Makes No Difference".
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Saturday, 1 September 2018 20:33 (five years ago) link
The latter song is sooooooo beautiful. I love the Mekons cover and its ridiculous video:
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 1 September 2018 20:40 (five years ago) link
And check out this vintage gem!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uUFMumwXkk
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 1 September 2018 20:42 (five years ago) link
xp thanks will do! It Makes No Difference is certainly one of the highlights of The Last Waltz, fantastic song (and some great shredding, too)
― niels, Sunday, 2 September 2018 09:48 (five years ago) link
wow had never heard Acadian Driftwood before but that is indeed very good songwriting
so weird how Robertson tapped into these themes
― niels, Sunday, 2 September 2018 09:51 (five years ago) link
wait a minute you guys never polled The Last Waltz???
― niels, Sunday, 2 September 2018 10:04 (five years ago) link
hmm to poll the original triple LP or the 2002 4-CD version...
― niels, Sunday, 2 September 2018 10:05 (five years ago) link
Two great songs in their last 6 or 7 seven years - they didn't exactly maintain their batting average tbh.
― Scottish Country Twerking (Tom D.), Sunday, 2 September 2018 10:17 (five years ago) link
Yeah the first two albums, NLSC and The Last Waltz are all you need really.
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Sunday, 2 September 2018 18:30 (five years ago) link
What about Rock of Ages?
― The Great Atomic Power Ballad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 September 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link
stage fright is really great
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 2 September 2018 19:34 (five years ago) link
way better than northern lights
"Stage Fright" is pretty good - but still a step down from the first two.
― Scottish Country Twerking (Tom D.), Sunday, 2 September 2018 19:49 (five years ago) link
What about /Rock of Ages/?
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:21 (five years ago) link
"It Makes No Difference" is one of the greatest recordings.
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:27 (five years ago) link
The last waltz is kind of lame
― brimstead, Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:43 (five years ago) link
moondog matinee kinda rules. i mean, i'd take a whole album of levon helm disco rockabilly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQFE113iDx4
worst one is probably cahoots, but even that has some good stuff on it.
― tylerw, Sunday, 2 September 2018 21:58 (five years ago) link
Great example of what happens when a band that plays and stays together almost 24/7 get their own places and lives and can never quite capture what they once had, good and great as they often still were.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 2 September 2018 22:09 (five years ago) link
Islands is probably worse than Cahoots, but then again it's an outtakes set and contractual obligation album (as pointed out by an extremely defensive Robertson in the reissue liners).
― Ubering With The King (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 2 September 2018 22:18 (five years ago) link
I always thought "Northern Lights/Southern Cross" was a pretty good listen for the later LPs. The keyboards on the album are so lush, it's really well recorded.
― earlnash, Sunday, 2 September 2018 22:25 (five years ago) link
NL/SC also has Ophelia which has an awesome New Orleans groove and an A+ Helm vocal
― guardians of the gums: i am tooth (voodoo chili), Monday, 3 September 2018 21:13 (five years ago) link
Listening to this album for the first time in a while. I can't believe how good the drums sound. I'm on "Chest Fever" now--these drums sound so incredible.
― JRN, Thursday, 27 August 2020 05:57 (three years ago) link
I just learned you can stay in the house:
https://www.vrbo.com/3970069ha
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 August 2020 12:55 (three years ago) link
cool!
― Joey Corona (Euler), Thursday, 27 August 2020 13:01 (three years ago) link
Note: the Basement is not included in the rental
That's the only bit I want to see :(
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Thursday, 27 August 2020 13:23 (three years ago) link
Pssh, I'm there for the 4 bay toaster.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 27 August 2020 13:40 (three years ago) link
gonna have to go there and make some living room tapes, i guess
― whiney on the moon (voodoo chili), Thursday, 27 August 2020 14:13 (three years ago) link
Just found this, a documentary released on VHS from 1995:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQn0QoQsqB8
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 27 August 2020 14:37 (three years ago) link