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 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link
Seconded. If anything Shut Up and Get On the Plane > Greenville to Baton Rouge > Angels and Fuselage.
Absofuckinglutely.
― pplains, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:08 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link
avoiding the obv 'chest fever' is really fukkn dope
― Lamp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:15 (twelve 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 (twelve years ago) link
enough LOVE
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:06 (twelve years ago) link
It's one of those cases of "you have your whole life to make your first album and six months to make your second," I think. The Band had a huge backlog, and once they caught up with it it was a struggle to come up with new stuff on par with their peak (see also; Cheap Trick, Van Halen). If anything, the key to the evolution of, say, the Stones and Beatles is that they started with a bunch of covers and worked their way up from there. Plus, the Band stopped living together, in Big Pink or on the road, and according to Levon they had trouble recapturing that vibe when they tried to recreate it in L.A.
It's amazing, by way, how much of an impression the Band made on the Brits, with group after group trying to glom onto their shambling Americana vibe vibe. I mean, the Beatles and Eric Clapton are two of the last acts I think of what I think of the Band. but they were both uber-besoted.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:09 (twelve years ago) link
(sorry for the typos)
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
otm about "ferdinand" -- always loved that little fragment and wish there was a better version!
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:22 (twelve years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 00:01 (twelve years ago) link
this thread took off, i thought it was going to be like The Band poll and get no love.
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
well, not no love but really there was not a lot of discussion like this thread has produced.
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 02:49 (twelve years ago) link
ok finally voted. "in a station." there are obviously plenty of towering songs on this record, but right now, in a station is the one i want to hear on repeat. karen dalton's version is nice too.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 20:58 (twelve years ago) link
just heard Dalton's version for the first time last week. It's lovely
― Number None, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, pretty different interpretation, but gets to the heart of the song. I dunno, I think that song (and "whispering pines" too) gets to a kind of dreamlike americana thing that robbie robertson couldn't quite nail on his own. robertson's more of a novelist, whereas manuel is like an impressionistic painter. or something!
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:42 (twelve years ago) link
I like that take
― Number None, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:43 (twelve years ago) link
listening to this album again this week, i was struck by one thing -- what did these songs sound like when Robertson presented them to the rest of the Band? Seems like there's never been, like, a solo demo of "The Weight" that's come out on bootleg or otherwise. Maybe that sort of thing doesn't exist.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 26 April 2012 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
Voted for "Caledonia Mission" but almost voted for "To Kingdom Come"
― Stars on 45 Fell on Alabama (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 April 2012 01:09 (eleven years ago) link
"To Kingdom Come" wuz robbed, Rick Danko's bass playing on it is fantastic
― Too Busy Thinking About Mr. Abie (Tom D.), Friday, 22 June 2012 14:37 (eleven years ago) link
I'll admit to being one of the people who's obsessed with The Band's first two albums but rarely feels the need to explore very far into their later work.
Same here, pretty much, even though "Stage Fright" itself is possibly my favourite song by them. There are some great songs on the other albums and they always play and sing immaculately and I can never think of an occasion when they embarrass themselves but, I don't know, the tunes just aren't there
― Too Busy Thinking About Mr. Abie (Tom D.), Friday, 22 June 2012 14:42 (eleven years ago) link
stage fright is pretty solid through and through, tho it doesn't have as many classics. moondog matinee is a fun record, too. cahoots has always bored me.
― tylerw, Friday, 22 June 2012 15:00 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, Moondog Matinee is fun, and with a lot of great singing by Richard at his best. Also the extra lyrics to "Mystery Train"!
― Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 June 2012 16:22 (eleven years ago) link
The bonus tracks on the Moondog cd are quite something--mostly Levon numbers plus a runthrough of "Endless Highway" w/Manuel singing and playing a great piano lead.
― Electro-Shock Rory (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 22 June 2012 16:48 (eleven years ago) link
Wait, I'm tripping: the Manuel "Endless Highway" is on the Cahoots reissue. Danko sings the Moondog version, which originally was on the Watkins Glen album with dubbed-in audience noise.
― Electro-Shock Rory (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 22 June 2012 17:01 (eleven years ago) link
The Weight would be my favorite song ever if I had a goddamn clue what the lyrics were about.
― Everything You Like Sucks, Friday, 22 June 2012 18:47 (eleven years ago) link
lyrics to the weight are like steinbeck's cannery row reproduced in miniature imo
― carly rae (flopson), Friday, 22 June 2012 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
Thought they were a picture of a dreamscape inspired by Luis Buñuel's Exterminating Angel
― Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 June 2012 19:47 (eleven years ago) link
it's just imo; i've read that but i've never seen the film but i have read cannery row
― carly rae (flopson), Friday, 22 June 2012 20:34 (eleven years ago) link
Interesting negative review of new Bob Clearmountain remix: https://variety.com/2018/music/reviews/album-review-the-bands-music-from-big-pink-50th-anniversary-edition-1202915160/
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Friday, 24 August 2018 22:04 (five years ago) link
Yeah fuck that shit
― brimstead, Friday, 24 August 2018 22:56 (five years ago) link
The murkiness is essential to this album's brilliance
― brimstead, Friday, 24 August 2018 22:57 (five years ago) link
The fuck? Whose incredibly bad idea was this?
I can't think of a single engineer more ill-suited to a Big Pink remix. But while he's at it, White Light/White Heat could surely use some massive stadium-sounding reverb.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 24 August 2018 23:33 (five years ago) link
Lol
― The Vermilion Sand Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 August 2018 00:56 (five years ago) link
Damn, and my copy is arriving today. I'm not nearly as excited now.
― Jazzbo, Friday, 31 August 2018 14:04 (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
I can't really enjoy the studio version of the amazing The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (love it on Before the Flood though, hell I even like Joan Baez' cover, it's a great song)
― niels, Friday, 31 August 2018 14:10 (five years ago) link
studio albums* that's supposed to say
I did think the Sgt. Pepper remix was a revelation, however.
― Jazzbo, Friday, 31 August 2018 14:17 (five years ago) link
muted and dry
Isn't that a really good description of what The Band were all about, though?
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Friday, 31 August 2018 14:18 (five years ago) link
that's entirely possible - I guess my introduction to them was the (relative) grandeur of TLW and so that's kinda what I go for
but I like the Basement Tapes, and they're understated, chaotic
― niels, Friday, 31 August 2018 14:29 (five years ago) link
(xp) I think that's exactly what blew everyone's minds back in the day.
― Scottish Country Twerking (Tom D.), Friday, 31 August 2018 14:42 (five years ago) link
I remember reading Joe Boyd saying Fairport drove him mad trying to get their drum sound as close to the Band s/t as humanly possible.
― Scottish Country Twerking (Tom D.), Friday, 31 August 2018 14:43 (five years ago) link
niels, rumors was made like 10 years after MFBP wtf dude, unfair studio wizardry fight
― brimstead, Friday, 31 August 2018 22:14 (five years ago) link
hehe, I would def enjoy a thread on studio wizardry through the ages, here's a 1960 cut that's unbelievably clear:
https://open.spotify.com/track/73m8WuJlhzVusTVzJCGaDZ
some 60s album with (to my taste) impeccable production off the top of my head: Abbey Road, Ziggy Stardust, The Doors, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, In a Silent Way
but my taste is perhaps a bit weird, like the production on Forever Changes, for instance, does nothing for me
― niels, Saturday, 1 September 2018 07:49 (five years ago) link
Ziggy Stardust is 1972 and the rest are 1969 - apart from the Doors. Seems like you don't 60s production much.
― Scottish Country Twerking (Tom D.), Saturday, 1 September 2018 10:56 (five years ago) link
oops, I always get Ziggy date wronghmm I like a lot of 60s music
― niels, Saturday, 1 September 2018 12:16 (five 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