The Band - Music from Big Pink poll

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.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Voted for "Caledonia Mission" but almost voted for "To Kingdom Come"

"To Kingdom Come" wuz robbed, Rick Danko's bass playing on it is fantastic

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

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.

Yeah, Moondog Matinee is fun, and with a lot of great singing by Richard at his best. Also the extra lyrics to "Mystery Train"!

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.

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.

The Weight would be my favorite song ever if I had a goddamn clue what the lyrics were about.

lyrics to the weight are like steinbeck's cannery row reproduced in miniature imo

Thought they were a picture of a dreamscape inspired by Luis Buñuel's Exterminating Angel

it's just imo; i've read that but i've never seen the film but i have read cannery row

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/

Yeah fuck that shit

The murkiness is essential to this album's brilliance

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.

Lol

Damn, and my copy is arriving today. I'm not nearly as excited now.

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)

studio albums* that's supposed to say

I did think the Sgt. Pepper remix was a revelation, however.

muted and dry

Isn't that a really good description of what The Band were all about, though?

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

(xp) I think that's exactly what blew everyone's minds back in the day.

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.

niels, rumors was made like 10 years after MFBP wtf dude, unfair studio wizardry fight

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

Ziggy Stardust is 1972 and the rest are 1969 - apart from the Doors. Seems like you don't 60s production much.

oops, I always get Ziggy date wrong

hmm I like a lot of 60s music

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.

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.

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.

Is the remix an additional version on this new release? Or is it now the only version available?

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.

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 latter song is sooooooo beautiful. I love the Mekons cover and its ridiculous video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42WnZxLYWrM

And check out this vintage gem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uUFMumwXkk

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)

wow had never heard Acadian Driftwood before but that is indeed very good songwriting

so weird how Robertson tapped into these themes

wait a minute you guys never polled The Last Waltz???

hmm to poll the original triple LP or the 2002 4-CD version...

Two great songs in their last 6 or 7 seven years - they didn't exactly maintain their batting average tbh.

Yeah the first two albums, NLSC and The Last Waltz are all you need really.

What about Rock of Ages?

stage fright is really great

way better than northern lights

"Stage Fright" is pretty good - but still a step down from the first two.

What about /Rock of Ages/?

"It Makes No Difference" is one of the greatest recordings.