127. The Band - Music from Big Pink (July 1968)

1. Tears of Rage*

2. To Kingdom Come

3. In a Station

4. Caledonia Mission

5. The Weight*

6. We Can Talk

7. Long Black Veil

8. Chest Fever

9. Lonesome Suzie

10. This Wheel's on Fire

11. I Shall Be Released*

A

What a strange album. By Turns deeply frustrating and heartbreakingly beautiful, it's hard for me to know what to make of it. I've listened to it four times, now, and each time I've found something new to love and something new to annoy me. I can see how it was so influential. The Band cherrypicked everything they liked from the broad, leafy tree of American music, and created something singular and lasting out of it. Perhaps it's because this, the first Americana album, was made mostly by Canadians. That outsider view let them approach American music differently, unburdened by expectations and reverence. It's not a perfect album (the lyrics are, sadly, often quite weak), but it is a very, very good one.

There are heavy moments here - "Chest Fever", with its organ solos, heavy drums and driving groove sounds like the sort of muscular blue eyed soul popular in the 80s, which is both a compliment on how forward thinking the Band were and a criticism, because that sort of music kind of sucks. The real strengths, though, are found in the album's more tender moments. "Tears of Rage" is a stunning opener. Co-written by Bob Dylan, it could be about almost anything. But the sound of the song is incredible, with sprawling guitars and chiming hooks. It's woozy and surreal and captivating. Then there's "The Weight", maybe the Band's most famous song. I'm a little bothered that the protagonist is looking for a room in Nazareth (shouldn't it be Bethlehem?), but it slowly coalesces into a gorgeous, uplifting number. Although once again, I'm not really sure what it's about.

My favourite song here, though (possibly because, having been included on Air's Late Night Tales compilation, it's the one I'm most familiar with) is "I Shall Be Released". The vocals are world-weary, rough, but pure and heartfelt, and the simple song about the cares of the world and hope of escape from them really touches a chord. It's also a beautiful piece of music.

So this is a great album, and obviously massively influential. The sound and approach to playing alone is revolutionary - loose, organic, and free of studio trickery. In its better moments, it's easily the most modern sounding album we've had so far. Apparently there's this mystique which surrounds Music from Big Pink, but I'm thankfully largely ignorant of it. The music itself more than holds up.

(On a side note, as a lifelong fan of Ab Fab, it was pretty neat to finally hear the original version of the theme song. Although it did stop me from taking the original seriously, since every time I heard it all I could imagine was Saffy berating Eddy or Patsy doing something ridiculous).