Music from Big Pink

Ever since that album was released in 1967 (The Band), it has been close to the top of my list EVERY week. There was once a time when I was sharing a house with Nora/Kim and a few of there offspring where Kim and I would religiously try to listen to the vinyl daily. I can still over 40 years later sit mesmerized by Danko's vocals, Helm's singing and beating the skins, Hudson's WAILING organ, Robertson's Gretsch lead guitar solos, and Manuel's banging them 88's. Alas, only 3 of the 5 are still alive, but I will never forget these tunes.

They started in Ontario as the backup band to Ronnie Hawkins, affectionately calling themselves the Hawks. They went on their own too and were somehow discovered by Robert Zimmerman when they were Levon and the Hawks. They had a torrid relationship with Dylan, being his touring band with, to the best of my recollection, only one studio album appearance ... Planet Waves. I only saw Dylan once with the Band live at the Forum in the late 1970's.

I decided I would add Music from Big Pink to my only other complete-album repertoire. The sole disc in that category until now is DSOTM (Dark Side of the Moon). So I printed out ALL the lyrics and music for Pink and it's all going well except Chest Fever. That tune has a whaling organ (I can just see the Leslie tone cabinet horn whirling supporting the magnificent Hammond B3) and is a text book case of smashing crescendos and fading diminuendos. I will figure out some way to pull it off. When I was figuring out DSOTM, Money and Us&Them seemed insurmountable but I did figure them out. My version of Money is weak but it works, the main problem being its weird 5/4 timing.

I transposed Caledonia Mission and The Station and am having a GREAT F%^*(NG time with this album.