On this day (July 1) in 1968, the Band released their debut album, Music from Big Pink. It has since been called one of the most influential albums in rock and roll history. Some say it laid the groundwork for Americana. Others say it was the Big Bang of roots rock. More importantly, generations of listeners have loved and been inspired by the LP. Some of those who were touched by the unique sound are Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and the members of Pink Floyd.
Before they were the Band, they were the Hawks. Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, and Levon Helm started their musical journey together backing Canadian rockabilly artist Ronnie Hawkins. Under his leadership, the Hawks became one of the best bands in the booming Toronto rock scene. They split from Hawkins in 1963, but continued working together.
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Two years after leaving Hawkins, the Hawks teamed up with Bob Dylan. They backed him on his electric tour. As a result, they were booed by crowds across the United States who had come to see an acoustic folk set. In 1967, they backed Dylan during the recordings that would later become The Basement Tapes. Those sessions were recorded in the basement of a big pink house in West Saugerties, New York, where members of the Band lived. It was the same house in which they developed the music that would become their debut album.
The Band Forge Their Signature Sound
When Music from Big Pink dropped 58 years ago, it sounded like nothing else on the market. The Band broke the rules of recording to forge a sound that showcased their hard-won musical chemistry.
The first official sessions for Music from Big Pink took place at A&R Studio A in New York. While they were honored to be in such a great studio, they immediately knew the vibe was off. “Playing in the basement taught us that going into somebody else’s place, where they don’t go past six o’clock, there are union rules, and everybody is watching the clock–that’s not the way to make music,” Robbie Robertson told Uncut Magazine. “We said we need to bring the situation so it fits us, rather than vice versa.”
Initially, the engineer separated the members of the group to prevent sound bleeding from one microphone to the next. That wasn’t working. “After a while we said, ‘We can’t do this. We’ve got to get in a circle like the basement. We’ve got to play to one another. We’re speaking a language. This doesn’t work,” Robertson recalled.
The engineer was skeptical but let them reconfigure. After switching microphones and getting comfortable, they performed “Tears of Rage,” written by Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel.
“We listened back to it, and it sounded fantastic,” Robertson said. “It was a whole revelation in recording for us and a lot of people. What we were doing was exactly what we had been doing at Big Pink, but in a place where the sound was controlled. That was the only difference.”
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