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Saturday, September 7, 2019

Album Review: The Band - Music From Big Pink (1968)

I love the music of Bob Dylan, both in his folk and electric eras.  To begin with, he wasn't the best singer, or even the best guitar player, for that matter.  But damn, could he write songs.  If Roy Orbison was an opera singer, Bob Dylan was a poet.  And whenever I think of The Band, I think of Bob Dylan.  The Basement Tapes is perhaps one of their better known collaborations, and contained a good number of great songs.  They made a great team if that album was anything to go by.  But despite the entrenched link between Dylan and The Band, The Band were well known for a couple of classic albums themselves - The Band and Music From Big Pink.  The latter is the album that I'm reviewing here.  And it's an OK album.  Not as good as what I was expecting it to be.  I mean, you've got "The Weight" as the big number here, and there's a couple of other good songs - "Tears of Rage" and "To Kingdom Come" immediately spring to mind.  And their version of "Long Black Veil" is certainly noteworthy, but still couldn't hold a candle to Johnny Cash's version.  ""We Can Talk" sure isn't bad, either.  I've also heard better versions of "I Shall Be Released."  In conclusion, would I recommend this album?  I'd tell you to listen to it if you've got the time, but there's no hurry.  Frankly, I'm more eager to listen to The Band, their second album.  "Okay" would be the best word to describe this album.  B



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