More of the Music of The Band
- Both sides of this vintage copy of The Band’s 1968 Masterpiece boast superb Double Plus (A++) sound
- Even one Mint Minus Minus side is rare these days, and two are close to impossible, so consider this copy pretty darn quiet for a Super Hot Big Pink
- Forget all those vague, veiled, lifeless, ambience-free Heavy Vinyl pressings – this is the Big Pink that The Band recorded!
- Remember when you used to play the same record over and over, never taking it off the turntable for days at a time?
- Well here it is – this pressing captures the music in a way that will make repeated plays the joy they used to be
- 5 stars: “…as soon as ‘The Weight’ became a singles chart entry, the album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, [the album] came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.”
We guarantee you have never heard Music from Big Pink sound as good as it does on this very copy. There’s plenty of the all-important Tubey Magic and real weight to the bottom. You’ll have a VERY hard time finding one that sounds this good, if our experience is any guide.
This copy has the kind of sound we look for in a top quality Band record: immediacy in the vocals (so many copies are veiled and distant); natural tonal balance (most copies are at least slightly brighter or darker than ideal; ones with the right balance are the exception, not the rule); good solid weight (so the bass sounds full and powerful); spaciousness (the best copies have wonderful studio ambience and space); and last but not least, transparency, the quality of being able to see into the studio, where there is plenty of musical information to be revealed in this sophisticated recording.
What The Best Sides Of Music From Big Pink Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1968
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
EQ Issues
If you’ve ever played a pressing of this record you probably know what absolute pieces of garbage most of them are.
Most suffer from a severe lack of bass. As you may have noticed, we’re big bass fans around these parts, so a bass-free Big Pink just won’t do.
Clean pressings of Music From Big Pink with this kind of sound are not common to say the least. Finding a copy with proper tonality from top to bottom turns out to be a much more difficult prospect than one would think. Too many are thin, with painfully boosted upper midranges, and that EQ results in blary, gritty, grainy sound.
When you finally come across a pressing like this, correct and natural, with plenty of Tubey Magic, more than anything it comes as a RELIEF. It shouldn’t have to be this way — for this or any other album — but it is.
What We’re Listening For On Music From Big Pink
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
A Must Own Pop Record
This Demo Disc Quality recording should be part of any serious Popular Music Collection. Others that belong in that category can be found here.
Side One
Tears of Rage
To Kingdom Come
In a Station
Caledonia Mission
The Weight
Side Two
We Can Talk
Long Black Veil
Chest Fever
Lonesome Suzie
This Wheel’s on Fire
I Shall Be Released
AMG 5 Star Rave Review
… an album that reflected the turmoil of the late ’60s in a way that emphasized the tragedy inherent in the conflicts. Music from Big Pink came off as a shockingly divergent musical statement only a year after the ornate productions of Sgt. Pepper, and initially attracted attention because of the three songs Bob Dylan had either written or co-written.
However, as soon as “The Weight” became a minor singles chart entry, the album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music from Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.