November 23, 2012 Playlist

"Music From Big Pink" by The Band (1968)
CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
The Band  "Music From Big Pink"  1968 (Canada/USA)
The Band were a  group of "musician's musicians":  five instrumentalists (three of whom sang lead and four of whom wrote songs) with chops and taste to spare.   They are also associated with Thanksgiving, due to the Martin Scorcese concert documentary of their final gig entitled The Last Waltz and filmed at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving day 1976.  Music From Big Pink was their debut album, a groundbreaking record that (along with Dylan's John Wesley Harding and the Incredible String Band's work over in Britain) paved the way for rootsy revivalism in seventies rock (and away from the psychedelic flower power revolution of the sixties).  Just before recording this album, The Band had been holed up in Woodstock, NY recording The Basement Tapes with Bobby D. in the basement of the very same "Big Pink" house referenced in the title of this album (which also includes a few then-brand-new Dylan compositions, plus  Bob painted the album cover).
Here's rare concert footage from 1970 which includes a couple songs from the debut album, and a compulsively watchable clip of "King Harvest" (every lick is just sooo sweet!)  Of the three brilliant lead singers in The Band, the most distinctive was the late Levon Helm (playing live in 2009) -- who was also one of rock's most expressive drummers.  Finally, here's The Band's quiet and mysterious organist Garth Hudson wailing on "Chest Fever" in 2012, from a tribute to Levon.
(N) = New Release
Artist Song Album Year (label) Country
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Stayed Awake All Night
Bachman-Turner Overdrive 1973
Canada
Crow
Heading North
Crow By Crow
1970
USA
Zephyr (with Tommy Bolin)
Cross The River
Zephyr
1969
USA
The Temptations
Friendship Train
Psychedelic Shack
1970
USA
Redbone
Maxplivitz / Emotions
Message From A Drum
1971
USA
 
  
The Band
Long Black Veil
Music From Big Pink
CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
1968
Canada/USA
The Band
Chest Fever
Music From Big Pink
CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
1968
Canada/USA
The Band
I Shall Be Released (by Bob Dylan - live)
Before The Flood
1974
Canada/USA
Bob Dylan & The Band
It Ain't Me Babe (live)
Before The Flood
1974
USA/Canada
The Byrds
All I Really Want To Do (Bob Dylan)
Mr. Tambourine Man
1965
USA
Joni Mitchell
Coyote
Hejira
1976
Canada
 
  
MV & EECommon Ground
Space Homestead (N)2012 (Woodsist)
USA
Sonic YouthIntro / Brave Men Run (In My Family) (live)
Smart Bar Chicago 1985 (N - archival live recording)rec. 1985 (2012 Goofin')USA
Swans AvatarThe Seer (N)2012 (Young Gods)USA
John CaleMothra
Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood (N)2012 (Domino)
UK (Wales)
Black Moth Super Rainbow Dreamsicle BombCobra Juicy (N)2012 (Rad Cult/French Kiss)USA
 
  
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
Early Birds Of Babylon
Mature Themes (N)2012 (4AD)USA
Tame ImpalaElephant
Lonerism (N)2012 (Modular)
Australia
Laetitia Sadier Fragment Pour Le Future De L'homme Silencio (N)2012 (Drag City)France
Can Networks Of Foam (live)The Lost Tapes (N - previously unreleased tracks)rec. 1975 (2012 Spoon/Mute)Germany
Sun ArawAnd I
The Inner Treaty (N)2012 (Sun Ark/Drag City)
USA
 
 
The Don Ellis Orchestra
Open Beauty
Electric Bath
1968
USA
Magma
Iss Lansei Doia
1001 Degrees Centigrade
1971
France
Miles Davis
Frelon Brun (Brown Hornet)
Filles de Kilimanjaro
1968
USA
Moondog
Invocation
The Viking Of 6th Avenue (compilation)
rec. 1995,rel. 2006
USA

 
Van der Graaf Generator
La Rossa
Still Life
1976
UK
                 
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