I caught a bit of
My Mother the Car when Antenna was showing it on Sunday mornings, but it's not currently in their schedule.
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In case anyone hasn't seen it:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/aretha-franklin-queen-of-soul-gravely-ill.295503/
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50th Anniversary Album Spotlight
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Music from Big Pink
The Band
Released July 1, 1968
Chart debut: August 10, 1968
Chart peak: #30, November 16, 1968
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_from_Big_Pink#Reception
Wiki said:
In 2003, the album was ranked number 34 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The laid-back feel of the album attracted the attention of other major artists. For example, Eric Clapton cites the album's roots rock style as what convinced him to quit Cream, and pursue the styles of Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie, Derek and the Dominos, and his debut album. George Harrison was also impressed by the album's musicianship and sense of camaraderie, and Roger Waters called it the second "most influential record in the history of rock and roll", after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and said that it "affected Pink Floyd deeply, deeply, deeply." According to Terry Burrows, the album spawned the Americana genre, while music academic Chris Smith said its songs laid the groundwork for roots rock music.
There's no argument that this album was bringing something new to the table musically, but the nature of its songs was such that I found myself looking more closely at the lyrics and what the songs were about.
The album opens with "Tears of Rage," written by Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel, an anguished song about a daughter who's gone out to find truth in the counterculture, with a guru, whatever, and is learning some life lessons while her father feels cast aside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_of_Rage
Wiki said:
Andy Gill likens the song to King Lear's soliloquy on the blasted heath in Shakespeare's tragedy: "Wracked with bitterness and regret, its narrator reflects upon promises broken and truths ignored, on how greed has poisoned the well of best intentions, and how even daughters can deny their father's wishes." He suggests that Dylan is linking the anguish of Lear’s soliloquy to the divisions in American society apparent in 1967, as the Vietnam War escalated: "In its narrowest and most contemporaneous interpretation, the song could be the first to register the pain of betrayal felt by many of America’s Vietnam war veterans. … In a wider interpretation [it] harks back to what anti-war protesters and critics of American materialism in general felt was a more fundamental betrayal of the American Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights."
Next up is the more upbeat, Robbie Robertson-penned
"To Kingdom Come". It's definitely full of religious imagery, though I generally find the lyrics cryptic. Perhaps it's about being on the inside of that experience of seeking truth in alternative faiths.
Manuel's
"In a Station" slows it down again, but in a less angsty manner than the opening track. I sense a theme here...this definitely seems about searching for meaning, in religion and/or relationships.
Robertson's
"Caledonia Mission," sung by Rick Danko, seems to concern a practitioner of witchcraft who's been imprisoned in some manner, literally or figuratively. It has a good country/funk vibe going in places.
Side One closes with an uber-classic that surprisingly didn't even crack the Top 40 back in the day:
"The Weight"
(Charted Aug. 31, 1968; #63 US; #21 UK; #41 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weight
Wiki said:
Written by Band member Robbie Robertson, the song is about a visitor's experiences in a town mentioned in the lyric's first line as Nazareth. "The Weight" has significantly influenced American popular music, having been listed as #41 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004. Pitchfork Media named it the 13th best song of the Sixties, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. PBS, which broadcast performances of the song in "Ramble at the Ryman" (2011), "Austin City Limits" (2012), and "Quick Hits" (2012), describes it as "a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters" and notes its enduring popularity as "an essential part of the American songbook."
Sung by Levon Helm with Rick Danko, this song about a weary, increasingly burdened traveler has a great "road vibe". It's said to have been inspired in part by Robertson's experience visiting the American South for the first time.
Side Two opens with Manuel's
"We Can Talk". Featuring Manuel, Helm, and Danko on vocals, it's an uplifting, playful song noteworthy for its organ work and the change of tempo in its middle eight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Talk
Wiki said:
"We Can Talk" shows unrelated snippets of conversation between members of The Band. Levon Helm wrote in his autobiography "It's a funny song that really captures the way we spoke to one another; lots of outrageous rhymes and corny puns."
Next up is
"Long Black Veil," a country ballad about a man who allows himself to be convicted of a crime he didn't commit to keep an affair with a married woman secret, which I was already familiar with from Johnny Cash's version on
At Folsom Prison. Sung by Danko and written in 1959 by Marijohn Wilkin and Danny Dill, it's the only cover on the album.
"Chest Fever" has a very distinctive sound that I'd classify as psychedelic rock fused with funk, which makes it stand out from other tracks on the album:
Written by Robertson and sung by Manuel, it's noteworthy for its organ intro "based on Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor" (
Wiki) and another tempo-chaging middle eight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chest_Fever
Wiki said:
The lyrics, according to Levon Helm, were originally improvised by Levon Helm and Richard Manuel, telling the story of a man who becomes sick when he is spurned by the woman he loves.
Robertson has since said the lyrics were nonsensical, used only while the instrumental tracks were recorded. "I'm not sure that I know the words to 'Chest Fever'; I'm not even so sure there are words to 'Chest Fever'." He has also stated the entirety of the song does not make sense.
"Lonesome Suzie" is a sorrowful song in which Manuel's strained vocals cross the line into sounding a bit whiny to my ear.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_Suzie
Wiki said:
Drummer Levon Helm has said that "...Lonesome Suzie was Richard's failed attempt to write a hit record."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_Suzie#Theme
Wiki said:
The song follows a seemingly troubled woman who hopes to acquire a friend or lover but struggles in doing so. The narrator offers his support, but is not a suitable match. He says he doesn't belong there, but may know someone who does. The narrator, of course, means himself the entire time eventually asking the woman to be with him in the line "why don't we get together, what else can we do?"
Written by Dylan and Danko, "This Wheel's on Fire" is another of the album's more distinctive numbers, featuring Garth Hudson on
Rocksichord:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Wheel's_on_Fire
Wiki said:
It was originally recorded by Dylan and The Band during their 1967 sessions, portions of which (including this song) comprised the 1975 album, The Basement Tapes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Wheel's_on_Fire#Background
Wiki said:
Danko recounted how the song was written: "We would come together every day and work and Dylan would come over. He gave me the typewritten lyrics to 'This Wheel's On Fire'. At that time I was teaching myself to play the piano.... Some music I had written on the piano the day before just seemed to fit with Dylan's lyrics. I worked on the phrasing and the melody. Then Dylan and I wrote the chorus together."
The album closes with the Dylan-written, Manuel-sung "I Shall Be Released":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Shall_Be_Released
Wiki said:
The first recording was made in collaboration with the Band during the "basement tapes" sessions in 1967, and eventually released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 in 1991.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Shall_Be_Released#Style_and_content
Wiki said:
The song is influenced by gospel music, combining imagery of religious redemption, or release from sin, with implied literal release from prison. David Yaffe describes it as a song about "redeemed prisoners". The singer describes life behind a wall reflecting on every man "who put me here" and a man "who swears he's not to blame" who is "crying out that he was framed". He repeats that "any day now" he will be released. Mike Marqusee says that "the first person narrator speaks from a prison cell. Prison—and more broadly the cruelty of the justice system—is a leitmotif in Dylan's work", but that Dylan broadens the idea of imprisonment to link social issues with a seemingly ancient urge for freedom.
I have the same issue here with Manuel's high, whiny vocals; I'm not sure if I've heard Dylan's version, but I prefer to picture him singing it.
Overall, a well-crafted, enjoyable album that I could see myself putting on some more when my purchases have slowed down to a non-weekly pace.
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Our next album spotlight will be for a record that didn't make the
Rolling Stone list, but happens to be 50th Anniversaryland's latest LP from my second-favorite band:
Waiting for the Sun by the Doors.
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