The "brown album" has long been one of my desert island dics (somehow I never warmed to MFBP) along with "Europe'72". Songs such as "Tennessee Jed", "Brown Eyed Women", "Ramblin' Rose" and "Jack Straw" seem to me to be cut from the same cloth as those on The Band's magnum opus. It's too bad the Dead were never able to record a studio album featuring these tunes, as Hunter had hoped. Nevertheless, to my ears, the overlap between the Dead's early 70's output and The Band is particularly strong-- more so than other group from that period. Others will no doubt disagree. . .
Springsteen and Clapton on their favorite, heh, band.
I went and saw Once Were Brothers; Robbie Robertson And The Band in a theater early last year, and now tonight on a DVD at home. It is alternately both thrilling and irritating, but that’s not the point of this thread. If you don’t already know how very, very special The Band were, and the deep impact they made on Rock ’n’ Roll, here is what Bruce and Eric had to say about them in the film:
- Springsteen: "I think I was in a little coffee shop in Redbank, New Jersey. I kid came in with Music From Big Pink, put it on the sound system. And suddenly this music comes on, and everything changes."
- Clapton: "When I heard Big Pink, it was like someone had nailed me through my chest onto the wall. I was immediately converted. I thought ’This is what I want to do’. It changed my life."
Mine too.
- Springsteen: "I think I was in a little coffee shop in Redbank, New Jersey. I kid came in with Music From Big Pink, put it on the sound system. And suddenly this music comes on, and everything changes."
- Clapton: "When I heard Big Pink, it was like someone had nailed me through my chest onto the wall. I was immediately converted. I thought ’This is what I want to do’. It changed my life."
Mine too.