Music from Big Pink [50th Anniversary]

The album was intricately produced by John Simon, and meticulously arranged with three singers/players--Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel--sharing the spotlight (Robbie Robertson also took a rare lead vocal). Subtleties like oblique background horn charts, keyboard whiz Garth Hudson’s inspired and playful sounds (particularly on “This Wheels On Fire”) and Helm’s unique drum patterns are given a fresh glow, making this enduring classic even more enticing.

It's this funhouse-mirror approach to the past—backward-looking but never self-consciously “retro”—that makes Music from Big Pink feel truly timeless. This goes double for this anniversary edition, which features a revelatory new mix supervised by veteran engineer Bob Clearmountain. His work brings a feeling of presence to the album.

This super deluxe edition—complete with a 49-minute album pressed as a double-LP at 45rpm--encourages exploration of the original album, because even with the bright, discordant new remix, there remains a mysterious core that can not be explained but only experienced.

It sounds both timeless and brand new. [Oct 2018, p.43]

If you love the Band, it’s mostly nothing you haven’t heard a couple thousand times before, but little else is needed. A half-century later, the brotherhood of Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Manuel and Garth Hudson still makes you want to join the party.