Big Pink is a house in
West Saugerties,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, which was the location where
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
and
The Band recorded ''
The Basement Tapes
''The Basement Tapes'' is the sixteenth album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed b ...
'', and The Band wrote their album ''
Music from Big Pink
''Music from Big Pink'' is the debut studio album by the Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by bassist/sing ...
''.
The house
The house is located at 56 Parnassus Lane (formerly 2188 Stoll Road). The house was built by Ottmar Gramms, who bought the land in 1952.
The house was newly built when
Rick Danko
Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
During ...
, then part of
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's backing band, found it as a rental in 1967, after the cancellation of Dylan's tour due to his 1966 motorcycle crash. Dylan was living at the time in nearby
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
. Danko moved into the house along with bandmates
Garth Hudson
Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...
and
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a pianist and one of three lead singers in The Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and ...
in February 1967. The house became known locally as "Big Pink" for its pink siding.
'' The Basement Tapes''
In early 1967, Bob Dylan and the musicians who would later become The Band began to record together, initially in the "Red Room" at Dylan's house, Hi Lo Ha, in the
Byrdcliffe area of Woodstock.
In June, these sessions moved to the basement of Big Pink, where Hudson set up a recording space using two stereo mixers and a tape recorder borrowed from Dylan's manager
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman (May 21, 1926 – January 25, 1986) was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music and rock and roll scene. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful performers of folk and ...
, as well as a set of microphones on loan from folk trio
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary was an American folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival phenomenon. The trio consisted of tenor Peter Yarrow, baritone Paul Stookey, and contralto Mary Travers. The group's repertoir ...
.
During June-October 1967, Dylan and The Band recorded
a huge number of cover songs and original Dylan material in the basement. In the process, The Band began to develop their distinctive sound for the first time. These sessions ended in October 1967, with
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...
having rejoined the group by that time.
The recordings were not commercially released at the time, but attracted attention through a demo circulated amongst recording artists by Dylan's publishing company Dwarf Music, and through bootlegs such as ''
Great White Wonder
''Great White Wonder'', or ''GWW'', is the first notable rock bootleg album, released in July 1969, and containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is also the first release of the famous bootleg record label Trademark of Quality ...
''.
[Griffin, Sid (2007). Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Basement Tapes. Jawbone. .] Several songs from the sessions were taken up by other performers, starting with Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of "Too Much of Nothing" which reached number 35 on the
''Billboard'' chart in late 1967.
Some of the basement recordings were eventually officially released in 1975, as ''
The Basement Tapes
''The Basement Tapes'' is the sixteenth album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed b ...
'', while the full set of recordings was released in 2014 as
The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete.
''Music from Big Pink''
After the conclusion of the sessions with Dylan, The Band began writing their own songs at Big Pink. They still had no official name, and in 1969, ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' referred to them as "the band from Big Pink."
These songs became their first album, ''
Music from Big Pink
''Music from Big Pink'' is the debut studio album by the Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by bassist/sing ...
'' (1968). The album included three songs written or co-written by Dylan ("
This Wheel's on Fire
"This Wheel's on Fire" is a song written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko. 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''. The Ba ...
", "
Tears of Rage
"Tears of Rage" is a song with lyrics written by Bob Dylan and melody by Richard Manuel. Dylan and the Band first recorded the song in 1967, but it was not released until 1975 on ''The Basement Tapes'' album. In 1968, the Band recorded it for t ...
", and "
I Shall Be Released
"I Shall Be Released" is a 1967 song written by Bob Dylan.
Dylan recorded two primary versions. The first recording was made in collaboration with the Band during the Basement Tapes sessions in 1967, and released on '' The Bootleg Series Volu ...
") as well as "
The Weight
"The Weight" is a song by the Canadian-American group the Band that was released as a single in 1968 and on the group's debut album ''Music from Big Pink''. It was their first release under this name, after their previous releases as Canadian ...
", the use of which in the film ''
Easy Rider
''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American independent drug culture road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American So ...
'' would make it probably their best-known song.
The album features a photograph of Big Pink on its back cover, along with a description written by Canadian journalist Dominique Bourgeois, who went on to marry Robertson.
Later legacy
The house was subsequently sold by Gramms in 1977. It was rented to classical music label Parnassus Records, which used it as its headquarters, before becoming a private residence in 1998. As of 2017, the house is used as a vacation rental property, with publicity featuring its role in music history.
A painting of Big Pink was used as the cover of The Band's 1993 album ''
Jericho
Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...
''.
External links
Legendary Big Pink in Saugertieson homeaway.com
References
{{The Band
The Band
Bob Dylan
Recording studios in New York (state)