50 Years On, The Band's 'Music From Big Pink' Haunts Us Still
Nobody witnessing the turmoil of 1968 was waiting around for a salve like "The Weight" — or could have predicted how fundamental those songs would become.
The first hint of otherness comes from the voices.
They are five in all, each ragged and weary in his own way, each contributing to "Tears of Rage" on his own timetable, when stirred by some spirit. Sounding less like a polished choir than a wandering militia, they appear displaced, out of time. The voices have no discernable connection to the moment the record arrived in 1968. They might as well be selling elixirs from the back of a horse-drawn rig, moving
