What do you think?
Rate this book
33⅓ Main Series #28
Music from Big Pink
"Music From Big Pink is a moving book that succeeds not just in vividly evoking its time and place but in distilling one young man's cliched and minor destiny into something approaching tragedy....This well-written first novel captures not just some of the dreams of that bygone era, but the way those dreams died."
-Greg Kamiya, The New York Times Book Review
Music From Big Pink is faction: real people like Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Bob Dylan and Albert Grossman rub shoulders with fictional characters and actual, documented events thread their way through text alongside imagined scenarios. Through the eyes of 23-year-old Greg Keltner, drug-dealer and wannabe musician, we witness the gestation and birth of a record that will go on to cast its spell across five decades - bewitching and inspiring artists as disparate as The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Travis, Wilco and Mercury Rev.
-Greg Kamiya, The New York Times Book Review
Music From Big Pink is faction: real people like Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Bob Dylan and Albert Grossman rub shoulders with fictional characters and actual, documented events thread their way through text alongside imagined scenarios. Through the eyes of 23-year-old Greg Keltner, drug-dealer and wannabe musician, we witness the gestation and birth of a record that will go on to cast its spell across five decades - bewitching and inspiring artists as disparate as The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Travis, Wilco and Mercury Rev.
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2005
27 people are currently reading
575 people want to read
About the author
John Niven
30 books874 followersBorn in Irvine, Ayrshire, Niven read English Literature at Glasgow University, graduating in 1991 with First Class honours. For the next ten years, he worked for a variety of record companies, including London Records and Independiente. He left the music industry to write full time in 2002 and published his debut novella Music from Big Pink in 2005 (Continuum Press). The novella was optioned for the screen by CC Films with a script has been written by English playwright Jez Butterworth. Niven's breakthrough novel Kill Your Friends is a satire of the music business, based on his brief career in A&R, during which he passed up the chance to sign Coldplay and Muse. The novel was published by William Heinemann in 2008 and achieved much acclaim, with Word magazine describing it as "possibly the best British Novel since Trainspotting". It has been translated into seven languages and was a bestseller in Britain and Germany. Niven has since published The Amateurs (2009), The Second Coming (2011), Cold Hands (2012) and Straight White Male (2013).
He also writes original screenplays with writing partner Nick Ball, the younger brother of British TV presenter Zoë Ball. His journalistic contributions to newspapers and magazines include a monthly column for Q magazine, entitled "London Kills Me". In 2009 Niven wrote a controversial article for The Independent newspaper where he attacked the media's largely complacent coverage of Michael Jackson's death.
Niven lives in Buckinghamshire with his fiancee and infant daughter. He has a teenage son from a previous marriage.
He also writes original screenplays with writing partner Nick Ball, the younger brother of British TV presenter Zoë Ball. His journalistic contributions to newspapers and magazines include a monthly column for Q magazine, entitled "London Kills Me". In 2009 Niven wrote a controversial article for The Independent newspaper where he attacked the media's largely complacent coverage of Michael Jackson's death.
Niven lives in Buckinghamshire with his fiancee and infant daughter. He has a teenage son from a previous marriage.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
February 4, 2008
I think I like the idea of this series more than I've enjoyed reading any of the individual volumes, with the exception of this one. I read this imagined history/novella while lazing around a room at the Howard Johnson's in Saugerties, NY, and I had a heck of a time putting it down.
There are some albums that seem to come from a world of their own that we might glimpse, but can never enter. "Music From Big Pink" is one of those albums, and Niven took a courageous leap headfirst into that world. Yeah, you could argue that it isn't true, but it's a heck of a lot more entertaining that the umpteenth dissection of every mouldy old country and blues album gathering dust in the corner of Big Pink and its impact on Robbie Robertson's use of tremolo. (Okay, actually, I would find that entertaining, too.)
Mainly, I'll be honest, the real reason I love this book is because, out of everything I've read on The Band and Dylan, this one really gives Richard Manuel his due. Even if it is only an "imagining" of these people and their world, Niven gives his version of Manuel just as much soul as Manuel himself put into those songs, and it makes for a great companion piece, true or not.
There are some albums that seem to come from a world of their own that we might glimpse, but can never enter. "Music From Big Pink" is one of those albums, and Niven took a courageous leap headfirst into that world. Yeah, you could argue that it isn't true, but it's a heck of a lot more entertaining that the umpteenth dissection of every mouldy old country and blues album gathering dust in the corner of Big Pink and its impact on Robbie Robertson's use of tremolo. (Okay, actually, I would find that entertaining, too.)
Mainly, I'll be honest, the real reason I love this book is because, out of everything I've read on The Band and Dylan, this one really gives Richard Manuel his due. Even if it is only an "imagining" of these people and their world, Niven gives his version of Manuel just as much soul as Manuel himself put into those songs, and it makes for a great companion piece, true or not.
November 28, 2023
I saw Robbie Robertson at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn't want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.
He said, "Oh, like you're doing now?"
I was taken aback, and all I could say was "Huh?" but he kept cutting me off and going "huh? huh? huh?" and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like "Sir, you need to pay for those first." At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually "to prevent any electrical infetterence," and then turned around and winked at me. I don't even think that's a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
He said, "Oh, like you're doing now?"
I was taken aback, and all I could say was "Huh?" but he kept cutting me off and going "huh? huh? huh?" and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like "Sir, you need to pay for those first." At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually "to prevent any electrical infetterence," and then turned around and winked at me. I don't even think that's a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.
July 7, 2020
I know about recency bias, that it's to be avoided, etc. But when I read something like this I can't help thinking, This is one of the most inventive biographies I've ever read. . . wait, I think it's actually THE most inventive ever. And even trying to temper the superlatives I can't come up with a more original way to tell a history than what Niven has provided here.
Probably the best compliment I can give Niven is that the book feels totally authentic, so much that I was shocked when halfway through I realized that Niven was born the same year the album came out, so there's no way he could actually know first-hand what it must have been like to be there. But his natural style, the casual narrator and all of the pop-culture details he provides -- really an ingenious way of contextualizing the album when you think about it -- create a totally immersive experience. You feel like you're a part of the Woodstock scene.
The writing ain't too shabby either. Niven employs almost a Beat sensibility with poetic word choice and dynamic rhythms that keep dialogues snappy and build momentum through the frequent action scenes. He has a natural ability with chapter endings, for example on p.48:
What it comes down to for me is that I've now read two of these 33 1/3 books, this and Marquee Moon, which discusses one of my Top 5 favorite albums ever. Big Pink doesn't crack my Top 5 (though The Band's self-titled follow-up does!), but this book is a much more interesting story about the album.
The Television book is a more traditional biography but gets bogged down in tiresome minutiae. I much prefer this innovative, counterintuitive, and incredibly organic telling that Niven gives us. . . after all, the biography's freakish style encapsulates its subject matter far better than a traditional narrative could have. I strongly recommend it for fans of The Band, Dylan, Woodstock, or literary fiction.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
Probably the best compliment I can give Niven is that the book feels totally authentic, so much that I was shocked when halfway through I realized that Niven was born the same year the album came out, so there's no way he could actually know first-hand what it must have been like to be there. But his natural style, the casual narrator and all of the pop-culture details he provides -- really an ingenious way of contextualizing the album when you think about it -- create a totally immersive experience. You feel like you're a part of the Woodstock scene.
The writing ain't too shabby either. Niven employs almost a Beat sensibility with poetic word choice and dynamic rhythms that keep dialogues snappy and build momentum through the frequent action scenes. He has a natural ability with chapter endings, for example on p.48:
That's how you get dramatic news. That's how you hear the big stuff. Not in some emergency room, or sitting down face-to-face with someone all serious. It's when you're pulling off a shoe, changing channels and lighting a cigarette, or reaching for a can of spaghetti in the kitchen cupboard. The phone rings, or someone comes through the door looking at you funny, and that's when you get told. So I'll always remember pulling my coat off that night, the night Skye spiked me, the night I really heard The Band -- as opposed to The Hawks -- for the first time. It was a real cold, blue December night, with the new snow all pearly outside and the stars way up in the sky and now my mother was dead.Or how about when he describes his first time shooting up heroin, when his own father tied him off and stuck him? p.76:
. . .We looked at each other for a long time before he got up and came and sat on the edge of the tub. He tied me off and tenderly stroked a vein up, the whole scene a crazy parody of a father bathing his child. . . He slipped the needle efficiently, medically, into the thick vein that ran straight into the center of my elbow and pushed her home, shooting me up for the first time.If you could fault this book with something it's maybe that the musicians and album are too peripheral to the general debauchery perpetrated by the fictitious protagonist. There's not so much biography as there is compelling tragedy. But despite this casual treatment of the should-be protagonists, you come away not only with a decent idea of the album's creative process but also of each individual band member. You get to know Manuel, Danko and Levon as if they were brothers. And through the narrator you understand how Garth and Robbie didn't quite fit in with the rest of them. Even the Dylan stuff feels totally natural, almost voyeuristic.
I saw fireworks in a warm summer sky.
Celluloid burning through in a projector.
White-out.
Black hole.
What it comes down to for me is that I've now read two of these 33 1/3 books, this and Marquee Moon, which discusses one of my Top 5 favorite albums ever. Big Pink doesn't crack my Top 5 (though The Band's self-titled follow-up does!), but this book is a much more interesting story about the album.
The Television book is a more traditional biography but gets bogged down in tiresome minutiae. I much prefer this innovative, counterintuitive, and incredibly organic telling that Niven gives us. . . after all, the biography's freakish style encapsulates its subject matter far better than a traditional narrative could have. I strongly recommend it for fans of The Band, Dylan, Woodstock, or literary fiction.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
November 1, 2016
It started with Big Pink the house. Then came the LP, The Band’s classic 1968 debut record that lodged itself so thoroughly in our cultural subconscious we’ll forever be humming its lines, “Pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ ’bout half past dead . . .” Now Music from Big Pink is also a novella by John Niven, No. 29 in Continuum’s quirky and admirable “33 1/3” series that matches seminal rock albums to good prose. Niven’s is the first fictional treatment, and it’s easy to see how he might have spied a worthwhile story up there in the mountains of Woodstock.
“When I think about that album, I still have to laugh about how close the songs were to our lives,” drummer Levon Helm wrote in his memoir This Wheel’s on Fire. “The characters that appear in the lyrics -- Luke, Anna Lee, Crazy Chester -- were all people I knew. The music was the sum of all the experiences we’d shared for the past ten years, distilled through the quieter vibe of our lives in the country.”
Alas, there’s no one named Luke in Niven’s story; instead, he distills his vibe through Greg Keltner, an earnest, music-loving college dropout-slash-dope dealer who’s always saying stuff like “Hey, wanna go to the john and get fucked up?” Greg follows a friend to Woodstock and ends up supplying the likes of Bob Dylan, his infamous manager Albert Grossman, and of course Helm and the boys. In place of Anna Lee, meanwhile, there’s Skye, whose name sort of says it all. She’s Greg’s inevitable crush, a girl born with a Rolling Rock in her fist and who likes to respond to everything with “Rilly?” to which Greg is prone to shoot back, “‘Yeah.’ Yeah rilly, you fuckin’ bitch.”
And as for Crazy Chester -- well, he could be just about anybody. In Niven’s book they’re all tripped out or coked up, so that after one Crazy Chester ingests too much powdered Khe Sanh, another Crazy Chester decides that the only remedy is a few ice cubes punched through the back door. Greg gives us that moment with typical stoner understatement: “He and I looked at each other. I shook my head. No way, man, I didn’t even know the fuckin’ guy. ‘Ah, fuck it,’ he said.”
Ah, fuck it indeed. That’s the level at which Niven’s characters operate -- “classic cliché shit,” to quote Greg—which is maddening and ultimately deadening, especially since Big Pink begins with such a big syringe full of pathos. It’s 1986 and Greg, no surprise here, is a real mess, barely getting by, when he sees the paper: Richard Manuel of The Band is dead. A suicide. Greg puts on the album, which plays “good and slow, slow as memory, the beat of my heart.
Read my full review here: http://bit.ly/2ekzC29
“When I think about that album, I still have to laugh about how close the songs were to our lives,” drummer Levon Helm wrote in his memoir This Wheel’s on Fire. “The characters that appear in the lyrics -- Luke, Anna Lee, Crazy Chester -- were all people I knew. The music was the sum of all the experiences we’d shared for the past ten years, distilled through the quieter vibe of our lives in the country.”
Alas, there’s no one named Luke in Niven’s story; instead, he distills his vibe through Greg Keltner, an earnest, music-loving college dropout-slash-dope dealer who’s always saying stuff like “Hey, wanna go to the john and get fucked up?” Greg follows a friend to Woodstock and ends up supplying the likes of Bob Dylan, his infamous manager Albert Grossman, and of course Helm and the boys. In place of Anna Lee, meanwhile, there’s Skye, whose name sort of says it all. She’s Greg’s inevitable crush, a girl born with a Rolling Rock in her fist and who likes to respond to everything with “Rilly?” to which Greg is prone to shoot back, “‘Yeah.’ Yeah rilly, you fuckin’ bitch.”
And as for Crazy Chester -- well, he could be just about anybody. In Niven’s book they’re all tripped out or coked up, so that after one Crazy Chester ingests too much powdered Khe Sanh, another Crazy Chester decides that the only remedy is a few ice cubes punched through the back door. Greg gives us that moment with typical stoner understatement: “He and I looked at each other. I shook my head. No way, man, I didn’t even know the fuckin’ guy. ‘Ah, fuck it,’ he said.”
Ah, fuck it indeed. That’s the level at which Niven’s characters operate -- “classic cliché shit,” to quote Greg—which is maddening and ultimately deadening, especially since Big Pink begins with such a big syringe full of pathos. It’s 1986 and Greg, no surprise here, is a real mess, barely getting by, when he sees the paper: Richard Manuel of The Band is dead. A suicide. Greg puts on the album, which plays “good and slow, slow as memory, the beat of my heart.
Read my full review here: http://bit.ly/2ekzC29
March 7, 2024
I was in Waterstones looking for a book to help me with my dissertation on The Band, couldn’t find it, but saw this and thought, fuck it, it’s a starting point. Read the blurb and turns out this isn’t really about the album but some strange Band fan fiction from the perspective of a drug dealer living in Woodstock in the late sixties. Bought it for a laugh, and I did laugh for the first 70 pages or so, but then it wasn’t funny. The author seems to fancy himself a beatnik, a style of writing that doesn’t feel right for a book written in 2005, although I guess he was trying to add to the whole mid 20 century, social revoltutiony feel. I’ll be real, I wanted to read about Music from Big Pink, I didn’t want to suffer through racist, homophobic, misogynistic passages. I dont give a fuck it was set in the sixties, I want to read about the record, not to be reminded of how much white guys fucking hated women and used the n word, this was written in 2005, dont use the fucking n word you bastard. The whole pseudo-beatnik vibe made me feel like the author just wanted to use every slur in the world and write about how women are just whores and cunts. Fuck you! Also, there is very little on the Band. Here’s what I got:
- Richard Manuel is the best ever and the only important member of the band and everyone loves him, the only songs worth talking about on the record are the songs he sings
- Robbie Robertson sucks!!!!!!!!!!!! He sucks aghhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Waaaaaaaah ! The weight is not worth looking into cos it was written by Robertson and he SUCKS !!!!!!!!
- The velvet underground sucks too! (The chapter where he’s at a party with a cartoonish Lou Reed made me lose it)
- Drugzzzzzz
Thats it thats all there is to music from big fucking pink
Read this if you want to feel a bit feverish and you want a cliched simple uncomplicated view of the sixties, but if you’re looking to learn about the record, don’t bother
Three stars cos it was a laugh in the beginning, -1 star cos bro wtf
- Richard Manuel is the best ever and the only important member of the band and everyone loves him, the only songs worth talking about on the record are the songs he sings
- Robbie Robertson sucks!!!!!!!!!!!! He sucks aghhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Waaaaaaaah ! The weight is not worth looking into cos it was written by Robertson and he SUCKS !!!!!!!!
- The velvet underground sucks too! (The chapter where he’s at a party with a cartoonish Lou Reed made me lose it)
- Drugzzzzzz
Thats it thats all there is to music from big fucking pink
Read this if you want to feel a bit feverish and you want a cliched simple uncomplicated view of the sixties, but if you’re looking to learn about the record, don’t bother
Three stars cos it was a laugh in the beginning, -1 star cos bro wtf
September 22, 2008
Spectacular. Many have tried, but it's rare when fiction & rock crit work together so well. Told from the perspective of The Band's (fictional) drug dealer in Woodstock, circa '66-'68, it's pitch perfect, joyous, and heart-breaking -- especially when Niven's narrator hangs out with the late Richard Manuel. Gets the spirit of the music and then some, channeling Manuel's high, haunted voice. Spectacular epilogue circa '77. I've been on a big Band kick all summer, and tried to read it as slowly as possible. Still wish it was longer, and I think it could've been.
April 25, 2022
Is it fiction? Is it real? Real people with fictional characters but confusing, not amusing.
Hard and rude.
Not a light read.
Hard and rude.
Not a light read.
August 17, 2023
I had been aware of this book for some time but I always thought it was an analytical critique of the album itself much like the majority of the books in the 331/3 series. However, following the recent death of Robbie Robertson, I read John Niven’s personal obituary to Robbie and learned that it was a in fact a novella telling the story of fictional drug dealer Greg Keltner’s encounters with The Band during their stay at The Big Pink.
Greg, a native of Toronto, moves to New York to attend NYU but finds that dealing is a lot more lucrative and enjoyable than studying. Following a bit of trouble in NYC he moves upstate to the Catskills where Dylan and The Band have taken up residency and have attracted a hippy following to the area. Greg deals to the incomers and also to Dylan’s entourage and eventually forms a friendship with Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Levon Helm, the party animals of the group. Greg relates his intimate tales with these guys and also of his encounters with Dylan himself during his brief time in this near perfect world.
This is a brilliant piece of fiction that seems to capture the spirit of the times ( late 1960’s) perfectly. It is funny, insightful and also very poignant, especially when Greg looks back to these times following his fall. As an aspiring musician himself, Greg falls under the spell of The Band’s music and is in awe of their musicianship and realises he’ll never have what it takes. Later in life Greg tracks the group down to L. A. but times have changed and he realises that they can never recapture the feeling of those times of innocence and discovery that he experienced in 1968.
I’ve read and enjoyed other novels by John Niven but it’s hard to believe that this was actually his debut, as it’s such an accomplished and beautifully believable piece of fiction.
Greg, a native of Toronto, moves to New York to attend NYU but finds that dealing is a lot more lucrative and enjoyable than studying. Following a bit of trouble in NYC he moves upstate to the Catskills where Dylan and The Band have taken up residency and have attracted a hippy following to the area. Greg deals to the incomers and also to Dylan’s entourage and eventually forms a friendship with Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Levon Helm, the party animals of the group. Greg relates his intimate tales with these guys and also of his encounters with Dylan himself during his brief time in this near perfect world.
This is a brilliant piece of fiction that seems to capture the spirit of the times ( late 1960’s) perfectly. It is funny, insightful and also very poignant, especially when Greg looks back to these times following his fall. As an aspiring musician himself, Greg falls under the spell of The Band’s music and is in awe of their musicianship and realises he’ll never have what it takes. Later in life Greg tracks the group down to L. A. but times have changed and he realises that they can never recapture the feeling of those times of innocence and discovery that he experienced in 1968.
I’ve read and enjoyed other novels by John Niven but it’s hard to believe that this was actually his debut, as it’s such an accomplished and beautifully believable piece of fiction.
August 4, 2021
This novel just captures a moment in time. That point where the counter culture spilled into being the culture. The Band could never exist now how it did then and I'm not asking it to, but there's a romance and a reality shed in this one.
Greg Keltner is a college dropout, drug dealer who has struck up a friendship with members of Dylan's backing band providing them with the necessary chemicals in the primary, but being a good person to get fucked up with two.
It's one of those where nothing happens and everything happens. It's about the character and the change he sees and how it changes him. There are a fun cameos throughout and a sense of what Dylan meant to the 60s that might have been toned down by time.
I love books like this and found this engaging and exploratory. I'm probably going to have to check out more Niven now.
Greg Keltner is a college dropout, drug dealer who has struck up a friendship with members of Dylan's backing band providing them with the necessary chemicals in the primary, but being a good person to get fucked up with two.
It's one of those where nothing happens and everything happens. It's about the character and the change he sees and how it changes him. There are a fun cameos throughout and a sense of what Dylan meant to the 60s that might have been toned down by time.
I love books like this and found this engaging and exploratory. I'm probably going to have to check out more Niven now.
March 25, 2021
Excellent imagining of a young drug dealer's life in the orbit of Dylan and his backing band around Woodstock in the sixties.
Author Niven says on the 'Is it Rolling Bob' Bob Dylan podcast that Robbie Robertson read it and asked "was this guy there" - praise indeed since Robertson comes off as a bit of an asshole in the book. Or "focused" to put it politely
I have read all Niven's books and am a fan, but I thought this first novella was actually one of his strongest. My only quibble was that I don't think the Americans would use the c-word quite so much - that is the Scot coming out in Niven
Author Niven says on the 'Is it Rolling Bob' Bob Dylan podcast that Robbie Robertson read it and asked "was this guy there" - praise indeed since Robertson comes off as a bit of an asshole in the book. Or "focused" to put it politely
I have read all Niven's books and am a fan, but I thought this first novella was actually one of his strongest. My only quibble was that I don't think the Americans would use the c-word quite so much - that is the Scot coming out in Niven
April 25, 2022
This book is not a review of the album. This is a fictional story set in Woodstock during the years the Band and Dylan were denizens of those streets. I put Music From Big Pink on repeat while reading this. And it just works. Really really well. The story immerses you in the feeling of the album. It’s excellent.
April 15, 2016
Praise Your Idols
John Niven was obsessed by the Band - one of my favourite bands too - and this tribute novella hits the spot. Greg is a small time drug dealer from Toronto who skips his studies, heads to Woodstock and hangs out at the fringes with the Hawks, soon to be the Band. The excess so wonderfully played in Kill Your Friends has its debut here, with Greg dealing, drinking, snorting, tripping and coming to terms with unrequited love and the realisation that his friends inhabit a higher plane in music.
Studded with wicked wit and credible observation about the truly famous - who are taciturn, sarcastic and condescending - especially Dylan and Robbie Robertson - this is really a study itself destruction of Richard Manuel and the character Greg. It is more serious than it appears at first, and a tad maudlin, but it is still very cleverly imagined and executed. John Niven was a rocker, that seems certain, and is so convinced of the greatness of Manuel (more than Robertson). He thinks Music from Big Pink is their masterpiece - but I think it is The Band - a flawless, top 10 of all time album.
Short,enjoyable and full of warmth, like one of his heroin's rushes
John Niven was obsessed by the Band - one of my favourite bands too - and this tribute novella hits the spot. Greg is a small time drug dealer from Toronto who skips his studies, heads to Woodstock and hangs out at the fringes with the Hawks, soon to be the Band. The excess so wonderfully played in Kill Your Friends has its debut here, with Greg dealing, drinking, snorting, tripping and coming to terms with unrequited love and the realisation that his friends inhabit a higher plane in music.
Studded with wicked wit and credible observation about the truly famous - who are taciturn, sarcastic and condescending - especially Dylan and Robbie Robertson - this is really a study itself destruction of Richard Manuel and the character Greg. It is more serious than it appears at first, and a tad maudlin, but it is still very cleverly imagined and executed. John Niven was a rocker, that seems certain, and is so convinced of the greatness of Manuel (more than Robertson). He thinks Music from Big Pink is their masterpiece - but I think it is The Band - a flawless, top 10 of all time album.
Short,enjoyable and full of warmth, like one of his heroin's rushes
January 14, 2016
The 33 1/3 series uses a variety of authors and approaches to dissect an album. The latest that I have read in this series is Music from Big Pink. It's ... different. It's a novella instead of a discussion of the album itself, and on one hand, I like the idea of taking such a different approach to a topic, but at points the narrative veers so far away from the album/band that I'm not sure I can call it a successful move. John Niven, the author, writes an interesting story; however, my problem with this being part of the series is that I know nothing more now about the album than I did before, which I would say makes it the least successful of the 5 or 6 33 1/3 books I've read. Even the one I haven't been able to finish (swordfishtrombones) gave me *something* new to consider about the album/artist.
July 1, 2019
I tend to dislike the fictionalized entries in the 33 1/3 series, and this one was no exception, though it was at least better than a couple of the other ones. The writing is passable, but the characters ultimately feel like an assortment of cliches, making it hard to tell how much of anything was based on true events. The only thing one really gathers about the album from reading this novella is that an insane amount of drugs went into its production, and that the author clearly thinks Richard Manuel is the best member of The Band.
December 30, 2014
John Niven ist großartig und ich liebe seinen Schreibstil.
Allerdings hat mir das Thema dieses Buches nicht so ganz zugesagt.
Allerdings hat mir das Thema dieses Buches nicht so ganz zugesagt.
March 3, 2023
John Niven’s debut novel from 2005 is about The Band’s debut album from 1968, Music From Big Pink, titled after the pink house in Woodstock, New York, where they wrote the record. It’s part of the 33 ⅓ series of books about landmark records which are usually journalistic nonfiction pieces though Niven’s approach is unusual, taking the form of a novel told from the perspective of a young drug dealer called Greg who hovers around the band while they’re making their album.
It’s an interesting angle to take but ultimately I didn’t think it worked or that the novel was especially good. There’s very little about the album’s creation so that you have no real insight into it on any level and what we do get about the individuals of The Band is that they were generally decent guys and that’s about it. If you wanted to learn more about the record, you’d do better reading a brief Wikipedia summary than reading this book.
The story itself isn’t that special either. It starts in Toronto, 1986, when Greg - a fat middle-aged heroin addict - hears about Richard Manuel’s suicide, and then flashbacks to the ‘60s when he was a young drug dealer who met the group when they were Bob Dylan’s backing band, before they became famous in their own right.
Greg’s not that compelling a protagonist and his story centres mostly on his pursuit of a similarly unremarkable hippy chick called Skye. If you’ve ever seen or read a story about druggy hippies, you won’t be surprised by anything that happens here. Everyone does drugs, has sex with one another, etc. etc. Yawn.
Niven does bring the era to life effectively so that you really get a sense of what life must’ve been like in the late ‘60s and the scene in Woodstock. It’s a believable time capsule of a book. He can also write really strongly - it’s no surprise that he went on to become a successful novelist. But it’s not enough to recommend the book, whether you’re a fan of John Niven or The Band.
The album is fantastic - if you’ve never heard it, do - but Niven’s book of the album isn’t. Although, he has written some great novels following Music From Big Pink - if you’re interested in this author, I highly recommend putting your weight on Kill Your Friends and The Second Coming instead.
It’s an interesting angle to take but ultimately I didn’t think it worked or that the novel was especially good. There’s very little about the album’s creation so that you have no real insight into it on any level and what we do get about the individuals of The Band is that they were generally decent guys and that’s about it. If you wanted to learn more about the record, you’d do better reading a brief Wikipedia summary than reading this book.
The story itself isn’t that special either. It starts in Toronto, 1986, when Greg - a fat middle-aged heroin addict - hears about Richard Manuel’s suicide, and then flashbacks to the ‘60s when he was a young drug dealer who met the group when they were Bob Dylan’s backing band, before they became famous in their own right.
Greg’s not that compelling a protagonist and his story centres mostly on his pursuit of a similarly unremarkable hippy chick called Skye. If you’ve ever seen or read a story about druggy hippies, you won’t be surprised by anything that happens here. Everyone does drugs, has sex with one another, etc. etc. Yawn.
Niven does bring the era to life effectively so that you really get a sense of what life must’ve been like in the late ‘60s and the scene in Woodstock. It’s a believable time capsule of a book. He can also write really strongly - it’s no surprise that he went on to become a successful novelist. But it’s not enough to recommend the book, whether you’re a fan of John Niven or The Band.
The album is fantastic - if you’ve never heard it, do - but Niven’s book of the album isn’t. Although, he has written some great novels following Music From Big Pink - if you’re interested in this author, I highly recommend putting your weight on Kill Your Friends and The Second Coming instead.
May 18, 2021
This is a great little book and so well written especially given the author was only born at the time he depicts and was raised in Scotland; just about as far removed as you can get from the utopian ideal of late sixties Woodstock. The details suggest that Niven was a contemporary of Dylan's in-crowd.
As a huge fan of The Band, I was worried about this being a flimsy attempt at fictionalising a period that I cherish. I have already read many books on them including Levon's, Robertson's and even Barney Hoskyn's who writes a very gushing foreword praising Nivens ability to immerse the reader ni the times. What I found was a novella that cleverly uses The Band as characters on the periphery of the protagonists plight and in so doing, we learn more about the times that they lived through. On criticism as a result of this, is that the reader new to The Band and their fabulous music will not learn much from this book so the title is a bit misleading. In that, I am surprised therefore that it was commissioned as a 33 1/3 book as the series is usually a very deep dive on an album. Readers looking for facts should refer to one of the titles mentioned above of the liner notes of 'A Musical History' - the lavish box set that came out a few years ago.
As a huge fan of The Band, I was worried about this being a flimsy attempt at fictionalising a period that I cherish. I have already read many books on them including Levon's, Robertson's and even Barney Hoskyn's who writes a very gushing foreword praising Nivens ability to immerse the reader ni the times. What I found was a novella that cleverly uses The Band as characters on the periphery of the protagonists plight and in so doing, we learn more about the times that they lived through. On criticism as a result of this, is that the reader new to The Band and their fabulous music will not learn much from this book so the title is a bit misleading. In that, I am surprised therefore that it was commissioned as a 33 1/3 book as the series is usually a very deep dive on an album. Readers looking for facts should refer to one of the titles mentioned above of the liner notes of 'A Musical History' - the lavish box set that came out a few years ago.
June 27, 2021
Turned me off a bit at first: it’s fictionalized, so right away I wondered “was the drug abuse really THIS extreme?” I got used to it after a couple chapters, partly because most of the truly wacko drug use centers on the narrator, who is a dealer and not part of The Band. There is the obligatory overdose scene, complete with scatological gross-out semi-humor, but what really did me in was a scene where the narrator shoots up with his grieving junky father. But his story is interesting, and once you get to the release of the album in question, it’s all pretty cool.
I don’t know if I understand anything more about this record than I did before, though. The depiction of Richard Manual is probably very accurate, and is of course deeply sad. I’m old enough that I read this stuff and I just want to go back in time and parent everybody…but Niven’s characters are just so fucked up, you come away feeling that it was an absolute miracle that this transcendent music ever got made…
I don’t know if I understand anything more about this record than I did before, though. The depiction of Richard Manual is probably very accurate, and is of course deeply sad. I’m old enough that I read this stuff and I just want to go back in time and parent everybody…but Niven’s characters are just so fucked up, you come away feeling that it was an absolute miracle that this transcendent music ever got made…
March 9, 2019
A novella written from the point of view of The Band’s drug dealer in 1967-68, set primarily in Woodstock. It primarily tells the dealer’s story, including how his life intersected with The Band when they were living in big pink, writing and recording Songs From Big Pink. The protagonist describes the songs as he hears them across the months in Woodstock. For example, he describes Richard Manuel playing piano and singing I Shall Be Released in the back room at a party to just a few people while the people hanging around Bob Dylan and the other superstars in the front room have no idea they’re missing something transcendent. It’s an effective way to illustrate the power of the music on The Band’s brilliant first record.
June 21, 2020
I have really enjoyed reading various books in this series, so I figured I’d branch out a bit more to learn more about other great albums in music history. I am not a connoisseur of The Band’s music, but certainly enjoy them nonetheless. Music from Big Pink is arguably their masterpiece. I was frankly a bit disappointed with this novella. As a mini-drama, it was fantastic - telling the riveting story of a drug dealer who rubbed shoulders with members of The Band during the making of this album. This setup painted a crazy picture of the mood and feeling during this time period. As a story documenting the making of the album, it fails. Probably 1/4 of the novella deals with this and ultimately it is a waste of time.
May 12, 2021
Having read several John Niven books and only kinda liked some of them as sort of snide entertainments (what a friend of mine would define as “HMV books”), I picked this up only because I am currently in the grips of a recurring and ever-evolving Bob Dylan obsession and the promise of his tangential appearance in a fictional(ish) story was simply too much for me, in my Zimmerman-addled state, to resist.
Little could have prepared me, then, for a work of such keenly felt pathos, evocative period conjuring, and deep aching melancholy for a time and place and feeling that, though utterly specific, feels universal and powerful and moving.
Which begs the question: if Niven has this in him, why doesn’t he do it again?
Little could have prepared me, then, for a work of such keenly felt pathos, evocative period conjuring, and deep aching melancholy for a time and place and feeling that, though utterly specific, feels universal and powerful and moving.
Which begs the question: if Niven has this in him, why doesn’t he do it again?
February 6, 2022
The Band's first LP was enormously influential on musicians when it came out, and the Basement Tapes cemented the respect for what they could achieve apparently without effort, effectively inventing the genre of Americana. John Niven's fictional story inhabits the pre-festival Woodstock but rarely engages with the principal characters responsible - Dylan seen from a distance, the Band encountered in parties and drug deals but hardly at all in recording and performing. I was frustrated, because if ever there was an album that merited the 33 1/3 treatment then it's Big Pink. I felt Niven was straining at times at the appearance of authenticity (at the cost of believability). The sad truth is that drug addicts aren't very interesting.
July 15, 2025
Not your average 33 1/3 in that it's not the more typical straight break down of the album, its context and its history but rather a fictitious story set around a central character who operates in the orbit of The Band around the time of the recording of the album with documented historical events and his experience of The Band's first album.
Fictitious characters mingling with the members of the Band, Dylan, Grossman et all could have felt weird and forced, and yet the story is written with such an ease and a natural laid back groove that it feels like the main character was actually around in Woodstock at the time The Band and Dylan were hanging out there.
Amazingly well written fictional short story set in real life events... highly recommended even if you're not a fan of The Band.
Fictitious characters mingling with the members of the Band, Dylan, Grossman et all could have felt weird and forced, and yet the story is written with such an ease and a natural laid back groove that it feels like the main character was actually around in Woodstock at the time The Band and Dylan were hanging out there.
Amazingly well written fictional short story set in real life events... highly recommended even if you're not a fan of The Band.
April 13, 2021
This is a great little novella which really makes you feel you're there with The Band and Dylan. I've noticed that some of the other reviews have pointed to the fact that the album itself isn't a huge part of the story, which some people may find annoying. I think the character of Greg Keltner is well realised, although his reflective moments do take on a Holden Caulfield quality sometimes, especially the cinema scene. The most impressive thing about the novella is Niven's ability to make you feel like he was there and recounting the vibe and lifestyle of those guys in Woodstock in 1968.
November 5, 2018
The novella approach taken in these 33 1/3 books can be really hit or miss, which led me to put this one off for years now. As much as I loved the album, I wasn't going to be happy about a fictional take that fell flat. That wasn't a problem here, I found this to be oddly affecting while still managing to paint a picture of the album itself. I wasn't expecting this to be so good, but I loved it.
February 11, 2021
This is like being 22 again and hanging with folk in the early throes of summer, a budding relationship flowering, months of mutual happiness ahead, no worries in the world. Like the line near the end says “life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone”, which is kinda true, kinda sentimental if you read this in your goddamn 40s. I’m not sure about these books where real people make an entrance, but this one is alright.
March 19, 2021
This book is basically doing lines off of snapshots of a time period with a few famous people in them: you may notice the people and go "oh, yeah!" but really they were just window-dressing for the drugs. There's some music sprinkled in there, too, I guess.
It is boring reading about people doing drugs.
It is boring reading about people doing drugs.
February 6, 2024
Loved this. Didn't know anything about The Band beyond being Bob Dylan's backing band when he went electric but loved the way Niven weaved the real history of the band through his fictional characters. Couldn't recommend it enough to anyone who is a fan of that era of music, this specific band, or of Niven's writing.
June 4, 2019
Took a while to read this despite being into the subject matter. It was his first go at written a full noven, so fair dos. Some evocative scenes and it did make me listen and want to listen to The Band more, so two out of five might be a bit harsh.
September 1, 2019
Niven took the series to a new level with this novelized picture of the people, time and tone of Music From Big Pink. Enjoyed the portraits he painted of each of the core member of The Band, especially Richard and Levon. Well done!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews