Dubbed "The Band" by their record company (a name derived from how they were referred to during their tenure with Dylan), the group left the comfort of their communal home in Woodstock to begin recording in their own right.
Both Big Pink and The Band were also hugely influential on their musical contemporaries, with both Eric Clapton and George Harrison citing The Band as a major influence on their musical direction in the late 1960s and early 70s.
In 1974, The Band reunited with Dylan for a concert tour; it was hugely popular (perhaps the most profitable tour by any recording artists to that time), and resulted in a live album, Before the Flood.
From their rustic appearance on the cover, to the songs and arrangements within, the album was a rejection of the prevalent hippie culture of California, with songs of rural America, from the civil war ("The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down") to unionisation of farm workers ("King Harvest").
A critical and commercial triumph, The Band, along with The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, established a musical template that would be taken to even greater levels of commercial, if not artistic, success by such artists as The Eagles.
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