The Band - Music from Big Pink Album

Eschewing the spacey diversions used in the psychedelic era, The Band's "Music from Big Pink" album turned the music world on its ear by featuring acoustic instruments like mandolins and fiddles instead of wah-wah peddles and tape loops. This is music the way music was meant to be—listened to and experienced—rather than danced to or blasted as background for some party. The music is earthy and the lyrics piercing. Highlights include the Dylan penned "I Shall Be Released", a song about a prisoner, that closes the album and "Caledonia Mission," written by Robbie about a woman locked up inside the walls of a mission. These tunes may have been written decades ago, but they are timeless, as is everything on the Music From Big Pink album.