"Big Pink" is a pink house in West Saugerties, New York 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, who was collaborating with Bob Dylan at the time, found it as a rental. It was to this house that Dylan would eventually retreat to write songs and play them and try others, in its large basement. The 2 track recordings made by them, as sort of audio sketch book, in the basement itself, came known as the Basement Tapes. These tapes were circulated among other musicians at the time, and hits were made of "Too Much of Nothing" and "The Mighty Quinn" as recordings by other artists, 'Peter, Paul and Mary' and 'Manfred Mann' respectively. The house became known locally as 'Big Pink' for its pink siding. Members of Mr. Dylan's band (with Mr. Dylan himself writing one and co-writing two ) wrote most of the songs on Music From Big Pink at or around the house, and the band then adopted the moniker, The Band. Two of the songs written were on the Basement Tapes. Naturally enough, the house became the site of the rehearsing of the album, the actual recording of which took place in New York and Los Angeles.[1] The house was sold by Mr. Gramms in 1977 to M. Amitin, who rented the house to Parnassus Records a label specializing in classical music which used the basement as its headquarters. In 1998, Mr. Amitin sold the house to Don & Sue LaSala, who maintain the house as a private residence and keep the creative tradition alive by creating music in the Basement with friends from the Woodstock area and beyond.
This is a really cool photo essay by someone making the same pilgrimage, check it out: Click here for photo essay
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