Before These Crowded Streets

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Before These Crowded Streets
DMB - Before These Crowded Streets.jpg
Studio album by Dave Matthews Band
Released April 28, 1998 (1998-04-28)
Recorded 1997–1998, The Plant Studios, Sausalito, CA & Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY
Genre Alternative rock, jazz fusion, progressive rock
Length 70:14
Label RCA
Producer Steve Lillywhite
Dave Matthews Band chronology
Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95
(1997)Live at Red Rocks 8.15.951997		 Before These Crowded Streets
(1998)		 Listener Supported
(1999)Listener Supported1999
Singles from Before These Crowded Streets
  1. "Don't Drink the Water"
    Released: 1998
  2. "Stay (Wasting Time)"
    Released: 1998
  3. "Crush"
    Released: September 8, 1998
  4. "Rapunzel"
    Released: 1998
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3.5/5 stars [1]
Entertainment Weekly B− [2]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars [3]

Before These Crowded Streets is the third studio album by Dave Matthews Band, released on April 28, 1998. It was the last official album by the group to be produced by longtime producer Steve Lillywhite until 2012's Away from the World and their first album recorded at The Plant Recording Studios in Sausalito, California.[4] The album title is taken from the lyrics of the song "The Dreaming Tree."[5] It is one of four Dave Matthews Band albums released on vinyl; the others being Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, Away from the World and Remember Two Things. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 charts after selling 421,000 units in its first week of release knocking the Titanic soundtrack from the top spot after a run of 16 consecutive weeks at #1.[citation needed]

Track listing

Special guest Tim Reynolds is featured on all tracks.

No. Title Writer(s) Guest musician(s) Length
1. "Pantala Naga Pampa"   Dave Matthews   0:40
2. "Rapunzel"   Matthews, Stefan Lessard, Carter Beauford Butch Taylor 6:00
3. "The Last Stop"   Matthews, Lessard Béla Fleck 6:57
4. "Don't Drink the Water"   Matthews Alanis Morissette, Béla Fleck 7:01
5. "Stay (Wasting Time)"   Matthews, Lessard, LeRoi Moore Tawatha Agee, Cindy Myzell, Brenda White King 5:35
6. "Halloween"   Matthews John D'earth, Kronos Quartet 5:07
7. "The Stone"   Matthews D'earth, Kronos Quartet 7:28
8. "Crush"   Matthews Taylor 8:09
9. "The Dreaming Tree"   Matthews, Lessard Greg Howard 8:48
10. "Pig"   Matthews, Lessard, Beauford, Moore, Boyd Tinsley   6:57
11. "Spoon"   Matthews Alanis Morissette, Béla Fleck 7:33

Several short musical interludes appear between songs:

  • A clip in which LeRoi Moore is heard answering his cell phone follows "Rapunzel".
  • A clip of flute music follows "Don't Drink the Water".
  • An outtake featuring Bela Fleck and Alanis Morissette follows "The Stone".
  • A clip of "Doobie Thing" an early DMB instrumental song, follows "Dreaming Tree".
  • A clip of "Anyone Seen the Bridge", a live show transition song, and a short excerpt of "Deed is Done", an unreleased song from the previous tour, follows "Pig".
  • A clip now referred to as "The Last Stop Reprise" follows "Spoon."

Deleted songs

Songs that were recorded during the sessions, but were not included on the final cut:[6]

  • "Help Myself" - Licensed for the Scream 2 soundtrack in lieu of "Halloween", which the band decided was too good to leave off the album.
  • "Don't Burn the Pig" – Evolved into "Pig" during the sessions.
  • "Get in Line"
  • "MacHead"
  • "#40 (Always)"

MacHead

"MacHead" was a song recorded during the album's sessions, but it was never completed, so it didn't make the album. Producer Steve Lillywhite named the song, claiming it sounded like a cross between the sound of Paul McCartney and Radiohead.[7] The song's existence is only known from an image on the 1999 fan calendar with a list of the working titles of the other songs on this album and from an alleged meeting in which Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard said recording.<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

"[MacHead] is a song that we were working on for [Before] These Crowded Streets and it's a song that we just never got to completion before we finished the album. Who knows, maybe one of these days we'll finish it and record it again, but we finished the album before we finished the song."[8]

— Boyd Tinsley, May 2006

Some fans familiar with the idea of "MacHead" speculated it had been developed, renamed, and added to the band's catalog.[7] They speculate that "MacHead" developed into "Bartender", which debuted in January 1999 at a Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert just months after the April '98 release of Before These Crowded Streets. In November 2009, Jake Vigliotti claims to have heard 6 different demo takes of "Machead" from an early 1997 recording session for the album,[9] effectively confirming its existence to the fan community.[10]

In a 2010 interview with Cali from CBS Radio, Stefan Lessard was asked to give his thoughts on Machead. He replied that "Machead's this little number that I believe was the last song to possibly make it on Before These Crowded Streets and I think there's a recording I have of it somewhere. So it's just finding a recording of it and listening to it and that's on our homework list." [11] As of October 2015, no official recording has surfaced.

Personnel

Dave Matthews Band
Additional personnel
Technical personnel
  • Producer – Steve Lillywhite
  • Engineer – Stephen Harris
  • Assistant Engineer – Joel Courtright [sic],[12] John Seymour
  • Mastering – Ted Jensen
  • Mixing – Steve Lillywhite
  • Pre-Production – John Alagía
  • Orchestral Arrangements – John D'earth
  • Art Direction – Thane Kerner
  • Design – Thane Kerner
  • Photography – Ellen Von Unwerth

Charts

Year Chart Position
1998 The Billboard 200 1[13]
1998 Top Canadian Albums 6[citation needed]
1999 Top Internet Albums 17[citation needed]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Jacobson, Jeff. Dave Matthews Band: Busted Stuff Guitar and Vocal, 2002, page 2, Cherry Lane Music Company.
  5. ↑ "The Dreaming Tree" opens with these lyrics: "Standing here / The old man said to me /"Long before these crowded streets / Here stood my dreaming tree" / Below it he would sit / For hours at a time"
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Correct spelling: "Cortright"
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Preceded by
Titanic (soundtrack) by Various artists
 Billboard 200 number-one album
May 16–22, 1998		 Succeeded by
The Limited Series by Garth Brooks
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