Before These Crowded Streets

Before These Crowded Streets
Studio album by Dave Matthews Band
Released	April 28, 1998
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) Before These Crowded Streets (1998) Listener Supported (1999)
Singles from Before These Crowded Streets
"Don't Drink the Water" Released: 1998 "Stay (Wasting Time)" Released: 1998 "Crush" Released: September 8, 1998 "Rapunzel" Released: 1998

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[2]
Los Angeles Times	[3]
Rolling Stone	[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[5]
Spin	5/10[6]
USA Today	[7]

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.^[8] The album title is taken from the lyrics of the song "The Dreaming Tree."^[9] 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.^[10]

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	John D'earth, Kronos Quartet	7:28
8.	"Crush"	Matthews	Butch 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."
• A string passage by the Kronos Quartet serves as a segue from "Halloween" to "The Stone."
• An outtake featuring Bela Fleck and Alanis Morissette follows "The Stone."
• A clip of "Doobie Thing" an early DMB instrumental song, follows "The 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:^[11]

• "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.^[12] 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.

"[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."^[13]

— 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.^[12] 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,^[14] effectively confirming its existence to the fan community.^[15]

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." ^[16] As of October 2016, no official recording has surfaced.

Personnel

Dave Matthews Band Carter Beauford – drums, percussion, backing vocals Stefan Lessard – bass Dave Matthews – vocals, acoustic guitar LeRoi Moore – saxophone, penny whistle, clarinet Boyd Tinsley – violin Additional musicians "The Lovely Ladies" – background vocals Tawatha Agee Cindy Myzell Brenda White-King John D'earth – trumpet Béla Fleck – banjo Greg Howard – Chapman Stick Kronos Quartet – strings Alanis Morissette – vocals Tim Reynolds – mandolin, electric guitar Butch Taylor – organ, piano

Technical Steve Lillywhite – producer, mixing Stephen Harris – engineer Joel Cortright – assistant engineer John Seymour – assistant engineer Ted Jensen – mastering John Alagía – pre-production John D'earth – orchestral Thane Kerner – art direction Thane Kerner – design Ellen Von Unwerth – photography

Charts

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

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Before These Crowded Streets – Dave Matthews Band". AllMusic. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
2. Browne, David (May 8, 1998). "Before These Crowded Streets". Entertainment Weekly. New York. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
3. Weingarten, Marc (April 26, 1998). "Dave Matthews Band, 'Before These Crowded Streets,' RCA". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
4. DeCurtis, Anthony (April 16, 1998). "Before These Crowded Streets". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
5. Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. pp. 519–20. ISBN 0-743-20169-8.
6. Berrett, Jesse (June 1998). "Dave Matthews Band: Before These Crowded Streets". Spin. New York. 14 (6): 132. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
7. Gundersen, Edna (May 5, 1998). "Stretching the usual boundaries 'Streets' a delight; Shepard disappoints". USA Today. McLean. Retrieved November 2, 2016. (subscription required (help)).
8. Jacobson, Jeff. Dave Matthews Band: Busted Stuff Guitar and Vocal, 2002, page 2, Cherry Lane Music Company.
9. "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"
10. "Crowded At The Top: DMB on the Charts". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
11. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
12. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. 2003-11-03. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
13. Maliszeski, Joe (2006-05-02). "Boyd takes ESPN By Storm (Wimbledon Music) (Machead)". Antsmarching.org. Archived from the original on 4 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-06.
14. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
15. "Dave Matthews Band". antsmarching.org. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
16. "More With Cali & Stefan on the DMB Tour Bus". CBSRadio. 2010-06-10. Archived from the original on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-24. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
17. "Dave Matthews Band - Chart history | Billboard". billboard.com. Retrieved 27 April 2014.