She Owns Big Pink Piece of Rock History

NEW YORK — Big Pink, a house in the Catskills where rock ‘n’ roll history was made, has been sold--and the new owner has pledged to turn it into a shrine befitting its past.

Linda Mesch, a writer, rock musician and former disc jockey from Long Island, made an offer this week after reading in the Los Angeles Times that the three-bedroom house where Bob Dylan and The Band recorded in the ‘60s was for sale.

Mesch--who says she actually sat in on jam sessions at Big Pink when she was a college student--and Michael Amitin, who has owned the house since 1977, agreed Tuesday on the price. For $144,500, she gets a sturdy, nondescript home in the rolling hills above Woodstock --and a rich slice of pop Americana.

“This all happened very quickly,” said Paradise Properties Realtor Lori Schlichting. Mesch “saw the Times story [which ran Nov. 19] and decided this was something important, something she wanted.”

The new owner hopes to memorialize the house where Dylan and his cohorts recorded “The Basement Tapes” in 1967 and where the demos for The Band’s “Music From Big Pink” album were recorded later that year. Her plans are to turn the basement into a recording studio for gifted, noncommercial musicians. She may live in the rooms upstairs.

Mesch, 49, still can’t believe she bought the house.

“I grew up at a time when Dylan and The Band were playing up there. I was in college at Albany and I was a folkie, so I’d hang out with friends in Woodstock,” she recalled. “I was even invited at one point to listen in to some of the music [being played in the house]. And, you know, I was just a little girl with frizzy hair, but they let me pull out a guitar and play. I could never forget that kind of experience.”

After learning that Big Pink was for sale, Mesch was convinced it would be purchased by “some rich record moguls from L.A. . . . something I could never compete with. Yet friends of mine, investment bankers, convinced me to put in a bid.

“And it’s a bargain. I’m not a rich person. But spiritually, mystically and magically, the value of this property is beyond what I can even say or add up. There are things in this world that are worth more than gold.”

Before Mesch came on the scene, Amitin had been trying for two years to sell the house. Big Pink, despite its notoriety, was just one more piece of Catskills real estate that went unclaimed in a depressed housing market.

Now the property on a mountain road may become a rock monument. Already, names for rooms in the bucolic house come to mind based on songs by Dylan and The Band. “Whispering Pines” is one; “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” reflecting the home’s isolation, is another. But given today’s uncertain real estate market, the best bet may be: “I Shall Be Re-Leased.”