listening with great pleasure to the 1986 live in Saugerties Whispering Pines which sadly proved to be the great Richard Manuel's last recording...

"Richard had briefly lived in a house in Woodstock that once belonged to the painter George Bellows. There was an old piano in the house which had been left behind and Richard wrote "Whispering Pines" on it. It had one key that was out of tune, and when he came to record the song he had the studio piano tuned the same way, so that one key was still out. That's what's responsible for the vamp figure at the beginning and end of the song."