luv the organ solo on "Chest Fever" so going with that.
― Lee626, Sunday, 22 April 2012 13:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Went with Tears Of Rage but it was a tough one - The Weight, Chest Fever & Long Black Veil are just a fraction behind it for me, with Caledonia Mission & I Shall Be Released just a fraction behind them.
― Mr Andy M, Sunday, 22 April 2012 14:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'll admit to being one of the people who's obsessed with The Band's first two albums but rarely feels the need to explore very far into their later work. At the moment what I'm really drawn to are the slower songs on the self-titled album, especially Whispering Pines and When You Awake.
― Mr Andy M, Sunday, 22 April 2012 14:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
Tears of Rage
― Iago Galdston, Sunday, 22 April 2012 14:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Might vote "In a Station", dunno, my other faves are "Tears", "Chest Fever", "Wheels" and "ISB Released". I really cannot bear "The Weight" (if you excuse the pun).
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 23 April 2012 09:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
Prolly "Chest Fever" or "I Shall Be Released" (for the vox)
I'll admit to being one of the people who's obsessed with The Band's first two albums but rarely feels the need to explore very far into their later work.
It's incredible how much the law of diminishing returns kicks in. "Stage Fright" is pretty good, "Cahoots" has its moments. The rest are kind of erratic at best, which is pretty amazing, given the calibre of the players involved, but they all have their moments as well.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 11:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
"In a Station" it is, lovely stuff
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 23 April 2012 11:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
"we can talk" is underpraised but it's not the equal of "the weight"; not much is, though, it's so canonical. I love "chest fever" to bits, that chorus is just so jarring to me & the sound of the track is just gggghhhh so fuckin good. "in a station" is impossible to fuck with. "wheel's on fire" doesn't really get the treatment it deserves on big pink imo - song got a lot better live subsequently!
I don't know I want to vote for something other than "The Weight" but...it's one of the best rock songs ever written
― same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 23 April 2012 12:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Chest Fever" is such a joint
― some glock (some dude), Monday, 23 April 2012 13:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't know I want to vote for something other than "The Weight"
why? it's ok to agree with the canon you know
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Monday, 23 April 2012 13:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, there isn't a song on here that I don't fuck with, The Weight included. I don't really understand the dog transaction in that song though.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 14:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
the way I understand it: Danko thinks that Chester wants him to go shoot his dog, but Chester just wants Danko to take care of the dog. Is that wrong?
― tylerw, Monday, 23 April 2012 14:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
anyhoo, everyone otm, not really a bad song on here. at this point, "in a station" is the most *surprising* song on the album -- I've played it for people who are like "this is The Band"? Just a lovely, magical tune. But it'll be hard to vote against the Big Pink powerhouses. Man, this album is good.
― tylerw, Monday, 23 April 2012 14:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
if it weren't for the Weight this would be the hardest poll ever. maybe when that song dominates this poll we can have a "2nd favorite song on Big Pink" poll
― caulk the wagon and float it, Monday, 23 April 2012 15:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Took me about a decade to realize "Chest Fever" was a pun on "Chest Cold"
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Well. Make that two for me.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
Hah, never occurred to me. Took me forever to get "Rubber Soul," too.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wait, what's with that one? Rub her sole?
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
Seriously? Just literally a pun on rubber sole, like the bottom of a shoe. But of course it's Rubber Soul, which for whatever reason for the longest time I just figured was some surreal nonsense title.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
so close.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
I bet it's a secret foot massage thing. When you think about the Kinky Boot Beasts in Yellow Submarine, it all starts to add up.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
kinda hard for me not to be boring and vote the Weight tbh. never liked this version of Long Black Veil, pales next to Lefty's.
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
wait how is Chest Fever a pun exactly? idgi
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
Maybe pun is not the right word.
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'm obviously some sort of crazy person because "The Weight" is probably my least favourite song on this album
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
It is a song about uncontrollable enthusiasm for chests.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
I like "The Weight", but it wouldn't even come close to being the best song imo on this album. It does sorta just keep plodding along with a verse too many or so.
Didn't like it in "Easy Rider" either.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 16:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
My man!
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
Glad you two found each other.
Not a pun, but another form of wordplay
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 16:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
i just listened to this album for the first time last week, it's pretty amazing.
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 23 April 2012 17:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Maybe it's an "Only Nixon Could've Gone to China" type deal.
But one thing that's really stuck out in listening to The Band for the past week has been that coming from four Canadians, the American Gothic rings true. And Levon Helm, an American by birth and Southerner by the Grace of God, never sounds too maudlin about his roots.
What am I trying to say. --- I finally listened to Southern Rock Opera recently on Grooveshark. I've heard so much about this record and how awesome it is, that I decided to give it a shot while I was uploading cocktail photos to our online society magazine. Don't get me wrong, there's some strong ass guitar licks in there, but I get so tired of Southerners trying to be Southern. By the time, George Wallace was being welcomed into Hell by Satan, who offers him a glass of sweet tea, I realized that this was just another one of those items of culture from the South that plays too hard on being from the South. The Oxford American dances around this all the time. It's all former beauty pageant winners sitting in their ivy-colored antebellum mansions, sipping sweet tea and calling everyone "hon".
So the fact that Robbie Robertson is credited with writing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", barely 100 years after that war finished, is a landmark achievement. You want to talk about a song that could've "gone South" so easily? And it never does, not once.
Creedence Clearwater Revivial is another out-of-area band that accurately reclaims Southern soil. But even while Fogarty rarely gets a little transparent (you "hoid" it through the grapevine, eh?), I can't think of any instances where the Band steps out of line at all.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 17:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
Southern Rock Opera is awesome. It's not just about the south, which it is partly about, by way of guys as southern as Helm, but about the history of rock and roll by way of the south, the way the mythology of music and location converge. "SRO" is about the south without being about the south. It's both southern rock opera and southern rock opera, about both Skynyrd and a band like Skynyrd, paralleling the misunderstanding of that group against the social complexities of the south with the misunderstanding of the south in general. Which is to say, it's complicated, a whole lot more complicated as an album than "Big Pink," which like you said, could have gone too far into the hokum but somehow gets it just right. "SRO" starts from a different hokey point of departure - the saving graces of butt rock - but goes a lot deeper than that.
By the way, here's Patterson Hood, but mostly his dad David, talking about Helm: http://www.timesdaily.com/stories/Local-musicians-Levon-Helm-was-coolest-man-alive,189731
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 17:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
so many classic jawns but only one vote :(
― l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 April 2012 17:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
as a fanboy scum i want to vote for something other than "the weight" but that song will last for 1,000 years if humans are still here
― l0u1s j0rdan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 April 2012 17:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
Sorry to veer, but here's some clips of the Truckers and Megafaun doing a mini-set of the Band a few nights ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DuwObzg0GIw
This is a beyond respectable version of "The Weight."
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 17:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
Megafaun encored w/that at the Songs of the South deal a couple years back, they kill it. Brad (bearded guitarist) has a tattoo of the Band with all figures in solid ink except Robertson, who's an outline lol
― same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 23 April 2012 18:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Great video
― Number None, Monday, 23 April 2012 18:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Southern Rock Opera really runs the gamut from rocking and beautiful to embarassing and forgettable.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 19:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
All part of the same portrait, in proud double album tradition.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 19:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
Would you say, perhaps, that it's part of its duality?
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 19:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
the duality of the double-album thaaaang
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 19:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
Tried to listen to that just now, almost got as far as pplains, then put on Rock of Ages instead.
― FP Sorrow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 April 2012 20:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
Not a fair fight, really, but give it another shot when you get the Band out of your system. Best stuff is on the second disc, though.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 21:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'm also getting hit with a bunch of invitations to crawfish boils, and dammit, those things are disgusting.
― pplains, Monday, 23 April 2012 21:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Best stuff is on the second disc, though.
Seconded. If anything Shut Up and Get On the Plane > Greenville to Baton Rouge > Angels and Fuselage.
― fruitsbs (beachville), Monday, 23 April 2012 22:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Let There Be Rock,' "Women WIthout Whiskey," "Life in the Factory," "Plastic Flowers on the Highway" ... wow.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 April 2012 22:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
First song here is more of a Rick number, I think, but that doesn't detract from this Levon tribute at all
― Stars on 45 Fell on Alabama (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 10:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
While we're here:
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 11:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
Sorry, fellow Mekons fans, here's a more palatable, er, palate cleanser:
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 11:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Can I just take this opportunity to say what a great bass player Rick Danko was
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 11:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
Dude was incredible. Here he is, being all around ... festive:
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 12:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
He had a unique sound and style, played like he wanted you to think his bass was a tuba
― Stars on 45 Fell on Alabama (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 April 2012 13:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah it might be about time that I gave Cahoots another chance. Most of their later work I've just skimmed through on spotify/youtube etc and not really returned to. I do have Stage Fright, but despite there being some excellent songs on there - Time To Kill, The Rumor, Shape I'm In - I don't often feel compelled to put it on (again esp in comparison to the first 2 albums).
― Mr Andy M, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 19:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Also re the Festival Express movie I think I actually prefer the (slightly jauntier) version of Long Black Veil on there to the album cut:NB tho I'm not familiar with the og recording of LBV that Shakey alludes to upthread. Pretty amazing song still, the lyrics are sort of the perfect condensed story.
― Mr Andy M, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 19:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
worth getting familiar w/
― bear, bear, bear, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Absofuckinglutely.
― pplains, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
that woodstock clip Bee OK posted is kind of scary. Or at least I imagine it must've been scary for the Band -- just blackness out there, but knowing there are like 300,000 people in the crowd.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
avoiding the obv 'chest fever' is really fukkn dope
― Lamp, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 20:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh man i take ppl's point I GUESS abt the slow steady decline in the band's songwriting/albs (after the peak of #2 imho) but some of the bonus/outtakes on the cd version of big pink point to the incredibly fecundity of their 'early' period - i mean, to leave off 'Katie's Been Gone', w/ another heartbreakingly gorgeous manuel vocal, is just criminal! and the fact that the only surviving version of Ferdinand the Imposter is v. sonically imperfect is a gddamm crime!
not enough for lonesome suzie on this thread, tho :-(
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
enough LOVE
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's one of those cases of "you have your whole life to make your first album and six months to make your second," I think. The Band had a huge backlog, and once they caught up with it it was a struggle to come up with new stuff on par with their peak (see also; Cheap Trick, Van Halen). If anything, the key to the evolution of, say, the Stones and Beatles is that they started with a bunch of covers and worked their way up from there. Plus, the Band stopped living together, in Big Pink or on the road, and according to Levon they had trouble recapturing that vibe when they tried to recreate it in L.A.
It's amazing, by way, how much of an impression the Band made on the Brits, with group after group trying to glom onto their shambling Americana vibe vibe. I mean, the Beatles and Eric Clapton are two of the last acts I think of what I think of the Band. but they were both uber-besoted.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
(sorry for the typos)
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
otm about "ferdinand" -- always loved that little fragment and wish there was a better version!
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
this thread took off, i thought it was going to be like The Band poll and get no love.
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 02:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
well, not no love but really there was not a lot of discussion like this thread has produced.
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 02:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
ok finally voted. "in a station." there are obviously plenty of towering songs on this record, but right now, in a station is the one i want to hear on repeat. karen dalton's version is nice too.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 20:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
just heard Dalton's version for the first time last week. It's lovely
― Number None, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah, pretty different interpretation, but gets to the heart of the song. I dunno, I think that song (and "whispering pines" too) gets to a kind of dreamlike americana thing that robbie robertson couldn't quite nail on his own. robertson's more of a novelist, whereas manuel is like an impressionistic painter. or something!
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
I like that take
― Number None, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
listening to this album again this week, i was struck by one thing -- what did these songs sound like when Robertson presented them to the rest of the Band? Seems like there's never been, like, a solo demo of "The Weight" that's come out on bootleg or otherwise. Maybe that sort of thing doesn't exist.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 26 April 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Voted for "Caledonia Mission" but almost voted for "To Kingdom Come"
― Stars on 45 Fell on Alabama (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 April 2012 01:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
"To Kingdom Come" wuz robbed, Rick Danko's bass playing on it is fantastic
― Too Busy Thinking About Mr. Abie (Tom D.), Friday, 22 June 2012 14:37 (10 months ago) Permalink
Same here, pretty much, even though "Stage Fright" itself is possibly my favourite song by them. There are some great songs on the other albums and they always play and sing immaculately and I can never think of an occasion when they embarrass themselves but, I don't know, the tunes just aren't there
― Too Busy Thinking About Mr. Abie (Tom D.), Friday, 22 June 2012 14:42 (10 months ago) Permalink
stage fright is pretty solid through and through, tho it doesn't have as many classics. moondog matinee is a fun record, too. cahoots has always bored me.
― tylerw, Friday, 22 June 2012 15:00 (10 months ago) Permalink
Yeah, Moondog Matinee is fun, and with a lot of great singing by Richard at his best. Also the extra lyrics to "Mystery Train"!
― Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 June 2012 16:22 (10 months ago) Permalink
The bonus tracks on the Moondog cd are quite something--mostly Levon numbers plus a runthrough of "Endless Highway" w/Manuel singing and playing a great piano lead.
― Electro-Shock Rory (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 22 June 2012 16:48 (10 months ago) Permalink
Wait, I'm tripping: the Manuel "Endless Highway" is on the Cahoots reissue. Danko sings the Moondog version, which originally was on the Watkins Glen album with dubbed-in audience noise.
― Electro-Shock Rory (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 22 June 2012 17:01 (10 months ago) Permalink
The Weight would be my favorite song ever if I had a goddamn clue what the lyrics were about.
― Everything You Like Sucks, Friday, 22 June 2012 18:47 (10 months ago) Permalink
lyrics to the weight are like steinbeck's cannery row reproduced in miniature imo
― carly rae (flopson), Friday, 22 June 2012 19:45 (10 months ago) Permalink
Thought they were a picture of a dreamscape inspired by Luis Buñuel's Exterminating Angel
― Stumpy Joe's Cafe (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 June 2012 19:47 (10 months ago) Permalink
it's just imo; i've read that but i've never seen the film but i have read cannery row
― carly rae (flopson), Friday, 22 June 2012 20:34 (10 months ago) Permalink