The Band.

There's a similarity in the vocals at times (I think Rick Danko is the most Garcia-like one?), but the Band never wanked off quite like the Dead...

"Music From the Big Pink" is just about perfect, the rest a bit hit-and-miss.

"The Weight" is, of course, great - is it representative of the rest of their material. Can I just buy whatever album that's on and be set for a start?

I like the Band a lot, but I admit I like them best on The Basement Tapes. Their first several albums are all classics, though. When I was a kid, I was always put off by their muddy, murky sound. Now that's one of the things I love about them.

Yes miloauckerman, get Big Pink, it's awesome. I always found it much better than their self-titled second album, more diverse, less "reactionary" I suppose. "Life is a Carnival" from Cahoots is a party of a song, no wonder the Avalanches use it. Wouldn't qualify it as "corny" though...

how embarassing, I said the same thing on the other thread.

i feel this doubly

fritz, shame on you

And I can't believe you dissed "The Last Waltz" on the other thread, Matos - everybody knows the guest spots are mostly cack (they should have instituted a ban on performances by anyone named Neil) and Robbie was a douche, but "Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" should be proof enough that Fleetwood Mac AND Outkast together are not fit to lick Levon Helm's boots when it comes to adding brass bands to your sound for fun and profit(!!! Yeeeahh)

this isn't what i was trying to say, exactly; i was asserting (as i guess i had done on the other thread, but i forgot about that) that without having an ideological program necessarily they had a specific approach to arranging and recording and mixing which later became identified with a certain subgenre of rock music that is often called "rootsy"

i dunno about "authenticity" (a power word that doesn't really clear anything up) but robertson et al were certainly going for a certain "rooted" sense of americana, a music with a strong sense of history, and like ccr they were selfconsciously tapping into an existing mythology, adding to it besides (ccr was both more monomaniacal and i think even more successful in this regard)

i guess there was a kind of low-key program at work, perhaps not charged with the reactionary values that much subsequent "rootsy" music has adopted but purposeful and willful nonetheless

there's an interesting dynamic involved, however, that Barney Hoskins' Band book explored, that to the members of the Band, the cultures they were tapping in their music were both alien and natural to them, and the extent to which they were scholarly exploring these genres and musics, and simultaneously the closeness they felt to them (thinking mostly here of levon's arkansas roots). so their music was simultaneously an exercise in attempted authenticity, and imaginative explorations of genres they revered.

lately i've been spinning 'Rockin' Chair' a lot - love the heartsick, pleading sound of manuel's vocals, the absence of drums, the entwined mandolin and guitar, and the way the lyrics shift between 'downhome' nostalgia and a kind of resigned dread: these lines are especially devastating

Hear the sound, Willie Boy,
The Flyin' Dutchman's on the reef.
It's my belief
We've used up all our time,
This hill's to steep to climb,
And the days that remain ain't worth a dime.

god i love the band soo much

Great song

so is this really the only thread? or just a impediment of searching "The Band"?

i've been rather obsessed lately, mostly w/ the first three records. but i'm thinking of digging around for the others on the cheap. challop: Stage Fright is every bit as good as the first two. "The Rumor" and "Sleeping" are heartbreakingly awesome.

and hey, anyone remember this POS?: http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/videos/robbie-robertson/485778-811823-1

certainly some of the most creative and breathtaking uses of time signature changes in rock/popular music imo.

<3<3<3Levon @ 2:58 - "maybe they won't, you know i sure hope they don't"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Pt_ZkGg8I

this other thread is mentioned above: Classic Or Dud: The Band
certainly some of the most creative and breathtaking uses of time signature changes in rock/popular music imo.
this is otm -- for being known as such a "down-home, authentic, straightahead" their songs are hard as fuck to play. i mean, there's straight up rockabilly, but also new orleans + appalachian + country rhythms going on, sometimes all in the same song.

:D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_hsp4SBwO4

-aha, i knew there had to be another thread...

Absolutely brilliant music, especially Music From Big Pink, The Band, The Basement Tapes & Dylan live 1966 recordings.

this is otm -- for being known as such a "down-home, authentic, straightahead" their songs are hard as fuck to play. i mean, there's straight up rockabilly, but also new orleans + appalachian + country rhythms going on, sometimes all in the same song.

― tylerw, Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:57 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

garth hudson was classically trained and i really think some of his modern classical influences are apparent as well, esp in stuff like the genetic method, but little bits of a lot of songs i can hear stuff like ives and copeland etc

there was also this poll: The Band poll

how funny, i thought this was a new thread...

http://i50.tinypic.com/2eam8n4.gif
hey check out the maine's new shirt at hot topic today ! :D
http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/BandTees/The-Maine-Target-SlimFit-TShirt-972970.jsp

what a rag mama rag

king spam (has surely come)

D:

has anyone explored band members' post-Band solo stuff? or want to rep for the post-Robertson era records? I've only heard bits and pieces. Danko's first record has some gems. And I know I've heard a couple Levon Helm records. Never pulled the trigger on any of Garth Hudson's recent solo things. every robbie robertson record i've heard has been terrible.

I've long been intrigued by Robbie's solo records based on the glowing reviews in the 1990-era Rolling Stone review guide, but never enough to buy them (I've never even seen them in a store). I guess they're not great? Aren't they Lanois productions? I guess I know what I'd be in for. Does Robbie actually sing?

yeah they are the kind of records that rolling stone would give a good review to

they are very lanois

robbie cannot sing for shit

yeah, he's not a great singer. and the songs are pretty weak too, at least on the s/t record. lanois production is just the icing on the crap.

the bono duet is pretty lol

http://archive.gg.ca/media/pho/galleryPics/1340.jpg

is that a recent pic? if so, robbie has actually aged pretty well!
seems funny to me: he's a fucking unbelievable guitarist (listen to Live 1966!) but i wonder if he even touches his guitar anymore. doesn't seem like he guests on other people's records or anything.

i like the story about robbie joining the hawks, and the departing guitarist teaching him the wrong way to play harmonics or whatever out of spite. ends up backfiring, becoming an awesome robertson "trademark" or whatever.

i'm talking about those "popping" sounds, (like in the solo of "king harvest" on rock of ages)

from 2006; he looks pretty straight!

never forget:

I mean, years on the road.
The numbers start to scare you.

I couldn't live with years on the road.

I don't think I could even discuss it.

listening to Moondog Matinee, pretty tight record! seems like no one gives it the time of day, since it's covers, but it is a lot of fun. not as straightforward as it might seem on the surface (is that a vocoder on helm's voice on "ain't got no home"?!) "Share Your Love" has a pretty classic Manuel vocal. anyhoo, if you see it for a buck on vinyl, totally worth it.

also, this "mystery train" is as close to cosmic disco as the Band ever got. there should be a 12-minute Tom Moulton remix. Someone make it happen.

Band fans should really seek out the s/t LP by Bobby Charles. Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Dr. John, I think Danko too? and Richard Manuel? Great record, imo.

hunchback got up there

LOL...brings to mind that SNL sketch where Dolly Parton told the cast her grandmother's stories because they grew up poor with no TV and could only rely on what she made up...but little did she realize, everything her grandma "made up" was just episodes from famous TV shows she managed to see. So now I'm imaging Robbie talking about all the great stories Levon had about the South, and they're all just things he lifted from Victor Hugo books.

B-but no Lez Miz!?

I used to see it as the union soldiers who had captured the town Caine lives in got into the town church and were ringing the bells to proclaim their victory; equally it could be a service held by the defeated towndwellers (they were singing hymns "la la la" to deal with the defeat). It's ambiguous though, the bells are simultaneously victory and defeat. But anyway, church bells, is my guess.

xp That was the original draft of “The Weight” but “take a load off, Fantine“ didn’t quite work.

^^Then, in the next draft, all the characters were from the Andy Griffith Show ("Pulled into Maybury...", "Take a load off, Aunt Bea..." etc.)

Think you nailed it, glumdalclitch. Thanks.

A nonzero number of southern bells (church bells, that is) would have been melted down for ammunition by that stage of the war. But I don't think any of it is supposed to be fact-checked.

For example, Levon Helm wasn't even born yet

Are we sure about that?
Anyway, makes sense that both sides would be singing like that, with some relief, release, re: it's over, if it is, but at what horrible cost--

Are we sure it isn’t “the belles were ringing”? Southern ladies calling the narrator for ice tea tips?

While a detachment of cavalry under Maj. Gen. George Stoneman did raid the Richmond-Danville railroad, they only did so once, in March 1865.

Oho. Yeah, as pointed out by a guy linked upthread, that was a military supply train, so Virgil was no virgin when it came to war complicity; yeah you "served," podner (doesn't explain what happened to his brother beyond getting shot, right?)
Also, he's like Dante's Virgil, our tour guide in Hell. But not like Cain Caine, cos didn't shoot his brother (he says).

He could have poisoned him---no visible wound, and prob no autopsies at that point---propped him up with a gun, so the Yankees would shoot him---

He also doesn’t care if his money’s no good. Sounds like he’s a crypto- holder.

He and his brother found a stash of goods---things got so bad, Virgil didn't wanta share no more.

I hold the minority opinion that Mrs. Caine may have been referring to the steam vessel THE Robert E. Lee, which would have passed western Tennessee on its way from New Orleans to St. Louis in circa 1870. As opposed to seeing the famous general and educator.

Is it "the" or "ol'" ? My hears ain't good enough to tell. Anyway, good call, and it's been pointed out, once again via links upthread, that ol' Robert hisself never did get that way after the war, if at all, so that this is like an Elvis sighting---but either way, Virgil is past caring (word to the Lost Cause etc., is I guess what Robertson meant).

(He musta shoulda known some would still take that money shot chorus as Confed-friendly, but)

Listening to this a day late:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBlLN5HQJhY

Listening to "The Weight" now, trying to hear all the parts. The basic track is actually kind of spare. Seems like probably Richard is playing the low rhythmic piano part and then Garth arrives on the chorus with the higher gospel-like Paul Griffin fireworks. Love how Richard's voice shows up only for the last high harmony of the chorus and then sticks around for the "eee eee eee" wail. Robbie's opening licks reminding me of the way the Everly Brothers would always have those guitar rhythmic guitar intros, originally inspired by Bo Diddley iirc.

Levon's pocket is as deep as the Big Muddy and as wide as a church door, or whatever other Marcusian/Xgauvian mixed metaphor you prefer.

Just noticed what seems to be some very faint other, elecronic keyboard part from Garth in the space after the chorus.

Did Cissy Houston really do a Ronnie Hawkins session early in her career as it says on her Wikipedia page, I wonder

https://www.toppermost.co.uk/hawkins-ronnie/

Come Love (Oliver)
1961. Robbie Robertson on stinging waspish guitar, but the other treat is Dionne Warwick, Dee Warwick and Cissy Houston on backing vocals behind a lascivious Ronnie vocal.

just gonna drop it here if'n ye don't mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AIzldTazYY

Wow!

Better than I was hoping for

Wait until y'all hear Whitney Houston's first appearance, with Bill Laswell's Material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNd4hmK0vqQ