The Band.

that's not a criticism

i haven't been terribly excited by the walkabouts stuff i've heard, but maybe i should listen again

It could simply be a reflection of a private passion, but at their best the Walkabouts synthesize so much in such a striking way that I'm in quiet awe (and consequently frustrated at how other bands in theoretically similar veins just don't work as well).

damn

no i would attribute it to bob dylan's horrendous voice

Ah, friend!

charlie rich seemed genuinely uncomfortable with genre categories and that hampered his music as much as it helped it i think

the band were without doubt a 'rock' band--whether or not thats endemic of the time in which they were recording, they were comfortable with the label

but yes i agree that mixture of sensibilites is really exciting

better still that the soul influence and country influence is somehow sublimated in such a fashion where it becomes exceptionally difficult to parse the songs for evidence of discrete influence

Yep that's it. Let's face it the 'grizzled old-timer' thing wouldn't have lasted. It's the extraordinary blend of soul, country, funk, rock n roll, wurlitzer/jug-band weirdness, and it all sounds uncalculated.

Classic Or Dud: The Band

Well Aretha Franklin did record a great version of "The Weight".

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.

The Who Band

https://i.gifer.com/K1Eb.gif

Robbie Robertson tells the story of The Band's classic song The Weight
By Matt Frost published 1 day ago

"I said, ‘Well, it’ll just be a back-up song in case some other things don’t work out’”

Does he mention Buñuel in that interview?

No, he barely mentions the lyrics.

Thanks. For a while there it seemed like there was nothing else he could talk about.

He even discussed Buñuel with Andy and Edie! At least according to Testimony.

Whilst they were en route from dinner at El Quijote to Salvador Dalí's suite at the St. Regis.

Forgot to add #onethread

Take a load off discreet charm of the bourgeoisie,
and you put it
you put it
you put it
right on me-ee-ee.

Honorary Canadian, Ronnie Hawkins.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/ronnie-hawkins-obituary-1.6470162

― clemenza, Sunday, May 29, 2022 1:32 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

His first single, his "Bo Diddley" cover, was 1958; he's not quite in that founding-fathers group, but pretty damn close.

― clemenza, Sunday, May 29, 2022 1:33 PM

Wow. Figured he would never die. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK5mxNKI9rM

Didn't invent Psychobilly, but did alot to perfect it.

Always got a kick out of the cheerfully vulgar anecdote related by Jerry Wexler to Stanley Booth about Hawkins arriving in Muscle Shoals to record his 1970 Cotillion debut (paraphrased): "He arrived in his private plane with a suitcase full of drugs, a case of whiskey, and Miss Toronto...'I've got my pot, my pills, and my pussy... Let's get to work!'"

...and of course his promise recounted by Robbie in The Last Waltz.

RIP! His 1970 solo album is worth seeking out — no one from the Band on it, but a bunch of Muscle Shoals heavy hitters.

You can't beat a filmography where half of it is comprised of Heaven's Gate and Meatballs III.

xpost yeah man---here he is w Duane Allman, x King Biscuit Boy on harmonica:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhyTaVKd9Xk

xpost filmography also getting Robbie's geetar all het up, and then fanning the flames (with his hat), in The Last Waltz.

(influence on Dylan's taste in hats?)

RIP he seemed so spry in Once We Were Bros

but 87. Nice fuckin run

fyi if you don’t fuck w UMS Spotify playlist of Manuel songs you definitely should

...and of course his promise recounted by Robbie in The Last Waltz.

#RIP Ronnie Hawkins
Brilliant musician, Ronnie Hawkins saw the exceptional talent of Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson, and brought all of them together. The Band wouldn't have existed without him. pic.twitter.com/3HBSqElPLB

— Rick Danko Page (@rickdankopage) May 29, 2022

which led me to

Welcome to the Richard Manuel Archive, a celebration of the life & music of vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Richard Manuel of The Band.

This is a continuing research project to define his legacy outside of his tragedy, looking at his life and who he truly was. pic.twitter.com/YkZfAZVYWX

— The Richard Manuel Archive (@manuelarchive) July 13, 2021

And

Lonesome Suzie
@NathalieO5
Account mostly dedicated to The Band and Bob Dylan. Love music. Fascinated by the 1960s-70s. Aspiring writer and compulsive reader. Curator of
@rickdankopage
Canadalonesomesuziecom.wordpress.com

That last one looks like a recent launch, will follow also, though.

HI DERE

Luvly cover (Jon Langford chimes in eventually):

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

Nice.

Reminds me--there was a movie of this,Festival Express, released in early 70s (they were on a train, going across Canada and maybe some of US, stopping at festivals, or every stop made a festival maybe)--Good??

#OnThisDay The Festival Express kicked off. Here's a video of @JanisJoplin, @jerrygarcia #BobbyWeir, #Marmaduke and #RickDanko having a little jam session and some drinks.

Stream music from The Band: ▶️ https://t.co/ddaeAev6G6 pic.twitter.com/fbIHlUg6WK

— The Band (@thelastwaltz78) June 27, 2022

yeah it's great — that's a scene from it. the footage actually wasn't pieced together until the early 2000s.

XP!

The footage was shelved for a long time, with the movie finally coming out in the mid-'00s. It's a fine film, worth checking out on disc for the bonus performances. Some audio from the shows turned up much sooner as part of the Janis Joplin In Concert album and other Janis archival releases.

A funny thing about it is that for somebody who loves to talk about himself on camera, for some reason Robbie Robertson <wasn't> interviewed for this film. In fact, none of the then-surviving Band members pop up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-82YZFfBE

I'm not like a huge Band guy or anything, but when this scene came up I cried a little in the theater.

Not sure these outtake clips made it to the BluRay (definitely not on my DVD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY_zjPqMZb8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmWEVNnPS4M

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

^Chest Fever, Great Divide, and Dixie

Oh yeah--from that Soundstage set I mentioned way upthread, where they def. held own on same bill w peak --Graham Parker & The Rumour: drinking lots of java, it seems:
h
ttp://twitter.com/TheBandPodcast/status/1543960068462465025

Rick Danko performed "Java Blues" on Soundstage, 1978.

The energetic performance is one of his finest. #RickDanko #TheBand pic.twitter.com/If0iN4u2Qk

— The Band: A History (@TheBandPodcast) July 4, 2022

You can watch the full performance of Java Blues here: https://t.co/EkR0Le3rSK

— The Band: A History (@TheBandPodcast) July 4, 2022

(each band did a nearly hour-long set for Chicago PBS Soundstage: no breaks, no interviews, nothing but the music, as I recall).

These three bands, thee whole festival, that's all required on such a summer's day

#OnThisDay in 1973, The Band played the #SummerJam at Watkins Glen with The @GratefulDead and The @allmanbrothers.

Stream music from #TheBand: ▶️ https://t.co/ddaeAev6G6 pic.twitter.com/rzbCWcOLgq

— The Band (@thelastwaltz78) July 28, 2022

Better visuals, more data:

#OnThisDay in 1973, Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, New York, reunited #TheBand, The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers. With a crowd of 600 000 people, it was the largest gathering for a rock festival, even bigger than Woodstock. pic.twitter.com/gRpeXbo06z

— Lonesome Suzie (@NathalieO5) July 28, 2022

Jay Babcock, who I believe is an ilxor, also has generated a remarkable wordpress around San Francisco's Diggers. In the midst of an epochal interview with a couple who were in thee flow x churn of those 60s, I came across a clip from The Last Walz featuring their colleague Freewheelin Frank, poet, painter, psychic, and ex-Hell's Angel ("he dropped out, which was hard to do")---the connection w Band may have been Digger Emmett Grogan, also co-writer of Danko's "Java Blues":

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

interview:https://diggersdocs.home.blog/2022/03/05/we-had-a-far-more-profound-effect/

(Thanx again to Andy The Grasshopper for linking this interview on ILE thread re HBO's The Anarchists.)

There were also 600,000 at the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival. Sure, that one had many more bands, but it could only be reached by boat. A bit more difficult than driving 25 miles outside of Ithaca.

xp

I was a few days ago old when I learned Johnny Cash covered "The Night They..."...in 1975!

Would have totally thought that would have been on the Rubin menu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3P0aH1Hxs

All The King's Men:Ree-markable album, some of it like nothing else (in a good way)

"Keith Richards, Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana -plus Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko of the Band- all got together at Helm’s Woodstock, New York barn studio to record a track. The occasion was All the Kings Men, an LP honoring Presley" #theband #levonhelm #KeithRichards pic.twitter.com/iDhcKVuSa8

— Levon And The Hawks (@LevonTheHawk) September 8, 2022

as xgau sez (dunno what first sentence means, but rest seems right:

Scotty Moore/D.J. Fontana: All the King's Men [Sweetfish, 1997]
There's no rationalizing the success ratio of this tribute comp--I mean, gosh, Elvis Presley's original sidemen collaborate with artists who like them. I'd like to credit Scotty and D.J.'s groove, but with second drummers powering the two rockingest cuts and extra guitarists everywhere, let's just call it serendipity. Plus maybe--since Joe Ely, Steve Earle, and Raul Malo all benefit from not trying too hard--the kind of affable discretion that stays out of talent's way. The knockout rockouts are Cheap Trick's "Bad Little Girl," which sounds like great John Lennon, and Keith Richards and the Band's "Deuce and a Quarter," which sounds like great old roots-rock and also like nothing I've ever heard. And then there's Ronnie McDowell with that essential soupcon of Memphis-to-Vegas schmaltz. A-

Never noticed this before but on "Rags & Bones," when we get to the cat lyric, Garth does a pretty awesome impression of a cat shreik on the synths. It may not have been noticeable on headphones while on-the-go but on a good stereo system with at least bookshelf speakers it's pretty clear. Not as good but still cute, when Garth does his own version of an ice cream truck jingle during the lyric about the "ice cream man."

Anyway, kind of representative of the album, where the song is actually not that good, but it's played well and Garth really shines. The three cuts that always get anthologized are definitely the three highlights, but Garth's other big number is "Jupiter Hollow" - again not a great song, but it's wonderful just to hear Garth layer things together.

Yeah i feel the same about Garth on Cahoots.

It's a shame they didn't come up with more great original material past Stage Fright, but I guess in fairness there was a lot of excellent stuff that didn't make the albums proper. (The best of the bonus cuts from the 2000/2001 reissues add up to a great lost album - Robbie slipped a lot of those into The Basement Tapes in 1975.)