The Band.

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.

http://theheatwarps.blogspot.com/2008/02/bobby-charles.html

yeah, that's a classic from start to finish.

yes on Bobby Charles---"Tennessee Blues" is a stone cold classic for sure. His album Wish You Were Here Right Now is pretty great too, with a smoking "The Jealous Kind" (which he wrote, despite the Joe Cocker version being the famous one) & with Neil Young guesting.

It's funny that I only know four songs off Moondog Matinee, off the box set A Musical History, &you mentioned three of them, Tyler. I like that "Mystery Train"!

yeah, that mystery train is great! some kinda sun records gone disco thing.

fucking the best

yes!

totally regret never going to see Rick Danko in the late 90s -- he played a bunch in upstate NY in random places. could never convince anyone at school with a car to drive me. curses!

aw man. RIP, rick.

say whaaaa http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/robert-pattinson-says-hell-be-starring-in-a-movie-about-seminal-rockers-the-band-20120524
Pattinson also dropped this little bit of info: "I'm going to do a movie about The Band, the one that played with [Bob] Dylan. [It's] a beautiful script about the nature of songwriting."
in other news, the classic albums doc about the making of The Band is on netflix streaming now. Watched it last night, recommended, if only for the scenes of Levon at the mixing desk.

Making Of seconded, for same reason

Thirded. Also love John Simon's perspective on Band arrangements as analogous to those of the Ellington orchestra.

yeah, simon seems to be a big part of the band saga -- i think he actually asked them if he could be a member at some point and they turned him down!

RR told him "we already have two piano players"! Also never paid him any producer royalties until JS held him up when they asked him to do The Last Waltz. At which point RR's accountants wrote him a lump sum check and told him they would give it to him if he agreed never to ask for any more ever.

ha, that blows. i guess he and levon had some commiserating to do when they filmed the doc, then.

A decent part of Levon's book is "Let's let John Simon tell you how it was."

I would watch a biopic about The Band, even with Robert Pattinson. It sort of makes sense, his girlfriend was in a Runaways Biopic.

Finally watching that VH1 Classic Albums making of --- Levon at the desk is awesome, where he's just laughing and air drumming along with Danko on Rag Mama Rag is just pure joy to watch

I am trying not to get super sad that so many of them have passed now but the music makes me so happy it balances out :)

Yeah, that's a great one. Love when Garth Hudson is playing and says, "Ooh, how's he gonna get out of this one?" and smiles knowingly after executing some crazy-ass turnaround.

There was a VHS doc back in the late 80s/early 90s, when the Band were still active, has lots of great, charming Levon moments.

love how they talk about recording in sammis' house in LA

via Scott Seward: http://music.yahoo.com/news/garth-hudsons-belongings-sold-off-garage-sale-152544389-rolling-stone.html

eek what a weird story. i saw a post about it on facebook and didn't realy understand what was happening.

among the goodies are uncashed checks, including one issued from EMI in 1979 for $26,000

dude!

lol, right? that would've solved half of the problem there...

"i don't go to the bank for less than $30,000"

mentioned this on the reissue thread but this band-related stuff seems cool

http://therisingstorm.net/borderline-sweet-dreams-quiet-desires/

nice, hadn't heard that before. sounds excellent.

Of course there is no download available to purchase, just in time for my no more CDs edict.

i hear CDs are totally coming back #RememberCDs

Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson both grace this class act recording credited respectively as “Dick Handle” and “Campo Malaqua"

Perhaps he misplaced the check and then had them issue another.

This is one of my favorite live bands. If it weren't for their energy and great harmonies on Before The Flood, I don't know that I'd ever listen to much Dylan. And if you delete the Last Waltz guest appearances that aren't Muddy, Bobby Charles, or Emmylou Harris, I think it's a top 5 live album of all time. Every song on that crushes its respective studio version, except maybe The Weight. The sound, vocals, arrangements (esp. Toussaint on Dixie) are immaculate, and Levon was always in a different dimension as a live singer.

But I find their studio work largely tedious. After listening to, for example, the Last Waltz version of Wheel's On Fire I find the studio version very trying to listen to. There's some good stuff, I know, but it never strikes me on any kind of gut level.

P.S. Their 90s albums aren't great either but they sure do sound good and they have a few real gems, e.g. Atlantic City, Blind Willie McTell, Shine A Light, Book Faded Brown.

dunno if we ever went over this

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsbTSUwgBfs&feature=youtu.be

how do you embed youtubes on ILX? I went over this last week and I thought it was just keeping the www in the youtube link but not the http

you just take the 's' out of 'https'. that's all

That youtu.be messes things up too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Nw_pKXl8U

streamed some of the "new" live at the academy" thing, and however you feel about the endless repackaging of their stuff, the band sounded fucking glorious.

Totally. I was holding off on that, but I never got the 2001 reissue with extra stuff, so I may end up springing for the box.

Fun fact: everyone in that amazing horn section (except for Snooky Young) played in the bands of Cecil Taylor and Bill Dixon at one time or another.

haha, is that right?
danko's bass was sounding particularly good -- what a weird player!

Yep, in fact, Howard Johnson's recording debut was on a Bill Dixon record.

OTM re: Danko. Played with a pick, yet was still a funk monster.

http://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2012/04/how-to-danko-a-lesson-in-the-style-of-rick-danko-by-rob-collier/

Unless I'm totally wrong, the new box is a total rip. It's the same set as Rock of Ages, two discs remastered (again), two discs a board mix of the same set, and then a DVD with a 5.1 mix. When it was announced as a 4 CD/DVD package, I expected more.

there are previously unreleased performances on there, from different nights during the Rock of Ages shows.