The original vision for the Stones' It's Only Rock'n'Roll album was half-live material/half-studio covers, from the latter of which only "Ain't To Proud To Beg" making the final album, while a version of "Drift Away" is pretty easily found online.
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:21 (two years ago) link
Oh, and don't forget Nilsson's mostly covers Pussycats, and then a couple years later ... That's The Way It Is.
There's also A Touch of Schmilsson In The Night and Nilsson Sings Newman, but those are slightly different things than what we're talking about.
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:28 (two years ago) link
Closer to the Moondog/Pin-Ups thing is Laura Nyro's It's Gonna Take A Miracle, her classic R&B covers LP recorded with LaBelle in '71.
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:31 (two years ago) link
Love Pussy Cats (I prefer its original and too-outrageous title Strange Pussies), but six of those ten cuts were originals. I also love the Newman album, but yeah, that is a big different - kind of a throwback to songbook albums based around one particular writer.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:34 (two years ago) link
The Nyro album is a great example - Nov 1971.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:44 (two years ago) link
I don't know if Dylan's Self Portrait really counts.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:45 (two years ago) link
Dr. John's Gumbo: April '72
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:49 (two years ago) link
Often a sign of a band/artist contractually having an album to make but not having enough new material to make one, ditto double live albums.
― Soundtracked by an ecojazz mixtape (Tom D.), Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:54 (two years ago) link
i guess no one is bringing up ferry’s these foolish things because that one is actually great?
― bezos did the dub (voodoo chili), Saturday, 14 August 2021 18:56 (two years ago) link
It was mentioned, but the Ferry covers albums are perhaps a little too eclectic for what we're talking about? Moondog and the Lennon: '50s-'60s Rock'n'Soul. Pin-Ups: '60s Brit Rock. Gumbo: Nola R&B. It's Gonna Take A Miracle: Vintage Soul.
Whereas Ferry is all over the map, taking in almost all of that stuff plus Country and Standards.
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 August 2021 20:43 (two years ago) link
Tim Hardin's Painted Head from 1972 is one of these. Guy was probably too zonked out on H to write songs at this point
― Lee626, Saturday, 14 August 2021 22:33 (two years ago) link
I would definitely include that. I love that album, and the string of others built on covers though These Foolish Things would be my favorite of those LP's.
As much as I love Bowie, I've never been a big fan of Pin Ups. I'll revisit it again, but it's never really did it for me. I LOVE the covers he's dropped into my favorite live sets (the Santa Monica show from 1972, the Nassau show from 1976, etc.), but in the studio they feel really hit-or-miss to me.
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 01:05 (two years ago) link
I took about three listens to Pin Ups from start-to-finish and it didn't take. There are covers elsewhere that I really enjoy - "Kingdom Come," "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday," "Waiting for the Man" from different eras and "White Light/White Heat" - but the only one here I really like is "Sorrow," and it's probably no coincidence that it's the only "quiet" number. There's something about the band that's a little stilted on all the rockers here, and I don't think Bowie makes those numbers his own like he does with those other covers.
Anyway, back to the Band, I've given Northern Lights-Southern Cross a good listen too. It's a nice, pleasant album, but it left me with the feeling that Robertson is really hit-or-miss as a lyricist. "Acadian Driftwood" is beautiful - perhaps a little too meticulous and a little too academic compared to their earlier classics, but I don't think it would feel as powerful to me if it weren't so richly detailed. On the other hand, stuff like "Forbidden Fruit" is really clunky - the chorus alone on that one is kind of insipid. It's a real credit to the performances and the music that I can enjoy the whole album even when the lyrics sound wildly uneven under close scrutiny.
At one point, given how well they backed everyone in The Last Waltz, I wondered if they should've cut a studio album loaded with guests, except with NEW material written by said guests or perhaps in collaboration with them. Levon, Richard and Rick would still handle the lead vocals, but I figure bringing in someone like the Staples or Paul Butterfield could add some welcome elements to their music (see "The Weight" or Butterfield's playing on "Mystery Train") while someone like Joni Mitchell could shore up the songwriting where it needs it most.
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 05:08 (two years ago) link
The production is very wispy on Northern Lights-Southern Cross, but I like a number of the songs. "Ophelia" is very charming, and sounds like rock-and-roll if it had been invented by white people in 1890. I acknowledge "Forbidden Fruit"'s clunkiness, and enjoy it anyway, though it's a pretty lame response on Robertson's part to a majority of his group being substance abusers.The title track of "Islands" sounds like the perfect theme music to a mid-70s Sunday afternoon travel show, and I love it.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 15 August 2021 15:46 (two years ago) link
The "big three" off of Northern Lights are all keepers - "Ophelia," "It Makes No Difference" and "Acadian Driftwood." The rest are tuneful and wonderfully played, but in terms of what they have to convey, they don't feel all that memorable or compelling. I really chalk that up to the songwriting, especially when there are only eight songs on this thing - they needed better material or at least continue developing the songs they had.
I can revisit Islands - it's probably best to approach that for what it is, an odds 'n' sods compilation, rather than a full-realized LP. I know "Georgia on My Mind" is nice...fans should hear their SNL performance where Richard's vocal tops the otherwise fine studio version. I have a soft spot for "Livin' in a Dream" - it's a bit light but it sounds like it would've been perfect as a great B-side to an awesome single.
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:01 (two years ago) link
That SNL performance is grebt!
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:16 (two years ago) link
Nice! Glad you know it - it was definitely a brilliant inclusion on that Musical History box set.
Forgot to mention, "Twilight" is also a real gem...but surprisingly, none of "The Band" versions are any good. Some diehard Band fans directed me towards Rick Danko's solo renditions, and there are a ton on Spotify, all live. They range from full-band arrangements to mostly solo renditions, and the one I ended up liking the most is the one on The Best of Mountain Stage Live, Vol. 1. It's possible most people will prefer one of the solo renditions, and I definitely think the full band arrangements are often too much, but the one on Mountain Stage finds a perfect balance - drums, bass, keyboards, a steel guitar (or pedal steel?) solo and even a harmony vocal are all there, but they're very soft, very tasteful and spare. Unlike the other full-band arrangements, the other elements always complement Rick's vocal and never threaten to overwhelm him, much less do just that.
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:23 (two years ago) link
Someone posted that Georgia on My Mind from SNL on Vimeo - enjoy!
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:30 (two years ago) link
This is definitely nice...forgot it was also included on the Musical History box. Another smart pick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBL_1aKFhaM
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:40 (two years ago) link
And here's that later "Twilight" with the quieter full-band arrangement. Both Rick and Garth play on this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIxH1KaI0Pg
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:52 (two years ago) link
FWIW, apparently it dates from 1989 - more from NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/06/776941566/rick-danko-and-garth-hudson-on-mountain-stage
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 17:56 (two years ago) link
Kind of went down a rabbit hole, but apparently Robbie was going to play in the 2013 Grammy Award tribute for Levon following his death in 2012. At the time, Jonathan Taplin posted this on his blog: “As angry as I was that Levon’s wife (Sandy) kept Robbie Robertson off the stage (it’s a long and sad story of paranoia), Zac, Mavis, T Bone and the Mumfords did a wonderful version of ‘The Weight’, which was a fitting end to a great night of Americana.” It got reported in Glide Magazine, but I guess it started a shitstorm because when I tried to dig up the original post on archive.org, any mention of Levon's wife was gone, with an added note by Taplin that said "Let’s see if we can just talk about the music."
― birdistheword, Sunday, 15 August 2021 18:12 (two years ago) link
That SNL Band performance is the first I've seen where any of the vocalists weren't also playing!
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 15 August 2021 18:18 (two years ago) link
Good point!
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 August 2021 19:10 (two years ago) link
Don't think I've mentioned this 'un on here----haven't listened in a long time, but liked most of it a lot---thanks again, wiki!
Endless Highway: The Music of The Band, a tribute to the Band, was released on January 30, 2007.Released January 30, 2007Recorded July 19, 2005 – August 1, 2006Genre Rock, AmericanaLabel 429 RecordsTrack listingAll songs written by Robbie Robertson unless noted otherwise.
"This Wheel's on Fire" (Bob Dylan, Rick Danko) performed by Guster - 3:24"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" performed by Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers - 4:03"It Makes No Difference" performed by My Morning Jacket – 6:19"I Shall Be Released" (Dylan) performed by Jack Johnson with ALO – 4:11"The Weight" performed by Lee Ann Womack – 4:48"Chest Fever" performed by Widespread Panic - 6:34"Up on Cripple Creek" performed by Gomez – 4:37"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" performed by the Allman Brothers Band – 5:03"Stage Fright" performed by Steve Reynolds – 3:44"Rag Mama Rag" performed by Blues Traveler – 3:18"Whispering Pines" (Richard Manuel, Robertson) performed by Jakob Dylan – 4:05"Acadian Driftwood" performed by the Roches – 6:20"The Unfaithful Servant" performed by Rosanne Cash – 4:56"When I Paint My Masterpiece" (Dylan) performed by Josh Turner – 5:03"Life Is a Carnival" (Danko, Levon Helm, Robertson) performed by Trevor Hall – 4:09"Look Out Cleveland" performed by Jackie Greene – 3:13"Rockin' Chair" performed by Death Cab for Cutie – 5:31Bonus disc included 4 extra songs.
"Across the Great Divide" performed by Lucas Reynolds"Ophelia" performed by ALO"Bessie Smith" performed by Joe Henry"The Shape I'm In" performed by Gov't MuleReferences Jurek, Thom. "Endless Highway: The Music of The Band - Various Artists". Allmusic. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
― dow, Sunday, 15 August 2021 21:50 (two years ago) link
xxxpost Run Devil Run was so intense, even harsh at times, as he seemed to break through his usual limits: I even thought of it as more like John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band than Rock n Roll Dr. John's Gumbo was equally revelatory in its own way: the originals of those songs were waaay OOP and I hadn't heard most (the early 70s were pretty shitty for historical reissues, even for stuff like from early 60s)
― dow, Sunday, 15 August 2021 21:56 (two years ago) link
Also: Kelly Hogan (and Jon Langford. eventually), "Whispering Pines":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAWPXVbcoE
― dow, Monday, 16 August 2021 02:45 (two years ago) link
Someone just sent me this in response to that SNL video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZqMlhdUoSM
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 August 2021 16:14 (two years ago) link
Has anyone read Jonathan Taplin’s recent book?
― He POLLS So Much About These Zings (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:06 (two years ago) link
It's supposed to be really good. I skimmed through it really fast just to pass the time and it is filled with amazing stories that go all over the place (beyond the rock 'n' roll world), so to be clear, it's not just a book on the Band - it stretches into politics and the '60s, Hollywood, the rise of corporate America and the digital age.
Here's what Greil Marcus wrote on it for his column:
10. Jonathan Taplin, The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life (Heyday). This is a unified story, from Taplin’s time as road manager for Bob Dylan and the Band to movie producing to investment banking to technology writing, and what makes it so is thinking: someone always wondering what’s behind the curtain, if only because what’s behind it is almost certainly going to make a better story than what’s in front of it. So in a concise and burrowing manner, he tells you about the music business, with Meyer Lansky behind both MCA and Warner Communications; Michael Milken as the architect of the media landscape that Donald Trump harvested; how with their version of Marvin Gaye’s “Don’t Do It” the Band, having “trapped themselves within a sort of puritan destiny,” at least for a few minutes “shed the hair shirt”; or for that matter why Gaye’s What’s Going On “was as politically symbolic as track star’s John Carlos’s raised fist at the 1968 Olympics.” And a hundred other tales and grace notes — but, for me, nothing matches what Taplin excavates from his time as a volunteer in Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, where he turned after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., just a paragraph from a speech at the University of Kansas: “Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion a year, but that Gross National Product — if we judge the United States of America by that — that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. […] It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.” And the echoes of that speech, which was even tougher than Taplin’s quotation encompasses — the Gross National Product, Kennedy said, “counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife” — run all through the book.
― birdistheword, Sunday, 10 October 2021 05:58 (two years ago) link
Cahoots Expanded Deluxehttps://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-band-cahoots-50th-anniversary-box-set/
― dow, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:03 (two years ago) link
It's funny to think that when I was discovering records like this one 35 years ago, they were practically forgotten in public libraries and dollar bins. Certainly the Band weren't forgotten, but the idea that individual albums like Cahoots were going to be refurbished, remixed and re-released in fancy packages wasn't anybody's prognostication.That said, I'd like to hear the remixes of the two good songs on this.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:22 (two years ago) link
Concert might be good.
― dow, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:32 (two years ago) link
They still did great shows on the Cahoots tour. (Hell, Rock of Ages was essentially compiled from several of those shows.)
I gave this another chance earlier and hated it. It's really a good EP that didn't have the material to make it a full-length LP.
The EP:1. Life Is A Carnival2. When I Paint My Masterpiece5. 4% Pantomime
Should've made it:Don't Do It
Potentially good had they done a better recording:7. The Moon Struck One9. Smoke Signal11. The River
"Bessie Smith" would have been good but I think their recording is actually from 1975 and doctored to sound older. (It was written in 1967, so they had the chance to record it for Cahoots.)
― birdistheword, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:44 (two years ago) link
*The River Hymn
― birdistheword, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:45 (two years ago) link
I bought Rock of Ages on CD many years ago and the sound was muddy and awful. Guess I need to see if it’s been remastered.
― that's not my post, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:49 (two years ago) link
It was mixed poorly, a remaster alone won't cut it. You need to get Live At The Academy Of Music 1971 (released in 2013) either in the 2CD version or the 4CD + DVD box set (which is OOP and very expensive).
The 2CD version will have every performance (same song and take) from the expanded 2001 reissue of Rock of Ages except in a sequence that reflects their actual setlists, newly mixed by Bob Clearmountain. It's THE definitive live document of these concerts.
The box set includes a DVD for a 5.1 mix and what little film footage they have of the tour (it's only a few songs IIRC), but it also has two CD's of just the New Year's Eve show in its entirety, newly mixed by Sebastian Robertson (Robbie's son). Some may prefer it, and I kind of do, but it's a very different mix - it's called a "soundboard" style mix, but to me it's like if you're sitting with the band while they play a full show for posterity in a studio. A whole different feel. Clearmountain's show sounds like a rock concert in the best seat of a concert hall, and they arguably picked the best takes across all shows.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 23 October 2021 02:45 (two years ago) link
hey thanks for the recommendation, done.
― that's not my post, Saturday, 23 October 2021 05:19 (two years ago) link
So birdistheword and I were discusssing D.A. Pennebaker today, over on the Velvet Underground Trainspotting thread: when I met him in '93 (he was bringing his Clinton doc, The War Room, around to l'il indie theaters in the boondocks), he told me about some things he'd been filming lately, like he'd been up in Canada with Danko, Manuel, and---Bjorn Feldman, does that sound right? Somebody like that, think I'd heard the three of them on NPR, like maybe Mountain Stage, but not seeing it listed there, or anywhere---anyway, anybody ever hear them, or see any of that footage? (Maybe Hudson instead of Manuel; Garth and Rick were on Mountain Stage in '89, but not a third guy listed)
― dow, Saturday, 23 October 2021 06:24 (two years ago) link
ilxor tylerw comes through yet again:
The Band - The Music Inn, Lenox, Massachusetts, September 26, 1976
I’m trying to will some of that autumn feeling into existence by listening to this late-September Band gig, just about 45 years ago — listen to the rice when the wind blows ‘cross the water. In a few short months, The Band would be dancing its Last Waltz, but they all sound as good as ever at the Music Inn, as captured on a very nice audience tape. Danko in particular is on fire, vocally and instrumentally, and the mix gives us a little bit more of Manuel’s piano as a treat. Some relatively rarely played tunes, too — the opening “Ring That Bell,” “Twilight,” and a version of “Forbidden Fruit” that threatens to get a little bit jammy at the end. Stay til the very end to hear a dog in the crowd barking his approval as the final curtain closes …show is linked via title of this post on his invaluable blog:https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/6617
― dow, Wednesday, 27 October 2021 17:23 (two years ago) link
Twilight is an underrated song. I think I have heard the Shawn Colvin cover way more than the Band's version
― that of a giant Slor (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 27 October 2021 17:25 (two years ago) link
You need to get Live At The Academy Of Music 1971
So I did and it's spectacular
― that's not my post, Wednesday, 27 October 2021 18:16 (two years ago) link
watching once were brothers: first moment out of the ordinary is when i'm startled to discover that ronnie hawkins is very much still with us
(and looking good, as of 2019 anyway)
― mark s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 20:25 (two years ago) link
Rompin' is one of the greatest correlations to longevity.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 18 December 2021 20:31 (two years ago) link
i mean this is totally on me for not paying attention obv but if you asked me this morning "when did ronnie h leave us?" i wd have guessed like three decades ago -- at least if the question didn't seem a bit sus
eight months older than jerry lee (who will outlive us all lol)
― mark s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 21:01 (two years ago) link
not a new point to make itt but robbie is not an exciting or a trust-inducing teller of his own tale: every time he recounts something that surprised or excited him he pitches it wrong and it rings rehearsed and fake (even tho some of it probably isn't) (i am for example prepared to believe that he did find rock and roll life-changing and ditto dylan's approach to words in a song -- but as he sets it out in this doc he turns everything into ad copy)
― mark s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 21:24 (two years ago) link
haha second moment of being genuinely startled is discovering that david geffen looks like that
― mark s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 22:03 (two years ago) link
now i mean
― mark s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 22:04 (two years ago) link
Taking sides: rompin' vs. chooglin'
― Mark Antonym (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 18 December 2021 22:33 (two years ago) link
ok that had some great clips i suppose but it wasn't very good
― mark s, Saturday, 18 December 2021 22:36 (two years ago) link