The Band
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Artist:
...........It never fails....Someone will post something related to The Band......& I'm on a roll here, shuffling through my Band stuff. Be sure to read this post. EMSCEE breaks it down pretty well. I would add, or emphisize.....its impossible now to relate to how seismic Music From Big Pink was. No, not in terms of immediate sales...but in terms of influence, within the world of music... it simply cannot be over-stated. In 1967 the worlds of Country & western music, & the worlds of Rocknroll were almost at war. RocknRoll was morphing into Rock & exploring the far reaches of silly creativity. Pop music was trying to find/recreate the new Beatles...Country & Western was getting lost in schmaltz & a faux patriotism that rattled the rocker's cages......and along came Big Pink, it's Music rooted in the collective conciousness, Country music, without the Western. Their's was a faded photograph sound, evoking some intangible nostalgia, a vague feeling of something lost. And yet they were pushing the envelope as well, not only planting seeds of Alt-Country, but maybe, in Chest Fever, dabbling in a Prog sound as well.
But there was also an inate funkiness to there music, the echoes of Stevie Wonder resound in Garth's clavichord, and Richard Manuel could Channel Ray Charles to an eerie degree. The Band's brand of rocknRoll was an earthy stew of American sounds served up without pretension, a thick gumbo, spicey and satisfying.
One of my favorite Sax Solos in Rock music...(one of twelve hundred)...is Garth Hudson's beautifully understated solo in W.S. Walcott's Medicine Show from Rock Of Ages. It knocks me out every time.
The Band's post Robbie Robertson often gets overlooked by the casual fan. But they were still quite good initially....and indeed even as The Band came to be almost a franchise band, they continued to turn out gems here an there. In Many ways Jericho was a fine Band album, with a good mix of covers & originals. I think they do a killer job with Bruce's "Atlantic City" 
From A concert in NYC 1985...Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, & Richard Manuel.....Share Your Love ....and I guess last but not least...from Portland OR in 1983........"The Whole World Is Mad"
Locating MOG account...
Comments (25)
preachin to the choir
This rocks!
you're not quite as shadowy as usual, man. i think you're saying you like them.
me too.
A wonderful post on a great band.
A fine post for a band that had a major influence on rock. I think "Rock Of Ages" is in my top 5 live album list along with The Allman Brothers "Live At The Fillmore" and The Dead's "Europe '72"
i love this post. "exploring the far reaches of silly creativity" and "faux patriotism" sound just about right. to the tune(s) of The Band, to boot.
hey, whatever happened to your aimless weekend musings then? ;d
There aren't many albums that completed shifted the musical landscape, but 'Music from Big Pink' is surely one of them. It didn't kill off prog-rock, alas, but it did, as my post alludes to, influence the whole British scene (Clapton, Winwood, Fairport Convention, even the Beatles & the Stones on the white album and let it bleed...), and serve as a corrective to the excesses of over-produced 'rock.'
Don't have to convince me. The band are an all time favorite that crossed many genres and influenced many.
On a side note, what's she doing with your head? Wait a minute- I probably don't want to know.
Not in any way slighting the influence and depth of our beloved Band. But Gram Parsons was out front in 1967 with The International Submarine Band. And, with the Byrds, recorded Sweetheart Of The Rodeo at the exact same time as Big Pink.
Just wanted to fly my G.P. Forever flag.
What you say is true, but almost irrelevent. The International Submarine Band, and Sweetheart Of The Rodeo were different beasts (Conciously crafted Country & Western music), not comparable to Big Pink. (A genre shredding work).
.......Not to slight G.P. at all, his influence is huge, but within a narrower range.
I'll always embraced the irrelevant. That's where the interesting stuff is. You make a valid point but I dug all 3 of those albums in 1968 for their stripped-down beauty. Didn't pigeon hole 'em then, don't now. They compare to me because I enjoy them so. Good quibbling with ya, DmDm. Think I'll slap on some Grievous Angel__
deadmandeadman, another great post with good choices of songs. Another thing I like about the band was how it often had a piano and an organ, like a lot of black gospel at that time. Even though rock 'n' roll originally came mostly from the South, there were few notable Southern rock acts in the late Sixties, so the Band's Arkansas-Canada blend was fresh.
Big Pink's my favorite, but a close second is Stage Fright (with The Band coming third).
From Garth Hudson's rocking accordion to Richard Manuel's anti-drums to Rick Danko's pulsing fretless bass, "Strawberry Wine" is in my top ten Band songs.
With Richard Manuel clearly showing why the others thought of him as the lead lead singer, "The Rumor" is in the top fifteen.
I've heard alot of people say Sweetheart Of The Rodeo gave rise to Country Rock, but I agree it's very different than Big Pink. Maybe different audiences, totally different approach, maybe totally different Countries hehe! All good stuff, I don't like the idea of genres anyway, they're meant to be shredded indeed! Anyways...
I dig these songs & The Band of course. They're funky, they rock, they jam! Some more gumbo please!
Where do you get these pics!?!? The one with the mirror's pretty interesting, mixing a little narcissus oedipus and orpheus with a little tit, reminding us we are not worthy. Maybe we should invert Hamlet's words to Ophelia, "Get thee to a nunnery" ;-)
Toyah, The Woman Who Had an Affair With Herself (with Trey Gunn & Tony Geballe from Guitar Craft)
anyway, who cares what true rock is, it's all expression, if there's something to do it, I'm all for it, in seriousness or sillyness :)
Thanks Spike.
@Bob I always think of Stage Fright as Garth's showpiece, the whole album through Garth shines. Most of the time the live versions of these tracks are better because.......
.......they learned them after recording them, you know?
Frank. I'm gonna speak Heresey now....Sweetheart Of The Rodeo was (is) a very good Country & Western cd...albeit with a "hipster" twist. But it was just a Country & Western album.
Well the historians claim it got rock people thinking about Country, whether it made em wanna play it's another story. Anyway The Band sound like a good American rock band, whatever that means, doing things alot of other's weren't, from blues, to getting organ and piano in there, and a general barn-raising vibe. I'd definitely be there if I was there to see em play! Good post too!
Aaaahhh, historians...bless their pointed little heads.
that just made me think of Coneheads!
i don't know if the question was whether it was country but i think it had an influence, i've heard first hand, my dad learned the whole thing and so did some buddies. Many different listening circles i 'spose.
I think it's great there were some many different bands and performers out there getting heard by many and expanding the horizons far, let all the voices be heard
Frank,......Gram & the boys were puttin' on costumes and play-acting as cowboys........They made some damn fine music.........
..........The Band's music just seemed a natural part of their lives....a reflection....an echo that springs from time before recordings...indeed a time before electricity. Their sound was as organic as Gram (et al) were contrived.
I hear ya Jeff, I don't know enough about Gram but it was certainly a big change from the Byrds, though Roger McGuinn was always a varied performer playing with Chad Mitchell, Judy Collins & Bobby Darin before being a folkie and rocker..I'd say it was a part of their/his musical evolution
And I agree, The Band just sounds like a bunch picking a tune and rollin' with it. I'm all for stuff that rolls out of the consciousness, whether it's a feeling that's ever-present or a reaction to moment. Luckily they made use of their amps so we could hear it! I'm all for using new sounds when they're discovered, especially if they're from analog circuits and stuff, it's made for us to use, expanding the palette. Music is art, at least the good stuff, right, so we should be free to express ourselves, whether through a rustic sound-image of the backwoods jams or the rebelling against the overload of sensory experience with a desire to respark passion in people's lives. Is something we Moggers can agree?
I was also just thinking, the perception can be in the listeners hands, we each have our own subjective take...so even though we are all music critics of some sort, when you first hear something, maybe in an innocent time where we could listen before judging, just as music and sounds, it can resound nicely. We didn't ask the bards to be true when the sang, it was for us to decide if it was true for us. I guess on the other hand I'm guilty of thinking alot of country-ish stuff is contrived, cause I mean hey, ya gotta deal with the things around us, that is today at least. Candyfloss no no, but if it's tastey I'll try it to eat.
Not to single out country music, all kinds of things are made for the wrong reason or a little to inclusive in genre, so I'm with ya on what this post all about, just doing what's natural and letting it flow. Thanks for the reminder Jeff!